The last set of matches in the MLS 2024 season before a five week break for the Leagues Cup takes place in America and Canada on Saturday night with each of the teams on show looking for three important points to bolster their standing when we return for the final quarter of the campaign.
As has been the case throughout the campaign to date, all of these matches will be live and in full on the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV but those who don’t subscribe to that will be able to watch each game with the bookmakers live streaming.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (00.30 unless stated)
Atlanta United FC v Columbus Crew
CF Montréal v Toronto FC
Inter Miami CF v Chicago Fire
New England Revolution v FC Dallas
New York Red Bulls v FC Cincinnati
Orlando City SC v New York City FC
Philadelphia Union v Nashville SC
Austin FC v Charlotte FC (01.30)
Minnesota United FC v San Jose Earthquakes (01.30)
Sporting Kansas City v St. Louis City SC (01.30)
Colorado Rapids v Real Salt Lake (02.30)
Seattle Sounders FC v Los Angeles Football Club (03.30)
Vancouver Whitecaps v Houston Dynamo (03.30)
Los Angeles Galaxy v Portland Timbers (03.45)
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Big Matches
We have a lot of rivalry matches this week with the biggest of them being the Rocky Mountain Cup clash at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park where the Colorado Rapids host Real Salt Lake in a tasty looking match. We also have the latest version of the Canadian Classique as CF Montreal face Toronto FC while keeping with the rivalry theme the two sides in Missouri battle it out when Sporting Kansas City play host to St Louis City SC in a game the home side will be expected to win.
Best of the Rest
It is a truly great night of action awaiting us and the current MLS leaders Inter Miami are on show when they host Chicago Fire while the champions Columbus Crew head to Georgia for a clash with Atlanta United. There are two standout ties in the Western Conference where the in form Seattle Sounders host the 2022 champions Los Angeles FC while two of the highest scoring teams in MLS meet in California where LA Galaxy play host to Portland Timbers. Another good game comes in the Eastern Conference as New York Red Bulls will look to show they are leading lights in the competition when they host FC Cincinnati. Vancouver Whitecaps are the other team going well and they host the Houston Dynamo.
Betting
I’m not going to go too mad on Saturday although given the profile of some of these matches it would be easy to pile up the bets but I’m going to restrict myself to two and the first of those is for Inter Miami to beat Chicago Fire. We are at that stage of the week which we’ve been at a few times recently where those who were away in midweek and then again less than 72 hours later are at a major disadvantage, even more so when they take on a team who were at home in midweek and haven’t had to travel anywhere. That is the case for Chicago Fire when they go to Inter Miami. They were in Ohio for a hard-fought match with FC Cincinnati and now they have to be in Florida for an equally hard match against Miami. Not only were Miami at home in midweek, they didn’t play last weekend and they’ll have Sergio Busquets back from injury and Luis Suarez ready for action after the Copa America. While you can get at this Miami defence, the presence of Busquets will help and at some point the exertions of the week have to catch up with Chicago as we saw when this situation presented itself a couple of weekends ago when there wasn’t a single away win. I don’t expect one here either. In fact, I’m comfortable being on Miami on the money line.
The other bet is a similar situation where Sporting Kansas City host St Louis City SC. This one is slightly different because this is a rivalry game but there is no getting away from the fact that St Louis City SC have only won one of their last 13 matches and haven’t won on their travels all season. If that wasn’t bad enough they have never won at CM Park either and head here off the back of a match in Seattle and crossing time zones on a short week is always a recipe for struggle. This has been far from a perfect season for Sporting Kansas City but they have won three of their last four at home and look in better order than their rivals right now. This bad run of St Louis has coincided with a horrible injury list which isn’t getting any better so this looks to be a great chance for SKC to rub their rivals’ noses in it and pick up a big win.
Tips
Back Inter Miami to beat Chicago Fire for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Bet365
Back Sporting Kansas City to beat St Louis City SC for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
