Inter Miami play their first match as the new home of Lionel Messi away to the New England Revolution on Sunday morning with all eyes on them now the maestro is on his way. The problem for Miami is twofold – firstly Messi doesn’t arrive until next month and secondly, Miami begin the round bottom of the Eastern Conference.

That is not the case for the New England Revolution who are fourth in the East despite not winning in their last five matches. The injury to Dylan Borrero has been attributed as an issue for the slump in form but it is more the one to Henry Kessler, a key centre-back with the Revs leaking 11 times in those five games. Miami are not just bottom of the table, on a run of five straight defeats in MLS but they were also involved in the US Open Cup in midweek and might well be jaded here as a result. New England have the ideal chance to get back to winning ways in front of their own fans after five out of six matches on the road.

While all the attention has been in the Miami part of Florida this week, Orlando City are quietly going under the radar and head into a home match against Colorado Rapids on a five-game unbeaten run.

Oscar Pareja is slowly getting a decent tune out of his side with the likes of Facundo Torres starting to pull the strings and Martin Ojeda looking like the signing Orlando thought they had made at the beginning of the season. Colorado are a bit of a mess at the minute. They have one win in their last 10 in MLS and just two wins all season and there aren’t really any signs of things turning around.

Western sides travelling to Eastern teams is the hardest matchup in MLS and it is no surprise that Colorado have lost two of the three such outings they have been involved in and needed an injury-time equaliser in the other. Orlando have won all three MLS meetings with Colorado at Exploria Stadium. I don’t expect that to change here.

Two Western Conference sides go at it in the early hours of Sunday morning when Sporting Kansas City play host to Austin FC as two teams who sit much lower in the table than they would want to be battle it out.

Sporting Kansas City are at least on the up. They have only lost one of their last seven after a horrendous start to the season and in four of their last five matches, both teams have found the back of the net. Austin FC are slowly turning the corner with three wins from their last five and with Owen Wolff back from international duty and Sebastian Driussi back and now up to speed we should expect them to continue to improve.

Like SKC, Austin are on a run of four out of five matches where both teams have scored. Four of the five matches between the two have seen both teams find the net and that trend is expected to continue here.

Two Western Conference rivals meet later in the day on Sunday when St Louis City SC host LA Galaxy in front of what is likely to be an expectant CityPark crowd after three very convincing home wins recently. This is a clash between the leaders and the bottom side in the West which will further have the home crowd expecting three points.

Those expectations are justified too. While it wasn’t ideal that they had to finish a previous fixture with FC Dallas in midweek, St Louis did only have to play 40 minutes whereas LA Galaxy didn’t just play 90 minutes in the US Open Cup but they lost and played at altitude away to Real Salt Lake. Worst still for the Galaxy, they lost Javier Hernandez for the remainder of the season with an ACL injury.

That match was on Wednesday night so while Dejan Joveljic is an able replacement, Galaxy won’t have had much time to work on the training ground without their talisman. St Louis are 6-0-2 at home this season with 22 goals scored and six conceded and they look like a terrible matchup for a potentially heavy-legged Galaxy side.

Two of the Eastern Conference rivals to Inter Miami meet at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium when Atlanta United take on DC United in a match between two teams who have had good first halves of the campaign.

Results have dried up in terms of wins for Atlanta recently but with the exception of midweek in Los Angeles, goals haven’t and they rarely do when MBS opens its doors to the Five Stripes. There have been eight matches at this ground this season and six of them have had over 2.5 goals with another finishing 1-1.

DC head to Georgia off the back of a run of four straight over 2.5 goal games and four of their last five away games have hit the over. Giorgos Giakoumakis, Thiago Almada, and Christian Benteke equal goals.

The final match to kick off in the early hours of Sunday morning sees two sides who enjoyed cup victories in midweek battling it out when Vancouver Whitecaps welcome the Supporters’ Shield leaders FC Cincinnati to BC Field.

Vancouver won the Canadian Championship in midweek and if the quote from their coach afterward is to be believed they might not be having the best preparation for this match. He joked “Let’s go win the MLS. We’ll probably start after Cincinnati because we might be a little drunk (from celebrating), so that’s okay.”

Cincinnati won in the US Open Cup quarter-final in midweek in a match where they got a number of starters off during the second period so they should be much more focused for this game. Cincinnati have only lost once all season which was to a rampant St Louis City side and with Vancouver rightly celebrating their success this feels like a match Cincinnati won’t lose.