Fantasy MLS Rekrap Week 34

Decision day has come and gone and what a decision it was. This was a weekend of breaking curses as the famous sign in Wrigley Field now reads Emaus Catuli AC0000108, sadly Portland could not tap into this magic as the MLS Cup Champions failed to win a road game for the year and fell into their $7 artisan hipster toast face first. In the Supporters’ Shield, FC Dallas did their best Colorado Rapids impression against the LA Galaxy ‘B’ team and it looks like they may be adopting a more tactical approach in the absence of Mauro Diaz. FCD was a great team for a neutral to pull for in the playoffs but let’s hope they don’t play to choke the life out of games because they have been so fun to watch this year and it would be a disappointment if they won MLS Cup playing like Colorado. Anyway, I managed to have my highest round rank of any week with a score of 107, good for 27th this week and I moved into 143 from 202 overall – not bad, anyway onto the Rekrap.

The Red Bulls managed to help guide the Union to their 7th consecutive winless game in preparation for their first round exit against Toronto on Wednesday, keeper Luis Robles kept a cleansheet and got the fantasy golden gloves for the season with 9 points. His teammate Aurelien Collin has avoided a major blunder or hot-headed red card for a few weeks and earned an assist for a 13 point day.

Jelle Van Damme joined the dreamteam thanks to FC Dallas and LA competing in the first annual ‘let’s not over do anything or get anyone injured’ derby, his cleansheet and bonus points got him a score of 10. New England needed to win, have Philly lose, and overcome a 12 point goal differential to make the playoffs and the defense kept their end of the bargain by holding Montreal scoreless with Jose Goncalves putting up 9 points.

Diego Fagundez has been cosplaying this season in an elaborate Rufio from the classic film Hook get-up and the Revolution midfielder brought in 13 points. As if D.C. United didn’t look like they had enough attacking talent with their mid-season trades for Lloyd Sam and Patrick Mullins, rookie midfielder Julian Buescher made the most of starting while Ben Olsen rested some starters and he earned two assists and several bonuses for 13 points.

Clearly the best Kevin since Kevin McCallister is Kevin Molino who set a series of comical traps for DC United’s hapless backups and scored 13 points. Kaka has been a maddening player to own in fantasy this season, turning in stratospheric scores one week and prompting rage-drops the next, he followed up 6 weeks of failing to score above 4 points with a score of 15 in his final game.

Sebastian Giovinco rebounded nicely in Toronto’s tuneup game against the Chicago ‘at least there isn’t promotion/relegation’ Fire and the striker got a goal, assist, and a mucchio of bonus points for a 16 point game. David Villa seemed destined to miss out on a good fantasy score against the players Columbus is trying out for next year until he scored a 93rd minute goal and put up 13 points, he might not have caught up with BWP for the Golden Boot like I had hoped he would when I captained him, but it’s a good haul. Rounding out the dreamteam was Giles Barnes, you may remember him, he did this to the USMNT in the Dome last summer, who just about single handedly eliminated Portland from the playoffs with two goals and 14 fantasy points.

Well that’s it for this fantasy season. I’ll be back next year when I have no doubt Atlanta United will feature prominently in the dreamteam week after week.