We expected it to be an exciting round as the season approaches its final stages, and it was! Fantasy-wise, many managers had to swallow disappointment as the two most popular captain picks, Martinez and Almiron, failed to deliver the expected results. Nevertheless, 39 goals were produced including 5 braces from Rooney, Blanco, Picault, Diomande and Rodriguez. Philadelphia, LAFC and SKC clinched playoff spots, but the big news from this round was last year’s Champions, Toronto FC, crashing out of playoff contention. They joined Orlando, Minnesota, Chicago, Colorado and San Jose on the elimination pile. On a brighter note, the 16 year old defender George Bello scored his first MLS goal for Atlanta, which was a delight for his owners in FMLS.
16-year-old @_georgebello scores his first-ever MLS goal! #ATLvNE https://t.co/pfrJ3k1eTH
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 6, 2018
Gameweek 32 Review
Despite the usual suspects Almiron and Martinez blanking, Atlanta United still managed to take the three points against New England Revolution (2-1) to stay top, but they are closely followed by NYRB who won their away match at San Jose (1-3). In a similar situation to Atlanta, FC Dallas remained top in the West by eliminating Orlando City in a 2-0 win, while SKC booked their tickets for the postseason by drawing (1-1) with LA Galaxy. Both Portland Timbers and Philadelphia Union maintained fourth position in their Conferences with big wins over RSL (1-4) and Minnesota United (5-1) respectively. Vancouver Whitecaps knocked out Toronto FC (1-2) from the playoff contest and LAFC kept hopes up with an away victory (0-3) vs Colorado Rapids. Rooney’s brace extinguished Chicago Fire (2-1) and moved DC United closer to the top six. The round ended with a game in which Victor Rodriguez scored his first MLS brace and with two more goals from Bruin and Roldan Seattle Sounders (4-1) eliminated Houston Dynamo from the playoffs.
Why not, Ilsinho?! 5-1. #PHIvMIN https://t.co/nXeDsANILm
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 7, 2018
Gameweek 33 Preview
As always, when the rest of the football world is on an international break MLS insists on keeping us entertained, even with a tiny round including just four games 😀
LAFC ( W 15 D 8 L 8 ) vs HOU ( W 9 D 8 L 14 )
Last week the Black and Gold booked their ticket for the playoffs and that didn’t come as a surprise after they’ve been outstanding throughout the season. With a win here, they will match the 56 points Atlanta achieved last year as a team in an inaugural season. And with their remaining two games afterwards they could surpass the record of 57 held by Chicago from 1988. Of course, the fight for a second place is included in their campaign, so they have much to play for. After almost three months, Diomande scored a brace to remind everyone of the time he scored nine goals in six games earlier in the season. The rest is a large pool of well-known players to choose from. Expect to see various formation including Vela or Rossi, plus Feilhaber, Nguyen, Zimmerman, Beitashour and others. As the first game in the round, Miller (10 clean sheets) would be ideal for your keeperoo.
Too easy for Dio & @LAFC!
3-0 to the visitors. #COLvLAFC https://t.co/fQvWZk8zAK
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 7, 2018
Houston need to win all their remaining games to be in with a chance of post-season participation. And even then, that will be dependent on the results from other teams. It looks more likely that they will be eliminated from the playoffs, either by defeat to Seattle in Round 32, or by defeat to the mighty Black and Gold in this round. Either way, it’s not recommended to pick any of their players for this fixture.
MIN ( W 11 D 3 L 17 ) vs COL ( W 6 D 6 L 19 )
This will be a game between two teams already out of the post-season contest and with nothing to play for. That said, in games like this quite a few goals can be scored for fun and, if that is the case, most likely they will come from the host team. Even in a small round like this we still need 15 players and apart from the expected picks from the other games the likes of Ibarra, Quintero and a defender could appear in some teams.
DCU ( W 11 D 8 L 11 ) vs DAL ( W 16 D 9 L 6 )
Since the arrival of Wane Rooney we have seen a totally different DC United. The Black and Red are unbeaten in their last six games and are now standing only two points behind sixth-placed Montreal, with still another game in hand after this one. We hardly need to mention that Rooney will be in every team, accompanied by L. Acosta, plus others.
The Texans are currently topping the Western Conference but with SKC and LAFC not far behind they will need six points from their remaining three fixtures (which includes this one) to secure a top two place. In contrast to their excellent home record, the one on the road is not perfect. They have two losses and two draws in the last five.
2⃣ more goals for @WayneRooney, 3⃣ more points for @dcunited. pic.twitter.com/kKAWEGJE63
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 8, 2018
NE ( W 8 D 11 L 12 ) vs ORL ( W 7 D 4 L 19 )
The last game of this rather short round will surely see the Revs going all out, following their loss at Atlanta last week, as anything less than a win will see them eliminated. Given the calibre of the opponents, no doubt a home win is expected here and players like Penilla, Fagundez and Bunbury will be popular. Knighton has played the last five games in goal and made 26 saves in them. He is reasonably priced and can be used as last resort in the keeperoo.
It’s hard to remember the last time the Lions won a game [Ed. It was the 15th July; 2-1 at home against Toronto]. They have shipped 14 goals on the road in the last five games and that bad record is only likely to increase in this game.
Captain Suggestions
1. Wayne Rooney (DCU)
2. Carlos Vela (LAFC)
3. Cristian Penilla (NE)
Deadline
Friday 12.10.18 at 10PM EDT – Saturday at 3AM BST
Best of luck to all Managers.
Thanks for reading: MLS Tips Fantasy Major League Soccer GW33. This article was written by Ivan The Terrible
Presumably I’ll play 3rd (Ivan) and he’ll be posting his team so to be fair I’ll not change my choices unless nonstarters My team is :
V – R – P
F – S – A – A – C
B – Z – B – B – M
S – K
Good luck
Bloody hard to find a differential this week Ivan , I’ve gone outside the box with my cpt.
My cpt is currently <1% yabadabadoo
Yes Zorro, with so many call ups we can end up with differentials only. The bad news is that the first game is in the West and KO is at 3 AM BST. Good for some like you to be 10 AM 😉
A few international call-ups, which might (or might not) be useful in your respective MLS teams.
LAFC : Only their reserve goal-keeper has been called up (Lopez)
https://www.angelsonparade.com/2018/10/7/17947294/lafc-goalkeeper-luis-lopez-called-up-honduras-national-team-uae-friendly-2018
Houston : Forwards Quito, Elis and Peña called up as well as Defender Machado and MF Alvarez.
https://www.houstondynamo.com/es/post/2018/10/02/five-dynamo-players-called-international-duty
FC Dallas : Cannon (D), Gruezo (M) and Figueroa (D- but not regular) called up
https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/fc-dallas/fc-dallas-players-leave-for-international-duty/
DC United : Moreno, Segura (MF) and forwards (Mattock, Kelly), Not reflected in MLS with red, so beware.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/10/05/dc-united-will-get-hit-by-international-call-ups-so-will-its-mls-opponents/?utm_term=.11ebf0515a3d
New England : Delamea and Herivaux called up.
https://www.revolutionsoccer.net/post/2018/10/05/delamea-slovenia-herivaux-haiti-called-national-team-duty
Could not find any news of call-ups for Colorado, Orlando and Minnesota. But, do check
Handy stuff Shriv, thx
I couldn’t find anything official on MIN either but I expect Ibarra, Calvo and Schuller to be playing against Qatar, Mexico and Estonia respectively
Thanks Otieno, might be best to leave them out as well, then.
Cheers for this!
That is a very useful infor mate. Thanks :thumbup:
I’m going with: Shuttleworth — Scally*, Birnbaum, Boxall, Farrell — Wallace* Fagundez, L. Acosta, Ibarra — Rooney (C), Quintero.
BENCH*: Miller — Zimmerman, Feilhaber, Vela. $5.7 mil ITB.
With the schedule spaced out this round I’ve got plenty of wiggle room to make changes after Friday night’s LAFC v Houston match. Plenty of money ITB to help the cause.
Otieno mentioned Ibarra might be away for International duty. Refer 9.2 above, hat tip to Otieno. Calvo is flagged as not available on the MLS Fantasy site, not so for Ibarra, but I have dropped Ibarra.
By the way, according to the Revs site, Farrell is ruled out with a hamstring injury. “Injury Report: OUT: D – Andrew Farrell (hamstring injury)”
One of the MLS Fantasy boss speakers in the podcast was suggesting Nguyen over Feilhaber.
You have covered almost all the big guns. Wow.
My first draft 🙂
Well, being as you have 7 feckin players on a bye pending a craperoo, what the fuck do you want us to say Ivan? A: I’m not a mind reader and B: If I could read yours I’d head for Broadmoor.
Zorro, the first game will be a shot in the dark for me. I ain’t staying up until 2 AM to see the lineups. Even if I was, that would be after the pub which is worse. I’ll place the rest of the players when I see the starting list, at least they are on Saturday evening 😉
Hi Ivan,
Great team, btw, the MLS Fantasy boss podcast was discussing you being top of their league beating out Mike.
On this team, maybe Vela in the bench instead of Salinas. Last week, was supposed to be the game Martinez and Almiron fired Atlanta, instead was a flop show all around from those two, similarly, while Houston has nothing to play for, one never knows, you can always scrub the respective position to accommodate the bench (based on who fires)
Any chance or interest in upgrading Jakovic to Zimmerman?
I guess you will be changing the captain later (Am sure it is not Wazza or Acosta as Dallas is one of the better teams on the road, they normally concede only 0, 1 or 2 (equal chances), and score one i think at best, it will be 2-1, though one could argue it will be 1-1)
Hey Shriv. I still have to find time to listen to this week’s edition. Maybe they mean the spring season which I won. This time I couldn’t even make the quarters 🙁 My aim is now to go back in top 100, 8 points out of it.
You are right about Zimmerman, he has more attacking ability and gets more BPs. I was thinking to save cash but now see that I can afford him. As for captain, that will be decided tomorrow.
Actually, you can skip a lot of it where they were recommending Calvo, Ibarra etc. Your part comes after 47 minutes. On Captain choice, I was thinking Bosko would be a great differential instead of Shrek or Lucho.
Two different players in our H2H so far if those stay the same
This ok?
I would swap your GKs just in case Miller has a nightmare. If he scores well then you can scrub out Shuttleworth on Sat afternoon. Otherwise looks good just check the starting line ups as a couple of these have been mentioned as possible internationals or injuries.
Yes Terminators, Otieno is right. Miller plays first on Friday, put him on the bench as everyone will do the same. Then, if he f it up play someone else. I hope he does well, too pricey for keeperoo but we have to try.
I didn’t pick Miller anyway
Adding to that, Farrell is ruled out, can you look at Mancienne and Ryan Hollingshead, instead of Hedges and Farrell? Though if you have the money, do look at LAFC instead of Mancienne