The penultimate full slate of matches in the MLS 2024 regular season gets underway on Saturday night when a number of games are played out in America and Canada with a lot of playoff implications at stake in many of them.
Once again every match on Saturday evening will have full coverage via the MLS Season Pass which is available on Apple TV. If you don’t have that option then once again the games will be shown on the bookmaker live streaming service.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (00.30 unless stated)
Toronto FC vs Inter Miami (21.00)
Atlanta United FC v New York Red Bulls
Charlotte FC v CF Montréal
Columbus Crew v Philadelphia Union
FC Cincinnati v Orlando City SC
New England Revolution v D.C. United
Vancouver Whitecaps v Minnesota United FC
Sporting Kansas City v Los Angeles Football Club (01.30)
St. Louis City SC v Houston Dynamo (01.30)
Colorado Rapids v Seattle Sounders FC (02.30)
Los Angeles Galaxy v Austin FC (03.30)
San Jose Earthquakes v Real Salt Lake (03.30)
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Big Matches
We now know that the MLS Cup will go through Inter Miami but the Supporters’ Shield winners cross the border on Saturday night to take on a Toronto FC side who currently occupy the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. This is their final match of the season and one they are going to need to win to have any chance of extending their campaign into the playoffs. Philadelphia Union and DC United are the ones hoping Toronto FC slip up. They are both on their travels on Saturday with the former off to Lower.com Field to take on the champions Columbus Crew while the latter take on New England Revolution.
Best of the Rest
The rest of the night is about who will make the top four in the respective Conferences and get two of the three matches in the first round of the playoffs at home. In the Western Conference, Real Salt Lake have a great chance to close in on a top four spot when they travel to San Jose Earthquakes. Houston Dynamo and Colorado Rapids will be hoping for slip ups when they head to St Louis City SC and host Seattle Sounders respectively. Orlando City currently hold on to fourth spot in the East but they head to FC Cincinnati on Saturday night which could open the door for the New York Red Bulls to overtake them if they can find a win at Atlanta United. Charlotte FC and CF Montreal are either side of the official postseason spots. They meet in Charlotte with the home side securing a guaranteed spot if they avoid defeat. Montreal would take it to the last day with a win.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets on Saturday night beginning at Gillette Stadium where the New England Revolution host DC United in a match which surely has goals written all over it. The sheer fact that both teams have to win should ensure we see goals in the game but when you consider that DC have only kept two clean sheets all season and they came very early in the piece, if the capital club are going to win this they’ll need to score at least twice. That might well be possible though because New England are averaging two goals against per game this season. They have got goals in them though so this should be one of those MLS matches which ignites early and stays lit. We saw the risks DC can take to win matches in midweek and with New England having to do likewise we’ve got two teams tangoing here. Five of the last seven between these two have seen four goals and one of the others had three. Over 3 goals looks a natural bet here.
LA Galaxy could secure the top seed in the Western Conference on Saturday night and they will do that if they better the result of their city rivals Los Angeles FC. Even if they don’t sew it up here, a win will move them to within a point of ensuring top spot and they look to have a great chance to get that victory against an Austin side who have been traveling through the time zones this week. They went to Portland in midweek, back to Texas and now off to California and that feels a big ask. LA Galaxy were in Colorado in midweek where they picked up a creditable win but having not played last weekend the Galaxy should be the fresher of the two here. At 12-3-1 they are comfortably the best home team in MLS and I expect them to win here. Austin have lost 2-0, 4-1 and 2-0 in their three trips to this part of Los Angeles and I expect a comfortable loss here too.
Tips
Back New England Revolution vs DC United – Over 3 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
Back LA Galaxy (-1AH) to beat Austin FC for a 3/10 stake at 1.77 with William Hill
Back them here:
