Racing Santander Is Back In LaLiga, And Villarreal Is The First Visitor To El Sardinero

Feyenoord opened the Eredivisie season by winning 1-0 at Sparta Rotterdam on August 9, which is the sort of result that tells you very little except that the back line held. One goal scored, none conceded, three points, and a home fixture to follow.

Go Ahead Eagles arrived at the same three points by a completely different route, beating Willem II 4-1 on August 8. Four goals in an opening fixture is the loudest attacking statement anyone in the division made that weekend, and it makes the visitors considerably more interesting than the table position suggests.

DraftKings has Feyenoord at -425 with the goals total set at 3.5, which is the widest gap on any of the three Dutch fixtures. De Kuip is where that price comes from. What argues against it is that the Eagles have already shown they can score four in a league match this month, and Feyenoord have scored one.

Both of these clubs have played once and both have lost, and between them they have produced zero goals. Twente went to Heerenveen on August 9 and lost 1-0. Zwolle hosted Ajax the same day and lost 2-0.

That leaves the pair sitting thirteenth and fourteenth in the Eredivisie table on nothing at all, which is early enough to mean very little and late enough to matter to whoever loses. Twente have the home ground and the better recent league standing behind them.

The market is emphatic: Twente -400 with the total at 3.5 goals. Backing a heavy favourite that has not scored yet this season is the obvious discomfort, and 3.5 is a demanding number for two attacks with a combined zero on the board.

Ajax started the season with a 2-0 win at PEC Zwolle on August 9, a clean, unfussy away performance of the kind the club has not always managed in recent Augusts. Three points, no goals conceded, and a first home fixture of the campaign to follow at the Johan Cruijff Arena.

Heerenveen are also on three points and also kept a clean sheet, having beaten Twente 1-0 on the same afternoon. One goal is a thin margin to build a season on, but a shutout in Enschede is a genuine result and it means the visitors arrive in Amsterdam unbeaten rather than chasing.

Ajax are priced at -215 with the total at 3.5 goals. That is a shorter price than a champion-elect would normally carry at home, and it reflects the fact that both sides have conceded nothing so far. AZ Alkmaar and Groningen are the only clubs above them on six points from two games, so the pressure to keep pace is already real.

Espanyol finished eleventh last season on 46 points, scoring 43 and conceding 55, which is the profile of a side that survived comfortably enough without ever threatening the European places. The RCDE Stadium was the reason they stayed up.

Levante finished sixteenth on 42 points and conceded 61 goals, more than all but a handful of clubs in the division. Four points separated these two over an entire season, so the table position gap flatters the hosts more than the football did.

The price reflects exactly that. Espanyol are +110 at home with the total at 2.5 goals, which means the market has this closer to even than an eleventh-versus-sixteenth matchup would suggest. Opening weekend in LaLiga rarely respects last season's table, and neither of these attacks scored more than 47 goals across 38 matches.

New York City FC sit seventh in the Eastern Conference on 26 points from 18 matches, with 31 goals scored and 24 conceded, which is the second-best goal difference of anyone outside the top four in the East. Yankee Stadium remains one of the more awkward away trips in the league because of the dimensions alone.

Philadelphia are fourteenth on 16 points from 18, having lost ten of them, with 25 scored and 33 conceded. The Union have won their last two, which is the most encouraging thing on their record all summer, but the season-long numbers are what they are.

DraftKings has the hosts at +150 with the total at 2.5 goals, and a home price that long against a fourteenth-place visitor is the number worth pausing on. Nashville leads the conference on 43 points and Inter Miami sit second on 38, so seventh place is not a playoff certainty for New York with sixteen matches to go.

Chicago have played fewer matches than anyone in the Eastern Conference and are fourth anyway, 29 points from 17 with 32 goals scored and 23 conceded. Nine wins against six defeats with two draws is a decisive record in a league that produces a lot of ties.

Portland arrive tenth in the West on 24 points from 18, with 33 goals scored and 33 conceded, which is about as literal a description of a mid-table team as MLS produces. The Timbers have the more productive attack of the two and the leakier back line.

Chicago are -200 at Soldier Field with the total at 3.5 goals, the highest total of any match on Sunday's board. That number is doing the work here: two sides with 65 combined goals in 35 matches are being asked to produce four.

America are third in the Apertura on seven points from three matches, unbeaten, with five goals scored and one conceded. That single goal against is the tightest defensive record in the division so far, and it is the reason the price looks the way it does.

Atletico de San Luis are fifteenth on two points from three, with two draws and a defeat, four scored and five conceded. Nothing about that record is catastrophic three matches into a short tournament, but nothing about it suggests a result in Mexico City either.

America are -180 with the total at 2.5 goals. Monterrey and Atlas lead the table on nine points apiece, so the hosts are one win from the summit, and the Apertura's compressed format means three matches is already an eighth of the season.

Vancouver are second in the Western Conference on 34 points from 17 matches and have conceded 17 goals, the fewest of any club in the West by a distance. Ten wins, four draws and three defeats is the best points-per-match rate in the conference behind Houston.

Seattle sit eleventh on 24 points from 17 with 20 goals scored, the second-lowest attacking output in the West. The Sounders have taken one point from their last five league matches, and Lumen Field has not been the fortress that record usually implies.

The visitors are favoured at -125 with the total at 2.5 goals, which is rare in this fixture and reflects both the table and the form line. What complicates it is that Vancouver have not won any of their last five either, drawing the most recent two, so the two clubs arrive at Lumen Field from opposite ends of the standings and the same run of results.