With the Leagues Cup now behind us the attention can turn fully onto the closing quarter of the MLS 2024 regular season and the race both for the Supporters’ Shield towards the top end and for the playoffs in the centre of both tables.
Another round of matches will be played out this weekend, most of them on Saturday night, where as ever all of the games will be shown live and in full on the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV or with the bookmaker live streams.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (00.30 unless stated)
Charlotte FC v Atlanta United FC
Columbus Crew v New York City FC
FC Cincinnati v CF Montréal
New York Red Bulls v Philadelphia Union
Orlando City SC v Nashville SC
Toronto FC v D.C. United
Austin FC v Vancouver Whitecaps (01.30)
Chicago Fire v Inter Miami CF (01.30)
FC Dallas v Colorado Rapids (01.30)
Real Salt Lake v New England Revolution (02.30)
Los Angeles Football Club v Houston Dynamo (03.30)
Portland Timbers v Seattle Sounders FC (03.30)
San Jose Earthquakes v Minnesota United FC (03.30)
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Big Matches
Inter Miami continue to lead the way in the race for the Supporters’ Shield but there are a number of teams ready to close in on them if they slip up and leave the door ajar and so Tata Martino’s men will be eager to win at Chicago Fire and maintain their stranglehold on that spot. LA Galaxy don’t play on Saturday night so FC Cincinnati are the closest challengers in action on Saturday night. They welcome CF Montreal to TQL Stadium looking to end a run of four defeats on the spin in MLS. Columbus Crew are absolutely flying at the minute and they host New York City FC at Lower.com Field while Los Angeles FC can’t be ruled out of the race for number one and the Leagues Cup finalists play host to Houston Dynamo on Saturday night.
Best of the Rest
Seattle Sounders are on the charge as they so often are at this stage of the season and they have the latest Cascadia Cup clash to go at on Saturday night when they head to Oregon to take on the Portland Timbers, who just need a result to avoid looking over their shoulders in the race for the playoffs. Philadelphia Union find themselves outside the playoff zone in a very tight Eastern Conference table at the bottom end of it so they will be keen to take down the draw specialists New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena. FC Dallas are the team on the outside looking in over in the Western Conference so they could really do with winning their home match against the Colorado Rapids while Real Salt Lake vs New England Revolution has some of the best players in MLS involved.
Betting
I like the look of three bets over the course of the night with the first of them coming in the match between Charlotte FC and Atlanta United. I’ve seen nothing to suggest Atlanta aren’t just playing out the season from here even though they are in with a chance of making the playoffs still. They have lost their two big stars in Thiago Almada and Giorgos Giakoumakis and haven’t made much of an effort to replace them unless Alexey Miranchuk can hit the ground running. Charlotte have been tough to beat at home all season and probably should have gone on to beat the New York Red Bulls having taken the lead against them but couldn’t hold on. Charlotte have already won in Atlanta this season and with the Five Stripes having lost their last four on their travels and massively looking to 2025 I think the home win looks good here.
Columbus Crew and New York City FC met in the quarter finals of the Leagues Cup a couple of weeks ago when the Crew won on penalties but how the match got to penalties I am still not sure. New York City took the lead in the first minute from a Crew mistake and from then on it was the Crew vs the New York City keeper. Sometimes there could be a concern that the Crew schedule would catch up with them but Wilfried Nancy rotated almost his whole side in Philadelphia in midweek and his side still won. They are one of the best teams MLS has ever seen and I don’t think they’ll give NYCFC as much of a sniff in this one with Cucho and Diego Rossi nice and refreshed.
Finally the odds about Orlando City winning to nil are just too much to ignore. Nashville SC are in a real funk at the minute and even the Leagues Cup break doesn’t look to have done anything to solve that. They have scored just eight goals on their travels all season in MLS and have lost their last nine matches in all competitions. They have only scored one goal in their last five which is pretty ridiculous for a side with Hany Mukhtar in it but that is how it is. Orlando are beginning to warm up despite their loss in Kansas City last week and I expect them to be too good for a weak Nashville on home soil. Orlando have won the last four between these two without scoring and look good value to make that five wins to nil.
Tips
Back Charlotte FC to beat Atlanta United for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back Columbus Crew (-0.75AH) to beat New York City FC for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Bet365
Back Orlando City to beat Nashville SC to nil for a 3/10 stake at 2.75 with Sky Bet
