Chicago Fire and Philadelphia Union will meet in the upcoming MLS round on Thursday, 26 June, as both teams hope to continue their recent runs of good form.
The hosts have been inconsistent this season, but they've won four of their last six league matches and they'll hope to keep that going against current leaders of the MLS, Philadelphia Union. Chicago's recent form will certainly give them confidence, but their home record in the league this season won't since they've only managed to win once in seven games they've hosted so far.
Philadelphia are on a streak of 10 games without a loss at the moment and they are the top seed in the entire league with 37 points from 18 matches. Just like their next opponent, they've also won four of their last six, but they also got a couple of points from the other two games, unlike Chicago which lost both of theirs.
All in all, with both teams doing well lately, this promises to be a very exciting duel.
How the bookies view it: Backing the hosts to win
Despite Philadelphia being the league leaders, the bookies have Chicago as the expected winners at even odds at Boylesports.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia to win is priced at 9/5, while a draw has the odds of 11/4, all at Boylesports.
Recent head-to-head: Both teams have reasons to be optimistic
Since we saw each team win twice in the last six meetings between Chicago and Philadelphia, it's clear that neither of them will have any psychological advantage based on the recent H2Hs.
Players to watch: Chicago's forward in focus
Chicago Fire are a team that plays free-flowing, offensive football, so they score plenty of goals, led by the Belgian forward Hugo Cuypers who has 11 goals in the league already. That's just two goals behind the league's top scorer Tai Baribo, who plays for Philadelphia but is currently injured.
In any case, Cuypers will certainly have his chances to score in this game too and Boylesports offers 11/10 odds on Cuypers to score at any time, which does sound enticing.
Predicted line-ups
As we mentioned above, Philadelphia will miss their top scorer Baribo in this game, along with another injured player Ian Glavinovich. On top of that, Danley Jean Jacques and Andre Blake are at the Gold Cup, so they won't be available for this match either.
When it comes to Chicago's squad, they are also missing some players because of the Gold Cup, namely Chris Brady and Harold Osorio. Also, Carlos Teran, Christopher Cupps, David Poreba, and Chris Mueller are on the team's injury list heading into this game.
Chicago: Gal, Dean, Gonzalez, Elliott, Gutman, Gutierrez, Pineda, Oregel, Haile-Selassie, Cuypers, Bamba
Philadelphia: Rick, Mbaizo, Glesnes, Makhanya, Wagner, Bedoya, Bueno, Lukic, Bender, Damiani, Vassilev
Anything else catch the eye?
We've seen plenty of goals in recent duels between the Chicago Fire and Philadelphia Union, with four of their last five meetings ending with at least four goals. On top of that, Chicago average 3.88 total goals per game in the league this season, so over 3.5 total goals at 11/8 odds at Boylesports sounds like a reasonable bet.
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