Columbus Crew sit second from bottom in the Eastern Conference and have only 1 point to show for their troubles from the last possible 21 on offer in recent weeks.
The hosts will be desperate to turn things around when they play host to Western Conference high-fliers, Seattle Sounders, at their MAPFRE Stadium in Ohio on Saturday evening.
Columbus seem to be stuck in a miserable rut of form though at the moment, having lost 6 of their last 7 matches, and indeed, the home side have picked up just 1 win out of their last 13 matches overall in the MLS.
That rare success came in the shape of an impressive 3-1 home win over LA Galaxy, but aside from that, results have eluded The Crew for some time now.
11 defeats out of their last 13 matches for Columbus Crew suggests that the straight-win market would be a minefield to explore, but their low-scoring games on home turf might well be.
7 of Columbus Crew’s 11 home matches have resulted in under 2.5 goals.
Onto Seattle Sounders, and the visitors are currently flying high in the Western Conference as they make their way over to Ohio, sitting in 3rd place and just 2 points behind 2nd placed LA Galaxy.
However, Seattle’s current league position owes much to their impressive record on home turf at their CenturyLink Field where they still remain unbeaten in their own backyard, posting 7 wins and 2 draws from their 9 matches played to date this season.
Recent overall form underlines their strength at home but poor performances on the road as Seattle’s last 5 matches include one home match (a 1-0 win over Vancouver Whitecaps), but four away matches, all resulting in defeats.
Losses at Sporting Kansas, Dallas, Montreal Impact and New York City don’t make for good reading for Seattle on their travels in recent times.
Indeed, only Houston Dynamo have a worse away record than Seattle Sounders in the top seven of the Western Conference heading into this weekend’s round of matches.
As they’re currently enduring an 8-match sequence without a win on the road in the MLS which includes 5 defeats, Seattle will be keen to shore things up at the back against Columbus Crew.
A low-scoring game could be on the cards here.