Long awaited start of the MLS league is here and with that, we will get to see the best American teams facing off against each other in hopes to end 2019 season as the champions. In this betting preview, we will focus on the match between Orlando City and New York City, which will take place on March 2nd at Orlando City Stadium.
Orlando City come into this match as underdogs, which is not surprising, as they are the team who lived in New York City’s shade for several seasons now. In fact, Orlando were never considered a top contender in the MLS, as even reaching the playoffs seems unlikely when we talk about Orlando City. Looking at their recent seasons, Orlando are not getting any better, actually, they seem to get worse with each passing year, which is surprising for a team that has got some decent players in their squad. Orlando City are just another example of a team that looks good on the paper and not so good when it comes to putting up good performances.
On the other side, we have got New York City, a team that has constantly made into the Eastern Conference playoffs, and the expectations have not lowered for this season either. Despite making it into the playoffs, NYC are known as a team that chokes and fails to perform when you expect them to. That was clearly seen in all of their last appearances in playoffs, where they got knocked relatively quickly. Heading into this season, the biggest question surrounding New York City is how will they perform without David Villa, who has been a part of the team since the beginning and deserves all credit for good seasons NYC had. But all good things come to an end and the same is with Villa, who left for Japan in the off-season.
Prior to the 2019 MLS season, we have seen some changes in both teams rosters. Orlando’s most notable signing is the Portuguese winger Nani, whom we know from playing in Manchester United. On the other side, NYC signed Alexandru Mitrita who set them back almost £7m. The £7m fee for a player might not seem like a lot, but it’s a large sum of money for this league, so expectations for him to show his worth are high.
Both teams have high expectations heading into this season. On one side, we have got NYC, who are expected to perform just as well as they did in the previous seasons, while Orlando are putting a lot of hope in their newly brought in star player Nani. Being that this will be the first match of the season, I expect both sides to show their best performances and try to get a head start in front of their opposition. Looking at the H2H matches between NYC and Orlando City, most of the matches were fast-paced with a lot of scoring opportunities, and I believe this will be the case here as well. New York City are considered favourites to win here, but betting on either team in the opening match of the season is something I tend to avoid. Instead, we will predict this match to be fast-paced with at least 2 goals scored, like it has become a trend when these two sides meet.
Prediction: Over 3.00 goals
Odds: 1.95 SBOBET
