Chicago Fire vs Philadelphia Union

Chicago Fire welcome Philadelphia Union for this MLS battle Sunday at Soldier Field morning Beijing time. Chicago Fire have played six matches and the visitors have seveb matches under their belt in MLS so far this season. This league has improved a lot during the 10-13 years and has both young talented players, mainly from South American countries. Teams from both the USA and Canada play in this league. Us football bettors and fans can expect a good-level and entertaining match here! The MLS is more high-scoring on average than most European leagues. Typically for US sports entertaining the fans at the stadium as well spectators at home is considered important. It's not only about winning but also the entertainment industry. In the Play Offs, when stakes are higher, most teams start playing more defensive football. Last season the visitors were clearly better than Chicago Fire but in my sophisticated, in-depth preseason analysis expected them to be much worse this season. Furthermore, ahead of the season I was pretty convinced that the hosts would improve this season – in all areas of the game. This has indeed been the case! I have raised the hosts power rating – and lowered the visitors power rating further from the preseason analysis. The biggest, often relatively smart bookmakers do not seem to fully agree with me.. These bookies see the hosts only as narrow favorites – offering them odds of around 2.65 to take all three points. Almost all teams in the MLS have a big home advantage and in this case Chicago Fire have an even slightly bigger home advantage than on average. Indeed, Philadelphia have lost all three away games this season. The hosts have not suffered a defeat at Soldier Field! 

The hosts have an excellent chance of extending the undefeated-streak in front of their fans here as they have a 43% chance to win. In their most recent match they beat Minnesota United 2-1 at home and deserved to win. They had 52% ball possession and recorded more goal attempts, total passes, completed passes and attacks. In terms of expected goals (xG) they created 0.87 – the visitors' number was 0.39. Before this they played a balanced they played a goalless draw at home against DC United but would have deserved a narrow win after 58% ball possession and recording more goal attempts - 11-9 as well as xG 1.28-0.78. The visitors did, however, record one more shot on goal – 3-2. I was not quite happy with Chicago's offense here but the visitors did defend very well and the hosts can surely improve in this area of the game. They are now in the 6th place in the Eastern Conference with a respectable nine points to their account. They have netted the ball nine times and allowed eight goals so far. Philadelphia Union, on the other hand, have just seven points in the pocket and have a negative score difference. They have been lame lately – failing to win any of their most recent four matches in the MLS. They did, however, beat Atlas, a Mexican team, at home on the 4th of April Philadelphia time 1-0 as solid favorites. In their most recent MLS game they were bad and lost to Cincinnati 0-1 away from home. The hosts had 64% ball possessession and created 1.97 in xG – Philadelphia's number was just 0.68.