MLS Fantasy Rankings: Week 22

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Published on August 3, 2019

The rankings below are based on Major League Soccer's official fantasy game and cover all games in Week 22. While they can be used for DFS purposes, they are done with a focus on the league's season-long game.

If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below, or hit up JD on Twitter @dfsMLS.

Forwards
Rank	Player	Matchup	Price	Notes
1	Carlos Vela	LAFC at NE	13.0	There's a little extra motivation for Bob Bradley in this one, I imagine. That likely flows through to the rest of the squad, including an unbenchable Vela.
2	Josef Martinez	ATL v. LA	12.9	Josef's scoring streak is absurd. With Open Cup on Tuesday, he could sub off early, but I'm not going to overthink this one.
3	Alberth Elis	HOU v. CHI	10.2	He's nice and rested, at least!
4	Diego Rossi	LAFC at NE	10.4
5	Wayne Rooney	DC v. PHI	10.8
6	Gustavo Bou	NE v. LAFC	10.3	He's been shooting at will. Let's see how New England do against a quality opponent, before buying all in on their fantasy resurgence.
7	Brian Fernandez	POR at MIN	11.1	Deflated Timbers rankings will be a theme this week due to the upcoming US Open Cup rematch between these two sides, but if they trot out a full strength lineup, I'd bump the stars up a notch or two.
8	Heber Araujo dos Santos	NYC at RSL	9.9	Maxi Moralez is out for this match, but NYCFC still have the tools to compete and Heber is riding a 5-game scoring streak.
9	Jozy Altidore	TOR at NYRB	10.6	The Red Bulls defense has been entirely underwhelming for a few weeks now.
10	Mauro Manotas	HOU v. CHI	8.8
11	Chris Wondolowski	SJ v. CLB	7.4
12	Jordan Morris	SEA v. SKC	8.9	Ruidiaz is likely not playing this one, but Seattle will still find chances.
13	Adama Diomande	LAFC at NE	9.5
14	Kacper Przybylko	PHI at DC	7.5
15	Fredy Montero	VAN at FCC	7.5	Vancouver's bright spots have been brighter than FCC. I think the Whitecaps take a point on the road, at least.
16	Alexandru Mitrita	NYC at RSL	8.1
17	Kei Kamara	COL v. MTL	7.4
18	Romell Quioto	HOU v. CHI	7.6
19	Maximiliano Urruti	MTL at COL	6.0	Urruti now has too much talent surrounding him in the lineup to ignore, even given his largely quiet season so far.
20	Gyasi Zardes	CLB at SJ	8.7

Midfielders
Rank	Player	Matchup	Price	Notes
1	Vako	SJ v. CLB	8.7	He has less projected bonus points than many in the top-10 here, but the streak he has been on is undeniable and I plan on rolling with it until we have evidence it's cooling off.
2	Nicolas Lodeiro	SEA v. SKC	12.4	Despite being really poor lately, a desperate SKC team still scares me a bit, but Lodeiro at home is as safe as it gets for fantasy considerations.
3	Alejandro Pozuelo	TOR at NYRB	11.7	Poz may have to be a cap casualty in fantasy this week, but when Toronto are at full strength, it's really tough to leave him out of a fantasy lineup.
4	Magnus Eriksson	SJ v. CLB	9.7
5	Cristian Espinoza	SJ v. CLB	9.4
6	Carles Gil	NE v. LAFC	12.3	New England have been really impressive lately, but the opponents have been among the weaker sides in MLS. I'm expecting a bit of a shift back toward reality here for them, but Gil remains a solid play regardless of matchup each week.
7	Julian Gressel	ATL v. LA	9.1
8	Eduard Atuesta	LAFC at NE	11.4
9	Jan Gregus	MIN v. POR	9.6	Reliable and gets a boost if Minnesota go full-strength and Portland toss out a weakened lineup due to the upcoming US Open Cup rematch.
10	Ignacio Piatti	MTL at COL	10.0	With Piatti back and Lappalainen bursting onto the scene, Montreal are suddenly interesting for fantasy.
11	Pity Martinez	ATL v. LA	9.4	Barco may finally return to the lineup, potentially returning Atlanta's attack into the early-season quagmire that was the result of Pity and Barco wanting to operate in similar fashions and spaces. Add that FdB seems to love upsetting Pity (see the early sub vs. LAFC), and it's tough to trust this play even in a good matchup.
12	Diego Valeri	POR at MIN	12.2	Given the uncertainty of Portland's lineup, and the Sunday kickoff for this match, I may not risk taking Timbers.
13	Nani	ORL v. DAL	9.0	After the all-star game festivities and with US Open Cup on Tuesday, I would certainly recommend waiting to see Orlando's lineup before banking on them at all.
14	Albert Rusnak	RSL v. NYC	9.7
15	Daniel Royer	NYRB v. TOR	9.2
16	Johnny Russell	SKC at SEA	8.2	Nouhou is going to have his hands full with Russell. With SKC playing the last match of the weekend, Russell is unfortunately not optimal switcheroo material.
17	Emmanuel Ledesma	FCC v. VAN	8.4
18	Marco Fabian	PHI at DC	8.9
19	Saphir Taider	MTL at COL	9.7
20	Yordy Reyna	VAN at FCC	7.6	Appeals to me as an under the radar play with upside.

Defenders
Rank	Player	Matchup	Price	Notes
1	Florian Jungwirth	SJ v. CLB	7.0	Flo brings a little bit of everything to the table, but the virtually-guaranteed bonus points are most appealing.
2	Miles Robinson	ATL v. LA	7.2	No Zlatan for the Galaxy in this one makes Atlanta the heaviest favorite of the weekend by far, but with US Open Cup on Tuesday and LGP missing from the center of the defense, I wouldn't push my chips all in on Atlanta's defense.
3	Kim Kee-Hee	SEA v. SKC	6.6	SKC are desperate for points, but I trust this group of Seattle defenders even if it's not Schmetzer's first choice.
4	Romain Metanire	MIN v. POR	7.5	Minnesota will also be hosting Portland on Wednesday for a US Open Cup semifinal, making this an interesting matchup between two teams on the positive side of the playoff picture, but not safely so. Portland could very well keep their cards close to the vest here, making Minnesota's defense an appealing option.
5	Ike Opara	MIN v. POR	8.7
6	Tommy Thompson	SJ v. CLB	7.1
7	Leonardo Jara	DC v. PHI	7.6
8	Nick Lima	SJ v. CLB	5.5	Thanks to his US Open Cup trip, Lima's price is more palatable than his defensive partners'. Given how SJ play, he gets more opportunities for bonus points than many other "fullbacks".
9	Franco Escobar	ATL v. LA	6.1
10	Xavier Arreaga	SEA v. SKC	5.7	With Roman Torres suspended for a positive PED test, Arreaga will be finally get some consistent action.
11	Nouhou Tolo	SEA v. SKC	4.4	Brad Smith's loan has been extended, but after picking up a knock last week both him and Leerdam are questionable. Nouhou should get a chance to follow up a really good outing last match.
12	Kendall Waston	FCC v. VAN	5.2	Hosting Vancouver has been on of the more favorable matchups in the league this year, and Waston always is a set piece threat. Against his former team, he'll have a little more motivation to head one home.
13	Saad Abdul-Salaam	SEA v. SKC	4.6	SAS is good, but allow me to squeeze in a note to watch for Joevin Jones starting on the attacking wing in place of Harry Shipp. He'd be a top-5 defensive pick for me if that happens.
14	Michael Parkhurst	ATL v. LA	4.8
15	Reto Ziegler	DAL at ORL	7.7
16	Ali Adnan	VAN at FCC	5.4	The Caps are bad, sure, but so are Cincinnati. With the home team here allowing roughly twice as many goals at home as they've scored, I'm ok taking a chance on this caliber of player.
17	Michael Boxall	MIN v. POR	7.4
18	Ronald Matarrita	NYC at RSL	6.1
19	Zakaria Diallo	MTL at COL	8.0
20	Maynor Figueroa	HOU v. CHI	6.1

Goalkeepers
Rank	Player	Matchup	Price	Notes
1	Daniel Vega	SJ v. CLB	5.8	The Quakes dominance has not resulted in many clean sheets, but I still love this matchup. The only issue is foregoing three San Jose field players.
2	Stefan Frei	SEA v. SKC	6.7
3	Brad Guzan	ATL v. LA	6.3
4	Przemyslaw Tyton	FCC v. VAN	4.7	Optimal front-end of a switcheroo at keeper.
5	Pablo Sisniega	LAFC at NE	4.4	Miller could rejoin the starters at any time and is significantly more expensive, so make sure you have a backup plan here.
6	Bill Hamid	DC v. PHI	6.6
7	Brian Rowe	ORL v. DAL	6.4
8	Tyler Deric	HOU v. CHI	4.7	Chicago are 0-3-8 on the road this year.
9	Evan Bush	MTL at COL	5.2
10	Steve Clark	POR at MIN	7.1	Darwin Quintero will be out due to yellow card suspension. If Portland play a quality 11, Clark should be a decent (albeit too expensive) play.

Value Rankings
(forwards and midfielders under $7.5, defenders under $6.0; not ranked above)
Rank	Player	Matchup	Price	Notes
1	Orji Okwonkwo	MTL at COL	6.7
2	Gary Mackay-Steven	NYC at RSL	6.2	With Maxi out, there's a chance that Mackay-Steven finds his way into the lineup. His debut was very exciting. Keaton Parks also would be a good cheap play here, albeit with far less offensive upside.
3	Lee Nguyen	NE v. LAFC	7.1	We need to make sure he starts, but his recent appearances have been very high quality and this is a big-time revenge game for Nguyen.
4	Hwang In-beom	VAN at FCC	6.7
5	C.J. Sapong	CHI at HOU	7.0
6	Cristhian Paredes	POR at MIN	6.0	A guaranteed price rise thanks to an offensive outburst, plus he is always good for some bonus points in the midfield.
7	Memo Rodriguez	HOU v. CHI	7.1
8	Rashawn Dally	FCC v. VAN	4.7
9	Jeremy Ebobisse	POR at MIN	5.8
10	Benny Feilhaber	SKC at SEA	6.4

Captain Rankings
Rank	Player	Matchup	Price	Notes
1	Carlos Vela	LAFC at NE	13.0	Josef has 12 goals in 8 games and Vela is still outscoring him during that stretch in fantasy.
2	Josef Martinez	ATL v. LA	12.9
3	Vako	SJ v. CLB	8.7	Lodeiro is safer, but I just can't pass up the upside.
4	Nicolas Lodeiro	SEA v. SKC	12.4	If Ruidiaz was fit and rolling, I'd probably have him third here.
5	Alejandro Pozuelo	TOR at NYRB	11.7	Poz pretty much needs to be a fixture in our captain considerations each week.