MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER expert Kyle Worthington (@SM_Kyle) analyses the action from the weekend's football and shares his Sunday NAP.
Atlanta United v Orlando City | Sunday 12th May 2019, 19:30 | Sky Sports
The game of the weekend in MLS is here as a red-hot Atlanta outfit host Orlando in the Sunday night showdown.
After a poor and underwhelming start to the season for the reigning MLS champions, Atlanta have found their rhythm and are coming into this one having won three games on the spin without conceding.
Their start was terrible. Nothing went right for Atlanta but over the past few weeks things have started to look miles better; fans and media alike were calling for Frank De Boer’s head just a couple of weeks ago but recent performances and results have silenced the critics.
The three straight shutouts is massive and it has allowed the extremely talented attacking players such as Ezequiel Barco and Josef Martinez to focus solely on doing what they do best, and that is scoring goals and winning games.
On the other hand, we have Orlando. Now to be fair to the Florida club, no one gave them a chance at the start of the season. Nobody suggested it would be as bad as last season by any means but I personally couldn’t see a huge improvement coming.
Orlando are somewhat proving me wrong thus far. The visitors find themselves ninth in the Eastern Conference with a record that reads W3-D3-L4. Now on the road they haven’t been too bad but anything is better than last season’s away record; they started this campaign having lost 14 straight away games, firing blanks in eight of those matches.
All in all I’ve been fairly impressed with Orlando this season, but as I said, this is all in comparison to last season in which they were beyond terrible.
Sunday night’s game should prove to be a step too far for Orlando as they head to Atlanta to play a side who have their confidence back after a woeful start. I just think the quality of Atlanta, doubled with the atmosphere inside the Mercedes Benz Arena will be too much for an average away side.
Best Bets
Atlanta United v Orlando City – Atlanta United to score in both halves (1/1 Bet365)
Atlanta United v Orlando City – Atlanta United to keep a clean sheet (13/8 Bet365)
Atlanta United v Orlando City – Atlanta United to score Over 2.5 Goals (7/5 Unibet)
