MLS Futures – Galaxy Lead Pack after Gerrard Transfer
The second half of the MLS season should see significant improvement for some teams as world-class players have been brought in from overseas to reinforce the likes of New York City FC (Andrea Pirlo, Frank Lampard, and David Villa) and the LA Galaxy (Steven Gerrard).
With the recent additions to the league and the latest results, the landscape of the league has changed and so to have the MLS Cup futures.
Check out the new odds below and compare and contrast to the last iteration.
Updated 2015 MLS Cup Futures:
Los Angeles Galaxy 4/1: Steven Gerrard was one of the best midfielders in the English Premier League for the past ten years, and he has found a new home in Los Angeles. Gerrard will not only join what already was a number one contender, but will team up with striker Robbie Keane, who was Gerrard’s teammate at Liverpool. This move should pay immediate dividends for the team, which moves from 5/1 to the new favorites at 4/1.
DC United 11/2: DC United has a five-point lead in the Eastern Conference standings over second-place Columbus, and the team added Costa Rican striker Alvaro Saborio during the transfer window. Saborio has been the leading scorer for Real Salt Lake from 2011 to 2015, but he’s still recovering from an injury that kept him out of the 2014 World Cup.
Seattle Sounders 15/2: The Sounders led the odds last time around, but they didn’t make any major moves in the transfer market, and have recently had a lot of problems on the offensive side of the ball; that said, the return of striker Clint Dempsey from the 2015 Gold Cup will help the team in the last part of the season, and they remain within three points of first in the tightly packed Western Conference.
New York Red Bulls 8/1: The Red Bulls aren’t overly worried NYCFC taking over the label of best soccer team in the Big Apple, even though their intercity rivals signed Lampard, Pirlo, and David Villa. The Red Bulls remain third in the Eastern Conference, one point back of Columbus with two games in hand.
Sporting Kansas City 10/1: With 33 points through just 18 games, Kansas City have the best points percentage in the west. They are also the only team in the entire MLS which has yet to lose a game at home. They don’t have the imposing rosters of some of the teams above them in the odds, though, and many think they’re playing a little over their heads at the moment.
Vancouver Whitecaps 12/1: With 33 points through 21 games, the surprising Whitecaps remain in the mix for top seed in the west. The underlying numbers aren’t too impressive, however. The team has scored just goals and only has a +3 differential. They’ll need to improve that to be considered real contenders.
The Field:
- FC Dallas 12/1
- Toronto FC 12/1
- New England Revolution 16/1
- Columbus Crew 16/1
- Portland Timbers 20/1
- Orlando City 20/1
- New York City 33/1
- Real Salt Lake 40/1
- San Jose Earthquakes 40/1
- Philadelphia Union 50/1
- Houston Dynamo 100/1
- Montreal Impact 100/1
- Colorado Rapids 100/1
- Chicago Fire 250/1
(Photo credit: Football.ua [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons.)
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
