Fantasy Focus: Living in America

You may have noticed that Fantasy Focus has been on an unannounced hiatus. The reason for that is my wife and I packed up and moved from Belgium back to the United States, where we’ll be for the next 16 months, give or take a few weeks. As you might imagine, sending all of our worldly possessions and moving across the Atlantic with a pregnant woman has taken a considerable amount of my attention, but now we’re here on eastern time, and MLS is happening! I’m sorry for the delay, but you can expect regularly scheduled writing from here on out. I actually hoped to be back last week, but MLS threw one by me with a single match last weekend that started the game week. Quelle surprise.

Now, onto this past round, which was led by a pair of teams, Check Joself (left) and Peachy Swagger, who tied on 102 points.

Those points allowed Check Joself to double their lead atop the overall table, which now stands at 14 points.

Positional Leaders

Goalkeepers

The duo of Brad Stuver (ATX, $8.0) and William Yarbrough (COL, $8.1) earned clean sheets on the way to 11 points, leading the position. Just behind them were two players with 10 points — Matt Turner (NE, $8.1), who saved a penalty, and JT Marcinkowski (SJ, $5.8), who had a clean sheet. For DCU, Bill Hamid ($6.4) scored 8 points.

Defenders

Kyle Duncan (NYR, $7.2) paired a goal with a clean sheet to score 14 points, leading all defenders and all players. Just behind him was D.C.’s Andy Najar ($6.0), with a few nutmegs, a clean sheet and 13 points. Rounding out the top three was Najar’s teammate Donovan Pines ($5.2), who chimed in with a clean sheet and 11 points. The rest of the D.C. defense featured Brendan Hines-Ike ($6.2) with 10 points, and both Frederic Brillant ($4.7) and Joseph Mora ($4.0) with 1.

Midfielders

Real Salt Lake’s Damir Kreilach ($9.6) scored two goals on the way to 13 points, leading the midfielders just ahead of Alejandro Pozuelo (TOR, $9.8), who scored 12 points on the strength of an assist. On their heels was Maxi Moralez (NY, $8.4), with an assist of his own and 11 points. The United midfield was led by Julian Gressel ($8.4) with 9 points, followed by Kevin Paredes ($4.4) with 6, the pair of Russell Canouse ($5.9) and Paul Arriola ($7.4) with 3 each, Felipe Martins ($4.0) with 2, and Moses Nyeman ($4.0) with 1.

Forwards

Gyasi Zardes (CLB, $7.6) scored two goals and 13 points, leading the forwards. Johnny Russell (SKC, $7.2) posted an assist and 11 points, and Tesho Akindele (ORL, $7.3) tallied an assist, and also PUT IT IN YOUR GOOOOAL for 10 points. The scoring forwards for D.C. were Ola Kamara ($8.1) with 9 points, Adrien Perez ($4.9) with 2, and both Griffin Yow ($4.0) and Nigel Robertha ($6.1) with 1.

Looking Ahead

Every team except Miami and Colorado plays twice this round, so points could go through the roof. But note that the first game is Tuesday night, so get your moves in early. If you can spend the money on your goalkeeper, Andre Blake (PHI, $8.6) is playing Columbus, but more importantly @Chicago and their listless attack. In defense, I like Yeimar Gomez (SEA, $8.2) against Salt Lake and Vancouver, and in the midfield Alejandro Pozuelo appears to have rejoined the land of the living, and he plays @Nashville and Cincinnati’s league-worst defense. At forward, buy low on Carlos Vela (LA, $8.6), with first a tasty matchup against Dallas, and also @Kansas City.