Free MLS Playoffs Pick Seattle Sounders vs. Real Salt Lake
Looking for Seattle Sounders vs. Real Salt Lake free picks? MLS betting sees Seattle taking on RSL on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, at Lumen FIeld in Seattle, WA. Cappers Picks provides complimentary expert handicapping picks on all MLS soccer matchups all season long so stay tuned for more FREE MLS Playoff predictions.
MLS Playoffs Handicapping
Seattle Sounders vs. Real Salt Lake
Date: Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Time: 7:30 PM PT
Venue: Lumen Field
MLS Moneyline 3-Way 1×2 Odds: Home -140 / Draw +300 / Away +350 (Bet Now!)
MLS Spread Betting Odds: Seattle -0.5 -140 / Salt Lake +0.5 +120
MLS Betting Total: O/U 2.5
The Seattle Sounders amazingly held on to the #2 seed in the Western Conference final standings despite not having won any of their final 6 regular-season games. By the same token, with only 3 points from the final 6 outings, this team fell 1 point short of the top-seeded Colorado Rapids who now have home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs.
The Sounders could just have easily been the team with the bye had they even taken one win from those last 6 matches and that has to have the fans and head coach Brian Schmetzer. IF anyone knows about the history of football in the upper northwest it is certainly him. Schmetzer is a Seattle native and was a player here on top of being their manager for a few years now.
It has been a while now since we remember Sigi Schmid walking away from this team and Schemtzer has taken the reigns and held on to them since July of 2016, officially. All he has done so far is help lead this team to two MLS titles since taking over, so I would say his job security looks pretty good for a while.
RSL has an MLS title from the 2009 season but it has been a while since this team has gone deep into the MLS Cup Playoffs. Since 2014, this team has either missed out on the post-season or has been knocked out of the opening round of the playoffs.
The winner of this affair will move on to face Sporting KC in the Western Conference semifinals on November 28. Children’s Mercy Park will play host to the contest.
Seattle Sounders
The recent success of this team is certainly aided by the managing of Brian Schmetzer and it is hard to argue that since he has led them to their only MLS Cup wins in franchise history. It is still quite a surprise how this team ended the regular season letting so many chances to clinch the #1 seed in the west go by time and again.
I think we all know that in any sport you want to be playing well as the playoffs arrive and that is simply not the case for this team right now. Seattle was outscored 10 – 5 in their final 6 games right after winning 4 straight outings that had them atop the Western Conference standings at the time.
One of the major issues for Seattle down the stretch was the absence of their leading scorer, Raul Ruidiaz. Ruidiaza tallied 17 goals but he only played 59 minutes of the final 8 games of the season. He is expected back for this outing and it is obvious that his participation will be a big part of this team’s success… or failure
Seattle has played host to Real Salt Lake 20 times since the 2009 season. RSL was only found 3 wins from those 20 affairs here although this season wasn’t full of home success. Seattle was a mere 8 – 5 – 4 at home in 2021 which was 8th best in the Western Conference.
Real Salt Lake
If there is any kind of Achilles Heel for this team is was when they left Rio Tinto Stadium. RSL has the worst road record of any playoff squad having lost 10 of their 17 away matches in 2021. RSL went on a stretch where they only found 2 wins from 14 road games until the final two games of the regular season that resulted in a pair of wins.
This team has been a constant quick exit to the MLS Playoffs since 2014 and a road game might just lead to a similar result to start the 2021 version of the show.
In another strange twist, Freddy Juarez is now an assistant for Seattle after being released from his managerial duties from RSL this past August. Juarez accumulated an 18 – 14 – 23 record with RSL and now he is on the other sideline for this affair.
Pablo Mastroeni took over the team on August 27 and from 14 games as an interim coach, he was won 7 and lost 7 games entering the post-season.
Croatian midfielder Damir Kreilach leads this team in scoring with 16 goals and 9 dimes and he basically put the team on his back down the stretch of the regular season. Kreilach found either an assist or a goal in 9 of the last 12 games and he didn’t come off the pitch at any point during that run as well.
Slovakian striker Alberty Rusnak added 11 goals and 11 assists to his ledger and RSL had a pair of players with 8 goals apiece. Rubio Rubin & Anderson Julio Santos were those players and then the drop-off in scoring really shows a dip in production as only 2 goals were found by the closest player on the roster.
Free Seattle Sounders vs. Real Salt Lake MLS Final Analysis:
With Ruidiaz expected back he should have a big influence on this game despite having missed a lot of time of late. It might take him some time to develop his game with so much time away, however, so that can go either way really.
I still can’t seem to shake how bad RSL is away from home and I saw so many bad performances this season from the backline. I see this as a 2 – 1 game. I hate juice but I like cashing tickets by the same token. So, with the $30 to lay on the $100 we go with the Over 2.5. It might just be 2 – 2, in fact, so we might see yet some more extra time in this year’s MLS Cup Playoffs.
The Over 3 is +125, so you might want to move it up being that we would need the 3 goals to cash the 2.5 anyway. It is just a matter of how you want to approach it but I will be the guy expecting, at least, 3 goals. I would rather push the 3 with plus money on the board but that’s just me!
4* Free MLS Playoffs Betting Pick: Over 3 Goals @ +125
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