🔮 Major League Soccer Weekend Preview | OneFootball

It’s a low-key MLS weekend with just four games to tide you over. Nonetheless, we’ll push on with another preview of the matchday to come.

Fixture of the weekend

St. Louis City vs Portland Timbers

While we don’t have many games to choose from this weekend, we are blessed with a fixture that could produce a lot of goals, and it will be contested by two potentially desperate teams.

Portland will head to Missouri with a bit of a chip on their shoulder after taking seven points from a possible nine in their last three games, and boast one of the most prolific attacking trios in all of Major League Soccer with Evander, Jonathan Rodríguez, and Felipe Mora.

St. Louis, meanwhile, are heading home after a 3-3 draw against Supporters Shield favorites Inter Miami in south Florida and will be looking to build on that momentum. Bradley Carnell’s side won the Western Conference last season, but have fallen from grace and currently sit just outside of the MLS Cup playoff spots.

A win for the hosts would see them pull level with their visitors on the night, while a win for the Timbers would be a fourth in five as they look to motor up the standings in the West.

Player to watch

Petar Musa – FC Dallas

Musa is quickly becoming a household name in MLS after making the move to Dallas from Benfica for a club record transfer fee.

The Croatian has taken some time to find his footing in the league, but after five goals and two assists in his opening 14 MLS games, Musa is proving to be more lethal than many had imagined.

FC Dallas sit in the lowly position of 12th, but only seven points outside of the MLS Cup Playoff spots, a fairly surmountable obstacle in a league of such parity.

As Musa continues to find his feet alongside Jesus Ferreira, he could be the key man in a potential turnaround for the Texas club.

Two major questions ahead of the weekend

Is this the new Seattle?

The Sounders have been a stalwart in the Western Conference for the better part of a decade, despite never being a team filled to the brim with expensive superstars from abroad like their rivals in California.

Yet the air of invincibility seems to have dissipated around this iteration of Brian Schmetzer’s side as they sit firmly in 10th place with just four wins from 16 games in MLS.

However, a trip to bottom-dwelling Sporting KC might just be the perfect remedy for the Cascadia club. A big win on the road could be just what they need to start the turnaround. Or are they what they record states?

Are the Red Bulls true contenders?

The New York Red Bulls are regularly the team to watch in Major League Soccer. With cool mix of classic Red Bull tactics and attacking thrust from the likes of Lewis Morgan, Emil Forsberg, and John Tolkin, Sandro Schwarz has seemingly returned the New Jersey outfit  into the picture in the Eastern Conference.

A showdown with New England, lousy lousy New England, shouldn’t prove much, but you can only beat the teams that are put in front of you.

The potential victory would see New York jump their rivals in NYCFC in the conference standings.