Toothless Charlotte to climb towards play-offs?
Charlotte FC take on Austin FC in a cross-conference MLS affair in the early hours of Friday morning.
The hosts are MLS newcomers are sat ninth in the Eastern Conference, hoping to bridge the three-point gap between themselves and the play-off places.
Austin on the other hand are sitting pretty in third in the West, with a seven point cushion inside the play-offs, a very commanding position to be in at this stage.
It will be interesting to see how their respective league positions affect the match, with the potential for a large amount of dead rubbers to take place towards the back end, with merely play-off seedings to play for.
Process
Austin have scored 31 goals from 24.8 expected goals (xG) for, at an average of 1.55 xGF per game on average.
The visitors have also overperformed considerably when looking at their defensive process, conceding just 20 from 16 games from 24.5 xGA, allowing 1.53 xGA per game on average.
The hosts have been very toothless going forward and will need to improve their chance creation if they are going to keep things interesting in their bid to reach the play-offs.
Charlotte have scored just 17 from as many games, with their defensive solidity keeping them in the mix for progression.
The hosts will need to come out of their shell considerably, because Austin are in such a strong position, with confidence levels high, that they will be comfortable taking the impetus and putting pressure on Charlotte on their home patch.
The visitors have been running hot and in that there is an opportunity for the hosts to justify the favourites tag, although there is no value in their outright price.
Goals?
Unders is the angle for me, Charlotte have been very poor in the final third and the visitors may well be content leaving with a point.
Charlotte have scored in nine of ten.
Charlotte have conceded in eight of ten.
Charlotte have seen both teams score in seven of ten.
Charlotte have seen over 2.5 goals in six of ten.
Austin have scored in nine of ten.
Austin have conceded in seven of ten.
Austin have seen both teams score in seven of ten.
Austin have seen over 2.5 goals in seven of ten.
Post bet chat Marcus's Tips:
1-0 Austin.