Round 2 of the Leagues Cup continues on Wednesday and Thursday with 10 more games.
Let’s cover all the games and make Leagues Cup predictions for this week here.
Leagues Cup Picks and Parlays #1
Charlotte FC vs Cruz Azul Prediction
Uriel Antuna became the league’s top scorer helping Cruz Azul to the final of the most recent season.
The Azul attack has been bolstered of late as well with ex-Atlanta United striker Giorgos Giakoumakis who already has 2G/1A in 3 games.
And that’s powered Cruz Azul to the top of the table after 4 games at 3-1-0, scoring 9 times and allowing just 1.
Go all the way back to March and in any competition, Cruz Azul has just 2 losses, vs the likes of Club America and Monterrey and are 9-5-2. In 9 of those 16 games they’ve kept clean sheets.
They’ll face MLS’s 2nd ranked defensive team in Charlotte on MD2.
The Crown had been rolling and had a road win over Cincy, and road draws in Columbus and Austin in recent games. But on MD1 they fell 1-0 to a suddenly hot Philadelphia Union team. More concerning? They had 0 shots on target.
Charlotte games are usually close. They have just 1 win 6, but have allowed more than 1 goal just twice in 7 games.
This is one of the rare instances where these teams have met, last year in this tournament. And it was in fact a tight game that ended 0-0 with Charlotte going on to win in PKs.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Cruz Azul to score
Santos Laguna vs DC United Prediction
Santos Laguna have just 1 point and 1 goal scored through 4 games in the Apertura. They’re 0-1-3 and outscored 6-1, sitting in 16th.
But they’ve struggled long before the start of this season now being winless in 10 with just 4 wins in 22.
They’ve been held off the scoresheet in 6 of their past 7 and in 11 of those past 22.
DC came out firing taking a 3-1 lead in Atlanta on MD. Then Atlanta fought back to draw 3-3. But it was DC winning in PKs, highlighted by Alex Bono stopping Bartosz Slisz on a PK in regulation and in PKs again to seal the win.
These teams have never met.
DC is a hard team to trust keeping clean sheets having none in 20 games since March 30, but they usually score, doing so in 6/7 for a total of 14 goals in 7 games.
They had been winless in 11 but now have wins of 2-1, 3-1 and then Saturday’s 3-3 draw and win in PKs.
And Santos have conceded in 10 straight.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: DC United to score
FC Dallas vs Juarez Prediction
These teams have never met.
Dallas is also hard to trust. They were winless in 4, won 2, lost 2, won 1, lost 2, won 2, and drew away to New England 1-1 in their last game in MLS.
Then in Leagues Cup they went to St. Louis and lost 2-1 on Matchday 1. Petar Musa had been scorching hot but missed a PK in this game.
FCD has been a more attacking team of late and has scored in 7 straight, 11/12 and 20/22 in all comps, but it’s hard to know what to expect from a game-to-game basis as they’ve been up and down at 3-1-5 in their past 9.
At home though they’ve only lost once (CIN) in their last 11 games in all comps.
Juarez has yet to win this season after a 2-2 draw, 3-2 loss, 2-1 loss and 2-1 loss. Go back into last season and they have just 5 wins in 31 LigaMX games.
A defense that was poor all season has continued this year giving up 10 goals in 4 games and they’ve kept only 2 clean sheets in 47 games.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: FC Dallas to score
- Parlay Picks: CRUZ to score / DC to score / DAL to score (-152)
Leagues Cup Picks and Parlays #2
Tigres vs Puebla Prediction
As usual, Tigres is off to a strong start at 3-1-0 undefeated and 3rd in the Apertura. This after a 1-0 win, 1-1 draw, 1-0 win and 3-0 win.
In all comps they have just 4 losses in 16 games and those have come to Club America, Monterrey, Columbus and Pachuca.
It’s not just the attack that shines for Tigres highlighted by Andre-Pierre Gignac. They feature CB Guido Pizarro who won LigaMX’s Best Defender award last year too.
Puebla sits down in 13th at 1-1-2 outscored 8-5 in the Apertura.
On MD1 they went to Miami and even with Messi out injured, they allowed goals early and late (9’ and 72’) and fell 2-0.
That’s not shocking. Puebla don’t win often with just 2 wins in 24 games.
Saturday notwithstanding, they often score, doing so in 10/13. But they’re a mess defensively allowing multiple goals in 17/19.
Head-to-head Tigres won 3-2 in March, 3-0 in December and they drew 2-2 in November. Tigres is 4-2-0 in the matchup in recent years.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Tigres to win
San Jose vs LA Galaxy Prediction
There’s been 3 meetings this season already. March 24 won 3-1 by LA, April 24 won 4-3 by LA and June 29 won 3-0 by LA.
So LA is 3-0-0 vs SJ this season outscoring them 10-4.
The Galaxy are undefeated vs San Jose in 7 and have scored 3 goals or more in 4 straight. The Quakes may be slightly improved having star keeper Daniel back from injury.
This rivalry is the highest-scoring one in MLS history. And this is just a small snapshot of why.
Prior results to this season have seen scorelines of: 3-2, 2-2, 2-1, 3-2, 3-2, 2-1 and 3-1 in recent seasons.
On MD1, San Jose played Chivas in front of over 50,000 and welcomed back ex-player Cade Cowell. MLS’s worst team took the lead in the 1st half with a cross from Espinoza to Ebobisse in just the 6’ minute.
While the 1st half was mostly San Jose, Chivas piled on the pressure all second half and then with San Jose’s top CB Rodrigues held on the sidelines after being injured late on, Chivas finally broke through in the 98’ minute to tie 1-1 and go to PKs.
Cowell’s homecoming was ruined as he missed a PK and SJ won 4-3 in the spot-kicks.
This game had cards all around with 4 yellows to Chivas and 5 to San Jose. Even Wondo saw red on the sidelines for SJ before PKs.
Stats-wise, Chivas led in possession 64%, shots 22-7 and shots on target 6-2.
The Galaxy are top of the West and 2nd overall. They have just 5 losses in 26 games, have won 9/12 and scored multiple goals in 4/6 and 8/12, plus 3 in back-to-back games. But with recent scores of 3-2 (W), 3-2 (W), 2-0 (L), 2-1 (W) and 2-1 (L), certainly a case for BTTS & over 2.5 can be made.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Over 2.5
- Parlay Picks: TIG win / SJ vs LA over 2.5 (+108)
Leagues Cup Picks and Parlays #3
FC Cincinnati vs Queretaro Prediction
Cincinnati are 2nd in the East, 5 points back of Miami for 1st and 3rd in the Supporters’ Shield race but enter Leagues Cup on a 3-game losing skid, losing 3-1, 1-0 and 3-1.
They’ve now conceded in 11/12 and defense is a concern with Zavaleta and Miazga injured and Robinson away at the Olympics.
Luciano Acosta is back from a brief injury and with him they’re always a threat to score. Cincy has scored in 21/23 recent games in all comps.
Cincy have a ton of injuries on the defense but just added Chidozie Awaziem, a Nigerian international CB.
On MD1 Queretaro were outplayed in New York vs NYC, but held on and drew 0-0. NYC had 66% and 19 shot attempts but both had 5 shots on target. Both teams got points as the game went to PKs with NYCFC winning 4-3.
Queretaro comes into this tournament in awful form. They’re 0-0-4 to start the Apertura and have been outscored 10-3 with losses of 2-1, 3-1, 2-0 and 2-1. Lots of losses, lots of Overs and lots of BTTSs.
Further back they’re winless in 8 and have conceded a goal in all 8 of those games.
The teams have never met, but this looks like a good spot for Cincy to end their losing streak.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Cincinnati to win
Toluca vs Chicago Fire Prediction
It’s the first meeting between the teams.
On MD1, the Fire rested Hugo Cuypers but his replacement Georgios Koutsias opened the scoring for Chicago vs Sporting Kansas City. SKC tied it soon after and it stayed tied until Willy Agada scored in the 76’ minute proving to be enough to give SKC a 2-1 win.
The Fire are in mixed form. They’re 4-3-5 in their past 12, but have just 1 win 5 and have scored just 5 goals in those 5 games.
Since April 27, they have just 2 clean sheets in 16 games, but 1 came vs Cincinnati.
Toluca is still undefeated in the Apertura so far at 2-2-0, scoring 7 and allowing just 3 goals. Paulinho has scored 3 of those 7 goals and is tied for 3rd in league scoring.
Toluca didn’t end last season in top form being winless in 3, but look further back and in their last 25 games in all comps they have just 5 defeats, 2 to Chivas, 1 to Cruz Azul, 1 to Club America and 1 to Herediano in the Champions Cup.
In the recent transfer window, they added more than $25 million in forward Paulinho ($8 mil), Bruno Mendez (URU intl CB), LB Jesus Gallardo from Monterrey and midfielder Frankie Amaya from the Red Bulls ($4 million).
Given the current form of both and how the Fire elected for some rotation in this tournament on MD1, I’d lean to a Toluca win.
For a parlay, Toluca to score or Over 1.5.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Over 1.5
- Parlay Picks: CIN win / CHI vs TOL over 1.5 (-108)
Ryan Métivier is a seasoned editor, writer and communications professional with years of experience in all fields. When it comes to covering sports, he’s written for numerous outlets and organizations including the OHL, CHL, SportsXpress, Sports Betting Dime, Cleveland.com, MassLive, FanSided and others.
While he’ll always cheer for his hometown Toronto teams, when it comes to betting, his only allegiance is his bankroll. Ryan specializes in global soccer, the NFL and the NHL, but if there is a bet to be made, he’ll make it. As the founder of Shred The Spread, Ryan focuses on combining storylines, trends, analytics and good bankroll management to creating simple bets that make sense.
When not making a case for why both teams will score in an MLS soccer match, he can be found focusing his efforts on fitness, attempting to learn Spanish, cooking or planning his travel adventure.
