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)

Follow @Guy_M_Sanchez

