We will kick off the week with the best team to watch in MLS in Columbus Crew in their home match against a New York Red Bulls, who shocked plenty with their 4-0 win over Atlanta United last weekend.

There is nothing to suggest that the emphatic victory wasn’t just one of those freak results which MLS can often throw up now and again though and I’m certainly not convinced the Red Bulls repeat the trick in Ohio.

New York have won just one road game all season and that was at the home of the worst side in the MLS, Inter Miami. Miami even missed a penalty in a 1-0 Red Bulls win, so the New York side’s road form doesn’t exactly inspire.

Columbus Crew have won their last four at home and just shutout the leading scorer in the league in Hany Mukhtar, despite having a crazy plan of playing full-backs all the way throughout the back line.

At the other end of the pitch the quartet of Lucas Zelarayan, Cucho Hernandez, Cristian Ramirez and Alex Matan are causing havoc everywhere they go and I expect the Crew to notch up another win at a home ground they are very comfortable in.

Staying in the Eastern Conference, two teams who have made promising moves this term meet at GEODIS Park. Nashville SC play host to DC United in a really appealing match with many subplots.

The biggest one of them will probably be the MVP candidate Hany Mukhtar going up against the man who is going to coach him in the MLS All-Stars game later in the month in Wayne Rooney.

Nashville have had a couple of disappointing defeats on the road so they will be looking to get back on track at home where they have won their five matches and where they have only been beaten by FC Cincinnati, who look comfortably the best team in the league.

They didn’t look like that against DC last week though and the men from the capital should be full of confidence after a 3-0 win over the league leaders, so I expect a particularly entertaining match here where both teams can trouble the opposition goal.

Nashville have kept one clean sheet in their last 13 outings while DC United have failed to score just once in their last 13. This match pits Mukhtar up against Christian Benteke, two of the top 10 scorers in the league against each other and both teams to score looks a very good punt to me.

We head over to the Western Conference for the next leg of the accumulator where Sporting Kansas City play host to a Vancouver Whitecaps side whose coach Vanni Santini declared “have the potential to be the best in the league” after their win over Los Angeles FC last week.

To be fair, Santini soundbites are becoming quite a thing at the minute but in terms of expected goals he might have a point because no team in MLS have a higher rating in that statistic than this Whitecaps side.

Unfortunately for Santini, xG and results are not matching up and his team are only just in the playoffs as we speak. Nevertheless, if they can’t draw confidence from winning in LA they won’t ever get it, especially with them doing it without Julian Gressel too.

Sporting Kansas City have come back down to earth with a three-match winless streak but that won’t go on forever and with Alan Pulido up top SKC have one of the deadliest marksmen in the league at their disposal.

This is another match where I expect both teams to score. I’ve just highlighted the chance creation of the Whitecaps and they take on an SKC side who have conceded in their last nine matches.

Vancouver have scored in each of their last nine matches but only have one clean sheet in that time. Both teams to score here, just like they did in the reverse fixture in early June, looks good to me.

We remain in the Western Conference for the final pick of the four-fold on Sunday, where one of the better teams in the division, St Louis City SC, host the team who are bottom of the pile in the Colorado Rapids.

This has been a tough season for the Rapids. To be fair to them injuries have really not helped so the last thing they needed was Bryan Acosta to depart for the Gold Cup. They head to Missouri without a win in their last eight games, losing six of them and failing to score in five of those matches.

That is not good when they are heading to an energetic St Louis City side who will be boosted by a good win in San Jose last week, where they were the first team to beat the Earthquakes on their own turf this season.

They did that without Nicholas Gioacchini who got a much needed rest for most of that game as the relatively young Samuel Adeniran made a name for himself with a brace.

That was important for St Louis as it gives them another scoring option to Gioacchini while the two DP players Eduard Lowen and Joao Klauss remain out injured.

We knew St Louis were solid at the back but the All-Stars calls for Roman Burki and Tim Parker just confirmed that. I expect St Louis to be too good for a misfiring and weakened Colorado side.

We move north of the border for the second bet in the early hours of Sunday morning as CF Montreal host New York City FC in another clash between two Eastern Conference teams.

Montreal absolutely love playing at Stade Saputo at present. They have won their last six matches there without conceding a goal in any of them and now a New York City FC side without a win in 11 in MLS are the latest to visit this part of Canada.

New York are in a really bad run despite drawing their last five matches, and the absence of James Sands, the shield in front of the back four, who is away at the Gold Cup isn’t going to help them break that winless streak.

Montreal have lost just one of their last six overall, a loss in Philadelphia which is pretty much par for the course in MLS at the minute.

At home they look a cut above though and with them able to rest the likes of Victor Wanyama and Mason Toye for much of the draw in Charlotte last week they should have two key players ready to fire here.

I see no reason why Montreal’s good run can’t continue here, but with NYCFC suddenly the draw specialists the prudent play here might be to back the home side without the draw in play.

It might be that we have to wait until later in the day on Sunday for the pick of the matches in terms of entertainment this weekend but when it arrives Atlanta United and Philadelphia Union are sure to serve up some great action.

Atlanta United home matches are always wacky and crazy affairs. Their 10 home games to date have yielded 37 goals at an average of 3.7 per match and the Union should be perfect dance partners for a couple of reasons here.

The first is they are still without their elite goalkeeper Andre Blake who is serving Jamaica well at the Gold Cup. The second is that the All-Stars snubs handed out to the likes of Daniel Gazdag, joint leading assist-maker in the league, and Julian Carranza, one of the better strikers in the competition, give them a real point to prove.

Atlanta United have Thiago Almada and Giorgos Giakoumakis in that All-Stars squad and with a good support cast around them they can ensure the home side are a threat here but Miles Robinson leaves a hole in their defence for Philly to exploit. Union road games average three per match so goals should flow in this one.