WTR MLS Fantasy League: Week 3 Recap

And that’s a wrap on the St. Patrick’s Day edition of MLS week 3. After reviewing the highlights of this round of games, I’m convinced some team’s biggest enemies are themselves. Goals, red cards, self-destructs and VAR, this week had it all. First let’s jump into the WTR leaderboard:

Top three teams this week!

Rosen is proving to have the team to beat as he retains top position in our WTR leaderboard posting 267 points on the season thus far. Oldergoaler returns to the top three by grabbing 112 points this week. The top three is rounded out by Lewis who retains his position high on the leaderboard.

Highlights of the Dream Team:

• Easily the best player of the week was Josef Martinez of Atlanta United, who posted a hat-trick over the Vancouver Whitecaps. I do have a problem with his run up on the PK but on the whole he was well deserving of his 36 points (If you captained him). *Side note that this game was manipulated by VAR and a resulting red card. While it was warranted I’m still not convinced I’m a VAR fan.
• Roland Lamah of FC Dallas picked up 17 points for his two goals and assist in a 3-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders. *Note this game was also affected by a VAR decision leading to a red card. Again, still not impressed by VAR and its influence on games.
• Maxi Moralez of NYCFC grabbed 12 points for a goal and clean sheet contributions as his side blanked Orlando City 2-0.
• Victor Cabrera of the Montreal Impact recorded 13 points for his general play defensively in the Impact’s 1-0 win over our TFC. Cabrera garnered points for the clean sheet as well as across several defensive categories including blocks, interceptions, recovered balls, and clearances.

Recapping tips from last week:

• One of my tips from last week was not to jump on the Sacha Kljestan hype train as he only posted five points for his all around play. He was fairly irrelevant in his debut for his new side and only received fantasy points for ball recovery, minutes played and some key passes.
• Another fruitful tip from last week was to play some of the Atlanta forwards you may have been able to cash in here.
• One thing I got very wrong was Kei Kamara putting in a solid shift. For that matter, Kamara didn’t put in any shift as he was left out of the 18 for the week for Vancouver. After a couple strong outings I’m not sure what happened here. No injury as far as I can see so hoping someone has some insight here?
• I also had a mention out there for taking a few particular home sides last week including NYCFC, Atlanta and Minnesota. Each of these teams posted a W and their players received the proper fantasy reward points as proof.

Tips for week four:

• Byes for week four are in place for Atlanta United, Chicago Fire, Los Angeles FC, Houston Dynamo, Montreal, Orlando, Philadelphia Union, Seattle and Toronto FC. Rotate any players on these teams to avoid the automatic zeros.
• Again a repeat from last week but buy into the home teams! Week three saw home teams go undefeated with a 7-0-2 record. Not to say this yields automatic points but a team win usually goes hand in hand with fantasy points. Your home teams this week include New England Revolution, FC Dallas, Columbus Crew, New York Red Bulls, Colorado Rapids and Vancouver Whitecaps. In particular, Dallas over the Portland Timbers and Columbus over D.C. United look like solid picks. Take some players on Dallas and Columbus. *Note, among others I believe Zack Steffen got called up to the U.S. national team from Columbus so he won’t be available for the Crew.
• As a follow up to that, be sure to check your players to see if they got called up to their national squad before playing them. The U.S. in particular are handing out caps to younger, less familiar players.
• A few specific players I would take are Maxi Moralez (NYCFC), Miguel Ibarra (Minnesota), Bradley Wright-Philips (NYRB) and Gyasi Zardes (Columbus).

Good luck to everyone again this week!