Our overall leader led this round, and now sits with a 56-point lead at the top. !BL4CKnRED scored 114 points, led by captain Justin Meram (CLB, $10.1), who scored 46 points with a hat trick in his second of two games. Supporting him were Lee Nguyen (NE, $10.3) with 15 points on a goal and two assists, and Victor Vazquez (TOR, $9.0) with two assists and 13 points.
Positional Leaders
Goalkeepers
Alex Bono (TOR, $4.9) saved a penalty on the way to 11 points and the positional lead. Trailing him were Cody Cropper (NE, $4.1) with a clean sheet and 9 points, and the pair of Tim Howard (COL, $6.0) and Zack Steffen (CLB, $4.8) who scored 8 points each, with Howard earning a clean sheet and Steffen saving a penalty. Bill Hamid ($5.5) scored 3 points for United.
Defenders
Chris Tierney (NE, $5.8) combined a clean sheet with two assists for 16 points, leading the defenders. Oguchi Onyewu (PHI, $4.6) was second with 14 points on a goal and a clean sheet, and Liam Ridgewell (POR, $4.9) scored a goal and 10 points. For DCU, Kofi Opare ($4.3) scored 2 points, and both Bobby Boswell ($5.3) and Taylor Kemp ($5.5) scored 1 point.
Midfielders
Justin Meram’s 23 points were good for both the positional and overall lead. Behind him were Haris Medunjanin (PHI, $8.2) with a goal and two assists for 19 points, and Romain Alessandrini (LA, $10.0) with two goals and 17 points. D.C.’s midfield featured Lloyd Sam ($8.4) with 4 points, followed by Jared Jeffrey ($5.4) with 3, Ian Harkes ($5.7) with 2, and the trio of Lamar Neagle ($7.4), Marcelo Sarvas ($6.9), and Sebastien Le Toux ($6.4) with 1 point each.
Forwards
Chicago’s Nemanja Nikolic ($9.9) tallied two goals and an assist for 20 points to lead the forwards. Trailing him were Tosaint Ricketts (TOR, $6.4) who scored three goals over two games for 19 points, and Shkelzen Gashi (COL, $9.5), who scored two goals and 14 points. DCU’s only scoring forward was Patrick Mullins ($8.2) with two points.
Looking Ahead
TEN teams play twice this round — Chicago, Colorado, Houston, NYCFC, Orlando, Philadelphia, RSL, San Jose, Seattle, and Kansas City. Everyone else plays once. Load up on the two-gamers and hope they play twice. In goal I like whoever starts for Chicago — either Jorge Bava ($5.3) or Matt Lampson ($4.4), the latter of whom started last week. They play Colorado at home and DCU away. In defense go with Alexander Callens (NYC, $4.8) with road games against RSL and Orlando, and in the midfield spend the money on Nicolas Lodeiro (SEA, $11.5) at Kansas City and home for RSL. At forward, stick with Nemanja Nikolic, with his seven goals over the last 6 matches.