This article is part of our MLS Fantasy Rankings series.
MATCHES (EDT)
- Thursday, 7:00 pm: New York Red Bulls vs. New York City FC
- Thursday, 7:30 pm: Columbus Crew vs. Chicago Fire
- Thursday, 7:30 pm: New England Revolution vs. Philadelphia Union
- Friday, 7:30 pm: FC Cincinnati vs. D.C. United
- Friday, 7:30 pm: Minnesota United vs. Sporting Kansas City
- Friday, 8:00 pm: Houston Dynamo vs. FC Dallas
- Friday, 8:00 pm: Toronto FC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC
- Saturday, 6:00 pm: Los Angeles Football Club vs. Los Angeles Galaxy
- Saturday, 7:00 pm: Atlanta United vs. Nashville SC
- Saturday, 8:00 pm: Inter Miami CF vs. Orlando City SC
- Saturday, 9:00 pm: Colorado Rapids vs. Real Salt Lake
- Sunday, 10:00 pm: Portland Timbers vs. Seattle Sounders FC
- Monday, 7:00 pm: New York City FC vs. Columbus Crew
- Tuesday, 7:00 pm: D.C. United vs. New England Revolution
- Tuesday, 7:30 pm: Chicago Fire vs. FC Cincinnati
- Tuesday, 7:30 pm: Philadelphia Union vs. New York Red Bulls
- Tuesday, 8:00 pm: Montreal Impact vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC
- Tuesday, 8:30 pm: Sporting Kansas City vs. Houston Dynamo
- Wednesday, 7:30 pm: Orlando City SC vs. Nashville SC
- Wednesday, 8:00 pm: Inter Miami CF vs. Atlanta United
- Wednesday, 8:30 pm: FC Dallas vs. Colorado Rapids
- Wednesday, 9:30 pm: Real Salt Lake vs. Los Angeles Football Club
- Wednesday, 10:30 pm: Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Seattle Sounders FC
- Wednesday, 10:30 pm: San Jose Earthquakes vs. Portland Timbers
Forwards | ||||
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Rank | Player | Matchup | Price | Notes |
1 | Diego Rossi | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 10.6 | Unable to fill in many comments this week on short notice - my apologies! Please remember that double game week (DGW) players will only get the point total from their highest scoring game, NOT points from both games as in prior years. |
2 | Alan Pulido | SKC at MIN, v. HOU | 12.0 | |
3 | Gustavo Bou | NE v. PHI, at DCU | 10.7 | Gil's long-term injury opens set piece duty back up for Bou. |
4 | Brian Rodriguez | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 7.9 | |
5 | Gyasi Zardes | CLB v. CHI, at NYC | 9.2 | Goal-dependent players that can score in bunches massively benefit from the new DGW rules. |
6 | Alberth Elis | HOU v. DAL, at SKC | 9.0 | |
7 | Bradley Wright-Phillips | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 6.0 | |
8 | Raul Ruidiaz | SEA at POR, at LAG | 10.4 | |
9 | Cristian Pavon | LAG at LAFC, v. SEA | 11.3 | With the new DGW scoring system, picking great players with two tough matchups is less appealing than before. For example, a 6+6 over two tough games is not better than an 8+2 from a 2nd tier player with at least one easy matchup. |
10 | Adam Buksa | NE v. PHI, at DCU | 8.2 | |
11 | Jordan Morris | SEA at POR, at LAG | 10.2 | |
12 | Jurgen Locadia | FCC v. DCU, at CHI | 9.7 | Will be eager to avenge his howler of a miss in the MLS is Back knockout rounds. |
13 | Franco Jara | DAL at HOU, v. COL | 9.0 | Dallas have thrown up two duds against Nashville, but I'm not expecting it to last. The bigger knock on Jara is the threat of Ondrasek poaching playing time. |
14 | Robert Beric | CHI at CLB, v. FCC | 9.8 | |
15 | Mauro Manotas | HOU v. DAL, at SKC | 9.4 | |
16 | Carlos Vela | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 14.4 | Having sat out the MLS is back tournament, Vela's playing time seems uncertain at best. It's hard to imagine him not at least subbing on against LAFC's crosstown rival, though. |
17 | Jeremy Ebobisse | POR v. SEA, at SJ | 5.9 | |
18 | Chicharito | LAG at LAFC, v. SEA | 9.9 | |
19 | Heber | NYC at RBNY, v. CLB | 8.9 | Deila's attack doesn't feel like one to be trusted, particularly with Maxi Moralez ailing. |
20 | Sergio Santos | PHI at NE, v. RBNY | 7.2 | He has outshone Kacper by a pretty wide margin this season and is cheaper, but both are fine options. |
Midfielders | ||||
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Rank | Player | Matchup | Price | Notes |
1 | Nicolas Lodeiro | SEA at POR, at LAG | 12.0 | |
2 | Nani | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 10.5 | If Nani keeps his foot on the pedal after a good tournament, he surely should be able to nab one good score out of two matchups against the expansion sides. |
3 | Lucas Zelarayan | CLB v. CHI, at NYC | 9.8 | |
4 | Sebastian Blanco | POR v. SEA, at SJ | 8.9 | |
5 | Latif Blessing | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 10.6 | |
6 | Pity Martinez | ATL v. NSC, at INT | 9.3 | With Frank de Boer ousted, Atlanta plan to open up the attack. |
7 | Eduard Atuesta | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 8.9 | |
8 | Ezequiel Barco | ATL v. NSC, at INT | 10.5 | |
9 | Joao Paulo | SEA at POR, at LAG | 10.2 | Missed MLS is Back due to an injury but showed his quality in the brief opening to the regular season. |
10 | Johnny Russell | SKC at MIN, v. HOU | 7.9 | |
11 | Rodolfo Pizarro | INT v. ORL, v. ATL | 10.0 | |
12 | Mark-Anthony Kaye | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 7.6 | |
13 | Younes Namli | COL v. RSL, at DAL | 8.6 | |
14 | Diego Valeri | POR v. SEA, at SJ | 11.2 | Seattle is a tough match, and then the trip to San Jose may be an opportunity for some well-deserved rest. |
15 | Yuya Kubo | FCC v. DCU, at CHI | 8.9 | |
16 | Alejandro Pozuelo | TOR v. VAN | 12.0 | The new scoring rules do make single game players more viable, but I'm always going to lean towards good players getting two chances for a big score. TFC did just dominate Vancouver on Tuesday, though. |
17 | Alvaro Medran | CHI at CLB, v. FCC | 8.6 | |
18 | Pablo Piatti | TOR v. VAN | 9.0 | |
19 | Hany Mukhtar | NSC at ATL, at ORL | 8.2 | |
20 | Albert Rusnak | RSL at COL, v. LAFC | 9.2 | Honorable mentions in no particular order to Jamiro Monteiro / Michael Barrios / Gadi Kinda / and the Red Bulls trio of Valot/Kaku/Royer. |
Defenders | ||||
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Rank | Player | Matchup | Price | Notes |
1 | Ruan | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 6.4 | Anecdotally, I'm thinking that attacking fullbacks benefit more from the new DGW scoring. |
2 | Reto Ziegler | DAL at HOU, v. COL | 8.0 | With a goalscorer like Jara coming to town, we may not be able to bank on Ziegler taking penalty kicks any longer. TBD. |
3 | Eddie Segura | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 8.0 | |
4 | Jorge Nicolas Figal | INT v. ORL, v. ATL | 5.1 | Figal-LGP is a center back pairing that nearly every team in MLS history would gladly take. Once Blaise Matuidi is up and running in front of them, I expect we'll be using Miami's defense quite a lot for fantasy. |
5 | Tristan Blackmon | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 7.2 | Blackmon's positional flexibility should help keep him on the field over the oft-rotated Palacios on the other flank. |
6 | Brandon Bye | NE v. PHI, at DCU | 5.8 | |
7 | Leandro Gonzalez Pirez | INT v. ORL, v. ATL | 6.0 | |
8 | Ryan Hollingshead | DAL at HOU, v. COL | 8.0 | |
9 | Harrison Afful | CLB v. CHI, at NYC | 7.6 | |
10 | Joao Moutinho | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 7.0 | |
11 | Milton Valenzuela | CLB v. CHI, at NYC | 7.5 | |
12 | Anton Tinnerholm | NYC at RBNY, v. CLB | 5.2 | |
13 | Walker Zimmerman | NSC at ATL, at ORL | 8.3 | Fresh off a big new contract and still, sadly, one of Nashville's biggest goal threats. |
14 | Ronald Matarrita | NYC at RBNY, v. CLB | 7.0 | |
15 | Kyle Duncan | RBNY v. NYC, at PHI | 7.0 | |
16 | Luis Martins | SKC at MIN, v. HOU | 7.0 | |
17 | Dario Zuparic | POR v. SEA, at SJ | 6.9 | Larrys Mabiala would work just as well here. |
18 | Sam Vines | COL v. RSL, at DAL | 5.5 | Lalas Abubakar works too, but with the new DGW rules, I'll lean fullback. |
19 | Robin Jansson | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 7.0 | |
20 | Aaron Long | RBNY v. NYC, at PHI | 6.5 |
Goalkeepers | ||||
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Rank | Player | Matchup | Price | Notes |
1 | Pedro Gallese | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 6.6 | Nobody jumps off the page as a must-own keeper this week, but Oscar Pareja isn't going to suddenly let his team play bad defense. Orlando will find success in at least one of these games. |
2 | Jimmy Maurer | DAL at HOU, v. COL | 4.5 | |
3 | Stefan Frei | SEA at POR, at LAG | 5.8 | Best keeper in the league on a team with something to prove? |
4 | Bill Hamid | DCU at FCC, v. NE | 6.4 | |
5 | Luis Robles | INT v. ORL, v. ATL | 6.2 | |
6 | Andre Blake | PHI at NE, v. RBNY | 6.9 | |
7 | Quentin Westberg | TOR v. VAN | 6.2 | I want to rank him even higher after Tuesday, but going to try and stick to the process of getting two whacks at a good score. |
8 | Eloy Room | CLB v. CHI, at NYC | 7.5 | |
9 | Matt Turner | NE v. PHI, at DCU | 5.3 | |
10 | William Yarbrough | COL v. RSL, at DAL | 5.0 | Honorable mention to Przemyslaw Tyton who may have the week's best fixtures but is behind a Cincinnatti defense I still can't come to terms with. |
Value Rankings | ||||
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(forwards and midfielders under $7.5, defenders under $6.0; not ranked above) | ||||
Rank | Player | Matchup | Price | Notes |
1 | Gaston Gimenez | CHI at CLB, v. FCC | 6.1 | Plays deeper than Medran, but is not shy in joining the attack. |
2 | Adrien Regattin | FCC v. DCU, at CHI | 6.1 | |
3 | Jurgen Damm | ATL v. NSC, at INT | 7.0 | What could go wrong with Mexico's version of Brek Shea? (Kidding!) |
4 | Joevin Jones | SEA at POR, at LAG | 4.8 | |
5 | Mauricio Pereyra | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 7.0 | |
6 | Tesho Akindele | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 4.9 | |
7 | Matias Pellegrini | INT v. ORL, v. ATL | 6.9 | |
8 | Alexander Buttner | NE v. PHI, at DCU | 5.0 | |
9 | Brenden Aaronson | PHI at NE, v. RBNY | 6.7 | |
10 | Chris Mueller | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 6.9 | Hot start, but especially forgettable finishing stretch during MLS is Back. |
Captain Rankings | ||||
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Rank | Player | Matchup | Price | Notes |
1 | Diego Rossi | LAFC v. LAG, at RSL | 10.6 | Rossi fileted the Galaxy last month. |
2 | Alan Pulido | SKC at MIN, v. HOU | 12.0 | Houston can't defend and Minnesota don't have Opara back. |
3 | Nicolas Lodeiro | SEA at POR, at LAG | 12.0 | Nico is a DGW fixture for a reason, but his immaculate consistency isn't quite as immense a draw under the new DGW system. |
4 | Nani | ORL at INT, v. NSC | 10.5 | |
5 | Gustavo Bou | NE v. PHI, at DCU | 10.7 |