This was a week full of surprises. I don't know that there's much more that can be said to illustrate how frustrating the week was for many daily fantasy football players. There were...surprises. We got a lot right, but a lot went wrong. And mostly the stuff that we got wrong was due to the nature of the MLS - and we'll get to that.
Players we were banking on getting big points in Daily Fantasy MLS simply didn't play. Other players that did play...we kind of wish they didn't. But that's the football, right? Let's breakdown what we got right and wrong this week so that we can learn from our mistakes and do better next week.
What we got wrong:
We need to start off with Vancouver. It's almost like Vancouver didn't want to win in Houston this week. Our number one defender pick,
Steven Beitashour, was left home in Vancouver "for rest". He, along with fellow starting fullback
Jordan Harvey, simply didn't make the trip. And do you know what happens when you leave the spine of your team at home? Bad things.
Vancouver looked lost.
Kendall Waston was maybe trying to do too much to compensate for the loss of his fellow defensemen and earned himself a red card.
Matias Laba was also red carded and Vancouver, down to 9 men, lost to the score of 2-0. Vancouver coach Carl Robinson is justly taking some heat for his decisions this week -- and his lineup was nothing we could've predicted. Even
Pedro Morales and
Octavio Rivero were out of the starting lineup. Like I said, Vancouver simply didn't want to win that game.
Dan Kennedy was also a scratch from his Saturday match against RSL. And it's a shame, because we had that game pegged as a Dallas win with a potential for a clean sheet. And Dallas did clean sheet that game. Unfortunately, no-name
Jesse Gonzalez got the start because Kennedy was omitted last minute with a knee strain.
Moving up the field,
Kaka was a miss. We expected more from Kaka then what he gave. His only redeeming stat was 39 Passes Completed, but that's a pittance for points when it doesn't couple up with any scores.
And when it comes to forwards, we missed on
Giovinco, David Villa and
Kamara. Combined, the three strikers totaled 13 points. It was simply awful to watch. Giovinco was subbed out early with an injury, but Villa and Kamara really have no excuse. The advantage of a game played at Yankee Stadium did nothing for fantasy owners.
What we got right:
There is good news though. We absolutely nailed a few selections. Starting with Dallas, even though Kennedy didn't play, our defender pick
Zach Loyd still got the clean sheet and scored well for his owners. Also, despite NYRB losing hard to Chicago the match prior, we made
Luis Robles our number one pick for Sunday -- and he duly delivered. With a pair of saves and a clean sheet, those that chose to invest in NYRB despite their high ranking opponent were richly rewarded.
And continuing with NYRB,
Bradley Wright Phillips was our number one pick for the second half of the weekend, and boy did he deliver. With two goals and an assist, BWP was a man apart this weekend. He gave the performance we were expecting from Giovinco and Villa. DC United simply didn't have a prayer with the form that he was in.
Our Grade: C
I almost wanted to give us the C- in this case -- but I refuse to take responsibility for Vancouver essentially throwing the game and not taking their starting unit. And with the lack of reporting in the MLS, we oftentimes don't find out that a player isn't playing until kickoff. These sorts of things just don't happen in the EPL or NFL. It wasn't so long ago that we didn't find out Kaka was being left out of a game until it was reported that nobody saw him board the airplane. It comes with the territory with the MLS.
Undoubtedly, our Sunday picks paid off for you, and our Saturday picks fell flat. Sliver lining? If you followed our advice both days, at least you broke even. We WILL do better next weekend.
