The 2022 Major League Soccer season began on April 17, bringing the curtain up on what will be a thrilling campaign. Supporters had feared the coronavirus emergency, and resulting lockdowns would wipe out the season, but soccer kicked back and got the green light to go ahead.
It promises to be one of the most competitive seasons in recent years, with three or more teams having strong claims on the MLS Cup. There are also up to five underdogs who believe they can cause an upset, and if MLS fans have learned anything, it’s never to write off the underdogs in this competition.
The leading mytoposportsbooks.com on various markets, including the outright winner of the MLS Cup, the conferences, playoffs, top goalscorer and more. Fans love to spice up the action with a bet on their favourite teams and players hoping to profit from success in the field of play.
Revolution bast out of the traps
In the opening round of the 2022 campaign, we’ve seen New England Revolution dominate the Eastern Conference while Seattle Sounders have set themselves apart as the team to beat in the Western Conference. Both clubs have hit the front in the opening eight games and are showing signs that they’ll be difficult to budge.
Followers of Revolution have cause to be optimistic this year after seeing their favourites blast out of the traps. New England is no stranger to MLS success and has looked back to its best in recent weeks. Losing only one of their opening eight games, they won have and drew the other two, scored 11 goals and conceded seven.
A three-game winning streak helped them open a three-point advantage over nearest rivals Philadelphia Union who are in second place. Union have performed above expectations so far and are hot on the heels of New England. Unbeaten in four games, taking 10 points from a possible 12 put Philadelphia within touching distance of Revolution and just ahead of Orlando City SC, who dropped from second following defeat to New York Red Bulls at the end of May.
Seattle enjoy an unbeaten start
In the Western Conference, Seattle Sounders are top dogs after eight games but know there’s still plenty of work to do if they finish the regular seasons as winners. They won five and drew three, scoring 14 goals while conceding just three. That’s an astounding defensive record and is the best in both conferences. Orlando City is the rival for that stat, having conceded four goals in their first seven matches.
Sounders head into July with confidence high in the camp, having finished May with back-to-back draws, which protected their proud unbeaten status. Seattle failed to find the net despite holding the home advantage over Austin FC in their final game of May. It was a match their supporters had expected them to win, but at the whistle, some were happy just to avoid defeat and get out of the game unbeaten.
Seattle aren’t having things their own way at present, with Sporting Kansas City just two points behind heading into June. Kansas has won five, drawn one and lost two games but did steady the ship with three wins on the bounce. LA Galaxy is third in line with 15 points on the board but has played a game fewer than the two teams above them in the pecking order at this stage. The world-famous Galaxy has been without success for almost a decade now, and fans are eager to see their team end that drought.
How the bookies see it
Soccer fans can get an idea of what to expect this season by looking at the MLS Cup winner betting odds. Traders at all major firms have Seattle as favourites, just ahead of Columbus Crew and Los Angeles FC. Orlando City is next in line but is the first of the teams available at double-figure odds.
The top goalscorer betting is just as competitive with Raul Ruidiaz, the current market leader, and he’ll certainly take some shifting. He’s ahead of second favourite Josef Martinez, and Carlos Vela completes the top three.
Best Players
When we look at the squad of this club, the most interesting fact is that there are no so many players that had impressive careers in Europe, where the best players are playing today. Almost every club in MLS has at least one start who had an impressive career in some of the Top 5 leagues in Europe. When it comes to Seattle Sounders, one of their best players and Classic No. 10, Nicolas Lodeiro, had only a short performance in Ajax 10 years ago.
Besides him, Fredy Montero had some great plays in Sporting FC before he got transferred to Chinese club Tianjin, and then started to play in MLS, for Vancouver before he started his mission in Seattle. The main reason why that is important is that that shows the improvement of the whole league. It was common that the best clubs were those with superstars from Europe, and we had a chance to watch many of them, such as David Villa, Donovan, Higuain, Robbie Kean, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham, Nani, and many others.
Getting a couple of top players from the best European clubs always represented a big impact on the play. On the other side, Seattle managed to organize the team and make a unique system that seems to be great. When we look at the early predictions, bookies were expecting that FC Dallas will start the season with much better success, but the low performances will probably affect the odds to rise significantly before the start of the Cup.
Also, New York City, which is one of the favorites as well, was expected to have a better start, and the biggest surprise was a game lost against Columbus Crew at the home stadium. Therefore, besides Seattle Sounders, the favorites are New England Revolution and Sporting Kanzas City. If Seattle continues with good plays, the odds for the cup will become even lower. Therefore, if you are interested in placing a bet on this club, now is the best moment for that.
What Can Impact the Odds During the Season?
As you can see, the great performances are affecting the odds by decreasing them because Seattle is playing much better than expected. However, things could easily change during the season, and before the start of the Cup. The most important thing for Seattle is to find a good system against following opponents and keep the motivation to continue with a winning streak. Also, there are some other factors like injuries and relations between players in the club. There is no need to rush with predictions because there is plenty of time until the end of the championship.
On the other side, it will be very hard to play throughout the whole season without at least one game lost. However, we can notice that Seattle is playing excellent at home, and that it is focused on defense with a great strategy. In that matter, even though they don’t win at home all the time, you can try betting on goals of away team, where choosing a bet where the opponent won’t score more than one goal seems to be a great choice.
