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For the second straight season, the Seattle Sounders have really gotten off to a slower start than they should. They can only hope this second straight sluggish starts turns out as well as last year's MLS Cup campaign. The Sounders have a derby on deck against the Portland Timbers in a duel of the last two MLS Cup champs.
This MLS duel will go down Saturday, May 27, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. ET at CenturyLink Field. The match will be televised live on FOX.
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Odds Analysis
CenturyLink Field is notorious for being one of the hardest places to play in the MLS, and the Timbers know that all too well from all those Cascadia Cup battles in the last several years. Still, Portland's away form of 2-1-3 suggests that maybe there's some hope to snare something from this, particularly with the Sounders sitting on just 13 points in 12 fixtures in totality this season.
Still, Seattle will be a comfortable odds-on favorite to take three points in spite of its 2-2-1 mark in its first five games of the year at CenturyLink.
Key Injuries
The injury news isn't terrible for Seattle. Having Roman Torres and Henry Wingo back in the fold would be nice, but all three of the question marks from last week, Aaron Kovar, Osvaldo Alonso and Nouhou Tolo were at least available on the bench for the 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake. Alonso started the match against RSL and played the full 90 minutes.
Darlington Nagbe was a question mark in the midfield for the Timbers last weekend against Montreal. The US National player did start and only came off after 78 minutes. Gbenga Arokoyo and Chance Myers are both long-term absentees for the Timbers.
Recent Form
Four straight matches have gone by the wayside for Portland with just two points to show for the work. The Timbers have been a wreck defensively in this span, allowing two goals to FC Dallas, three to San Jose, one to Atlanta United and most recently, four against Montreal. The Impact really had their way at the Stade Saputo last weekend, and that's probably the most telling sign of all of the problems in the back four that the Timbers are going through.
The Sounders had lost three consecutive matches before coming out and beating RSL last weekend. Seattle played a much better match than 1-0 would suggest, as it had control of the ball for the mass majority of the match and was really never in much doubt about ultimately winning.
Free Soccer Betting Pick
The Sounders though, aren't finishing that well at the moment. They've got just two goals in their last three matches and have been shut out in five of their last eight halves of soccer.
But the bottom line is home pitch advantage rules the roost in this series. The last five have all gone the way of the home team, and most of them have been decided by at least two goals. In fact, each of the last five have also featured at least three goals, and we have a hard time seeing this one playing out any differently.
There's just too much talent up front for Seattle for it to be struggling this badly putting the ball in the back of the net, and drawing Portland at home might be just what it needs to get back on track. Look for Clint Dempsey to have a big game in a series he's been oh so good in over the years, and he'll be the difference in a comfy Sounders victory.
MLS Odds: Seattle 3, Portland 1
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