I just don't think I can bear taking her off my team. She plays like a living hornets nest, popping up everywhere on the pitch and getting in everyone's face. I do agree though that her role is definitely going to change from last season. I'm hoping she shifts more towards a DM/deep lying playmaker. So assists and the pestering. Sounds fun to me, but still a gamble I suppose. ha, yeah, me too! It makes me feel so greedy. I want ALL the goals, FL!
Last week it was released on Friday, so with games not until the weekend again this week, I would expect Friday. Last week Rampone was reported with seismioditis (inflammation of a bone) in the left toe. She left the WNT camp between the two China games and must have had it even before the camp (according to the USSF "been hampered by a toe injury", "came into camp for rehab with the team’s medical staff"). I asked an orthopedic surgeon about it and his response was that a flare up can be painful from a couple weeks to a couple of months in a way that would affect her play.
Any chance the same creator can make a Fantasy College Soccer League in the fall? Even if he has to limit it to the starting players from a few conferences (ACC, Pac 12, WCC, Big Ten, SEC, Big 12). A lot more fans would learn about prospective pro (NWSL) prospects that are still in college. It would also give college soccer more eyeballs and overall exposure. Instead of being allowed to select a maximum of 5 allocated players, maybe you'd be limited to take no more than 5 players from any one conference, and no more than 3 from any given team. That way fans can't just stack up on UNC players. They would have to learn and study all the top players from various teams and conferences. Here's my fantasy lineup for Week #1: F- Savannah Jordan (Florida) F - Makenzy Doniak (Virginia) F - Rachel Daly (St. John's) MF - Dagny Brynjarsdottir (Florida State) MF - Morgan Brian (Virginia) MF - Daphne Corboz (Georgetown) MF - Havana Solaun (Florida) D - Megan Campbell (Florida State) D - Ally Courtnall (UCLA) D - Abby Dahlkemper (UCLA) GK - Katelyn Rowland (UCLA) *Hopefully UCLA gets the shutout
They must be counting shots total, not on goal. Wow then Rapinoe would be a huge fantasy player because she always shoots.
When looking at the leader board, some smart cookies up there. Almost all of them had Rapinoe and Little on their squad with either captained. That's why they picked up sizable points. If only I didn't use Sinclair and Wambach... Sigh. As to strategies. It might take you a couple weeks to get the hang of things, but here is what I do. 1) Decide on a formation. What do you want to go heavy on. Forwards? Midfielders? You can set your formation on the top tab. I went for a 3-4-3 formation. You could use a 4-5-1 formation which is available or even a 3-5-2 I think is possible. But having that third forward will be vital since they take a lot of shots. Well you want forwards that take a lot of shots. Some teams like Seattle and Kansas City will have midfielders that will activate on the attack and will be constantly adding more to your fantasy roster. So its up to your preference. There is also another reason with going with 3 backs. The backline can be very tricky to get points. Its very hit and miss. Outside backs are good because they can get crosses in and some of them are offensive minded. Other backs takes corner kicks so its quite possible they will rack some points up every match. And if you get a shut out, they get points for that as well. The problem with them is how difficult it is to judge how many points they will produce. Because they simply don't take many shots and they will foul players a lot on defense. So you lose points as a result. All the point leaders went with a 3-4-3 formation so this should give you a good idea. 2) Allocations. 5 max to a team. Who do you use? The best keepers in the league are allocated players. There are some like Nadine Angerer, Lydia Williams who is an Aussie National team goalkeeper. These two could be good pick ups if you want to save your allocated spots. For goal keepers its really about which teams you think will get a shut out, saves should be secondary since that normally means a player is getting shelled by another team which means there is no chance for a shut out. Look at the match ups, find the one you think will give you a shut out and then build your back line to get players that will get that shut out. Again if you look at some of the top leaders this week. They had Angerer, Moros and so forth on their line up and picked up good points. I had Angerer but I also decided to hedge my bets and picked up Sauerbrunn and Phillips thinking FCKC would shut out Skyblue. I got that wrong and paid for it with zero points from those two. Most of your allocations should focus on forwards and midfielders. Who do you think will score this week. Rapinoe, Leroux all picked up points. But you could take some risks and look for unallocated forwards that you think can get a lot of shots and maybe some goals. And Losada was one of those this week. 3) The 5 max from each team is much easier to fit in now this season. Last season that was a big pain since you would run into situations where not every team played every week and you had to make sacrifices and take players who you hoped would do well. Should be much easier to fill out a good line up this season. But again the theory stays the same. Build from the back. Goal keeper first, then back line and then figure out if you have to make some changes to it if you want a key player in the midfield or forward that would go over the 5 limit. Its why I normally pick 2 teams that I think have a chance at a shut out. Pick a goal keeper and then try to fill in defenders from both teams. This doesn't always work by the way. 4) Midfielder/Forwards: Find players that are always in the attack, who assist or get a lot of crosses in. Rapinoe, Little were giant fantasy point players. Rapinoe because she always shoots and Little because she is always on the attack so she should be a top goal scorer this year. Players like Lauren Holiday were big last season because she scores goals and gets a lot of assists as well. Amy Rodriguez looks to be a good option at top if FCKC stays in a 4-4-2 formation. I'm going to stay away from Christine Sinclair, she is getting no help from her midfield. Until that changes, it would be unwise to use her. Lori Chalupny a midfielder for Chicago is a good fantasy pick up since she is unallocated and is very attack minded, takes a lot of shots and should get some good points, same with Lisa DeVanna, though she came in as a sub, but will probably feature next time she plays. She is a shot taker. So to recap: -Build from the back. Pick a team or two that you think will get a shut out. Get that goal keeper and try to find 2 defenders you think will be studs on those teams. Outside backs are good since they tend to get some crosses in as well for fantasy points. -If your forced to use allocated players on goal keeper and defenders, then find good unallocated players that will be fantasy studs. Kim Little, Vicky Losada, Naho Kawasumi (if she starts since she gets lots of great crosses in), Erika Tymrak, Lori Chalupny, Lisa DeVanna and Nadine Angerer. Top Allocated players: Megan Rapinoe, Sydney leroux, Alex Morgan (when she is healthy), Abby Wambach (scores and assists and gets fouled a lot), Lauren Holiday, Hope Solo, Nicole Barnhart, Diana Matheson. -Best formation looks like the 3-4-3. Unless the teams playing on that weak, feature a weak front line roster and some strong midfielders. Then a 3-5-2 could work as well.
Pretty much agree with everything. I made the mistake of picking Sinclair thinking she will wreck havoc on the inexperience Houston defense but alas, no luck. I'm staying away from the Portland offense. I may cap Angerer because given how shaky the Thorns defense is, she'll be making a lot of saves. Too bad they play SBFC next who really don't take a lot of shots.
The WPS-era scoring was totally biased toward goalkeepers. A forward could score two goals and an assist and still not get as many points as a GK with a clean sheet.
1091st with 23 points. Nowhere to go but up! EDIT: Just noticed my bench - Angerer, Moros, Little - got 57.5 points all by themselves.
I think saves should be a secondary consideration. Look for shut outs. Who you think will get shut outs and build your team around that. Goal keepers get 6 pts for shut outs and defenders 8. But you can't normally stack defenders and goal keepers from one team on a line up because that normally eats up most of your team slots. But it may be possible now with Houston in the mix and the new formation system. You may be able to play with have a loaded back line from one team, but that is risky since if you don't get a shut out, then much of that back line will give you zero points. Its why I pick two teams and try to get defenders from both.
If you could select 1 non-allocated FCKC defender, who would it be? I'm still learning teams' rosters, but I'm thinking of riding the Portland and FCKC defense this week. Or would WNY defense be a better choice than Portland? Also is anyone else feeling the Nairn this week? Double game for the Spirit, and it seems like if you had to pick one Wash player, she is the one to have. Oh, and Kaptain Kawasumi ftw !
Really? again? Erg. Why wouldn't she be starting? I know she didn't last week, but I was thinking that as kind of a one-time situation. Do you think field communication (english) is an issue, impacting early starts? I would have thought she would be starting ahead of Goebel in most cases. Decisions decisions...
Leigh Ann Robinson is your best bet. I actually thought she was allocated last week since I picked two FCKC defenders and took Sauerbrunn and Phillips. She isn't allocated. Robinson is an outside back and should pick some points from crosses and she does shoot from the outside. And yes you should try to pick some Spirit players for the double game. Nairn is a good pick and if you want to risk loading more players from the Spirit, Diana Matheson since she does a lot of the heavy lifting on the Spirit side. I would only start Naho if your sure she will start. I think she will be a starter but Harvey looked like she was setting up her roster so when Naho leaves for the Asian Cup, she has a solid line up.
Harvey stated that she did not start Naho and probably won't in the coming games as she would like to see what the offense will look like when she leaves in May for the Asian cup. The question about Naho starts at 2:40
Well if the Reign loses her in May for a month, wouldn't they want to capitalize on the time she's actually here and play her before she goes? Also, quoted the main part in Laura's interview: "The thing for Naho is American soccer is so different to Japan… she's a phenomenal talent, and to have a player like her coming off your bench just shows you all the hard work in the offseason's paying off. She's such a good talent, that when we lose her to the asian cup, we're very conscious that we need to know how to play without her, and today's game was a chance to do that."
Just the opposite. You do not want the offense to get too reliant on her such that when she is gone for the month of may, it will cause a disruption. I'm confident when she is back she'll be a starter
That's a fair point, yeah. A penny for Laura's thoughts, eh? EDIT: actually combining logics, I can easily see Harvey starting Naho but bringing her off around the 60 minute mark - the reverse of what happened last week.
I think during one week (at some point this year) we should all pick a true "Fantasy" team, by picking the 11 best looking players.
How about we don't? Let's not pollute this board any more than you already have and save that crap for the unmentionable parts of the Internet.
Bad start for me (40.5 points). Lots of recovery time... off to Toyota Park tomorrow for Red Stars v Flash!
Here is a break down of my line up and why I chose these players. First the matches. Saturday Matches: FC Kansas City vs Washington Spirit Western New York Flash vs Chicago Redstars Portland Thorns FC vs Skyblue FC Sunday Match: Houston Dash vs Boston Breakers So you can see Washington is playing twice for this week points. Does that mean we should load up on their players? Not really. They are playing against probably the two worst match ups for their team. And with the play they played against Western New York, there is a high probability that they could be blanked in both games. Its tough to say this, but I think its time to sell the Spirit this week and try to set your defense up to try to take advantage of this opportunity against 2 very strong teams. Here is the line up in a 3-4-3 formation. The non bolded players are reserve players. Goalkeepers: Hope Solo (Seattle-Allocated), Lydia Williams (WNYF) Defenders: Leigh Ann Robinson (FCKC), Nikki Phillips (FCKC), Stephanie Cox (Seattle-Allocated), Elli Reed (Seattle) Midfielders: Lauren Holiday (FCKC-Allocated), Kim Little (Seattle), Lori Chalupny (Chicago), Christine Nairn (Washington), Vicky Losada (WNYF) Forwards: Megan Rapinoe (Seattle-Allocated), Amy Rodriguez (FCKC-Allocated), Samantha Kerr (WNYF), Stephanie Ochs (Houston) So with Washington playing against 2 of the stronger teams in the league, the idea of them getting a shut out is far out of reach so picking any defender or keeper isn't a good idea. So I did the opposite and planned on the 2 teams getting the shut out on Washington. 2 players from each team FCKC and Seattle and I chose Hope Solo and Stephanie Cox who is very attack minded for an outside back. Leigh Ann Robinson is another back that gets forward and I picked Phillips as the other FCKC defender. When it comes to the midfielders, Lauren Holiday should be hopefully more effective in this match, with Kim Little both these midfielders should do fairly well against Washington. Lori Chalupny was a fantasy stud last season, so I pulled her in and I wanted at least one Washington player that might get a point here or there or some shots. If I could choose I probably would of taken Diana Matheson but as an allocated player, I couldn't afford her and I valued Stephanie Cox more. If Matheson wasn't facing such a tough match up she would of been more tempting to me. I put Vicky Losada as a reserve player, had to decide between her and Chalupny, with Chalupny's track record, I was willing to stay with Chalupny, but who knows if Losada proves me wrong again, then I may have to change my thinking on her. Forwards, I think Rapinoe against a Washington team will be gold. Amy Rodriguez same thing. And I have Samantha Kerr to fill out my forward line up. Was a hard choice between her and Lisa DeVanna but Boston is up against a tough Houston team that keeps the ball. Not sure how well she will do against a pressing, ball possessing team like the Dash. Kerr can get hot and get some good points and its sort of a toss up against a remade roster in Chicago, but until the Redstars prove themselves on the pitch, I think Kerr is a good gamble. The question of course it, why not take more Washington players like forwards if you don't believe they won't be able to get a shut out, but the forwards should get plenty of shots in those two games. The problem with this thinking is, those forwards have to get those shots in the first place and FCKC is a tough defense to crack and Seattle is looking pretty tough as well with the way they keep the ball and constantly keep flooding the attacking third and putting pressure on the defense. At the moment, there is no clear forward for Washington that stands out. Another option is Crystal Dunn, the problem with this pick is 1) she is an allocated player and you may want that allocation for another more needed player 2) She is a defender on the fantasy league and that could help and hurt her. She can get shut out points and points when on the attack because currently she is playing a midfielder but she also happens to be a defender in the fantasy league and that hurts her when your trying to build a defense to get shut out points. Cause Washington is not a good candidate to build your line up for those. In fact you probably shouldn't be trying in the first place. The way my line up is built, is pretty much predicting that FCKC and Seattle will get wins against Washington. WNYF and Chicago is a toss up and honestly I'm not sure where this game will swing and Portland, until they figure out how to feed Sinclair the ball, I intend to stay away from picking Sinclair. Skyblue, there isn't a clear forward that has stood out, maybe Maya Hayes but that is very risky against a good team like Portland. Houston and Boston could be interesting but with Kealia Ohai now injured, what forward is going to step forward? Boston it will all depend on Lisa DeVanna and I don't like this match up for DeVanna which is why I picked Samantha Kerr.