Paul Higham has picked out a goals, cards and corners Bet Builder clocking in at 7/2 for Atlanta’s MLS clash with Columbus Crew on Saturday…
Atlanta United v Columbus Crew
Saturday 24 July 20:30 BST kick-off
We’re making a rare visit to the United States and the MLS on Saturday as Atlanta United host the Columbus Crew at their fantastic Mercedes Benz Stadium.
It may be an incredible venue, but it’s not been witnessing any incredible football, or ‘soccer’ as I suppose they’d call it over there, with the team recently enduring a record losing run.
Former Manchester United defender Gabriel Heinze was sacked as manager after a club-record eight-game winless run, with assistant Rob Valentino taking charge of a 1-1 draw with Cincinnati last time out.
That means it’s just two wins in 14 for Atlanta this season as they face the reigning MLS champions, but the Crew aren’t in the best form either with just one win in six including four draws out of the last five games.
Atlanta are the betting favourites here despite last tasting victory 10 games ago, that’ll mainly be because Columbus have been so poor on their travels with just one road win in seven this season.
The draw looks the percentage play though at 3.45 as no side has more stalemates than Atlanta’s eight this term, including six of the last nine, while Columbus weigh in with six draws of their own including four of the last five.
In terms of goals it’s interesting as both sides have had problems keeping clean sheets, with Atlanta managing just three shutouts all season and while Columbus have five – just two of those have come in away games.
The main problem in advising to plump for goals is the fact that these sides also have big problems finding the net, with them being the second and third worst scorers in the league so far with Atlanta bagging 14 and Columbus 15.
Atlanta games average just 2.2 goals and Columbus 1.9 overall, but times are getting desperate for both and with both having had decent possession, corners and chances recently then the floodgates could well open here.
So, we fancy that both teams could find the net here, but when going over their recent form we see that both sides have been clocking up the bookings of late with at least two names going in the book in their last few games.
Atlanta in particular have been stacking up the corners in their games too, getting 12 themselves in their last game and in their last few meetings with Columbus the total match corners read 13, 11, 9, 9, 11, 10.
When you consider that six of the last seven fixtures between these two had four or more total bookings then you can smell the prospect of a Bet Builder coming on…
Source: BetFair Tips
