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National TV games:
RSL at FC Dallas
NBC Sports Network, 6:00 PM Friday
DC United at Sporting KC
MLS Free Steam of the Week, 5:30 PM Saturday
QPR at Tottenham
CNBC, 5:30 AM Sunday
Seattle Sounders at Portland Timbers
ESPN2, 2:00 PM Sunday
San Jose Earthquakes at Philadelphia Union
Univision Deportes, 5:00 PM Sunday
Three Big Storylines:
- Big matchups across the league with playoff seeding implications all weekend. RSL travelling to Dallas on Friday night might be the best non-Cascadia matchup of the weekend. Dallas's Fabian Castillo is getting a lot of buzz as an MVP candidate and heir apparent to Landon Donovan (whatever that means). Castillo has a goal or assist in ten straight matches, can he continue against RSL?
- Mauro Rosales is now on the Vancouver Whitecaps who play the Galaxy on Saturday night. Did Mauro fly up to Vancouver only to fly back down to LA or just chill out in Southern California and wait for the Whitecaps to come to him? Regardless it will be interesting to see how the Caps intend to use Rosales and Vancouver could do a lot for their playoff resume if they somehow earn three points against a Galaxy team that has given up seven goals in their last two matches.
- While the Western Conference is wide open, the Eastern Conference is going to be won by either Sporting KC or DC United. The voters picked an important match for the free stream of the week. Sporting could take a five point lead with a win but DC has that elusive game in hand.
From a Sounders perspective we are probably looking for a lot of draws this weekend. RSL at Dallas, anything but an RSL win would be nice. DC United at Sporting the same thing, a DC United win or draw would be better than a Sporting win. A Vancouver win in LA would keep points between the Sounders and the Galaxy plus having the added advantage of making it harder for the Timbers to get above the red line. But a draw there would be fine as well.
Great matchups across the league all weekend; enjoy your Week 24 Gamethread.