MLS Fantasy Recap: Week 1

Recapping who had the best (and worst) opening weekend for your Fantasy Team.

The first weekend of fantasy is particularly difficult to get right. You don’t know how quickly new pieces will fit in and start, much less perform well. Trying to pick out rookies who will make a big impact as value picks is basically a guessing game. So let’s take a look at this season’s inaugural team of the week in MLS Fantasy.

Nine teams posted shutouts in their season opener, making this week a very defense heavy team of the week. There were plenty of high scoring keepers as well but you were especially happy if you had Tim Melia or Nick Rimando in your line up thanks to their penalty saves. Players like Axel Sjoberg, Diego Valeri and Fanendo Adi are expensive buys but were definitely worth the money this week. If you had any of those three as your captain this week you were in good shape.

So who else were good season opening buys, and who disappointed in their first week? Let’s take a look at three of each.

Three good pickups:

1. Defenders (almost) everywhere – eight different teams had two players pick up at least nine points because of all the shutouts this weekend. Aside from the team of the week selections, Sporting Kansas City and DC United each had plenty of good picks in their frantic 0-0 draw. A lot of experts were skeptical of picking up any Orlando City defenders after a poor showing last season, but Jonathan Spector led a solid game against a dangerous NYCFC team. Only time will tell if that will be a consistent trend of if it was just some new stadium magic.
2. The Portland Timbers – If you’re in a H2H league and you captained either of Valeri or Adi you probably won. I can say that from experience on the other end watching my opponent pull away thanks to 32 from Valeri. Every game wont be this ugly for Minnesota United defenders, but it might be a good idea to keep going with strong attacking players against them.
3. Anibal Godoy – Only 1.6% of MLS fantasy owners had Godoy in their team and he rewarded them with a 15 point performance largely due to his cheeky goal. combined with a shutout bonus. The Panamanian will feature in the midfield for San Jose regularly and should have another strong game against Vancouver.

More from MLS Multiplex

• Javier Milei Elected in Argentina: Potential Impacts on MLS and Signings of Argentine Players
• Orlando City and New York City FC in the Battle for Matías Arezo; Grêmio Enters Negotiations! Who Will Come Out on Top?
• USA, Honduras, Panama, and Canada Close in on a Spot in the 2024 Copa America
• De Gea Turns Down Al-Nassr’s Lucrative Offer: Speculation Points to Possible Reunion with Messi at Inter Miami
• Messi’s Magnetic Impact in the United States

Three bad pickups:

1. FC Dallas Centerbacks – This one was surprising to me considering FC Dallas had a good win over the LA Galaxy, but Walker Zimmerman and Matt Hedges are two very expensive defenders, each costing $6.5, but the two only combined for seven total points. That won’t be good enough for that pricetag.
2. Brian Rowe – Rowe was the most selected keeper on MLS Fantasy with over 17% of teams having him, but he only picked up 3 points this weekend. Keepers are the most predictable of the positions in terms of who is starting, and with so many teams picking up shutouts this weekend, Rowe was really far down the list this week.
3. Toronto’s Big Money Players – Don’t let one week discourage you from Sebastian Giovinco or Jozy Altidore, but this week from them was a dud from a fantasy perspective. Giovinco especially hurt his 42% of teams that had him with just one point.

Three Players to Grab For Week 2:

1. Miguel Almiron – Atlanta looked fast and dangerous against the New York Red Bulls. Almiron had several half chances against a good defense, I expect him to finish one of those against a much weaker Minnesota back line.
2. Giles Barnes – Wait and see on this one to see how serious the injury to Kaka is before throwing him into the starting lineup. If he misses anytime though, Barnes will be the guy to pick up the slack, he subbed in early and had an instant impact assisting Orlando’s only goal on Sunday.
3. Chris Wingert – Real Salt Lake’s defense looks good early on, especially with Rimando as the last line of defense. Wingert is a good cheap option on that backline who should start regularly, and they play a Chicago team with a lot of new attacking pieces still trying to figure things out.

Next: MLS Stat Leaders: Week 1

As always join the MLS Multiplex Fantasy League on MLSSoccer.com! You can join by entering the code 526-380. Check it out now and see who is leading in the standings after week 1.