Philadelphia Fusion vs Los Angeles Valiant

Watching lopsided mismatches is rarely entertaining. Betting on them, however, definitely is. This, at its core, is a pretty tremendous mismatch -- one of the biggest the Eastern region has to offer, in fact. The Philadelphia Fusion might be inconsistent and volatile, but they're still head and shoulders better than the Los Angeles Valiant, a team so bad and limited in potential it's actually a bit appalling.

There's just nothing to praise them for, and they've had more than enough time to do *something* worthy of praise. With just a single win on the board, it doesn't seem like the Valiant will ever mount much of an offensive.

They're a bottom-feeder through and through and that, by the looks of it, won't change any time soon. They're just not on the same level as the vast majority of their peers, the Seouls and Hangzhous and Shanghais of the world. They might have good moments sprinkled throughout but, on the whole, they're about as mediocre and dreadful as it gets.

The Fusion, on the other hand, are arguably a Top 2 team at the moment, bested only by the towering Seoul Dynasty. That's a pretty darn good position to be in, and even if they regress and move down to third (in the face of a surging Shanghai) they'll still be in a great spot to eventually challenge for the "throne."

But that's still a ways off from (potentially) happening, so there's really no use in talking about it right now. The most important thing is that they've grown tremendously over the last few weeks and, odds are, they'll continue to do so even in the face of some truly stiff opposition. Shanghai and Seoul are as dangerous as ever, but the Fusion aren't that much worse -- if worse at all.

And, well, they're miles better than the Los Angeles Valiant, which makes *our* job as easy as possible.