MLS Fantasy Rankings: Week 3

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Published on August 19, 2020

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
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
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
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
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
(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
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