The first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs 2024 begins in the Western Conference in the early hours of Sunday morning UK time when the LA Galaxy and the Colorado Rapids play out the first game in a potential three-match series.
Galaxy go into the postseason as the number two seeds in the West and will be expected to progress from this tie as a result of that but Colorado have been surprising teams all season and hope to keep doing that. The MLS Season Pass on Apple TV has full coverage while bookmaker live streams will show the game too.
LA Galaxy
The LA Galaxy come into the playoffs with huge expectation which is quite a creditable thing from their regular season when you consider that they didn’t even make the postseason a year ago. For a lot of the second half of the 2024 campaign the Galaxy were on top of the Western Conference table but a defeat on Decision Day combined with city rivals Los Angeles FC winning meant that Galaxy dropped to the number two seed and you wonder if that will be significant the longer we go into the postseason.
No team in the Western Conference scored more goals than LA Galaxy this season and that bodes well for Greg Vanney and his side because you would imagine these playoffs are going to be high scoring with the talent on show within them. The other thing that will serve them well until at least the Conference final is that they haven’t been beaten in their home stadium this term and if they can keep that record going then they will have a deep run.
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Colorado Rapids
You get the feeling that this has already been a positive campaign for the Colorado Rapids because they have gone from being the worst team in MLS to a playoff team in less than a year under Chris Arnas. I think it is fair to say that the longer the campaign has gone they have just found the going a little on the tough side but that was probably always going to be the case when they lost the battle to keep Moise Bombito in the summer transfer window without ever really having the chance to replace him.
The immediate concern for the Rapids is that they lost 10 of their 17 away matches in MLS this season and they are going to have to go on the road for two of the three games in this tie if all three are needed so they have to pick up a road win if they are going to progress from this series. There are goals in this Colorado side though but only the bottom three in the Western Conference table conceded more goals than them in the regular season and that has to be a huge concern given that they go up against a vibrant attack here.
Betting
I think it is hard to go against LA Galaxy in this match. I’m actually on Colorado Rapids outright but I’ve largely given that up with the loss of Moise Bombito and am happy to accept that my bet chance comes with Real Salt Lake but there is no reason why the Rapids can’t level the series next week and maybe have a go at getting the tie to penalties or something. I think they’ve got the Galaxy at the wrong time here though for a couple of reasons.
Galaxy will be smarting from losing the top seed in the West and will be out to bounce back from that defeat in Houston last week and also there are a couple of doubts over a pair of key players for the Colorado Rapids and neither of those are good things. When you add in the comfort that the Galaxy have at home and how poor Colorado have been on their travels, unless the pressure gets to LA, which it really shouldn’t in the opening game of a best of three, it is hard to see anything other than a comfortable home win here.
Tips
Back LA Galaxy (-1.25AH) to beat Colorado Rapids for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with William Hill
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