Happy Matchday 7 to all! The league is slowly starting to take shape, and soon enough more teams are going to have to start juggling competitions as the US Open Cup third round will feature 19 Major League Soccer teams. It's safe to say you will know pretty quickly who is taking the competition seriously and who is focusing on the regular season.
All that aside let's look ahead to the matches ahead. Again this week we will be without a nationally televised early game (LAFC-Austin will air on Fox but at 6:30). I've briefly mentioned that I believe the league fumbled the scheduling and when I saw that European league's were playing afternoon Good Friday games, I thought 'MLS missed out again'. So our 6:30 CDT kickoff games get underway with the Revs hosting CF Montreal. The Revs should look to continue their impressive start against a Montreal squad that is struggling right now.
DC hosts the Columbus Crew and Christian Benteke has been great, but if they are going to keep up with Columbus right now, they're going to have to slow down the Crew attack that has scored 10 goals in their last two games. The Red Bulls look to get back on track as they host the Quakes who are still looking more like a playoff team than a Wooden Spoon contender. Miami will play Dallas in South Florida. Miami are looking to end their four game skid while FC Dallas is looking to keep their status as a top team in the Western Conference. Atlanta travel to NYCFC to stay hot while playing with a full squad. There are definitely some big names to watch with James Sands, Richie Ledezma, Miles Robinson, and Thiago Almada. Plus young USMNT prospect Caleb Wiley who is off to a hot start for Atlanta United.
The nationally televised game features LAFC who just crushed Vancouver in B.C. for the first leg of their CCL matchup, hosting Austin FC who still have a very mixed bag of results so far this season. LAFC started their big guns in the CCL match and will still be looking to finish off the Whitecaps next week. Austin should be fresh, but LAFC still have an unbeaten record they are holding onto.
FC Cincinnati and the Philadelphia Union are the other early game. FC Cincy is still undefeated and even if it's not against a 100% Union side, who are currently in a series with Liga MX side Atlas, it's still a home game against a team that will be competing for a top spot in the Eastern Conference later in the season. Speaking of the Union, their U15's and U17's are both in the semi-finals of the Generation Adidas Cup. The Union U15 squad took down Arsenal and Real Madrid, while the U17's took out Palmerias. Philly's reputation for building elite talent through their academy is going to continue to hold up with results like these.
The Chicago Fire staff must be paying attention to the dreadful attendance numbers as they announced on Twitter a series of pretty cool theme nights that feature a soccer themed soccer jersey, a Pride Night, Star Wars Night, and First Responders Night. Hopefully this will get folks excited to attend games in Chicago again. This week they're hosting undefeated Minnesota United. This is a sneaky pick for me as most people are really high on Minnesota right now, but you can't look past this Fire team.
The Houston Dynamo host the LA Galaxy. Houston has had an impressive start to the season and if you read my power rankings, you know the Galaxy have not. Nashville SC host Toronto who are STILL trying to find their way under Bob Bradley. I'm sure his seat has to be getting warm, if they're willing to pay Insigne $15 million a year, I doubt they'd bat an eye at buying Bradley out of his contract.
In a scheduling oddity, Sporting KC will play the Colorado Rapids for the second and final time this season. It's an opportunity for both teams to get their first win. Sporting may finally have a healthy Johnny Russell and Alan Pulido back. The Sporting fans are getting restless with Peter Vermes after another rough start in Kansas City. The Centerback pairing of Castellanos and Rosero helped Tim Melia earn a clean sheet in his first start of the season. I'd look for a starting eleven of: Melia, Zusi, Castellanos, Rosero, Leibold, Radoja, Walter, Thommy, Agada, Russell, and Salloi with Alan Pulido likely coming off the bench as he tries to get back to full fitness.
Two of my top five teams in MLS face off in Seattle as the Sounders host St. Louis City. Even with one loss, this will be the biggest test for St. Louis. Seattle is hot right now, and you would think Brian Schmetzer plays the hot hands of Leo Chu and Jordan Morris. Seattle is a first class MLS franchise and they are what new teams like St. Louis City hope to become long term.
The rest of the night caps feature four teams with a combined four wins: RSL host Charlotte and Vancouver host Portland.
Moving outside of MLS for a moment, the US Open Cup is taking place right now and it is one of my favorite sporting events. Amateur side Tulsa Athletic knocked off FC Tulsa from the USL this past week, which now has them facing Sporting Kansas City in the next round. Could you imagine putting together a baseball team that ended up playing the St. Louis Cardinals in Busch Stadium? It's also a great showcase for the lower division soccer leagues. Even I just found out that my hometown Springfield Dmize are back in the NPSL and will actually get to host Tulsa Athletic this summer. You also get to see the wonderful investments communities are making in soccer like the new stadium in Colorado Springs, the beautiful park in Louisville, soccer specific pro stadiums in Tampa Bay, Orange County, San Antonio and the newly proposed parks in Memphis and Indianapolis. Some of these clubs have better setups with more stadium autonomy than several MLS clubs.
Here are my week 7 picks:
Seattle over St. Louis
SKC over Colorado
Revs over Montreal
Nashville over Toronto
Chicago over Minnesota
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