Vancouver Whitecaps vs Kansas

Vancouver Whitecaps host Kansas at BC Place Monday Morning Beijing time. Major Soccer League (MLS) matches are often fun to watch as most teams play pretty aggressive offensive football. The goal expectancy in this match too is relatively high. This is an interesting clash betting-wise too. Let's take a closer look..

There is a pretty big difference between the two teams in raw class which is illustrated in the league table too - Western Conference to be precise. Indeed, Kansas are currently in second place and are playing an impressive season. I rated them as the 4th best team in the Western conference but have - along with most analysts, the betting market and perhaps the players themselves - been positively surprised by their level of football. I currently rate them as the second best team in the conference and are in my opinion only slightly weaker then the leaders, Seattle Sounders. I feel they are not getting full credit for their performances and are, as a result, under-valued by the betting market. Indeed, they have an impressive squad and a great manager, Peter Vermes. I would say they play even better than the player list would indicate! Especially their offense has been deadly and have scored a whopping 51 goals - the most in the conference. In their most recent match they swept past a decent team Houston Dynamo winning 4-2. Houston are only slightly worse than today's opponents! They were clearly the better team and 58% ball possession and created clearly more than Houston in expected goals. Before this they comfortably beat FC Dallas 3-1 away from home despite, rather strangely, being set as clear underdogs by the betting market. A very good performance indeed! Let's also remember that Kansas have lost just two of their latest ten matches.

The hosts are having a disappointing season and are currently in 9th place but they are in fact in the 10th place in my power ratings that illustrate a team's raw class. They were totally dominated in their most recent match versus Seattle Sounders losing 1-4 away from home. They had 52% ball possession but this is pretty irrelevant as the Sounders had real control of the match and created much more scoring attempts and shots on goal. Before this they beat San Jose Earthquakes 3-0 at home but the final score does not illustrate the events on the pitch. The visitors even had 60% ball possession and the Whitecaps were only slightly better as a whole.. This clear win might be one of the reasons why they are over-valued today.. The hosts' Cristian Gutierrez and Caio Alexandre are injured at the moment and have been ruled out of this clash. Jake Nerwinski, however, has recovered from his knock and will be available today. The Whitecaps and Kansas met in May and Kansas totally dominated the match with close to 70% ball possession. They also created almost thirty scoring chances whereas the Whitecaps had nine. I suspect not that much has changed since that and see Kansas having over 70% not to lose this one. It is also worth considering that Kansas have also won four of the five latest matches between the two teams!

To sum up, Kansas +0.5 goals handicap is a solid selection here for my growing fan-base!

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

北京时间周一上午，温哥华白浪队在BC广场主场迎战堪萨斯队。美国职业足球大联盟(MLS)的比赛通常都很有趣，因为大多数球队踢的都是攻击性很强的足球。这场比赛的进球期望也相对较高。这也是一场有趣的赌博冲突。让我们仔细看看…

这两支球队在水平上有很大的差异，这一点在积分榜上也有体现——确切地说，是在西部。的确，堪萨斯目前排名第二，并且打了一个令人印象深刻的赛季。我把他们评为西部排名第四的球队，但和大多数分析师、博彩市场以及球员们一样，他们对自己的足球水平感到惊讶。我现在把他们评为联盟第二强的球队，在我看来，他们只比领头羊西雅图海湾队稍弱一点。我觉得他们的表现并没有得到充分的评价，因此被博彩市场低估了。事实上，他们有一支令人印象深刻的球队和一个伟大的教练，彼得·维尔梅斯。我想说的是，他们的表现甚至比球员名单上显示的还要好!特别是他们的进攻是致命的，打进了惊人的51球——在联盟中是最多的。在最近的一场比赛中，他们以4比2横扫了实力不错的休斯顿迪纳摩队。休斯顿只比今天的对手差一点点!他们显然是一支更好的球队，控球率为58%，创造的预期进球明显多于火箭。在此之前，他们在客场以3-1轻松击败了达拉斯FC，尽管相当奇怪的是，他们在博彩市场上明显处于劣势。一场非常好的表演!让我们也记住堪萨斯在最近的十场比赛中只输了两场。

东道主的赛季令人失望，目前排在第九位，但事实上在我的力量排名中，他们排在第十位，这说明了一支球队的水平。在最近一场客场1-4负于西雅图Sounders的比赛中，他们完全处于统治地位。他们有52%的控球率，但这与之无关，因为Sounders真正控制了比赛，创造了更多的射门和得分机会。在此之前，他们在主场以3-0击败了圣何塞地震队，但最后的比分并不能说明球场上的情况。客队的控球率甚至达到了60%，而白浪队整体上也只是稍微好一点。这场明显的胜利可能是他们今天被高估的原因之一。主队的克里斯蒂安·古铁雷斯和卡约·亚历山大目前受伤，已经被排除在这场冲突之外。然而，杰克·内文斯基已经从伤病中恢复过来，今天就可以上场了。白浪队和堪萨斯队在5月相遇，堪萨斯队以接近70%的控球率完全控制了比赛。他们也创造了近30个得分机会，而白浪队只有9个。我怀疑从那以后没有太大的变化，看到堪萨斯有超过70%的人不会输掉这场比赛。同样值得考虑的是，堪萨斯也赢得了两队最近的五场比赛中的四场!