MLS Fantasy Rekrap Week 6: Seeing rouge

If the Battle of Chateauguay taught us anything, it’s that taking Montreal is easier said than done. Everything was going just as smooth as it could be and then all the sudden you find yourself outnumbered and covered in poutine while watching your dreams of conquering the northern territories curdle like so many buckets full of weeks old cheese curds.

Maybe you can’t tell but my fantasy week didn’t go so well. I had Almiron who the Impact tried to guillotine the legs off of the entire game and LGP who got the red card and their scores nullified each other. But that vast lake of disappointment was only half as full as Lake Champlain and my highest scoring players were Luis Robles and A-a-ron Long with 9 points each. But I’m draining that lake so that I can fill my team with double game week players that will be rotated and subbed early this week.

Anyway, onto the Rekrap:

Bastian bonus bonanza

I should take my own advice and get the Schweinstigers of the world on my team. The MLS newcomer has silenced everyone who said he wasn’t the kind of player that could bring a World Cup to Chicago and scored 14 points. Be careful of the Chicago lineup before adding him because if he slides into defensive midfield because of an injury or suspension he’s not going to put up those kind of numbers every week.

Walk into the mystery spot

For the second consecutive weekend, I watched the San Jose Earthquakes get a draw they didn’t deserve in a game they were fully outplayed in by a better opponent. This team will make the playoffs and then get blown out by a 6-0 aggregate and Dom Kinnear will still have a job even though he makes his team play 2007 MLS style soccer. The people of San Jose deserve better.

Don’t cross the beard

For anyone keeping score this year, Tim Howard has insulted foreign born USMNT players, been one of the faces of the ‘don’t cross the line’ campaign, and questioned the virtue of the mother of an SKC fan (according to the official story) after he let Sporting score three goals on him. One of these things is not like the other and the USMNT starting keeper was suspended after rosters locked this weekend. Maybe for his next trick he’ll get a DUI driving a team van.

Rekrap’s Roster

It is a double game week and rosters lock at 7:30PM EDT Wednesday - that’s 7:30PM Wednesday or 7:30PM Wednesday in case you missed that.

I think it is well worth taking 4 New England players and 3 or 4 San Jose players if you are feeling the double road game double game week team. If you are new to FMLS loading up on double game week players gives you twice the chances to score points because players are in two games, simple right?

Typically a DGW player will put up 1.5 times the points of a regular week player. San Jose isn’t that prolific on offense and is on the road for two games so their output might not be as great as New England’s but are still worth picking up. The danger is that two games in one week is a lot of soccer according to MLS managers and they tend to do infuriating things like not try to win games by rotating their players. Also, usually the DGW teams play each other so you risk leaving points on the table by picking defenders and attackers facing off during the week.

New England Revolution - Get to the Cropper, Cody Cropper (GK, $4.0) is cheap and has two home games. In defense I like Chris Tierney (D, $5.5) who is on some set pieces and even took a penalty for the Revs earlier this year. In attack New England has two tough matches with San Jose and DC who are both good defensive teams, but I still think they’ll put up good scores since they are at home. Lee Nguyen (M, $10) is captain material this week and the forward picks of Kei Kamara (F, $9.2) and Juan Agudelo (F, $8.4) are a bit of a coin flip. Neither has been that great outside of the Minnesota game and if you wanted to pass on a 4th NER player not grabbing a forward might be the way to go.

San Jose Earthquakes - With defender Nick Lima priced at $4.6 and having two games to put up a good score he should be on your radar this week. If there is going to be rotation due to travel though the outside backs tend to fall victim to that so center back Florian Jungwirth (D, $5.6) might be the more reliable bet than Lima. In midfield just get Anibal Godoy (M, $7.3) even though he’s stopped scoring goals, his floor is decent enough to get a good score for his price. I’m also going with Chris Wondolowski (F, $8.5), the old poacher can still poach a goal on his day and I like his chances against Houston at the very least.

Non-DGW picks:

I like Dallas for a clean sheet this week. SKC put up a goal against a leaky Portland defense but I don’t think they sneak in past FCD. So look at Walker Zimmerman (D, $6.7) and Jesse Gonzalez (G, $4.7) who seems to have won the starting job in net.

In midfield Sacha Kljestan (M, $10.2) might be back to his old self as he got an assist and bunch of bonus points last week and faces a decent but not great Columbus defense this week. Nacho Piatti (M, $10.3) also has a good matchup against the Philadelphia Union who are an awful team and can’t control the midfield worth a cheesesteak sandwich.

At forward it is all about David Villa (F, $10.5) who has 4 goals and 3 assists and hasn’t scored less than 5 points this year. Orlando is better on defense but he’s in form and healthy so get the Spaniard on your roster while you still can.

Rekrap’s Rejects

Any player for Colorado. The Rapids aren’t the same this year and even though Zac MacMath is a good stand in for Tim Howard, I think Minnesota will get a goal past them in their game.

I would also avoid Giovinco who has come crashing back down to Earth this year. Chicago will cause problems for the TFC midfield and he might be drifting back quite a bit to get the ball in this game.