The Major League Soccer season is beginning to get into a real rhythm as all clubs involved find their feet and start to build some momentum. There are plenty of reasons to believe this could be the best MLS campaign yet, with teams across North America getting better and better. Today, we’ll be taking a look at what should be a fascinating encounter between Real Salt Lake and St Louis City.
Salt Lake Form GuideIn terms of the Western Conference, Real Salt Lake did a solid job of making their way up the table and earning a spot in the playoffs. When they got there, though, there were beaten by Houston in the first round, in a three-game series that saw two matches go to penalties. They have potential, and it’ll be interesting to see how they bounce back this time around.
Salt Lake put up a fight but ultimately fell short to Miami in thier opening game of the season, losing 2-0. From there, they drew 1-1 with St Louis, before getting their first win in a 3-0 triumph over Los Angeles. They went on to lose 2-1 to Colorado before a nice 2-1 win away to Vancouver.
St Louis Form GuideSt Louis did a tremendous job of topping the Western Conference and although the standard was lower in comparison to the East, they looked calm and composed. In the playoffs, however, they failed to live up to the hype, with their lack of experience really showing against Sporting Kansas City. They lost in back to back games, sending them crashing out of the competition.
After a 1-1 draw with Salt Lake, St Louis’ first win of the season came in a 2-0 success over New York City. Since then, they’ve been involved in three pretty fascinating games, drawing 2-2 with Austin, 3-3 with LA Galaxy and 2-2 with DC United.
Match PredictionSt Louis are looking solid right now but what they’re searching for is a defining, breakout performance. Salt Lake, meanwhile, tend to be solid as a rock in situations like this, and we’re expecting more of the same here. In terms of a prediction, we’re going to shoot for under 2.5 goals scored.
