MLS GW32 Tips – Fantasy Major League Soccer

MLS GW32 Tips – Fantasy Major League Soccer

*NOTE* Game-week 32 starts tomorrow at 7.30PM ET (USA), that’s 12.30am in the UK.

Colorado, FC Dallas, Montreal, NYRB and Vancouver — that’s it. The MLS, in all its infinite wisdom, has an actual game week with only five clubs playing. While 15 teams get a bye for international dates, these five teams got the short end of the straw and have to play a round of football while other clubs get to rest and plan for their final playoff push.

Is it fair to these teams? Absolutely not. Is it fair to fantasy players? Again, not really. Before getting into the meat of this article, you have to view this round for what it is — this round is simply a placeholder for your team ranking. With such limited players to choose from, there’s no real way that you can shoot up the rankings, but if you deviate too much from the standard selection of players, you could lose a few spots. The best idea would’ve been a bye week for all fantasy players — but this is what we are forced to work with.

I don’t want to sound too negative about the prospects for an entire round of fantasy, but when you consider that many FMLS players are already in heated playoff battles in their mini-leagues, the last thing you want is to get knocked out in a round like this. The margin of victory could be razor thin this week, so let’s get to work.

#1) Understanding the playing field

First off, most people know by now that you have a wildcard this week and next week. So even with very limited roster choices, you can buy all necessary options this week and get your team balanced again in the next round. For that reason, don’t try to get too cute with building your squad this week, there is no reason at all to have any player stashed on the bench for future rounds. Maybe you won’t be able to spend the bulk of your money on a your starting 11 players, but you should build your bench out with subs from only these available teams. In the off chance that a player doesn’t start, you want as much coverage from the bench for subs as possible.

And for a little tip that nobody else is really focusing on — you may want to try to put as many bona fide starters on your bench as you can possibly afford so that you can also catch their potential price rises. As we go into the last few weeks of the season, this round presents a unique opportunity to snag an extra few dollars for your budget. Because player prices rise based on performance, creating a good balance of starters on your bench and starting grid gives you the best opportunity to grow your bank. How often do we sit at our computers trying to find that extra $0.2 or $0.3 to upgrade a midfielder? This may be your last chance to make that money in a very easy way.

There is a bit of a caveat to this though. There is potential to lose money on a few players since the price rises and falls all depend on the overall performance by position. So in a pool of only five goalkeepers, two shutouts could mean that the goalkeepers that only got 2 points could lose value. Same thing is possible with forwards being a bit skewed. The best bet is to load your bench up with midfielders and defenders since they have a larger pool to protect them from a price tumble — but on the chance they have a good match, they can still snag you a bit of a rise.

Also adding to our selection woes: Montreal are the only team with a DGW — so it goes without saying that you’ll want to start your building process with four Montreal players on the field. And remember that rosters lock on Wednesday, October 7 at 7:30ET. We have two matches on Wednesday of this week and only a single match on Saturday. So now that we have the rules out of the way, let’s start picking some players.

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#2) Know your teams

With five teams to choose from, I think the best course of action is to list each team and start with who is not available to play for them. Remember, this is an international date — and surprisingly, these teams have been hit rather harshly by some international call-ups. Once that’s out of the way, we can start picking players from the players we have remaining.

Colorado v MTL (H)
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[/three_fourth]Breakdown: Colorado have a home match this round, but it hardly matters. Colorado haven’t won a match since August 29, and in the five matches since then they’ve lost four and played to a single draw. Form doesn’t come much worse than that. The Rapids have three matches remaining — but they’re still ten points out of the last playoff spot, so they are now mathematically eliminated from postseason play. Colorado also have the worst goal differential in the conference with a -8. So how does a team that’s been eliminated from the playoffs proceed? It’s hard to say, but expect to see a few surprise lineup moves to get some of the youth a chance to play.

International Call-ups: Colorado are losing Dillon Serna, Gabriel Torres, Maynor Figueroa and Kevin Doyle. Really, a lot of the punch has been called out of the Rapids team for their match this week. Coupling these losses with the fact that Colorado are just playing matches to go through the motions means that you may not want to invest too heavily in them. Or, if you’re the gambling sort, it could mean that you could pick up one of the bench scrubs and see if they try to win their next contract in a single 90 minute match.

Recommended Players:
I would avoid Irwin here at GK — and maybe most of the defense is better left on the shelf. Dillon Powers (M, $7.8) has had a bit of a bump in performance recently, his last three scores have been 7, 6 and 3 points. He could be good for a moderate amount of return. Vicente Sanchez (F, $7.3) may actually be a decent pickup against a weary Montreal squad. He has 23 points over his last three matches himself.

Captain Picks?:
I’d pass on making anybody your captain from this team. Could Sanchez snag a brace? He has shown he has the ability — and Kevin Doyle won’t be around to steal his thunder. But Kevin Doyle also won’t be around to draw the attention of the opposition. Best to leave the armband to a more qualified candidate.

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FC Dallas v VAN (A)
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[/three_fourth]Breakdown: Dallas have clinched a playoff spot and they sit in second place in the conference behind LA. The key here is that Dallas are a single point behind LA, and they have two games in hand on the Galaxy. In short, Dallas control their own destiny here. If Dallas are able to win three out of the next four matches, they can secure the top spot and have home field advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs. The bad news for Dallas is that they’ve lost their last two road fixtures — and their last match against Vancouver was a road match that saw them lose 0-1.

International Call-Ups: It looks like Dallas have been affected the least by call-ups in this round. That I’ve found, only Fabian Castillo has been called into action — but that’s still a huge loss. Castillo is their top player, and he’s the highest ranking fantasy option that they have.

Recommended Players:
Outside of Castillo, you have virtually the entire Dallas roster to choose from — and they have some very decent options. Mauro Diaz (M, $10.2) is now fully back in action and was able to score a goal and assist en route to 10 points in his last match. Matt Hedges (D, $9.8) is probably more expensive than any defender you’d typically get, but he hasn’t scored 2 points or fewer over the last seven rounds. He’s a very steady option. My top pick from Dallas this week would be Michael Barrios (M, $8.2). The midfielder has scored steady points during his run as a starter. As a bonus incentive for picking him up, know that Barrios’ last two league goals have come on the road.

Captain Picks?:
If you don’t feel 100% confident about taking a Montreal player as a captain this week (and there are valid reasons why you would feel that way), I would put Barrios or Diaz towards the top of the list as decent differential captain picks.

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NYRB v MON (H)
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[/three_fourth]Breakdown: The NYRB sit in first place in the East, clear by a full 3 points. New York, like Dallas, also have the luxury of having a pair of games in hand over the next ranked team. The added bonus for the Red Bulls is that they control their destiny in the quest for the Supporter’s Shield. If they win out, they win some hardware. I’d look for New York to continue to press their advantage to wrap up their regular season to their liking as soon as possible.

International Call-Ups: New York, for whatever reason, have also been minimally hit by international duty. They do seem to win in more of a team fashion as opposed to relying on the stellar play of a few superstars, but when you see that the top ranked team in the league are only losing Karl Ouimette and Matt Miazga…it makes you wonder why their talented players don’t get more respect internationally. Be that as it may, you get to pick from a full roster of Red Bulls players this week.

Recommended Players:
To save time here, let me just say that you should just pick the best players on the board for New York. BWP, Kljestan, Grella, Sam — these are all players worthy of a look. Montreal have the ability to score on any team given that they have Drogba, so maybe the defense isn’t the way to go. But you’ve picked your share of NYRB players these past few weeks. Stick with your favorites.

Captain Picks?: If I had to pick a single NYRB player, it would have to be Kljestan, hands down. Sure BWP can snag a goal, and so can Grella. But for scoring from open play to free kicks to penalties, Kljestan has to be your man. And he may really be a decent pick for this round, single game or no.

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Vancouver v DAL (H)
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[/three_fourth]Breakdown: Vancouver sit in third place in the West, but they’re struggling. The Whitecaps have lost both of their last home fixtures by a combined score of 1-5. Adding to their woes, Pedro Morales tried to come back in their last match against San Jose but was subbed off early once again due to his hamstring injury. If your best player isn’t fit to play more than 19 minutes, you’re not going to have a good run.

International Call-Ups: Vancouver are being hit hard by international selections this week. Sam Adekugbe, Kendall Waston and Darron Mattocks have all been selected. Mattocks and Waston in particular are going to be huge losses in light of Morales not being fit.

Recommended Players:
There isn’t much here to choose from. Morales is the playmaker for this team, and without him everybody else struggles. Rivero’s last three scores are 2, 1 and 2 points. Manneh has scored only slightly better with marks of 3, 4 and 2. The only shining light may be Christian Techera (M, $7.7). Techera is working admirably to try to inject this team with some scoring in Morales’ absence. His average score over the last five matches is 6.4 points per game — and while his output has been good for individual stats, he’s not good enough to win matches on his own for Vancouver..

Captain Picks?: Unless you want to be very differential with Techera, I’d pass on this lot. There are too many key absences for this whole team to run very well. Plus Dallas is coming at nearly full strength his time, and I expect Dallas to win this one easily.

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Montreal v NYRB (A), COL (A)
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[/three_fourth]Breakdown: Of course the team with a DGW has back to back road games (#BecauseMLS). And not only does Montreal have double road games, but they will have some stiff competition against a NYRB team trying to win the league title, and they won’t know what to expect against a Colorado team that could feature any player that’s on contract. More worrying for fantasy owners is the fact that Montreal haven’t won a road game since August 1. It’s just hard to know what to expect from Montreal this round with that kind of track record.

What we do know is that Montreal are only a single point clear of Orlando for the sixth and final playoff spot in the East. Granted, Montreal have two games in hand over any team that would try to overtake that sixth spot, but Montreal will be sufficiently motivated to get at least a road point from each of these matches to assure a playoff berth.

The good news for Montreal fans is that there are reports now stating that Ignacio Piatti is back in camp after his father’s health scare — but we don’t know if he’ll be available for selection in this first match of the series. Remember to check your lineups before the games lock to see if you need to bring Piatti in.

International Call-Ups: Montreal are actually losing a good number of players to international duty. Ambrose Oyongo, Wandrille Lefevre, Kyle Bekker, Maxim Tissot, Johan Venegas and Eric Miller are all away. These may not be huge players, but in a DGW they are players that might’ve slotted into a roster spot.

Suspension Warnings: In addition to the international losses, Marco Donadel, Laurent Ciman and Nigel Reo-Coker are all a yellow card away from a suspension. These three players almost certainly would be on most people’s radars in such a limited week, but a single yellow card in that first match would mean that you won’t get any points from them in the follow-up match in Colorado. Huge risk taking these players.

Recommended Players:
Didier Drogba ($10.6) is going to be on every team. You may as well pick him too. Only a true maverick — and I mean a Sarah Palin caliber maverick — would leave Drogba off their team this weekend. Outside of that though, it’s a bit up to your discretion. Oduro, Piatti, Toia and Ciman are all decent picks in a DGW. Bush may be the best keeper to choose based on the Colorado match alone. Maybe you don’t want to have four Montreal players on the field for you, but you should still have your maximum allotted amount of Impact players whether they’re on your bench or starting grid.

Captain Picks?: As much as I advocate having Drogba, he’s going to be tested this week for sure. If you captain anybody, captain him. But don’t be surprised if a midfielder from one of the other clubs ends up getting high score this week.

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There you have it folks. Good luck this week. It’s not a fantasy situation that I would’ve imagined this late in the year, but it is what it is.

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MLS GW32 Tips – Fantasy Major League Soccer This article was written by Guy Sanchez (FootyFantastic)

Follow @Guy_M_Sanchez