MLS 2025 – Saturday 5th April Matches Tips and Betting Preview

The MLS 2025 season continues on Saturday when another round of matches get underway and with both of the Conference tables beginning to take shape, all of the sides on show will be keen to pick up the three points on offer.

As ever, all of the games will have complete coverage on the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV with certain games available for just Apple TV subscribers. Bookmaker live streams will show all of the matches too.

Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (00.30 unless stated)

Charlotte FC vs Nashville SC (19.30)

Real Salt Lake vs LA Galaxy (21.30)

Atlanta United vs FC Dallas

Columbus Crew vs CF Montreal

FC Cincinnati vs New England Revolution

New York Red Bulls vs Chicago Fire

Philadelphia Union vs Orlando City

Austin FC vs Portland Timbers (00.45)

Houston Dynamo vs Los Angeles FC (01.30)

Sporting Kansas City vs St Louis City (01.30)

Vancouver Whitecaps vs Colorado Rapids (02.30)

San Diego FC vs Seattle Sounders (03.30)

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Big Matches

We get underway in The Queen City as Charlotte FC look to continue their fine home record when a much improved Nashville SC are in town. When they are done we switch from the Eastern Conference to the Western one for the clash between Real Salt Lake and the currently winless champions LA Galaxy which feels like a big game for both teams. The Eastern Conference leaders Inter Miami don’t play until Sunday evening so Vancouver Whitecaps are the only table toppers on show on Saturday. They welcome the Colorado Rapids in a good looking match in the West.

Best of the Rest

The bragging rights are up for grabs in Missouri when for the first time in an absolute age Peter Vermes will not be in the Sporting Kansas City dugout after his departure in the week. SKC will look for a first win of the season against their local rivals St Louis City SC. Philadelphia Union have the chance to return to the top of the Eastern Conference for around 24 hours when they host Orlando City SC but if they slip up then Columbus Crew will move to the summit should they get the better of CF Montreal while Chicago Fire can also end the night top of the East should those two lose and they win away to New York Red Bulls. Over in the West, if Vancouver slip up then Austin FC could go top of the table when they host the Portland Timbers while San Diego FC could also end the night on top should they beat the Seattle Sounders. The match between Atlanta United and FC Dallas pits some of the best attackers in MLS against each other.

Betting

I like four bets over the course of the evening with the first one being for Real Salt Lake to get the better of LA Galaxy. The Galaxy certainly haven’t started their title defence how they would have wanted to but at the same time they wouldn’t be the first MLS Cup winners to stumble out of the blocks the following season while they are embarking on a Champions Cup campaign and that is highly significant here because the Galaxy are bang in the middle of their quarter final with Tigres, the second leg of which comes along on Tuesday evening so it wouldn’t be a surprise if a couple of key players are saved for that. Even if they are not, Galaxy are without attacking midfield trio of Riqui Puig, Marco Reus and Lucas Sanabria and that just opens up the potential for a Real Salt Lake win. To be fair to RSL, they haven’t come out of the traps at home as strongly as they usually do but they still have their creative flair around and this looks an ideal spot to feast on a Galaxy side lacking in confidence and with their attention potentially elsewhere.

Moving into the later part of the night and while I would prefer to know that Evander is definitely on the FC Cincinnati team sheet, I still think they will see off a New England Revolution side who really haven’t improved on a terrible campaign last term yet. I don’t see the Revs improving until Leo Campana is back in action and he is down on the availability chart as out for this one too. Cincinnati haven’t stood out too much so far this season but Kevin Denkey has been globe trotting in the last few weeks. With him back and should Evander be fit on top of that I expect Cincinnati to have too much here and they can run out very comfortable winners.

I also expect to see Columbus Crew run out fairly comfortable winners against a CF Montreal side who are starting to chase their tail this term. I got burned opposing the Canadians last week but I’m not relenting because the team news went against me with the Chicago Fire last week. The points I made a week ago remain here. Montreal continue on this away leg of their season. This will be their seventh straight away game and it just has to be taking its toll and although they scored against Chicago last week, I’m not sure they have enough goals in them, especially when they’ll see little to nothing of the ball in this match. Columbus haven’t really clicked in front of goal while they are working out how best to set up without Cucho Hernandez but there were signs that players are beginning to understand the task and warm up in the win over DC United last week. This is a Crew side with plenty of firepower and back to full strength I expect them to have too much for what must be a jaded Montreal side who will be crying out for next week’s opening home game of their campaign.

Finally I’m really surprised that we can get a 2.5 goal line in the match between Philadelphia Union and Orlando City. If this match was last season or the one before you could argue that it is the right goal line but Orlando are set up to be much more offensively minded these days because they are struggling in the defensive number 6 position and that has shown in their goals for and against record this term. No team in MLS have scored more than the 15 that Orlando have registered in the opening six weeks of the season but at the same time nobody has conceded more than the 12 that they have leaked. These two are actually the two leading scorers in the league this term to date but even Philadelphia have conceded eight in their six matches. These two are on a run of six straight over 2.5 goals landing and 12 of the last 14 between the pair too. I would be amazed if those runs aren’t added to here even allowing for the rain in the area.

Tips

Back Real Salt Lake to beat LA Galaxy for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betway

Back FC Cincinnati (-1AH) to beat New England Revolution for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Bet365

Back Columbus Crew (-1AH) to beat CF Montreal for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with Bet365

Back Philadelphia Union vs Orlando City SC – Over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Bet365