Next up is Chicago Fire and their visit to the west coast to take on Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the LA Galaxy. It’s hard to see Chicago getting much out of this one but stranger things have happened.
Last season saw LA Galaxy narrowly miss out on a place in the MLS post season by a matter of a single point. The club finished seventh in the West and will 100% be looking to improve on that in the coming year. Meanwhile, Chicago Fire had another disappointing season that saw the Illinois club finish second bottom of the Eastern conference.
LA Galaxy vs Chicago Fire
The two sides met just the once last season with Galaxy picking up a 1-0 win. Chicago haven’t had the best of luck when playing against Galaxy in recent times – they haven’t picked up a win in any of their last 10 clashes. In fact, the last time Fire beat Galaxy was way back in August 2010 when they picked up a 3-2 victory courtesy of three first half goals.
Pre-season was pretty short for both sides as they registered just four preparation games each. Galaxy had a winless pre-season period, picking up draws against Toronto, Atlanta and Vancouver. The other game saw a loss to Colorado Rapids. Chicago’s pre-season was a little better as they picked up wins against Fuenlabrada and Charleston Battery as well as draws with Columbus Crew and Cincinnati.
Galaxy have a few injuries going into the opening weekend of the season as Sebastian Lletget, Perry Kitchen, Juninho and Giovani Dos Santos are all sidelined. Meanwhile, Chicago are relatively injury free with only Andre Reynolds II doubtful for the game due to a thigh injury.
Prediction: I think LA will have more than enough to get through this one relatively unscathed. I’m going for 2-0 to the hosts.
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