MLS GW1 Tips – Fantasy Major League Soccer
*NOTE* Game-week 1 starts Sunday at 1.30PM ET (USA), that’s 6.30PM in the UK.
After many tense negotiations, FF247 has managed to secure Guy Sanchez (that’s me) for a second year of MLS fantasy advice columns. One of the major sticking points in the contract talks was the fact that Euro writers typically only put a single space after a sentence is completed – and the American style usually employs a double space. For American typists, it is almost impossible to teach the thumb to not double tap the spacebar after each sentence. But FF247 sent me a killer T-Shirt, so I shall be single spacing my sentences again this year for all of you wonderful readers that need a fantasy football fix as the FPL winds down. I think we all win with this renewed setup.
Now that we have the preamble all squared away, how are you folks? Are you ready for another year of American soccer? Between you and me, we can call it football if that makes you more comfortable. No matter what you decide to call our game, this year has seen another round of significant changes to the format; so we can throw out all of the strategy that worked last year and prepare to play an entirely new system of fantasy football.
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#1) Know the new rules
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[/three_fourth]The first major change to the fantasy game this year appears to be cosmetic, but it’s actually a major change that will affect how you build your initial squad. Last year, the FMLS game consisted of a starting eleven players and had an additional seven bench slots (one GK plus six position players). It was clear right off the bat that this glut of positions was just a wasted filler – every single player found a way to simply bury as many $4.0 players on their bench as possible to counteract this game-mechanic. This year is much more trim as the bench is made up of a spare GK and four position players. And the good news is that the budget remains a nifty $120 million to start with.
WIth this new setup, no matter if you decide to bury a couple of dummy players or build a decent reserve squad, you’re going to have the funds to build exactly the team you want on GW1. Consider the FPL squad you could’ve build with $120 this year and only an extra bench slot to worry about. When you have the money to buy the superstars, you should take full advantage of the resources provided to you.
The second major change that needs to be covered is the fact that the MLS fantasy designers wanted to build a game in which every position player could be considered a true fantasy option. What this means is that center backs and defensive midfielders should have a stake in the game this year. The MLS has released a great article that goes over how these changes to scoring would’ve changed the scores from last year (you can find that article here) A player like Diego Chara would’ve scored nearly 50% more points last year under this new system. So do yourself a favor and browse the scoring rules before locking in your roster.
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#2) Giovinco still rules – and will rule even harder this year
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[/three_fourth]One of the attacking scoring changes that has to be taken into account is the new rule that awards a point for every four shots taken. If Giovinco would’ve been scored with this system last year he would’ve scored over a point more per match on average (up to 292 points from 251). And Giovinco is a staggeringly low $11.5 to start the year. Honestly, with the influx of cash you have to build your initial roster, there isn’t any good reason not to have him. Well, that should be prefaced with the fact that Toronto start the year with nine straight road fixtures (#BecauseMLS). But honestly, Giovinco was just as dangerous on the road last year as he was at home, so for the price you can overlook his opening fixtures.
It is the opinion of this court that the MLS made a critical error in pricing Giovinco so low to start the year. In the FPL system, the top scorer from the previous year would be priced so high as to create a parity in the league for those who chose to gamble on the player for their new cost. But the MLS decided to leave Giovinco at a very reasonable price to start the year – so expect him to be a part of the meta-format as long as he’s free of injury.
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#3) The layout of the fantasy schedule
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[/three_fourth]We have to give the MLS credit for making the schedule a bit more palatable to start the year than what we’ve seen previously. Up until GW7, we don’t have any bye weeks to navigate (though we will have to worry about international call-ups depleting a few rosters starting in GW3). And because everybody loves DGW’s, we’ll start to see those rolling in on GW4. But for the first stretch of the year, we’ll play a very classic and normal fantasy game.
The best schedules from a fantasy standpoint are:
– FC Dallas (PHI, hou, MTL, dc/CLB) – Dallas are going to be a very elite squad this year and they’ll get a huge benefit of getting Philly at home followed by a short journey to Houston. They’ll follow that up with Montreal travelling across the continent and then get a huge DGW. Honestly, outside of having to travel to DC in GW4, Dallas should have no problem in getting the most out of this schedule. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Dallas come out of their first three fixture with nine points — and they should get at least seven if they happen to draw on the road.
– Orlando (RSL, CHI, nyc) – Orlando will get two teams travelling great distances to start their year, and then they get to travel up to NYCFC. RSL are formidable, but they’re a year older and opening up in a hostile environment. Chicago are…Chicago. And NYC needs to prove they can close up shop in Yankee Stadium before I start to doubt that any team doesn’t have a chance to take points from that road trip.
– LA Galaxy (DC, col, SJ) – On paper, LA looks to have a great start to the year in store for them. DC travelling across the country shouldn’t have much success against a stacked squad like LA. And the fact that the Galaxy face a woeful Colorado side in their first road fixture bodes well for them. San Jose could pose a problem, but in any position by position breakdown, LA should be victorious. The problem with LA is that they start slow and their influx of aging stars could cause problems in their pecking order. Giovani Dos Santos is obviously their future, but will the old guys support him or take their chances and make him wait his turn?
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#4) Thoughts on initial team building
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[/three_fourth]Even though I touched on this above, there really isn’t a great reason to not invest heavily in some superstar players. Most teams that you’ll see floating online are putting five or six top-tier players on their starting lineups. What you will notice is that defenders are priced a bit higher this year, so finding real value is going to be both a chore and a roll of the dice.
Bench building is up to the individual though. We all know that the MLS lineups are extremely fickle and subject to change on a whim. So it would be best to have a bit of coverage on the bench – how much coverage is a matter of preference. Do you really need four position players to come off the bench? Probably not. In fact, even in the most extreme cases later in the year, you should still be able to navigate bye weeks with a pair of transfers and a couple of bench subs. The MLS missed the mark this year and still left more than what is actually needed on the bench.
But all that being said, you should have a capable sub (or two) ready and waiting for that inevitable occurrence when one of your ‘nailed-on’ starters is held out of a match. There are some people that are going to the extreme and putting dummy players in all of their four slots to start the year with the hope that an extra superstar will push them higher in points. There’s a real risk/reward conversation that you’re going to have to have with yourself when putting this thing together. Personally, I’m sticking with two dummy players at bottom prices with a pair of value starters that can fill a role if needed.
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#5) Captain Picks
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[/three_fourth]There are a few options that you’ll know from last year, and until we all get a feel for all the scoring changes (and general changes in league power rankings), I think better safe than sorry is the way to go here.
– Giovinco (away to NYRB). See above, kind of a no-brainer.
– Kaka (at home against RSL). Orlando have been in some kind of form here in the preseason and RSL travelling to Orlando is going to be favorable for the purple team. RSL are on a short week after facing LigaMX side Tigres midweek in CCL action as well.
– David Villa (away to Chicago). Villa always has a puncher’s chance in any match he’s in. And even though Chicago are getting heavy play for their ‘upside’ right now, I still view them as very weak defensively.
– Clint Dempsey (at home against SKC). Dempsey will be without Obafemi Martins going forward, so the team is finally solely on his back. He should rise to the occasion this week.
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#6) Final thoughts
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[/three_fourth]You should note that Drogba is questionable for this weekend’s action with a hamstring issue. It’s expected that he’ll make every effort to play, but with all the other guaranteed firepower you could potentially load up on before your roster locks, I’d leave him aside and pick a proven commodity.
Columbus will open up the season on the road…to Portland. I’m not the only person who sees this as a really questionable move on behalf of the league to drum up some ratings – but let’s be honest, this as a bush-league as it gets making the losing team from the championship game open up in the home of the winners. It feels like fabricated controversy just for the sake of having a controversy. In all honesty, Columbus played great last year and they should have at least had the courtesy of opening up their year at home with their fans. Instead they’ll have to watch Portland celebrate their title before the season opens. That’s just poor form – and that’s coming from a huge Portland fan. If there is any prop bet worth taking this week, I can’t see any game that has a better chance of having a red card than this match, so buyer beware.
And finally, with all of the changes made this year, it’s anybody’s guess what the real key is going to be to getting a high score to start the year. I try not to get too cute with finding that hidden gem of a stat-producer who will fly under the radar. Until we know who is and isn’t going to adjust well to the new scoring format, I think the best bet is to just chase goals first and worry about the rest later.
There you have it folks. Good luck!
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A word on Guy and a nod to some other great MLS resources!
For those new to MLS, or even those just new to us, we’d like to say a few words to both endorse the game and your fantastic writer Guy himself. We all stumbled across MLS a few seasons ago and were immediately fascinated by both the game and the product. Ok so it doesn’t quite attract the near 4 million players that FPL does but as a fantasy game it’s actually far superior in terms of enjoyment and interaction for many of the reasons Guy outlined above such as the flexible in-game bonus points that are awarded based on performance criteria as opposed to our archaic FPL 3, 2, 1 system but also just things as simple as the fact that you can make 2 changes each week without incurring a hit penalty make it so much more user friendly and adaptable. We can’t implore you enough to at least give it a go this season as we absolutely love it ourselves and the fact that so many site regulars such as Bryan Munich, Chins, Init, Fergie, GP,Jamesimmo, Lawdogg, Mito, NIN and Tekno are now such stalwarts and supporters of it says a lot in itself.
A special mention should go to Mito here who (almost single-handedly) runs the MLS FF247 site team and pushed us onto an amazing finish of 2nd OVERALL last season. As well as managing his own team to a top 10 finish too!
For those who don’t know Guy then let’s just say he’s bordering on MLS royalty now and we are lucky to have him and his insight every week. He’s so highly thought of that that he’s a linchpin of THE MLS fantasy podcast and we would recommend you go give it a listen. It’s an essential listen for those serious about making strides in the game, it’s available on iTunes to download every week and here is the link for a quick listen on SoundCloud MLSFI Podcast If you are short on time then the picture above actually displays the player recommendations from each panelist, we couldn’t really make this much simpler!
If all of that isn’t enough for you then we recommend a visit to MLS Fantasy Boss as they have some great articles which will help you build your initial squad but also help you along the way as we go on this journey. MLS Fantasy Boss Bookmark them!
TO PLAY!
Oh yeah, to play the game, and this may be kind of important, click here It’s worth a browse around the site too as they put up helpful articles each week, like the one Guy mentioned earlier.
And last but not least, don’t forget to join the FF247 MLS League, Code is: 123-361
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MLS GW1 Tips – Fantasy Major League Soccer This article was written by Guy Sanchez (FootyFantastic)
And this is why
Potty Morbid got a sponsor
Heh heh, Crew are the MLS team i’ve begun to “favor”, so this pleases me
Hey guys I’m thinking of doing the MLS Fantasy this year so how do I sign up and is it a similar set up to FPL??
Google “MLS Fantasy” for a start
And no, it’s waaaay different. Way better, to be honest. Luckily we’ve got great write ups from Guy to keep us afloat
Do play though mate, just go through the rules meticulously before even attempting to make decisions, it’s really important to be on top of the scoring / price change system before choosing a roster as it’s so new to FPL regs jumping over. I had a ball in both seasons, it’s a brilliant game.
NiN, whats this roster ? Its a squad. :p
Cheers NIN. I’ve signed up now and I’ll probably spent most of tonight messing about with it and asking for help tomorrow.
Cheers NIN. I’ve signed up now and I’ll probably spent most of tonight messing about with it and asking for help tomorrow.
Am I able to just pick players and a team then go back and mess around with it till kickoff??
Not on my….err….their watch!
Have to get into the lingo mate, it adds to the buzz i think.
Yes mate, tinker away. I’ll be up half the night tonight myself mate so drop any questions here and i’ll do my best to help out if i can. Still a rookie at the game though but i might be able to help. If i make a mistake i’m sure the other guys will slap my hand and put you right.
NiN, what buzz ? Its American, its shite.
Stop being a heathen Elle and play it. All the regs love it, probably more than FPL which says a lot.
Nope.
Hahah Cheers NIN. I’m sure I’ll take you up on it.
Shite game, and being shite at the game, are two very different things my man. Two very different things indeedio. I should know!!
We’ll have Chinese fantasy footy next. :shake:
Yep, and i will play that shit!
+1!
Evening Matt
Don’t think, do it! It’s brilliant mate. Such a wild ride and the game is a little more developed than our game (bonus points and scoring wise).
Sign up here – I use twitter to sign in but you can use the old fashioned ‘user name and password’ method as well.
http://fantasy.mlssoccer.com/
Join the FF247 league as well once you’re in. Starts tomorrow so get picking and let us know how you get on.
:thumbup:
Cheers GP. I’ve signed up through Facebook too lazy to go the username route haha.
Thoughts on this lot guys, before i walk away and leave it be?
Cheers!!
NiN
You know at least 4 of your guys are non-starters, right? 😉 Kidding, step away from the team mate. Well captain Villa first, then step away.
Midfield is probably as strong as you can get and you have double FCD so you are fine.
You had me there for a sec mate… prick
Not sure on the capo pick yeah, it was Keane but he’s obviously gone now. Just fancy Orlando in week one. Villa is a great shout also, i assume he’s your pick then yes?
:big-lol:
Oh you’re easy . . .
Yeah I’m on ‘Daaveed’
Tell me about it, i’m all over the shop here buddy. Mind is butchered with FF stuff.
Very strong team, now back away slowly and then run, otherwise you’ll change it
Nice one Griff, how’s your lot looking?
This is how it’s looking so far. I’m of the opinion that all out attack is best.
Nice team, unsure on Woodberry though. He was dropped last season and didn’t get back in if i remember correctly.
Yeah Woodberry isn’t ideal but unless there is another 5.0m defender that starts that isn’t Vincent it’ll have to be him
Yeah i cant think of any at all. Head is fried here though
Way too much fanatsy today.
It’s a good start NIN, show us again tomorrow when it’s finished 😉
At least i show!! 😉
Just kidding. Not.
Right how’s this team look for a first draft?
First and last I’d say, not much wrong with that imo
Cheers Griff I’m not sure about Doody but I was running out of funds and didn’t realise he was injured till I had confirmed the team.
I’d probably just put a 4.0m defender in instead, you don’t need too many bench players in FMLS
Yeah I was looking at Guillen so I’ve switched him in now. Would you use the extra .5 to do Salioi to Baduji or just save it? Or use it elsewhere? Bit disappointed I didn’t get LA in there.
Think I’d just use it someone else to upgrade, maybe to improve Sjoberg because the Rapids aren’t a great team
I just noticed I now have 2 Dallas defenders and a Dallas GK. Is that just a waste like Guillen won’t play but is it a waste having Loyd aswell
Loyd is a solid play. Pairing him with Gonzalez in goal isn’t a bad move at all. The thing with the game is that the only $4.0 defender available to fill a roster spot is Guillen. It puts us in a weird situation. By burning a Dallas player as our dummy player, we take away our chances to double up on Dallas’ attack when their DGW comes up. I currently have Guillen, but I may switch him off to make sure that I can play four Dallas players when needed. I currently have Dallas at the top of my power rankings (all in my head of course). I may look for a way to drop Guillen and switch something around, but I’m not committed to pulling that trigger yet.
Looks good Matt. I would get Guillen (plays for Dallas and is the only 4m player i think) in for Doody and maybe use that .5 to get Keane for Kamara. I like Kamara but if you’re going thre mega strikers then i’d gladly spend the extra bit on Robbie. I did have him myself but took him out for Larin (Orlando) due to budget requirements in defence / “4th” mid. Hilarious that my “4th” mid is 9m worth
Hey NIN. I had Keane in there but he was too expensive and I really like the midfield so that’s why Kamara came in. What do you think of the .5 going to Baduji instead of Salioi?
Could do but the problem there is that if Badji does get starts then he’ll be in one of the weaker teams, maybe the weakest, and wont get feck all points so with the price change system in this game he’ll potentially lose a fortune very quickly. For example, last season Woodberry of New England became a budget option but because their defence was so shit and he lacked BP’s, he lost a fortune. I got him at 5.2 i think, and sold for buttons. Just be wary of the price change mate as it’s locked once the GW starts and when it reopens the prices are alrwady done so we cant ship out those likely to drop like FPL. It’s just done and we suffer it.
Yeah cheers for that NIN I didn’t understand that part. I think I’m sticking with Salioi and using the .5 elsewhere. I’ll ask you the same question as Griff. I’ve just noticed I have 2 Dallas defenders and a Dallas GK. Guillen won’t play but is it a waste to have Loyd aswell??
This might sound silly seeing as we’re talking about a complete scrub, but Guillen is a must have. Perfect bench filler at 4.0 so i wouldn’t worry about it at all. Only issue is there’s a DGW for Dallas in GW4 so having Guillen limits us to three FCD players. Not that that’s awful, but worth keeping in mind. I’ve got 4 FCD, one being Guillen. My team is posted above.
Part of the reason why this game is so fun!! Big budgets, big squads, huge values and a locked price system + awarding players for playing well instead of the dinosaur 3,2,1 system we’re used to. Add in a few Euro stars kicking arse all over the shop and you’ve got the no1 FF game out there. Really is the business mate, you’ll love it.
Yeah I think this will be good craic just will have to get used to the players apart from a few I don’t know what they are like.
Yeah it can be tough to keep up. Use the links in the above article for other tips sites that are top notch and ask lots of questions! Haha. After a round or two you’ll see which players are bonus whores which will help with value picks later. MLSBoss has a full fixture list on there so check that one out too. There’s an absolute shit to of DGW’s in MLS, mental FT’ing in prep for them!
NIN – you should try the brasilian fantasy. They also give points for the actual performance of each players (not just “bonus” points, but the whole points system is based on the actual performance) and .. wait for it … you can change the whole squad every single week. There’s no such thing as “hits” (which of course makes Mitro inelegible).
I don’t have a preference is all honesty. I like all formats. Just need a bit of tinkering and someone to wi.. eerr play with!
Haha, that sounds interesting DMC. Bonkers, but interesting! I’ll have a go at that whenever their next campaign starts up.
Barring any other major injuries or late-breaking news, this is going to be my lineup for GW1.
I had to part with Villa – but I can always get him back if he looks good. I just don’t trust the NYCFC system the way it is when they add in too many of the old dogs together. Villa played his best ball last year before Pirlo and Lamps got involved.
I dropped Guillen from my roster to have four Dallas starters.
Also, I had to add Adi in the mix with Valeri because they are the defending champs and that first game at home is going to be nuts. It’s hard not to play at least two Timbers coming into that atmosphere.
Just my thoughts. Point and laugh if you must.
What a Homer!
RSL really aren’t fancied in the opener, eh? Kinda makes me want switch back to Larin.
As in captain pick
Any idea when the Bovada betting lines are out for MLS? Interested to see what it makes of the Orlando v RSL game as far as the o / u goes.
The lines are out now in Bovada – their new interface is such crap though, makes things hard to find.
Orlando are Even money to win, and the o/u is +105/-130
I’m rather surprised that they’re going low myself
Ah yes, found them now. It was better when they had a main tab thing for it. Yeah that’s surprising considering the backing they’ve got for captain picks. Might swap Villa out for BWP for one week.
Or not actually, just seen Polster, Gehrig and Accam are all out. Villa all the way so.
Haven’t a clue what you’re on about mate so can’t really help you haha
Haha, just a good tip Guy dropped us last season. Using Bovada’s betting lines as a guide for tight captain picks, or just picks in general i suppose. I use it for FPL too but it’s much more relevant for MLS i think.
Ah right cool I’ll look into it.