Fantasy Rekrap 13: All about your smiles and cries

After wallowing in my rekrapulence for the past few weeks my team turned toward green arrow land. I had 88 points in a week where the average was 50, if you are thinking of giving up - don’t I jumped about 300 places so all it takes is a big week to regain a false sense of security and undeserved feeling of pride for wasting time on something completely arbitrary. But what a good feeling that is!

I will also say this because it needs saying: I picked a lot of FC Dallas players last week, they didn’t deliver and many didn’t start against Chicago. Sometimes managers just decide to throw it in for a midweek away game and once I saw the lineups (reminder to check teams’ Twitter feeds for lineups an hour before rosters lock) so I bailed on Dallas and picked up some Chicago defenders. Next time I’ll try to get something out there about big changes like that.

If you’re looking to climb the standings, there are eight teams on two games this week with plenty of chances for the universe to align itself for or against you.

Anyway, now I’m going to talk some trash and try not to misguide you badly going forward.

Four posts, no justice:

No coach in MLS owes more to one player masking his vast tactical shortcomings as a manager than Ben Olsen owes Bill Hamid. Vancouver hit the post four times, including on a penalty, and lost thanks to a dive. Olsen is setting a new mark for futility this year with his team scoring 10 goals in 12 games, matching fellow tactical mastermind Pablo Mastroeni and the Colorado Rapids.

Keep smiling:

Caption this -

I like to think it went like:

David Villa - if this field were half the size as it is we’d only be losing by 1.

Almiron - scoreboard.

Miggy got 13 points on the week.

Not so Shuttleworthless

It must be recognized that Minnesota United earned a good result against Orlando City who is playing like they got dysentary on a Disney cruise. The Loons got a shutout at home to give Adrian Heath some measure of vengeance against a team that made him bring in Nocerino, who looks old, washed up, and out of shape, and also isn’t letting his successor have the freedom that he needs with the squad to get City where it needs to be. Let’s celebrate, but don’t be flashy or look to satisfied with them, Midwesterners look down on gloating.

Rekrap’s Roster

Like I said, there’s eight teams on a double game week coming up this evening. Columbus, DC, Houston, New England, NYCFC, Orlando City, Real Salt Lake, and Seattle Sounders all have an MLS double header. Of those teams, I’m flat out avoiding DC United. Fantasy soccer makes people happy and Ben Olsen seems like the kind of person who dislikes joy, plus he loves rotating his players when they play twice in a week. Real Salt Lake is on the road both games, has been really uneven all year, and both their games are difficult so I’m avoiding them as well.

Goalkeeper: two choices here, Joe Bendik (ORL, $4.9) is cheap and at home both games. For some variety, Zack Steffen (CLB, $4.6) is at home to Seattle who will be missing Dempsey, Morris, and Bruin this week. That said, they’ve had a lot of trouble in the midfield so that’s still a risky pick even traveling to Colorado for game no. 2.

Defender: I have faith in Joevin Jones (SEA, $5.3), he was rotated last double game week but with every Seattle attacker seemingly missing this week I get the feeling he’ll play 120-180 minutes. I’m looking at Orlando City to bounce back defensively this week with two home games and like Jonathan Spector (ORL, $5.6) and Scott Sutter (ORL, $5.0). For another option, Alexander Callens (NYCFC, $4.7) is back at home on the peewee pitch where NYCFC has been very stingy in allowing goals for the next two games and is cheap.

Midfield: Jack Harrison ($7.9, NYCFC) lost goal of the week to Tito Villalba and at his price with two home games he can’t be passed up. Justin Meram ($10.0, CLB) had a bad game against Toronto and was pulled after less than 40 minutes but we’ve seen what he can do and I expect his form to bounce back against a depleted Seattle and terrible Colorado team.

Get Lee Nguyen ($10.3, NER) on your team, in games he’s played for longer than 60 minutes his lowest point total is 5 and at some point missing international players and playing in Canadian Cup games will catch up with Toronto who I think the Revs will have a good game against. Nico Lodiero ($11.6, SEA) is coming off of two decent games and can go off for a big score at any point, he’ll really be the only thing Seattle has going forward and will need to put the team on his back for them to be successful this week.

Otherwise, look at Maxi Moralez ($9.5, NYCFC), Christian Roldan ($7.3, SEA), Alex ($7.7, HOU) and Kaka ($10, ORL) if you want alternatives. Kaka will be a risky pick but he’s still Kaka and at least should be on penalty kicks and set pieces for Orlando if they get it together this week.

Forward: I think striker is a hit or miss position this week, there are to very good choices but this might be a week to go with something weird like a 3-5-2 or even a 4-5-1 and load up on better options in midfield and defense.

David Villa ($10.9, NYCFC) is must own this week, he might talk more trash than a Pigeon at a dump but the Spaniard is home to a leaky New England defense and a Philly team that is better but will be missing crucial water carrier Ale Bedoya this weekend. Also consider that he’ll be almost 50% owned so if you don’t have him and he goes off you’ll be trailing the pack this week. Cubo Torres ($8.6, HOU) is back home and playing RSL tonight and I expect the Dynamo to come roaring back to life with Cubo leading the way.

For a sneaky, but not cheap, pick, Ola Kamara ($10.4, CLB) is going against a depleted Seattle team and then faces a tougher game in Colorado. Other picks include Cyle Larin ($9.4, ORL) who is goal-less in his past 3 games, Juan Agudelo ($8.4, NER) who is boom or bust and Kei Kamara ($9.4, NER) who is boom or bust.