A huge week of action in the MLS 2024 season gets underway on Saturday night when the majority of the competition take to the pitch for the first of three times in the next eight days as the campaign continues at some pace.
Regular readers or followers of this league will know that all of the matches will be able to be watched live on the Apple TV MLS Season Pass but those who don’t have that facility can watch them all via the bookmaker live streams.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (00.30 unless stated)
Atlanta United FC v Los Angeles Football Club
CF Montréal v Nashville SC
Charlotte FC v Philadelphia Union
D.C. United v Chicago Fire
New England Revolution v New York City FC
Orlando City SC v Columbus Crew
Toronto FC v FC Cincinnati
FC Dallas v Real Salt Lake (01.30)
St. Louis City SC v Seattle Sounders FC (01.30)
Colorado Rapids v Minnesota United FC (02.30)
Los Angeles Galaxy v Houston Dynamo (03.30)
Portland Timbers v Sporting Kansas City (03.30)
San Jose Earthquakes v Austin FC (03.30)
Vancouver Whitecaps v Inter Miami CF (03.30)
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Big Matches
We have to wait until deep into the night for the leaders of the competition, Inter Miami, to take to the pitch. It will be a much changed Miami side with news that none of Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets or Luis Suarez have travelled for their clash with the Vancouver Whitecaps. Prior to that, FC Cincinnati have the chance to take the lead in the race for the Supporters’ Shield when they also play in Canada as they are away to Toronto FC. Over in the Western Conference, the leaders Real Salt Lake are also on their travels as they make the trip to Texas to take on an FC Dallas side whose season is finally starting to show signs of coming alive.
Best of the Rest
The pick of the early matches could well come from Mercedes-Benz Stadium where an under pressure Atlanta United host the former champions Los Angeles FC while the current champions Columbus Crew make the trip to take on Orlando City SC with all eyes on the Crew team sheet a week out from the Champions League final. New York City FC have found some form in recent times and they’ll hope to continue that when they go to the New England Revolution. Minnesota United are another side in good form and they travel to the Colorado Rapids while two leaky sides meet when the Portland Timbers host Sporting Kansas City.
Betting
With a busy week to come I am going to keep things simple on Saturday evening and just focus on three games where I expect the goals to flow. The first of those is the high profile match between Atlanta United and Los Angeles FC where we have Denis Bouanga in fine form and an Atlanta side who can’t afford to keep on failing to win. It looks like Giorgos Giakoumakis is going to be out here which isn’t ideal but Atlanta are obliged to attack at home and if they leave space then the pace of Bouanga and a solid support cast can take advantage. Both these teams have motivation to win this match and games in Atlanta rarely need an invitation to catch fire so I’ll go with over 3 goals in this one.
The obvious match for goals on Saturday evening is the one at Providence Park where Portland Timbers host Sporting Kansas City in a fixture which is laced with them throughout recent history. The last five MLS matches between these two have finished 7-2, 4-1, 1-0, 4-1 and 3-3 with that 3-3 coming in the reverse meeting this term. Portland have conceded 29 goals already this season which is third worst in the MLS while SKC have conceded 24 in 13 which isn’t exactly watertight. Both sides have goals in them though. Portland have scored 26 which means their matches are operating at just a tick under four per game. SKC have scored 21 so their matches are just under 3.5 per game. When you throw into the mix that Portland have conceded two or more in each of their last 10 games and SKC have done it in six of their last seven, we shouldn’t have to wait long for a 3 goal line to be covered.
I’ll also play the goals down at PayPal Park once again where San Jose Earthquakes look to back up from defeat last week when they host an Austin FC side who they have already played out one of the matches of the season against when the two sides met in the reverse meeting which Austin won 4-3 in dramatic fashion. Since then, the San Jose offense has kicked on with the arrival of Hernan Lopez and Austin FC have found some real form courtesy of Sebastian Driussi coming back to his best. You can get a 2.75 goal line here which looked big anyway when you consider that six of the last seven between these two have had at least four goals in them but when you also add in that San Jose matches this season are averaging a smidgeon under four per game and half of the Austin matches have had three or more goals in them I expect this line to be covered.
Tips
Back Atlanta United vs Los Angeles FC – Over 3 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.93 with Bet365
Back Portland Timbers vs Sporting Kansas City – Over 3 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with Bet365
Back San Jose Earthquakes vs Austin FC – Over 2.75 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
