ANOTHER profitable MLS week for Will Dyer (@w2Dyer) last week. His best bets for this weekend are here.
Houston Dynamo v Chicago Fire | Saturday 02:00
The CONCACAF Gold Cup starts soon but there’s just enough time for another round of MLS fixtures before the clubs will lose a fair few players to international call ups.
A regular debate at the minute in MLS, well I say debate but it’s very one-sided, is over the fact that MLS doesn’t take a break in the schedule for the Gold Cup. Some teams are losing as many as five players to the competition, and they tend to be key first team players too.
Dynamo will be losing Giles Barnes, Brad Davis, Boniek Garcia and Jermaine Taylor. Pretty much the spine of the side then. So this is a must win game before those key players are unavailable for a couple of weeks and I think the Orange will get what they are looking for.
Patrick Nyarko has torn his ACL and David Accam and Shaun Maloney both missed out last week. Maloney will be out for another week or so and Accam is listed as questionable. Those are three key players and I don’t like Chicago’s chances without them. They will likely turn to Mike Magee who bagged a brace at home in the US Open Cup in midweek but on the road things are pretty dire for the Fire.
No win in seven away games, two draws and five defeats. They’ve lost all of their three visits to Western Conference sides and two of their last three visits to Houston. Dynamo should be winning this, their 16 goals in nine home matches is one of the best returns around and Fire haven’t won in a whopping 15 away MLS games. Be quick because this price isn’t going to hang around for long.
Columbus Crew v New York Red Bulls | Sunday 00:30 | Sky Sports 1
I’m gonna throw some simple stats at you here. Seven of Crew’s nine home MLS games this season have seen both sides score as have seven of Red Bull’s eight away MLS games.
Both teams played in the US Open Cup in midweek with Crew losing on the road, again. Red Bulls overcame the Cosmos 4-1 and with a win in the New York derby to their name last weekend, coming from behind to win 3-1, confidence should be a little higher in the camp.
Kei Kamara just keeps on banging them in for Columbus and it seems unlikely that they’ll fail to score at MAPFRE; they’ve scored in 19 consecutive home league games now, you have to go back over a year to June 2014 to find the last time they failed to give the fans something to cheer about in Ohio.
All of the last four meetings between the sides have seen both sides register on the scoresheet, including this exact fixture in March and with goals flowing in MLS lately it looks a good trend to jump on. Live on Sky Sports on Saturday night at half-past midnight for anyone not on the d-floor.
LA Galaxy v Toronto FC | Sunday 03:30
LA have been a bit of a staple for this betting column lately and I just have to keep going back to them when they are generously priced at the StubHub. Sorry if I’m tipping odds on shots but Galaxy have really found form just when I was starting to doubt their chances for the post-season MLS Cup.
Bruce Arena’s men have scored five or more goals in each of their last three home games if you include their US Open Cup victory over PSA Elite. They also won away at San Jose in the cup in midweek, a fixture that they lost in the league only last weekend so that’s promising too.
LA as usual are top of the home table winning seven of 10 games and scoring 19 goals in the process. Toronto may be top of the away table but they’ve still lost four of their nine road games and that includes defeats in two of their three visits to Western Conference outfits.
Toronto don’t hold a great record in Los Angeles; W1 D2 L4 of seven MLS visits including defeats in the last two trips by 3-0 and 4-2 score-lines. I’m not prepared to get involved in any handicap markets here as the Reds have been pretty solid at the back and I can see LA winning this by just the one goal but I do think 8/11 is a worthy and safe bet.
Portland Timbers v San Jose Earthquakes | Monday 04:00 | Sky Sports 1
Would someone please tell Sky Sports that they’ve really mucked up with their TV games lately. No one is going to watch this game at 4am on a Monday morning. Well, unless it’s the last leg of our 4 fold!
Portland are the form side in Major League Soccer at the minute and I’m happy to jump on the bandwagon again. You might have seen the pictures of Fanendo Adi’s crazy celebration in their 4-1 pummelling of Seattle last weekend. The Nigerian striker grabbed the chainsaw that the mascot uses after every Portland goal and revved it like a deranged psychopath. Great fun.
That was Portland’s 4th straight win in Oregon. The Timbers are fearless at home. It’s not often you see a side have 10 shots on target in a match, Portland did just that in this fixture last season which resulted in a 3-0 home win. Adi has now scored four in his last three home games and sits 3rd in the MLS scoring charts with eight goals to his name. Portland are a short price for this game but 8/5 on Adi anytime is very backable.
Best Bets
Houston Dynamo v Chicago Fire – Houston Dynamo to win – (15/13 888 Sport)
Columbus Crew v New York Red Bulls – Both Teams To Score (7/10 Betway)
LA Galaxy v Toronto FC – LA Galaxy to win (8/11 William Hill)
Portland Timbers v San Jose Earthquakes – Fanendo Adi to score anytime – (8/5 Bet365)
