Montreal Impact travel to the Houston Dynamo this Sunday as the MLS season reaches its congested period of regular midweek and weekend fixtures.
All signs would have pointed to this encounter being a certain goal-fest a month or so ago, but since then Houston’s coach, Dominic Wallace, changed his formation to 4-3-3 from 4-4-2, deliberately overloading the centre of midfield and resulting in successive 0-0 draws against Chicago Fire and Sporting Kansas City.
The next match however, saw the Dynamo put four past the highly rated DC United in a comfortable 4-0 win, with Mac Kandji and Boniek Garcia seemingly now adjusting to their new wide attacking roles.
Wallace’s system change came about because Houston had conceded seven goals in two games, but this is nothing in comparison to the second ugliest defence in the league – the newly promoted Montreal Impact, representing Canada, along with Toronto and Vancouver Whitecaps.
The Impact have been letting in 1.81 goals per game on average, and have a really nasty habit of throwing away matches by capitulating in the final minutes of games. Some are observing that they may indeed be the worst at this in MLS history. They’ll kick off at the Compass Stadium on Sunday evening, having conceded an average of 2.1 goals away from home this term, while also being on a run of six matches that have all ended in over 2.5 goals being scored.
When the sides met in Quebec in June, they played out a thrilling 4-2 in front of a delighted Saputo Stadium, with an early goal from Sanna Nyassi setting Montreal on their way to a priceless victory. An early strike from the Impact on Sunday would be very helpful in obtaining the over 2.5 goal result, and they have showed signs of attacking prowess recently, beating New England Revolution 2-1 on Thursday night.
Their defence may be shaky but they’re not bad going forward; scoring 30 goals in this MLS campaign and netting 8 times in their previous 7 away matches.
Allez, Montreal!
This weeks free under/over 2.5 football betting tip is below:
USA » Major League Soccer
Houston v Montreal, Sunday, 22 Jul 2012, 01:30
50 points over 2.5 goals, best odds 1.80 @ Ladbrokes
or bet £10 risk free at Skybet
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