MLS & MLS Next Pro preview, March 30-31 (plus MLS Next Pro round-up, March 27)

The MLS weekend starts at 6pm (GMT) where Philadelphia Union welcome Minnesota United to Subaru Park. Union picked up their first win of the season last week in Portland despite missing key players due to international call-ups but have otherwise misfired so far this season, whereas United top the Western Conference with three wins from four games, including the scalp of Inter Miami in Florida. Kicking off at 8pm is Colorado Rapids versus a Los Angeles FC side that finally woke up last week and defeated Nashville 5-0 after three scoreless weekends. Rapids are, well, Rapids and so you'd expect a big away win but LAFC didn't enjoy their last trip to the Rockies, so who knows?

There's a clutch of games at 11.30pm, including Saturday's sole free game on AppleTV in DC United versus CF Montreal. Both sides have looked combative this season without pulling up too many trees and have strikers in form. Christian Benteke has four goals in three games for United this season, with newcomer Mathias Cocaro netting three times in four for the Canadiens. It should be a decent game. The other four games at 11.30pm (and the rest of Saturday's offerings) are behind the paywall on MLS Season Pass and run from Toronto to Miami. Toronto FC are at home to Sporting Kansas City and have started the season well, with three wins from five games. John Herdman has got them playing with confidence and seems to be getting the best of expensive Italian imports Federico Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne. KC sit mid-table in the Western Conference but can be unpredictable, with Alan Pulido and Johnny Russell just as likely to score goals as go missing.

2023 Supporters Shield winners FC Cincinnati hop across the Appalachians to North Carolina and Charlotte FC looking in good form to repeat that accolade after three wins and two draws so far this season. The addition of Miles Robinson and Corey Baird to an already good side was great business and, with Charlotte missing their star player to a European loan spell, it could be one-way traffic at the Bank of America Stadium. Down in Florida, both Orlando City and Inter Miami are at home, with the Lions facing a New York Red Bulls side who put four past Miami last week, thanks to a hatrick from in-form Lewis Morgan. Orlando have been an odd side so far this season, capable of greatness and ineptitude, and they'll need the former to try and stem Sandro Schwarz's revival at Red Bulls. Lionel Messi will once again be missing when Miami take on New York City FC in Fort Lauderdale but it's a good time to play the Pigeons as they've managed just one win from five games so far this season, although there is never any talk of Nick Cushing being under threat there.

Just before the clocks go forward at half-past-midnight, Nashville SC host Columbus Crew at Geodis Park in what should be a cracker of a game. Nashville's 5-0 defeat at LAFC last week was very much an anomaly for a side usually so organised and 2022 MLS MVP Hani Mukhtar can always be counted on to conjure some magic, while in Cucho Hernandez, Jacen Russel-Rowe, and Aidan Morris, Crew have plenty of attacking threat. Also at 0.30am are two derby games in Texas. Sort of. The risible Austin FC face FC Dallas at Q2 Stadium desperately in need of, well, anything, although the visitors haven't exactly pulled up trees so far this season. Sebastian Driussi did make his first start of the season last week for Los Verde and they could really do with Jader Obrian finding the net against his former club. Houston Dynamo welcome San Jose Earthquakes to Shell Energy Stadium in what is still something of a grudge match, to the Quakes fans at least. The original MLS Earthquakes moved to Houston in December 2005 and it took another two-and-a-half years for the Quakes to return to action. San Jose have just one win so dar this - last week, at home to Seattle - but Houston are hardly in full flight either.

The clocks go forward in the UK at 1am, returning the later kick-offs to their usual times for us Brits. Real Salt Lake versus St Louis City is at 2.30am, and both sides have shown flashes of brilliance - and spells of mediocrity - so far this season. That match is followed at 3.30am by two West Coast clashes, with injury-hit Seattle Sounders travelling to a buoyant Los Angeles Galaxy, whose acquisition of Joseph Paintsill over the winter might prove to be the spark that brings the famous club back to former glories. Saturday's final game is the first Cascadia Cup - a mini-tournament he;ld for bragging rights between former NASL rivals Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver - match of the season and sees Phil Neville's Portland Timbers visit Vancouver Whitecaps with both sides having two wins and a draw so far this season. Both teams lost at home last week, though, and that might tip Whitecaps towards more attacking play. The weekend's final game is on Sunday evening at 8.30pm (BST) and it's another freebie on AppleTV as Atlanta United host Chicago Fire with both sides having underachieved so far this season despite some good play.

Newly arrived independent club Chattanooga FC continue to be unbeaten in regular time in MLS Next Pro, although they lost a shootout at New York City FC IIon Wednesday night and take just a point from that game to leave them on six points from three games. The newbies took the lead through Taylor Gray after eight minutes and held onto that advantage until Jonathan Shore equalised for the Baby Pigeons ten minutes into the second-half, with the game finishing 1-1. That means they have this weekend off, but the other independent side in this third-tier MLS reserve league - Carolina Core - are away at New England RevolutionII on Sunday, an 8pm kick-off if you're at all curious to see if they can earn their first win of the season.