MLS Cup Playoffs 2025 – Sunday 2nd November Matches Tips and Betting Preview

The second set of games in the first round of the MLS Cup Playoffs continues on Sunday night when we have a double header of action across the two Conferences on what promises to be another entertaining evening of football.

That was certainly the case on Saturday and if you don’t want to miss out then once again full coverage comes via the MLS Season Pass on Apple TV with the bookmaker live streams also showing both of the matches.

Columbus Crew vs FC Cincinnati (23.30)

The opening match of the night is the second leg of the ‘Hell is Real’ derby as the two Ohio teams go at it once again when the Columbus Crew look to keep their season alive when they host their arch-rivals FC Cincinnati at Lower.com Field.

Cincinnati will be looking to go to the home of their rivals and end the tie at the earliest opportunity but they will know that it won’t be easy against a team who are dangerous at the best of times let alone when they have nothing to lose. Columbus had a good home record in the regular season but have struggled in recent weeks with injuries to forwards leaving them devoid of firepower. They are going to need to come good in attacking areas here though and it will be interesting to see just how much attacking talent they have on the pitch when this one starts. Columbus like to control the ball and the territory but Cincinnati can quite easily set themselves up to nail teams on the counter, as evidenced by the fact that only San Diego picked up more points on their travels in the regular season. You could make a clear case for both teams here. My gut instinct is that the Crew might leave themselves too open and get punished but I’ve learned not to take on Columbus at home so I’ll leave this match well alone.

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Austin FC vs Los Angeles FC (01.45)

We move over to the Western Conference for the second part of the night where the onus will be on Austin FC to win and keep their season alive when they entertain Los Angeles FC in game two of their series at Q2 Stadium.

Austin offered more than many expected them to in the opening game of the series last week but ultimately came up short late on but they should take some confidence that effort and it could reinforce their thinking that they have a style and a plan that contains Los Angeles FC after it was Austin who won their two meetings in the regular season. It might be that LAFC are more effective in this tie on their travels where presumably there will be a bit more space for them to work in during the transition moments, which is the area where they have become the most devastating since Heung-min Son arrived in California. He was quiet in the first game but that isn’t going to happen every week so that is a boost for LAFC. I’ve always thought that LAFC would have too much firepower for Austin but the first leg was a tighter affair than I expected. I don’t really see why this one is going to open up more because without Brandon Vazquez it is hard to see Austin, the lowest scoring side in the playoffs, coming out on top in a shootout. I still think LAFC will win this match with the quality that they have but they are likely to be happy to contain when in front and I’m not sure Austin have enough to break them down regularly. I wouldn’t put anyone off taking Los Angeles FC to win the game at around the even money mark but you can bump the price up to 7/5 if you add under 4.5 goals to that and that gives us all the likely scores for an LAFC win – 1-0 up to 4-0 as well as 2-1 and 3-1 and that feels generous enough to me.

Tips

Back Los Angeles FC to win and under 4.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.40 with Betway