Week 3 MLS Picks
Just like everyone’s favorite team, we slipped up last weekend. Back on the horse for Week 3 of MLS action.
Before we get to the picks as normal, another reminder that we’ve got an addition to this weekly article in 2025. If you’ve been following along with the podcast during the offseason, you’ll know we’ve partnered with Underdog Fantasy. If you want to play along with us at Underdog, you can sign up today using this link and when you use promo code "NORTHEND" at sign up you'll get up to $1000 in bonus cash plus a free pick!
The official league injury report for Saturday’s games came out Friday afternoon, let’s dive into the Week 3 picks.
Underdog Fantasy Entry of the week
Each match week, we’ll have an Underdog Fantasy entry for you to tail if your heart desires. We came up one Sam Surridge shot attempt short of another successful entry in Week 2, let’s get back on track this weekend.
Kelvin Yeboah has been off to a smashing start in his first half-season and change with Minnesota United. Tonight the Loons are out on the West Coast to take on the new look Quakes. We’re going to take Yeboah to score against the team that gave up a staggering number of goals last season (78 conceded in 34 games). He has 14 shots through 180 minutes this season, with four of those attempts being on target. That has turned into just a single goal for Yeboah, but he’s peppering opposing keepers to begin the year, picking up where he left off in 2024. Yeboah was a summer transfer window addition in 2024, but racked up an impressive nine goals across his 12 appearances (including playoffs) for Minnesota. He averaged 0.89 goals per 90 minutes last season, a number that is likely to tick downwards across a larger sample size. But part of what can buoy a stat like that is Yeboah being Minnesota’s penalty kick taker. At a 1.27x multiplier, we like the 24-year-old Ghanaian striker to score.
Next we’re looking at Alexandros Katranis, who lines up at left back for Real Salt Lake. He’s been recovering from a preseason knock through the first two weeks of the regular season but should be close to a full go on Saturday against expansion side San Diego FC. Salt Lake is a much different team in 2025, still without an inspiring option at forward and unable to replace the 2024 production of Chicho Arango and Andres Gomez. Because of this, Katranis may be taking on a slightly larger role offensively than in the past. Even if that doesn’t come to pass, this still feels like a strong option for our entry this weekend. Katranis appeared in 32 matches for RSL in 2024, starting 25 of them and averaging 0.94 shot attempts per 90 minutes. In 16 of those appearances, the Greek fullback played 80 or more minutes. Of those 16, he took one or more shots in 12 of them. He’s also gone over this number in each of the two games so far this season, taking one shot in 56 minutes in the opening match and following that up with two shots against Seattle in 67 minutes.
To round out our three-pick entry, we’re going to the home side of our lone West Coast matchup tonight and taking Chicho higher than 2.5 shot attempts. Of course, Chicho was an MVP-candidate with RSL through the first two thirds of last season. He appeared in 33 games, making 27 starts and averaging 4.53 shot attempts per 90 minutes. He took three or more shot attempts in 22 of his 33 appearances, and three or more shot attempts in 21 of his 27 starts. He played 80 or more minutes 22 times and took three or more shots in 19 of those games. In his new digs out in San Jose, Chicho has played 86 and 80 minutes respectively through two weeks, taking three shots in the opener and just one last week. But last week’s match saw San Jose go down to 10 men in the 52’. The Quakes then shifted to a more defensive structure as they successfully defended a 2-1 lead on the road against Sporting KC. Barring another shorthanded red card situation facing San Jose tonight, we love buying into Chicho in this spot.
Using the standard payout selection on Underdog, this 3-pick entry will payout a prize of 7.62x your entry fee if successful.
Results
Underdog Fantasy (Last Week): -1 U
Underdog Fantasy (Season): +8.96 U
Week 3 Picks
Atlanta United
O 1.5 (-115)
The Five Stripes are back home tonight after a letdown on the road in Week 2. They’ll face the defending Eastern Conference Champion New York Red Bulls, who are somewhat shorthanded with a lengthy injured list. Atlanta on the other hand hasn’t picked up any new injuries week over week. In fact, they are expected to see Pedro Amador make his season debut tonight as he has been removed from the injury report. This is going to be one of the most potent offenses in MLS this season and we’re going to hop on Atlanta’s team total of over 1.5 goals scored for near even money.
Austin FC
ML -125
We thought about going away from our favorite team this Saturday… for about two seconds. After both declaring that this is the week we see Austin FC put multiple goals on the scoreboard, we aren’t turning our backs on the Verde & Black this early in the season. Austin to win at home over Colorado Rapids.
St. Louis City SC
DNB +190
Sunday Night Soccer takes us to Carson this week where the LA Galaxy will host St. Louis City SC. The Galaxy have been an uninspiring offense to begin the season, scoring just once while conceding five times through three matches across all competitions. They’re missing the injured Riqui Puig and Joseph Paintsil badly and are having trouble generating much of anything dangerous unless they can find the foot of Gabriel Pec. St. Louis City on the other hand hasn’t scored or conceded through two matches, playing two scoreless draws against Colorado and San Diego. They’re under performing their xG in this small sample size, with no goals scored on 2.1 xG per FotMob’s model. This is a team that scored 1.59 goals per game away from home last season and we expect them to be able to find the back of the net against the porous Galaxy defense. We’ll take the STL “draw no bet” option to give us an out in the case of a tie while also holding a plus-money ticket for the road team.
Goal Scorers
Every week we’ll pick a few of our favorite goal scoring options in the betting market. Here are the Week 3 shouts.
Emmanuel Latte Lath +160
Kelvin Yeboah +160
Jonathan Bamba +360
Hugo Cuypers +220
Myrto Uzuni +170
Wilfried Zaha +360
To Score Or Give Assist
Diego Rossi -115
Marcel Hartel +170
Results
Last Week: -4.6 U
Season: -3.7 U
