FC Dallas Hosts L.A. Galaxy

A turbo-charged Los Angeles Galaxy squad featuring Steven Gerrard and Giovani Dos Santos beat a depleted Sounders team 3-1 last weekend—no big surprise there. But Bruce Arena's men will face a tougher challenge Saturday night when they travel to Texas to take on a young, feisty, and dangerous FC Dallas side (9pm ET, MLS Live).

FC Dallas is two points behind the second-place Galaxy in the Western Conference standings but has three games in hand. Oscar Pareja's team has played well in 2015 but is coming off a 2-0 loss to Chicago Fire—a terrible showing against one of the worst teams in the league. 

Can FC Dallas turn it around? Will the Galaxy look even stronger as the new players are integrated into the attack? Will this game play a decisive role in the final standings? It should be fun to find out.

Vancouver Heads to Kansas City

In another marquee matchup, Sporting Kansas City will host Western Conference leaders the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night (9pm ET, MLS Live). Sporting KC is in fourth place in the West but has played three fewer games than Vancouver and trails by just five points.

This season Vancouver has shown itself to be explosive when playing well and right now the Whitecaps are firing on all cylinders. It has outscored opponents 10-1 over its last three games and last weekend it demolished Real Salt Lake 4-0.

SKC is also on a roll. Peter Vermes' side traveled to Ontario and took three points from Toronto FC last weekend and on Wednesday it cruised past Real Salt Lake 3-1 to advance to the final of the U.S. Open Cup.

Benny Feilhaber might be an U.S. national team outcast but he is absolutely dominant this season, scoring goals and picking up crucial assists almost at will. The Brazilian-born, California-raised midfielder has a goal and an assist in each of his last two outings.

The Whitecaps have numerous attacking options, including Cristian Techera, Kektua Manneh, Darren Mattocks, and Octavio Rivero. This could be a high-scoring affair.

Eastern Promise: New York v. Toronto

The best matchup of the weekend in the Eastern Conference will come Saturday night when the red-hot Red Bulls host Toronto FC in Harrison, N.J. (7pm ET, MLS). The Red Bulls have performed well despite having one of the league’s smallest payrolls. Since then, the club’s Austrian owners have opened up their wallets to purchase Shaun Wright-Phillips and Gonzalo Veron which will improve the offense.

Last weekend, the Red Bulls defeated New York City FC in an intense cross-river derby where the Red Bulls reasserted its regional dominance. The win also put the Red Bulls in a terrific spot in the standings—the team is in second place, eight points behind D.C. United., but it has four games in hand.   

Toronto, on the other hand, has been running hot and cold all season. While it is looking more and more likely the Canadian club will make the playoffs for the first time in its existence, it has struggled with consistency time and time again.

Few would argue that Toronto has the best player in the league in Sebastian Giovinco, but the supporting cast has been erratic. Jozy Altidore, in particular, has had a terrible summer for both club and country. Meanwhile Toronto's defense is giving up 1.72 goals per game—worst in the league.

Seattle and Orlando Both Hungry

While it may be premature to call this a must-win game for both teams, Seattle and Orlando will both be desperate to pull out a victory Sunday (5pm ET, ESPN2).

Orlando is in a very tight playoff race and not everything is going its way. Montreal has played three fewer games and will be adding Didier Drogba. New York City FC defeated D.C. United on Thursday and should only get better as Andrea Pirlo and Frank Lampard get into the swing of things. For Orlando, every game is crucial and every point is precious.

Seattle is riding a five-game losing streak and seems completely lost. The absence of Clint Dempsey to international duty and the injury to Obafemi Martins has proven to be too much for the team to overcome and its lack of depth has been exposed.

Fortunately for the Sounders, help is on the way. Recently the club has added Panamanian forward Roman Torres and Austrian midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz to boost the team’s depth. Both should be welcome additions that could help it turn things around.

Brian Sciaretta is an American Soccer Now columnist and an ASN 100 panelist. Follow him on Twitter.