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Welcome back to another weekend of MLS regular season action. We are in the middle of the summer window and have already witnessed the debuts of Chiellini, Bale, Cucho Hernandez and Hector Herrera – with more to come.
Don’t forget that you can enter a team for free every week in the Sorare Academy and be in with a chance of winning a Limited card.
The deadline this week, as ever, is on Friday at 11am BST.
Guest writer Frip talks us through the fixtures for this coming weekend. You can find him on Twitter posting regular MLS injury, transfer and other news here.
LAST GAMEWEEK
15 more managers secured a Limited card prize last week. Our number one manager was Jessejreyes with this unusual team – a full Real Salt Lake Stack:
THIS GAMEWEEK
This weekend doesn’t have many obvious home-run matchups which makes for a lot of potentially interesting picks. Let’s get into some of those games below:
Inter Miami CF at NYCFC
Taty Castellanos is about to play his farewell game for NYCFC this weekend. He has become a club legend, scoring 50 goals and 19 assists in 108 matches. Targeting the Miami defense has been a solid strategy all year and this week is no different. Phil Neville’s men have not had a clean sheet since May and with Phil hyping up the midweek Barcelona friendly as the “biggest match in club history”, it’s easy to build a narrative against them this weekend.
Santiago Rodriguez would be the go-to midfielder to pair Castellanos, however, he picked up his fifth yellow card last weekend and is suspended for this one. Maxi Moralez is always a threat and just had a free kick off the crossbar last weekend. Miami does have a new Designated Player in Pozuelo who made his debut last weekend and scored 62 without a goal or assist. At the first glance, he seems to fit much better into Miami’s system and is worth monitoring in the upcoming weeks.
San Jose Earthquakes at Portland Timbers
The Timbers offense has been rolling recently. They averaged two goals per game in the past six matches. Their forward position is still a bit iffy between Niezgoda and the recently-recovered Felipe Mora. Whoever gets the start out the two should do well but since we don’t have the luxury of knowing that in advance we’ll have to look elsewhere in the Portland team.
Luckily that’s pretty easy since midfield duo Santiago Moreno and Eryk Williamson (suspended last week) have been in form recently. Claudio Bravo is one of the best bonus-scoring defenders in MLS and this weekend is a good opportunity to play him as well.
Atlanta United at LA Galaxy
The Galaxy have been without Chicharito and Marky Delgado over the past two matches due to the health and safety protocol. Odds are good that both of them are able to return to the starting XI this weekend – be sure to keep an eye out for injury updates there. Joveljic has been the LA Galaxy story of the season so far. After being unable to crack the starting XI and repeatedly scoring off the bench, he has now found a spot in the lineup. The Serbian has four goals in his last five games, of which he started four. Defensively Bond has solid clean sheet odds in goal with upside as well.
RBNY at Austin FC
It would be odd to end this article without mentioning in-form Austin FC who have won four of their last six matches. Don’t expect their form to drop off any time soon either: their next five games are RBNY/SJE/SKC at home and SKC/MIN away. The Red Bulls currently sit at the bottom of the table when it comes to goals scored and goals allowed over the past six. Driussi is Austin’s key man, however, with the berth of attacking options this week it might be more enticing to pick up some Austin defenders. Brad Stuver is a solid keeper and Cascante is the CB of choice here, although his upside is a bit limited.
New England Revolution at Columbus Crew
Adam Buksa left New England a couple of weeks ago and his replacement Vrioni is ready to step into his footsteps. He has his Visa now and has already been training with the team, ahead of a possible debut this weekend:
New England is looking to get back to their 2021 ways with these signings after they’ve been in a bit of a slump to start 2022.
Columbus is the in-form team here. Cucho Hernandez currently has four goals in 137 minutes of play from ~1xG. Cucho’s emergence has catapulted Zelarayan back into the top tiers of SO5 as well. He’s a top midfielder this weekend.
We haven’t spent much time on defenders so far because there are no obvious options this weekend. Columbus is one of the better bets here, especially with Josh Williams and Eloy Room.
So there are plenty of choices for you to pick your five players from – and now it’s up to you to decide! Don’t forget to enter before the 11am Friday deadline – and good luck!
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