SUNDAY MORNING .....

OK, I lost the "minimal" bet on France yesterday, but got everything else in my notes spot on and I mean everything, my few lines about the J-League were on the money, despite the asian markets moving the other way and not only did I get three from three right with my "official" selections in the MLS (see below.... sent to subscribers 12 hours before kick offs), but also put up San Jose to score two at 3.25 ( they won 2-1) and "suggested", that LA were good for three (they won 3-0) ! My third pick Philadelphia were a home "dog" ( outsider) and they won 4-0 ! At the moment, I am really putting in the hours, hard work always pays off as we all know and with it comes the profits. Email me for details of how to get full access to my daily notes .
 

Contact : gowi8@btinternet.com

MLS

These clubs are used to clocking up the air miles, a coast to coast game involves an 8,000 km round trip, but I think several of the teams will be feeling drained tonight, on what for some is a third start in a week and coming directly after a break, when some players will also have been away on international duty, both the break and/or international fixtures are a big disruption to schedules and training.

PHILADELPHIA UNION- SPORTING KANSAS CITY

We discussed Philly last week (see below) and I was very keen to oppose them against DC United and the visitors won 1-0 , but it was close and DC coach Ben Olsen said about Union  “They were good. give them a lot of credit. I thought their energy was good, I thought their soccer was better on the night. ... But at the end of the day it’s about winning games.”

Piotr Nowak was actually fired before the game, this lifted the mood and the players responded for interim coach John Hackworth, who said "If we play that way every week, we’re gonna win a lot of games. So, I’m disappointed but I take a lot of positives out of this game." He also answered a few other questions ....

Will you stick with this lineup?“I would. I need time to think about it. I’m very emotionally charged right now as you can imagine, but I’m going to look at the tape tomorrow. My initial thoughts are that they played the way the Union wants to play. The fans want that. The front office, our ownership, they want that kind of energy. And that was fantastic, so we’ll evaluate it, see how our guys are feeling…next Saturday here I expect you’ll see a lot of the same.

Why didn’t we see Gomez? Was it because he was away at WC qualifying?Partly. He got hurt in Dallas. He never fully recovered from that injury with the national team when he was with Panama. He got released yesterday afternoon; he didn’t play. He has not played a game since Dallas, which is quite a long break, so if the game had presented itself and there was an opportunity…but obviously when you get behind, and we had all the momentum, I didn’t think there was a way they would get down near us. I thought either we were going to give up a foul but they got it, and that was that.
 
What were your emotions like before the game?“What a great day all the way around. The fans were fantastic; the players were awesome beforehand. It was a great night for the Philadelphia Union in a lot of ways. And I was excited. I was confident, relaxed…At this point my job becomes managing the game. We prepared…the players need to know what they’re doing and I thought they did, and they went and tried to do that, and so, it was all good."
 

This is about the most positive I have seen any side after a home defeat and it is clear that with Nowak has also gone a big weight off the team, forward Antoine Hoppenot was denied by the woodwork at a key stage and he said “It’s nice to see a positive offensive showing, we always knew we could do it.  We knew we had the skills and players to be a force on offense.  It doesn’t come to a surprise to us and a great show for the fans to see and hopefully next game we will score two or three.”

Plenty to take out of the game and the new coach has had a free midweek and seven days to fully focus on this game. Kansas were at home last week, went to Seattle in midweek and now all the way over to Philly, that is pretty gruelling, key players Matt Besler and Bobby Convey have been moved up to "Questionable", but a place on the bench is the most either can probably expect and they are likely to be given a little longer recovery time. Nagamura is also a doubt and options look limited in midfield. Think a draw is likely here, the only two h2h meetings have ended all square and that is a result which probably both could accept, but I will take 1.25 units Philadelphia +0.25 ball 1.88 asian line, as I smell an upset home win.

LA GALAXY- VANCOUVER WHITE CAPS

Finally LAG have awoken from a very long slumber and claimed two wins in the last seven days and will be looking to complete the hat-trick tonight, the win at Real Salt Lake was impressive as the hosts came into the game on a long unbeaten run. Galaxy's backline is beat up and continues to look vunerable, but keeper Josh Saunders return coincided with the upturn in results, even so, at present, you have to feel they need two, maybe three goals to ensure victory. They will be boosted in that respect by the seven unanswered goals they put past Vancouver in doing the double over them last season and whilst the visitors are much improved, they are very much a home team and have managed only five road goals all season. Robbie Keane has returned from Euro 2012 action and looks set to return to the line up. Hosts have three from four on the road after this and this is a hugely important game in terms of the rest of their season, they have a good record historically in the third of three matches inside a week and I expect them to follow up against a team who despite their high placing, are still very much one in transition. LA Galaxy -0.75 ball 1.91 + asian line, there is some 3.75 for LA to score 3+ which looks attractive, but not freely available.

REAL SALT LAKE- SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES

These two both score and concede a lot of goals, averaging 3.25 between them across their last ten starts and the last two h2h meetings have both produced four goals. San Jose have scored nine in their last five on the road and in each of their last ten in all competitions. I was keen on the "over" here, but Real conceded three to LA in midweek, blowing a two goal lead and might be short on confidence after that, which was a bit of a shock to the system after six matches unbeaten in the league, but they also conceded three recently at home to lower league opposition in the cup. Earthquakes have had several huge boosts this week with the return of goalkeeper Jon Busch from suspension, the signing of former Columbus and D.C. United right back Jed Zayner and return from long term injuries of defender Victor Bernardez and midfielder Shea Salinas, they kept four cleansheets in a row with Bernadez in the team and allowed over 1.6 per game in his absence. Let's try two bets..... 1.25 units San Jose +0.5 ball 2.04 asian line and if it is available to you 0.75 units @ 3.25 for SJE to score two or more 3.0 + is good, if not, then you can upgrade the straight asian bet a little.

Good Luck

PHILADELPHIA UNION- DC UNITED

Hosts are up against it here, they have not won in five MLS starts and have conceded five in their last two home starts, against teams with arguably a lesser potent attack than United, who are the league's top scorers and out for a little revenge after Union beat them in a US Cup match just ten days ago ( 2-1 after extra time in Maryland). That was an ill tempered affair, which saw the red cards fly , Ben Olsen the DC coach rounded on his players after that, for what he described as an unacceptable performance. Olsen was probably the greatest player in the club's history and the current crop will be embarrassed that he was so angered by that showing. That have won their last three league starts and scored 20 goals in their last eight starts.They have defender Robbie Russell back tonight and should have their trio of strikers Chris Pontius, Maicon Santos and Dwayne De Rosario with 17 goals between them, all back in the line up. Three points will ensure they stay top of the Eastern Division.

This is a fixture that usually produces a lot of goals. With the last four MLS meetings all seeing at least four, but it is hard to see Union contributing too many this evening. For a start, they have been pretty toothless all season, scoring just eight and tonight they miss their suspended top scoring striker Lionard Pajoy. They have brought in Jorge Perlaza from Portland, but it cwas at the cost of another and perhaps more promising forward and the Colombian's strike rate of six goals in 44 starts is not going to strike fear into too many DC defenders. This is just the latest in some very strange decisions by Union coach Petr Nowak, who for some unknown reason got rid of Sebastien Le Toux, captain Danny Califf, and now Danny Mwanga, he is said to be looking to move overseas and obviously wants to sell the crown jewels before he goes ! The rats are leaving a sinking ship, two teams heading in different directions and the better one has a little revenge on it's mind. 1.5 units DC United level ball 1.98 asian line.