It might be the international break and the MLS 2024 regular season is coming to an end but there are still two matches taking place in the competition this weekend with the first one on Saturday evening when the Columbus Crew host the New England Revolution.
Crew know that they will be the second seed in the Eastern Conference when the playoffs begin later in the month while the Revs will be watching on once the regular season has ended so this represents a chance for both sides to entertain. The MLS Season Pass on Apple TV has full coverage while the bookmaker live stream will show the game too.
Columbus Crew
The Columbus Crew now know that they will have the chance to make a successful defence of the MLS Cup title and they will have home field advantage right the way through to the final of the Eastern Conference, which they will host should something happen to Inter Miami before then. The Crew still have to play out their last two regular season matches which they will use to try to further build confidence into a side who still hold claims to be the best in the league on their day.
Only three teams have left Lower.com Field with three points this season, the latest of which was Inter Miami, so the Crew are good at home but they are going to need to get the job done here without their MVP candidate Cucho Hernandez who is away on international duty. The Crew will have their third choice keeper between the sticks too with the two senior ones away with their country but that was a situation they had in the least international break too.
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New England Revolution
When New England Revolution appointed the former MLS Cup winning coach Caleb Porter they did so expecting to have a chance of winning the title under him. To say that hasn’t gone to plan would be something of an understatement with them already unable to reach the postseason with two games still to play in their season. That leaves them with a lot of work to do over the winter but for now they have two chances to offer some hope going into next year.
The big reason for the struggles of the Revolution this season has been their defence. They have conceded 64 goals in 32 games and if you average two goals against per game that isn’t a recipe of a successful side. The other problem that New England have had this campaign has been scoring goals. Injuries have been a big part of that but it doesn’t tell the full story. There is no doubt they have massively underachieved in the attacking areas of the pitch.
Betting
This isn’t the easiest match of the season to bet on. I fully expect goals but in what is effectively a dead rubber with the best player in either side missing I’m not sure I really want to be piling on a 3.5 goal line, although if the Crew are on it then they could cover that on their own. They have played a lot of football recently though so it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise in the world if they go a couple of goals up and then save themselves for next week and everything that follows after that.
One bet I do like though is for Diego Rossi to score anytime. I’m not convinced bookmakers have taken into account that Cucho isn’t around. That will mean that the Uruguayan will be on penalties and he’ll be on the set plays around the box, not to mention his quality in open play as well. Rossi has 12 goals in MLS this season but that is largely playing a support role to Cucho Hernandez. He’ll be the main man here and with New England having shipped two goals a game, and five of those to Columbus in the reverse fixture where Rossi was on the scoresheet, the 7/4 on a Rossi goal just looks too big.
Tips
Back D.Rossi to score anytime for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Unibet
