Matchups are one of the most important factors to consider when crafting your fantasy lineup each week. In MLS, where home field provides a greater advantage than most leagues, players frequently deal with cross-country travel and multiple competitions, which can impact performance. It’s important to consider these factors, as well as performance metrics such as home/away form and player injuries to pinpoint favorable matchups. Each week I’ll focus on a few matchups you should target to help your team collect those precious fantasy points. Here are some to keep an eye on in round eleven:

Columbus Crew vs Charlotte FC (Sat, 7:30 pm ET)

Charlotte home and away is a tale of two teams. In four away matches this season they’ve only picked up four points, three of those coming against Montreal. Their road defense has been very poor, conceding an average of 15 shots and 1.8 xG per game, and that’s including the outlier against Miami when they played against 10 men for more than 45 minutes. If you remove the match against Miami, those numbers go up to 19 shots and 2.2 xG against per/90. Charlotte’s attack has been poor on the road too, only producing 0.5xG per/90, and with Pep Biel questionable for this matchup I don’t expect much better numbers. Columbus are coming off a big home win, and they’ll be looking to extend that streak to two against a weak traveling side. I’ll definitely be throwing a couple Columbus players into my team this week.

PLAYER TARGETS:

• Diego Rossi (FWD, CLB)
• Daniel Gazdag (MID, CLB)
• Mo Farsi (DEF, CLB)
• Jacen Russell-Rowe (FWD, CLB)

Chicago Fire vs Orlando City (Sat, 8:30pm ET)

Both Orlando and Chicago rank in the top half of MLS for xG and xGA, and I’m thinking this matchup could be a shootout. The Fire are coming off what may be the worst game in their history, a 7-2 loss to Nashville at GEODIS Park. Orlando, on the other hand, scored three goals and shutout Atlanta in their home win on Saturday. Both of these teams have more than enough firepower to find the back of the net in a match where Chicago especially will be looking to bounce back from last week’s loss. It’s definitely worth giving the attacking options in this matchup a look for your team.

• Hugo Cuypers (FWD, CHI)
• Brian Gutierrez (MID, CHI)
• Martin Ojeda (MID, ORL)
• Marco Pasalic (MID, ORL)

San Jose Earthquakes vs Portland Timbers (Sat, 10:30pm ET)

I really don’t need to explain San Jose in these articles anymore. They rank top of the league in xG and xGA, and that produces lots of fantasy points on both sides. Portland’s defense hasn’t been very strong either, ranking 6th in xGA. Their overall xG numbers don’t reflect it, but Portland have had no problem scoring lately with 11 goals in their last three matches, two of those being on the road. Jonathan Rodriguez scored in his return last match, and Portland have enough attacking tools to do some damage against a chaotic San Jose defense. This matchup is also the latest on the Saturday slate, making for a good fallback spot if your bench doesn’t pan out. 

PLAYER TARGETS:

• Cristian Arango (FWD, SJ)
• Cristian Espinoza (MID, SJ)
• Antony (MID, POR)
• David Da Costa (MID, POR)

Sporting Kansas City vs LA Galaxy (Sun, 7:00pm ET)

This Sunday Night Soccer matchup looks like nothing but a goalfest to me. Two of the league’s worst defenses match up against attacks that, despite weak xG numbers thus far, definitely have the talent to score some goals. In their last three matches SKC have scored eight goals and conceded nine, and I see that trend continuing against a Galaxy side who are winless to start the season and have conceded the second most xG in MLS. Despite another loss last week to the Portland Timbers, the Galaxy can come into this matchup knowing they’re capable of scoring again after putting two in the back of the net on 2.41 xG. I’m loving this matchup as a late fall back that could potentially come through with some buzzer-beating points for our teams. 

PLAYER TARGETS:

• Dejan Joveljic (FWD, SKC)
• Shapi Suleymanov (MID, SKC)
• Gabriel Pec (FWD, LAG)
• Joseph Paintsil (MID, LAG)

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Contributor: Eli Redpath, @vurkes on Discord