This weekend is going to offer us a bit of a chance to redeem ourselves -- at least as far as it goes for creating a back line that doesn't concede five goals.... Trust me, we'll go over how historic the San Jose victory over SKC was once all of the weekend's games are over. But for now, believe me when I say that the midweek match was as much of a statistical anomaly as it was painful to watch for those that invested heavily in the SKC defence.
But that's the beautiful thing about daily fantasy football, isn't it? In the season long game, people loaded up their squads to the brim with SKC players, and now they're stuck with them for another round. But in daily play, we get to wipe them off the books and start fresh. Not a bad deal by any stretch.
Either way, a return to a fuller roster of games is always a welcome sight. Don't get me wrong, playing a fantasy contest with only four teams involved is fun, but it is a completely different type of competition. With four teams to choose from, the perceived favorites get more play and the “feast or famine” mentality takes a hold of your lineup. But when you have a full slate of games, you can minimize your risk with a greater variety in your selections.
For the purposes of this article, all prices and points are via our partners Mondogoal.
And it is a full slate of games that we get this weekend. Here are the matches that are taking place:
Fixtures
Saturday August 22
Toronto v Orlando
DC v San Jose
Columbus v SKC
Montreal v Philadelphia
Chicago v Colorado
Real Salt Lake v Seattle
Vancouver v Dallas
Sunday August 23
LA v NYCFC
Clean Sheet Potential
Chicago playing at home against Colorado is pegged by the bookies as being the match most likely to stay low scoring. That's not surprising. What is surprising is that DC v. San Jose is the second most favorite match to stay low. This could be a factor of San Jose being already a little road-weary after their recent game -- or the bookies may be looking at DC to simply be better defenders than SKC were midweek. Or maybe the bookies are looking at San Jose and they know that their 5-0 scoreline was a complete fluke. Whatever the reasons may be, choosing from this group of four teams gives you the odds on favorites to have low GA totals for your keepers and defensemen.
#1) GOALKEEPER AND DEFENDER TIPS
Truthfully the number one keeper to look at for this week has to be
Sean Johnson ($5.5). Johnson doesn't ever really get a ton of love from a fantasy standpoint. But picking Johnson this week has less to do with him than it does their opponent, Colorado. Colorado are on a historically bad run of road form. Going all the way back to April 29th of this year, Colorado haven't been able to score more than a single goal in an away match. In that stretch of time, Colorado have played eight matches on the road and have been shut out of five of them. They've been dismal, and even a team like Chicago should be able to take advantage of that fact.
So are we showing a ton of love to Sean Johnson? No. We're simply going to be smart about this and really play the numbers game. Colorado are horrible on the road. It's that simple. Chicago aren't totally without merit though. Two of their last four home matches have been shutouts, so we aren't betting solely on Colorado's ineptitude. And these factors combined make Johnson the smart pick this weekend. And if you wanted to pair Johnson with a defender, try
Eric Gehrig ($5.8). Gehrig is a nailed-on starter and leads his defensive unit with 70 interceptions on the year. Ordinarily he's not a great pickup, but this pairing makes him a favorable option.
Maybe Chicago just isn't really for you though. Their team name has now become synonymous with more than a bit of failure. If that's the case, you could double down and bet against San Jose this week again by choosing
Bill Hamid ($10.7) as your goalkeeper from DC. But given how much more potent San Jose are looking lately with a revamped core of attackers, I'm going to shy away from the bookies pick. Besides, Hamid is by far the most expensive keeper choice this weekend. It doesn't make sense to gamble on his price right now.
Look instead to
Evan Bush ($4.9). Not only is his price a steal, the Montreal keeper is actually on a fairly decent run of form that's come in largely under the radar. In Montreal's last five matches at home, they've only conceded a total of four goals -- and two of those matches resulted in clean sheets. And since they're playing against Philadelphia this week, I think the pick makes a lot of sense. Philadelphia have been largely kept at bay in their last five road matches; they've only been able to score a total of five goals in that span, and they've been shut out once. Kind of like in the Chicago v Colorado scenario, these two teams paired together makes more sense once you look at both sides of the equation.
Teaming up with Bush gives you a few choices, but
Laurent Ciman ($6.7) still gives you the best option. The defender leads his position on the team in passes, interceptions and tackles. This should be a nice little bounce-back game for him.
Attacking Potential
There are three clear winners in the bookies' picks for games with a ton of goal scoring: Toronto v Orlando, Columbus v SKC and LA v NY. The most obvious of these choices to me is the LA v NY game. LA are in some kind of form lately, and NY are always a threat to score in their own right. Toronto and Orlando is a bit of an outlier to me -- I honestly think it could go either way depending on whether or not Toronto can revert back to keeping Giovinco as the main focus of their plans. And the real wildcard is Columbus v SKC. Will Columbus continue to score at least a pair of goals with Kamara and Finlay leading the way? And do we really expect SKC to not have a real rebounding effort after their 5-0 loss on Wednesday? Even without Feilhaber in the lineup, I suspect SKC will try to make this a statement game of some sort.
#2) MIDFIELDER TIPS
Going slightly against the grain this week, we need to look at
Javier Morales ($15.7) against a traveling Seattle side. Morales has been one of the few bright spots on the RSL roster, and he deserves a look before we get into the other high scoring affairs. Morales is scoring at a clip of 15.76 ppg over his last five matches -- and that's nothing to scoff at. Seattle had a bit of a spike in their last match at home, but this road game will have its own set of challenges. And Morales, regardless of competition, is a player that has to be reckoned with after notching four assists and a pair of goals over these last five matches. With the uncertainty of Giovinco's play alongside Altidore right now, Morales may be the better bet for the price.
Steven Gerrard ($12.5) has only played twice at home since coming into the league, and in those two starts he notched point totals of 17.81 and 8.05. Gerrard could be a good play this week. The heightened atmosphere surround LA v NYCFC will be sufficient for stars on both side of the ball to come out firing on all cylinders. To be fair, I'm not real bullish on his price, but his opportunity for production is at a peak with both Gio Dos Santos and Robbie Keane playing in front of him.
A pick that people might not consider this week would also be
Shaun Maloney ($10.3) from Chicago. Maloney has a goal in each of his last two home matches, and against all odds, the new Chicago man is putting together a decent run of form towards the end of the year. Colorado on the road are likely to concede, and Maloney has been the man at the heart of the Chicago attack recently.
Midfielders to avoid:
Steer clear of
Mauro Diaz, Ignacio Piatti and
Clint Dempsey this week. As of the publishing of this article, all three of the big stars are listed on the injury report. Also,
Benny Feilhaber is out due to his red card, so avoid him as well. And if you were one of the brave few thinking about getting
Frank Lampard, I would avoid him as well. He's still listed as questionable, and his price doesn't make the risk worth it.
#3) FORWARD TIPS
Robbie Keane ($14.9) should be at the forefront of your attack this week. LA's centerpiece has double digit points three weeks running, and a shoddy NYCFC defense shouldn't cause him any trouble. Keane is that rare figure that is surround by great talent -- but all of that talent still defers to him with absolute certainty that he should be the man earning the most goals. In the beginning of LA's rebuild, there was worry that Lleget and Gerrard would steal goals from him. And then when
Giovani Dos Santos ($5.8, M) was introduced, warning bells were again going off. But what we've found is that nobody robbed anybody of goals -- LA simply started scoring more goals until everybody was taken care of.
Sebastian Giovinco ($14.5) is the biggest question mark coming into this weekend. The Toronto forward just isn't the same player since
Jozy Altidore ($3.5) came back on the scene. It's been two weeks now since Giovinco has scored in double digits, and his price has fallen as a result. Logic would say that Toronto are eventually going to brush Jozy aside and let Giovinco resume his reign of terror. We just don't know when that might be. On the surface though, Giovinco is at home and he's now at a more reasonable price. He's always worth a gamble.
Obafemi Martins ($13.6) came roaring back into the league last week. In his first start back Oba bagged a pair of goals like it was no big deal. The downside for him this week is that he's on the road -- and RSL should put up a bit more of a challenge for Martins than what he saw last week against Orlando. But if Martins could come anywhere near that 19.6 point mark again, he'd be a great addition to your squad this week.
#4) BUDGET PLAYERS
Kwadwo Poku ($4.8) is going to be the biggest gamble of the weekend. Even though the NYCFC midfielder now has back to back 20+ point performances, there are grumblings that Frank Lampard has been saving himself to play in the LA game -- the story goes that the LA fixture has enough star power to draw his attention. That could be more anecdotal reporting than anything else, but the fact remains that if Lampard and Pirlo both decide to start, Poku may draw the short straw once again. And since you can't do late swaps in Mondogoal, you'd have to wait until Sunday at kickoff to see if your investment into Poku paid off or not. There's a lot of risk/reward in this scenario.
Not as risky is the aforementioned
Giovani Dos Santos ($5.8). His price is ridiculously low right now. Playing in any formation between Keane and Gerrard is going to provide this kid with ample opportunity to score. Based on price, potential and assurance of starting, GSD is probably the pick of the week in our book.
Good luck this week. We will see you in the daily leagues.
