It’s down to the final eight in this year’s Leagues Cup with all four quarterfinal games kicking off on Saturday, August 17 at 6:00, 7:30, 8:00 and 10:00pm EST for a full night of action.
It’s been a mostly MLS-dominated tournament with 6/8 of the remaining teams being from MLS. Mazatlan upset another Mexican side Cruz Azul to get here and even Club America were perilously close to being knocked out by an average at best St. Louis side.
Trends to maybe consider for the two MLS vs LigaMx matchups, as MLS is now 18-10 in regulation wins between the leagues. It’s 7-6 MLS in shootout wins and 62-46 in goals scored for MLS.
Will that continue on Saturday. Read on to see the top Leagues Cup predictions, picks and parlays.
Columbus Crew vs NYCFC Prediction
Kick-off at 6pm EST at Lower.com Field.
It’s 3rd in the East in MLS Columbus vs 5th New York.
The Crew went to New York in June and won 3-2. Christian Ramirez, Mo Farsi and Cucho Hernandez (PK) scored and put the Crew up 3-1 in that game before New York got a second late.
Last year the teams drew both meetings 1-1.
The Crew are 6th in the Supporters’ Shield race, own the top defense in all of MLS, have only lost once at home and have only allowed 7 goals when playing at Lower.com Field.
Columbus kicked off Leagues Cup in the Round of 32 and brushed aside SKC with goals in the 44’, 57’, 77’ and 79’, including 2 from Diego Rossi and 1 each from brand new signings DeJuan Jones and Dylan Chambost.
The Round of 16 saw them fall behind 2-0 to Inter Miami, but Wilfried Nancy made some changes in the 2nd half and Ramirez off the bench made it 2-1 in the 67’ and then Diego Rossi added two more in the 69’ and 80’ minutes to see the Crew storm back for a 3-2 win.
Rossi has 9G/5A in his last 9 games.
They’re now 7-1-1 in 9 outscoring opponents 29-7 in that time.
NYCFC drew Queretaro 0-0 and won in PKs and then coughed up a 2-0 lead to FC Cincinnati and lost 4-2. Into the Round of 32 and they drew again, this time with New England, 1-1 and went on to win in PKs.
Then in the Round of 16, they fell behind 1-0 to Tigres early but fought back for one of their best wins in their history upsetting the Mexican giants 2-1.
It’s a huge win, but their only win in regulation not counting PK wins in their past 8 games. They have only 1 loss in 7, but then also only 5 wins in 13 and only 3 wins in regulation in 13 games.
Santi Rodriguez is heating up for NYC having scored in all 3 Leagues Cup games he’s played in so could be worth a goalscorer prop.
You have to trust the Crew more here with the form they’re in and playing at home.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Columbus to win (-130)
Philadelphia Union vs Mazatlan Prediction
Kick-off at 7:30 pm EST at Subaru Park. It’s the first meeting between these teams.
Philly has struggled all season but had wins of 5-1 and 3-0 before rthe tournament.
They beat Charlotte 1-0 before drawing Cruz Azul 1-1 and losing in PKs in the Group Stage.
In the Round of 32 it was a 2-0 win over CF Montreal. Then it was off to the Round of 16 where they went to Cincinnati, took a 2-0 lead, coughed it up to see Cincy level at 2-2 and then score 2 more of their own to win 4-2, backed by a brace from Tai Baribo, who now leads Leagues Cup scoring with 5 goals. He also has 11 goals in his last 11 games.
So that makes them undefeated in regulation in 6 games. They’ve also scored in 9/10.
Philly’s resurgence is impressive but the surprise team of the tournament is certainly Mazatlan. Mazatlan have collected 1 point and scored just 2 goals in their first 4 games in the Apertura. They’re 17th out of 18 teams in LigaMX.
Mazatlan lost to New England 1-0 and then beat Nashville 2-0 in the Group Stage.
That set up a Round of 32 clash with DC United where they won 2-1. They were aided by a 27’ minute red card though from DC before scoring their 2 goals and DC pulled one back late in the game down a man though.
Into the Round of 16 where they faced a huge task vs Cruz Azul and without injured starting keeper Hugo Gonzalez, but it was Mazatlan taking a 2-0 lead into the half and holding onto it for most of the game. They were again aided by their opponent taking a red card though in the 49’ minute. Cruz Azul did battle back with goals in the 84’ and 91’ minutes to draw 2-2, before eventually losing in PKs to Mazatlan.
So Mazatlan started the Apertura poorly, but have been improved in Leagues Cup, but still have just 3 wins in 10 games and 1 clean sheet going back to last season and only 4 clean sheets in 25 games. They’ve also been shut out in 5/9.
Cruz Azul had only allowed 2 goals in 7 before last game and Mazatlan just scored 2 on them. But then their competition of New England, Nashville and DC are not the strongest and their last 2 games they played a man up for large portions of those games.
Make me pick a winner and I’m taking Philly, but maybe that Mazatlan story continues so let’s say both teams to score.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Both Teams to Score (-160)
Seattle Sounders vs LAFC Prediction
Kick-off at 8pm EST at Lumen Field.
It’s been a while since Seattle got the better of LAFC. LA won 2-1 in LA and 3-0 in Seattle already this season. But go further back and it’s results of 1-0, 1-0, 0-0, 2-1, 1-1 and 3-0 for LA in other matches.
So LA is 6-2-0 outscoring the Sounders 13-3 in the past 8. It’s also just 1 goal scored by Seattle in the past 5 meetings.
In the Round of 16 Seattle and Pumas got things started but only one team showed up with Seattle improving the head-to-head MLS vs LigaMX straight up record this tournament.
Seattle saw Paul Rothrock open the scoring in the 32’, Jordan Morris score in the 58’, Albert Rusnak score in the 71’ by PK and Morris add another late in the 95’ also by PK to give the Sounders a 4-0 win.
Seattle beat Minnesota 2-0 on MD1 but that was 0-0 until late and Minnesota took a red card. On MD2 they surprisingly lost 3-1 to Necaxa. Then equally surprising but in a positive light, they beat the Galaxy 3-1 and that game was 3-0 at the half with LA only scoring one late in the 83’.
Seattle now has just 4 losses in 23 games in all comps and just 2 losses in 13. The BTTS is just 3-6 in recent Sounders games. Seattle is getting wins even without Pedro de la Vega who is again injured.
It will be a massive clash with LAFC here who just rolled past San Jose 4-1 with goals from Cristian Olivera, 2 from Denis Bouanga and another from Mateusz Bogusz.
Bouanga is tied in 2nd for Leagues Cup scoring with 4 goals and tied in 3rd for assists with 3.
French star Oliver Giroud even got 20 minutes off the bench to make his LAFC debut to end the game.
LAFC is 16-2-2 in 20 overall matches and have scored multiple goals in 15/20.
LA always seems to get the better of Seattle, but the Sounders are in good form to and at home. I’d saw it’s a draw or BTTS.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Both Teams to Score (-150)
Club America vs Colorado Rapids Prediction
Kick-off at 10pm EST at Digity Health Sports Park. This is the first meeting between these teams.
Club America won the 2023 Apertura and 2024 Clausura and then won the Campeon de Campeones.
Though this season in the Apertura they are 9th in the early stages at 2-0-2, scoring 6 and conceding 5. And that slow start has sorta continued into Leagues Cup.
They entered the tournament in the Round of 32 and found themselves tied with Atlas 1-1 until a 73’ minute winner for a 2-1 win. They did hold Atlas to just 1 shot on target though.
They struggled to contain a suddenly resurgent, but still average St. Louis team in the Round of 16. St. Louis had 7 shots on target and 2 goals and led 2-1 until the 79’.
America piled on the pressure with the game winding down and scored in the 79’, to make it 2-2, then a PK goal in the 86’ to make it 3-2 and finally on the last play of the game on a counter-attack with Roman Burki out of the net pressing for the equalizer they scored a 4th, to make it 4-2.
They’re now 16-7-6 in their past 29.
Colorado lost 4-0 to Portland, then were down 1-0 to Club Leon but fought back to level in the 97’ minute from Rafael Navarro and went on to win in PKs.
In the Round of 32 they fell behind 1-0, led 2-1, 3-1 and eventually won 3-2 to Juarez. Both teams had goals from PKs. They did allow Juarez to pile up the chances with 21 shot attempts and 10 on target to go with 65% possession.
Toluca also piled up 22 shot attempts (6 on target) in the Round of 16 to go with 66% possession. The Rapids had only 4 shots and 2 on target.
But it was Colorado leading 1-0, again from Navarro, all the way until the 83’ with Paulinho levelling the score 1-1 with a cheeky goal, looking like we’d go to PKs, but Darren Yapi responded deep into stoppage time in the 96’ to give Colorado a 2-1 win.
The Rapids have allowed a goal in 11 straight and in 15/17, but they’ve also scored in 23/25 overall recent matches. The 2 times they didn’t were on the road. They’ll be at home here.
Additionally, 25/27 Rapids MLS games have seen 2+ goals, and so too have all 4 Leagues Cup games. 3 of 4 have seen 3+ and 5/6 overall matches have also seen 3+.
America should win here. But they’ve not looked perfect. They had all the crowd advantage playing in LA last game vs St. Louis and just barely got by. The Rapids will have the home advantage here, though surely America fans will travel.
Colorado has been conceding possession and scoring chances to worse teams than America. Do the same here and this may be the end of the line for them in Leagues Cup. Colorado’s defense suffers a blow as Canadian international CB Moise Bombito looks set to sign with Nice in France. He didn’t play the last 2 games and won’t play here either with the transfer about over the line.
Colorado are certainly capable of scoring though, so it’s a Club America win or both teams scoring for me.
- Leagues Cup Predictions: Club America to win (-134)
Those are my picks and leans for straight bets on all 4 games, but anything can happen when we get to this point and likely the games should be tight.
Alternatively, here is a small parlay simply asking Columbus, Philadelphia and Club America all to score at -150 odds.
If you want to improve upon that you could try Columbus to win plus Philly to score (+102) or also add America to score at (+139).
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.
