I’m pleased to say that this round was led by yours truly, Seoul Train, with 82 points, eating ever so slightly into Nouhou Big Summer Blowout‘s overall lead, which is now 115 points.

Positional Leaders

Goalkeepers
Patrick Schulte (CLB, $5.0) kept a clean sheet on the way to 9 points, leading the goalkeepers. Right behind him were Jayden Hibbert (ATL, $5.5) and Andrew Rick (PHI, $8.0), both of whom had their own clean sheet and 8 points. For D.C. it was Luis Barraza ($5.2) with 2 points.

Defenders
Atlanta’s Ronald Hernandez ($4.0) scored a goal and kept a clean sheet on the way to 12 points, leading the defenders ahead of Justin Haak (NY, $9.1), who scored a goal and 10 points. Noah Eile ($8.5) rounded out the top three with a clean sheet and 9 points. The DCU defense featured Lucas Bartlett ($5.0) with 3 points, followed by Kye Rowles ($5.2) and Matti Peltola ($4.0) with 2, and the trio of Aaron Herrera ($4.5), Conner Antley ($4.1), and David Schnegg ($4.2) with 1.

Midfielders
DCU’s own Gabriel Pirani ($8.8) surprised us all with two goals and 13 points, leading the midfielders. Trailing him were Anders Dreyer (SD, $16.3), with a goal and an assist for 11 points and Hany Mukhtar (NSH, $16.5), whose five attacking bonus points helped him to 9 points. The remaining United midfielders were Brandon Servania ($4.6) and Jackson Hopkins ($4.6) with 2 points, then Joao Peglow ($7.2), Hosei Kijima ($4.0), and Jared Stroud ($4.0) with 1.

Forwards
Dejan Joveljic (SKC, $12.6) scored two goals on the way to 15 points, leading all fowards and all players. Rafael Navarro (COL, $11.9) paired a goal with an assist to finish second with 11 points, and Denis Bouanga (LA, $13.7) scored a goal and 10 points. For D.C. Christian Benteke ($9.6) was the lone scorer with 4 points.

Looking Ahead
The coming round is a strange one, with two weekends worth of matches, but only four of them on the first weekend. Austin, New England, Dallas, St. Louis, Kansas City, the Galaxy, Houston, and Chicago play twice and everyone else plays once. Alas, the collection of teams playing twice is not great for loading up on two-gamers. I like Rafael Cabral (RSL, $8.6) in goal vs. Kansas City and Alex Freeman (ORL, $8.8) in defense at DCU. Carles Gil (NE, $14.8) looks good in midfield at Chicago and vs. Toronto, and go with Petar Musa (DAL, $11.8) at forward at St. Louis and vs. Austin.