MLS: Seattle Sounders vs. Sporting Kansas City Vetting Preview, Odds, Prediction

The closing game of this MLS round takes place in Seattle, where Sounders meet with Sporting Kansas City. This is the derby of the Western conference between the two sides that hold the top two spots in the standings, and are at the moment, maybe the best teams in the league. Seattle’s bad luck ruled out several of their best players from the combination, but this is their story throughout the entire season. As for SKC, Peter Vermes‘ boys regained their confidence from a couple of years ago, and so far, the unit from Kansas City looks extremely well.

Preview

Seattle Sounders (+115) snapped their defeatless streak of 13 games in Minnesota against United. But in their next game, Seattle immediately bounced back in Austin, where they defeated the FC with a minimal result, 0-1. Raul Ruidiaz scored arguably the best goal so far this season, with a thunderstruck shot from half of the field.

Brian Schmetzer‘s boys are playing inefficient games in recent times, and the latest four were all with under 2.5 goals, the previous three with just one side netting.

The Sounders play well at home, with five wins and three draws, keeping their net intact five times throughout that stretch. The injuries and the absent players forced the Sounders to be much tougher in the back because they can’t score that many goals right now with what they have in the team. Ruidiaz is the leading scorer of the championship with 11 hits, but he is pretty much alone when it comes to contributing.

Sporting Kansas City (+230) is without a defeat for the past four matches, with three wins and one draw. The latest game was without winners against San Jose Earthquakes, while three previous all saw SKC beating their opponents, Colorado Rapids, 3-1, LAFC, 2-1, and LA Galaxy on the road, 0-2.

As you see, in all these matches, they scored at least twice, and the offense seems to be the biggest weapon of the team from Kansas City, as they didn’t net in just one game since the campaign started.

Four of their six road matches all saw over 2.5 goals, while the only one didn’t end with both sides netting, so in general, this team plays interesting and efficient games.

Latest News

Morris, Delem, Frei, Lodeiro, Bruin, O’Neill, and Tolo are out because of their respective injuries. Cristian and Alex Roland are in Gold Cup, the first playing for the US team and the latter for El Salvador.

For SKC, Gianluca Busio isn’t available as he plays for the US national team. Alan Pulido is with Mexico at the same tournament. Roberto Puncec is injured and unavailable.

Head to Head Games

SKC holds the last laugh as they won in the past two games, both with 3-2. However, these respective contests took place in 2019.

Prediction

Despite the fact that Seattle plays tough football, and that their backline might be even a better part of the team, we are going with both teams to score in this game. SKC has a superb attack, while their backline is a bit fragile, which is the reason why we believe that Ruidiaz and other Sounders’ players might score.

Pick: Both teams to score -166

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