MLS GW19 Tips – Fantasy Major League Soccer

MLS GW19 Tips – Fantasy Major League Soccer

GW19 doesn’t come with a lot of pretext for me. We’re now sufficiently divorced from the massive DGW – and by and large, the game looks like it’s starting to resemble something of a normal fantasy soccer setup.

True, we do have an impending DGW for two teams (Columbus and Chicago), but for this round we’re only looking at two byes in LA and DC United. Maybe this bye for DC will finally be the ‘nail in the coffin’ for you to unload all of your DC players and start fresh with a team that doesn’t actively try to sabotage your fantasy score.

Here are the major talking points for this week:

#1) Sell Keane — but plan on getting him right back
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[/three_fourth]Robbie Keane is on a bye, and there isn’t any reason to keep Keane on your fantasy team this week. Now that Keane is coming into form, he’s going to be a fantasy juggernaut again — and it is tempting to just stash him on your bench instead of spending two transfers on one player just to take him out and bring him right back in again. But if you have him on your team (and every one of the Top 10 teams did have him), this is the course of action that you’re going to have to take.

There is a bit of risk in selling Keane, so you have to be smart about it. If you sell him and spend the rest of the funds elsewhere for the week, you run the chance of losing a bit of value and leaving yourself short when it comes time to buy him again. The best bet is to leave yourself a bit of a cushion in your bank just in case you happen to get a player on a red card (hey, it’s the MLS after all).

But let’s be clear, LA play SJ (H), Houston (A) and Colorado (A) in their next three fixtures. There will be goal scoring opportunities for Keane, and he is going to be a must-have player moving forward into this stretch of games.

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#2) Be patient with the new summer signings
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[/three_fourth]Gerrard, Lampard, Pirlo, Iraola and Angelino are the first batch of summer signings that will be coming into the league. The big three will all be offered for $10.0 — and they are enticing options if your team could use a bit of a revamping. But pace yourself bringing these players in, you have a lot to consider before making a move for a new player.

The first real issue that we’re all going to have to consider is which of our current superstar players are we willing to part with to bring in a player like Gerrard or Lampard? It may be easy to dismiss Giovinco right after he had a bad game, but are you willing to ship him off for a player with only pre-season fitness? Or would you dump a player like Valeri or Feilhaber? No matter how you slice it, your team will have to suffer a major subtraction to bring in one of these $10.0 players.

The second thing to consider would be the schedule that the head coaches have slotted these players in for. We don’t yet really know if Pirlo is ever expected to be a 90-minute player. Lampard had spent the better part of his tenure at Man City being a super-sub. It’s all anybody’s guess right now how often these guys will start AND finish a match. Furthermore, we don’t precisely know when all of these players will make their debuts. Lampard is slated to be the first to start, but it’s looking like Gerrard and Pirlo could still be a week or so out. And will any of these players come in to compete right away? Or will they be given the glorified introductory 45 minute showing? The safest route is to just wait and see on this batch of players.

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#3) San Jose are the (current) best defensive side
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[/three_fourth]This is a shocking find. It’s so easy to hear “San Jose” and thing of negative things about their squad. But this team has really turned it all around in their defensive half this last month. In their three games in June, San Jose managed to keep two clean sheets and only allow a single goal to a very potent LA. And their first game in July resulted in a 1-0 loss to Portland. For those of you keeping score, their last four games have an average of 0.5 GA. That’s a monstrous stat considering the level of competition they’ve faced in that span.

And it’s not like San Jose are full of stars. David Bingham (GK, $5.4) is actually tied for 12th place for total points in the game, but most surprising is the fact that he’s ranked 15th amongst all keepers in the game at 4.7% ownership. And it’s only going to get better for San Jose as they entertain Houston this weekend. Houston are simply an awful road side, and the San Jose defense should have a field day working them over.

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#4) Should you own Kamara for the DGW?
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[/three_fourth]In addition to Keane, every single Top 10 team this week owned Kei Kamara. If you’re simply playing a numbers game, that should tell you that having Kamara is a must if you hope to keep pace with the pack of leaders. But what if you don’t want to pick him up? Are there better options for you even if that means going into the DGW without one of the league leaders in goal scoring?

Personally, I’m not thrilled at the prospect of picking up Kamara. His last five scores are 2, 2, 11, 4 and 11. There isn’t a whole lot of consistency there. Four of those five games were home fixtures too, so it’s not like you can depend on him to show pure class even while playing in Columbus. Two of his next three fixtures are all on the road, and that could be a problem. It’s a coin toss for me whether I pick him up or not. I know that he’s popular with the big teams in the FMLS league, but something in my gut is telling me he isn’t the right play. His last five scores while playing away are 2, 4, 7, 1 and 4. He only had one goal in those five games.

It would be easy for me to tell you to pick him up and just be safe. But the numbers are what they are. Should you pick Kamara? Probably. Is it likely that another forward will have more points than Kamara this week? Probably. I can’t give you a definitive answer on this one, all I can do is provide you with the facts and tell you to trust your gut.

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#5) David Villa to MLS: “Are you not entertained?”
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[/three_fourth]Since GW11, David Villa has played 90 minutes each game he’s featured in. That’s typically the first prerequisite for picking a star striker, is it not? During that time he’s averaged 7.25 points per match.

In the past four matches he’s notched scores of 12, 12, 1 and 14. Sure, that single point game hurt, but I’m willing to look past that for the sheer weight of the other scores. It remains to be seen whether Villa will lose points in the future when Pirlo starts taking the free kicks, but for now Villa is a must-have player at the top of his game in this league.

Villa’s next three matches are against Toronto (H), New England (A) and Orlando (H). None of those teams are well known for the defensive prowess. Villa currently comes at a cost of $10.9 — that’s a $0.9 increase from his IPO value at the start of the year. If his scoring continues, he could be amongst the $12 players when this year is over.

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#6) The captain picks
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[/three_fourth]The Top Tier: Villa and Giovinco. I’m going with Villa because of everything I just wrote above. And I’m going with Giovinco because he has yet to turn in back to back performances of 2 points or less. NYCFC aren’t exactly a defensive juggernaut at the moment and Giovinco should see many more opportunities to draw fouls and earn himself some free kicks on New York’s tiny pitch.

The Differentials: Feilhaber and Valeri. Feilhaber is the league’s forgotten superstar at the moment. After not having a DGW in GW17 and having a bye in GW18, Feilhaber saw a massive dip in his ownership. But he’s back now and should be good to go for being the bonus-point machine we all know and love. And Valeri is now certified to be back in 90-minute form. He played the full game Sunday vs. San Jose and was able to contribute an assist en route to 7 points. He should see more scoring opportunities against Philly this weekend.

The Sneaky Pick: Kriztian Nemeth. The SKC forward ending his last outing with a goal and should be well rested to add to his goals totals against a depleted Vancouver team this weekend.

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Finally and in addition to Guy’s superb piece above, Lawdogg has also been busy. Please find below a team-by-team breakdown of MLS players competing in the Gold Cup:

CANADA
3. Ashtone Morgan (D, Toronto FC)
7. Russell Teibert (M, Vancouver Whitecaps)
8. Kyle Bekker (M, FC Dallas)
13. Jonathan Osorio (M, Toronto FC)
16. Maxim Tissot (M, Montreal Impact)
17. Marcel de Jong (M, Sporting Kansas City)
18. Quillan Roberts (GK, Toronto FC)
20. Karl Ouimette (D, New York Red Bulls)
21. Cyle Larin (F, Orlando City SC)
23. Tesho Akindele (M, FC Dallas)

COSTA RICA
9. Álvaro Saborío (F, Real Salt Lake)
19. Roy Miller (D, New York Red Bulls)

EL SALVADOR
7. Darwin Cerén (M, Orlando City SC)

HAITI
18. Soni Mustivar (M, Sporting Kansas City)

HONDURAS
13. Oscar Boniek Garcia (M, Houston Dynamo)

GUATEMALA
3. Elías Vásquez (D, Real Salt Lake)
5. Moises Hernandez (D, FC Dallas)
16. Marco Pappa (M, Seattle Sounders)

JAMAICA
1. Andre Blake (GK, Philadelphia Union)
5. Alvas Powell (D, Portland Timbers)
8. Michael Seaton (F, DC United – on loan to Orebro)
9. Giles Barnes (F, Houston Dynamo)
11. Darren Mattocks (F, Vancouver Whitecaps)
12. Demar Phillips (D, Real Salt Lake)
15. Je-Vaughn Watson (M, FC Dallas)
20. Kemar Lawrence (D, New York Red Bulls)
21. Jermaine Taylor (D, Houston Dynamo)

PANAMA
1. Jaime Penedo (GK, LA Galaxy)
7. Blas Pérez (F, FC Dallas)
8. Gabriel Torres (F, Colorado Rapids)

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
3. Joevin Jones (M, Chicago Fire)
13. Cordell Cato (M, San Jose Earthquakes)
19. Kevan George (M, Columbus Crew SC)

USA
3. Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy)
4. Michael Bradley (Toronto FC)
5. Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake)
8. Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders)
10. Mix Diskerud (New York City FC)
12. Nick Rimando (GK, Real Salt Lake)
14. Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo)
16. Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders)
17. Jozy Altidore (Toronto FC)
18. Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)
19. Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
20. Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy)

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MLS GW19 Tips – Fantasy Major League Soccer This article was written by Guy Sanchez (FootyFantastic)

Follow @Guy_M_Sanchez

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Don’t forget that Guy does have his own MLS blog and we highly recommend a visit as it expands even more upon the current GW – http://www.footyfantastic.com/