Real Salt Lake vs Seattle Sounders Predictions

• Both teams did not score in two of the three meetings between the clubs in 2021.
• Both Real Salt Lake and Seattle Sounders failed to score in their opening MLS season matches.
• Real Salt Lake’s Rubio Rubin and Seattle Sounders’ Raúl Ruidíaz are both missing through injury.

Absent goalscorers could lead to stale affair

Saturday’s early-season MLS clash between Real Salt Lake and Seattle Sounders could be a stale affair unless someone steps up to fill the boots of two missing strikers.

Real Salt Lake star Rubio Rubin enjoyed a breakthrough campaign in 2021, scoring eight and assisting five goals for RSL, but will be absent from their home opener. Likewise, Seattle’s prolific Raul Ruidiaz – author of 17 goals last season.

Neither team were able to get on the scoresheet in their respective opening games with Seattle recording just two shots on target and an xG of 0.5 in their 1-0 home defeat to Nashville. RSL earned a point at Houston Dynamo, who finished bottom of the Western Conference last year, with both teams finishing with xG figures of just 0.4 after a goalless draw.

Seattle’s record in Utah is anything but sound

Seattle will hope the offseason addition of ex-RSL star Albert Rusnak can get them over the line in this one and they are priced up as marginal favourites. But the Sounders have an awful record at Rio Tinto Stadium, where they have lost nine and drawn one since their last victory in 2012.

That sequence, and the fact that the man who scored over a third of their goals last season is out, has us leaning towards RSL this weekend, but they haven’t looked fully up to speed yet themselves. The safer play on this game seems to be backing both teams not to score as it would have landed in the two most recent meetings. Another 0-0 draw could be on the cards for Claret and Cobalt, which was the score when these two sides met in the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs last November.

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