The first leg of the accumulator takes us to Ohio where the Columbus Crew look to extend their seven-match unbeaten run when they host the former MLS Cup champions New York City FC.

To be fair to NYCFC, they too are on a run of seven matches unbeaten but unlike the Crew, who have won five of their last seven, the boys from the Bronx have only come out on top in one match in that time.

That is bad enough for the New Yorkers but then this assignment gets harder when you consider that they were in action in a 1-1 draw with Charlotte on Wednesday night and now have to go again less than 72 hours later, which isn’t easy in the hot and humid climate of USA at present.

The Crew have no such issues and are loving playing at home under Wilfried Nancy this term. They are 8-2-1 on their own patch with a league high 29 goals for on home soil in that time.

NYC finally got an away win on the board in Montreal in their last away game but this is a notch up on that and with a short turnaround I expect them to struggle. Columbus for me here.

We are over to the Western Conference for the next couple of bets beginning in Houston where the Houston Dynamo play host to Sporting Kansas City in a clash between two established MLS sides.

SKC head to Texas off the back of a fine win over Vancouver last week, a result which ended a run of three without a win. Houston have lost their last two but both were on their travels and I’ve made reference recently to the fact that the Dynamo are a much better team on home soil than away from home.

22 of their 27 points have come on home soil this season with one defeat in nine and seven wins in that time. Just eight of the 24 points Sporting KC have picked up have been on the road and that equates to just one win in 11, away to Seattle who started struggling around the time of that result.

Houston are clearly very confident and solid at home and I think they can have too much for a Kansas City side who struggle on their travels.

Sticking in the Western Conference, leg three of the giant accumulator comes from Allianz Field where Minnesota United look to build on their emphatic win over Portland last week when they host Austin FC.

There were plenty of positives for Minnesota in that victory a week ago. They picked up a much-needed three points, scored four goals in the process and now they have their star summer signing Teemu Pukki available for action.

He is likely to add a different dimension to the Loons as he can stretch the play and give Emmanuel Reynoso more space to work his magic. We should expect a serious elevation in the Minnesota form in the coming weeks.

To be fair, Austin aren’t in bad form but a team who have had central defensive issues all season coming up against a Pukki with a point to prove feels like a recipe for disaster. Home win for me.

This is the match Real Salt Lake fans have been waiting for as they host Orlando City with new striker and star signing Chicho Arango finally available for the first time, which should provide the home side with a real boost.

You could argue that Real Salt Lake don’t need it having gone 5-3-1 for their last nine matches but this is a team who create top notch chances by the bucket load, and an Arango who has already shone in MLS with Los Angeles FC, looks the ideal number nine to convert a much higher percentage of them than they have been doing.

To be fair to Orlando, they are in great form themselves but Real Salt Lake is never an easy place to go at the best of times let alone when you are going there after a midweek assignment played in serious heat and humidity.

Both these sides are in great touch at the minute but the Arango boost and home advantage at Rio Tinto gives RSL enough of an edge for me.

One of the matches which will command plenty of attention on Sunday morning will be the one at BMO Field where Toronto FC embark on the latest attempt to turn a wretched campaign around when they host St Louis City SC.

The stresses and struggles of Toronto FC has been one of the stories of the season so far and their three wins from 22 matches leaves just Inter Miami below them in the Eastern Conference.

The other story of the campaign has been the success of the expansion team St Louis City SC and they head to Canada on top of the Western Conference and beginning to ooze confidence again.

Toronto were thumped in Orlando in midweek when Federico Bernardeschi was given his marching orders so they will be without a key man here.

After a rocky period, St Louis looked to have navigated the ship to steadier waters and I think they take advantage of the problems that Toronto FC are having, although away wins are hard to come by so rather than go in fully confident on the road success, I’ll take the draw out of play.

The last leg of the accumulator comes from California where the champions Los Angeles FC are on show against the San Jose Earthquakes in a sleeper pick for the match of the weekend with these two in the top six in the table.

It has been a rough week or two for Los Angeles FC with them losing their last three matches, including the midweek ‘El Trafico’ loss to LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl which would have hurt.

San Jose have hit a bit of a rough spell too without a win in three matches but they are still scoring goals, but just find it tougher to keep them out and that is unlikely to change against this powerful LAFC attack.

I expect to see goals in this match. Both teams have had more overs than unders this season and 12 of their 14 MLS meetings have had over 2.5 goals in it, including both meetings this year. That is definitely a trend I see continuing given the potential for goals at either end here.