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Apologies for the time lapse since we last covered the MLS! After a brief bout with a terrible cold, I'm back in action. Well, I'm back in time for a pair of games in any case. The MLS loves going rogue. When the rest of the world is taking off dates for international play, the MLS decides to give 3/4 of the league a bye and forces a handful of teams to play this week. The MLS hates having every team play every weekend -- but they really can't stand giving every team a weekend off. Strange custom we American soccer fans have backed into.
But that's neither here nor there, here's the games we are looking at for tomorrow:
Wednesday October 7
NYRB v Montreal
Vancouver v Dallas
Clean Sheet Potential
It's going to be tough to pick a clean sheet out of either of these pair of games. NYRB and Montreal are both more than capable of scoring in their own right. Vancouver may have a tougher go trying to get their opening goal, but they're at home and you can't expect a home team to simply be shutout. And Dallas are coming into Vancouver nearly fully staffed and fully healthy -- so they may be the team to watch out for this round.
#1) GOALKEEPER AND DEFENDER TIPS
I'm going to skip right over Montreal and NYRB for the goalkeepers this week. It's slated that both of these teams get some kind of scoring against each other. In the battle of BWP vs Drogba, the goalkeepers are going to be the real losers.
On a surprising play, I'm going to go with Dallas's
Jesse Gonzalez (GK, $6.6) as my main keeper this week. This is partly due to Dallas really only missing Fabian Castillo from their lineup due to an international call-up, but mostly it's because Vancouver are sputtering right now and are very short staffed. Pedro Morales is slated to be out for Vancouver, and aside from him, both Kendall Waston and Darron Mattocks are out to international squads. With Vancouver being a bit hamstrung in the attacking department, I think Jesse Gonzalez is the best bet between the four keepers available.
As for defenders, Dallas'
Zach Lloyd (D, $8.9) and
Matt Hedges (D, $8.6) are both very decent options, but they'll also cost you the most of any defenders on the board. As a decent third option,
Connor Lade (D, $7.3) from NYRB is an excellent choice. At his price he's a bit of a steal. And as an added bonus, his last game saw him produce 11.58 points for his owners.
Seeing as this is an international date, we need to list the defenders that are out on duty from the available teams.
Players of note to avoid: Karl Ouimette, Matt Miazga, Kendall Waston and Ambroise Oyongo.
Attacking Potential
It goes without saying that the NYRB v Montreal match is the one that everybody is keying into to see some fireworks this week. But when you look at Dallas, the only player that they've lost to international play is Fabian Castillo. Sure, Castillo is their superstar right now, but he's the only player that isn't going to be available for selection. And a full-strength Dallas squad against a limping Vancouver squad could see a very unbalanced scoreline.
#2) MIDFIELDER TIPS
Dallas's
Mauro Diaz ($13.0) is the most expensive midfielder on the board this round -- and he may be worth it. Since getting back to healthy and getting in the starting lineup, Diaz has posted recent scores of 12.67 and 7.71 points. Diaz will be relied upon a bit more this week with Castillo being out, and he looks up to the challenge of carrying this team again in some capacity. Like I said, Diaz is just now coming back into the fold for Dallas, and they missed his production. Prior to missing six matches, Diaz was posting an average score of 15.15 points per game through every match he played in the month of July. If he can get back to that level again, he'll be a midfielder worth having well into the MLS playoffs.
The next player that you're going to want to have on your squad is
Sacha Kljestan ($12.1). The NYRB man has been in the middle of all of the action for his team -- and it's undeniable that this team wouldn't be in first place in the conference without his contributions to this point in the year. Kljestan has slowed up slightly since his terrific run in late August, but he's picking up the pace again lately. His last match saw a decent return of 9.45 points, and I think he'll build on that again this round.
The big question mark that everybody will be waiting to get more information on is
Ignacio Piatti ($12.4). Piatti has been out of the country for some time dealing with his ailing father, and nobody seems to know if he'll be ready to start by Wednesday evening. Reports are trickling out of some news outlets saying that Piatti is back with the team and training -- but we'll have to wait and see if he's anywhere close to match fit after such an extended absence. Montreal play in the first game of the day, so there will be plenty of time to see his status before locking in your final team. If he's available, he's a must-have player for your roster this week.
Players not available: Fabian Castillo, Darron Mattocks, Kyle Bekker and Johan Venegas.
#3) FORWARD TIPS
Let's be honest, we don't even have to break the numbers down to realize that nearly every fantasy owner is going to have
Bradley Wright Phillips ($11.4) and
Didier Drogba ($8.2) on their teams this week. Can you find more qualified forwards? Not really. And with only four teams, you'll really have to get lucky if you try to find differentials that will be more productive than these two.
So the choice really comes down to the second game. Do you pick
Octavio Rivero ($8.7) or
Michael Barrios ($7.6). Rivero has struggled lately without Morales feeding him the ball. His average score over his last three matches is 4.6 points. Barrios on the other hand has a full platoon of healthy teammates behind him, and his average score over the same time period is 9.15 points.
Dallas are in better form, and they're going to be coming hard at this match in a bid to overtake the LA Galaxy for first place in the Western Conference. Take Barrios as your third striker, no question.
