Los Angeles Galaxy vs Portland Timbers Prediction & Betting Tips (21 July)

The LA Galaxy is one of the big teams in the West where it is having fun playing the leading roles in this regular season. Indeed, it is in 3rd position in the standings, tied on points with first and 2nd, but with 2 games ahead of the leader who is its neighbor Los Angeles FC. On the other hand, the Angelinos have experienced some failures recently and they even have 2 defeats over the last 3 days. They were indeed beaten in the derby against Hugo Lloris' LAFC 1-2 before recovering against Minnesota United 2-1. Finally, they failed to hold off Dallas 2-0.

Riqui Puig's teammates will try to get the Colorado Rapids moving forward this week. Left behind at the start of the season, Portland is in the process of catching up on the lead in the Western Conference. In full swing, the Timbers have only lost one of their last 10 MLS matches and they even remain on a very good series of 5 victories in the last 6 meetings. Only beaten by FC Dallas 3-2, Philip Neville's players bounced back perfectly by crushing Nashville 4-1 and Real Salt Lake 3-0 to move up to 5th place in the standings in the West.

On the Galaxy side, several important elements are absent. These are midfielder Brugman, starting defender Aude and important striker Joveljic (12 goals in MLS). On the other hand, the veteran Japanese defender Yoshida and the very experienced Martin Caceres (ex Juve) are very operational in the same way as the former Barcelona nugget Riqui Puig who is having a blast across the Atlantic with 6 goals and 5 assists.

We will also have to pay attention to the performances of Brazilian striker Gabriel Pec (9 goals, 7 assists) and Ghanaian Paintsil (6 goals, 4 assists).