Hopefully you all had a better fantasy night than I did.
It was about 7:10 p.m. ET Wednesday when I sat down at Otto’s Tacos with a couple buddies. While we waited for the food to arrive, I entertained a hunch that had been slowly growing and took the captain’s armband off Benny Feilhaber, handing it instead to Ethan Finlay. In the end, it was Finlay’s home-road splits that encouraged me to make the move and I went about the rest of my night feeling quite pleased with myself.
Then, this morning I checked and realized I had forgotten to save my new lineup.
Like many managers out there, I was burned by Feilhaber’s DOGSO red card late in a blowout loss to San Jose.
Regardless of the vigorous online debate about the correctness of the call (for me: clear-cut red card), SKC players came up very short in the first leg of the DGW -- you won’t find a single one on the midweek team of the week.
San Jose defense locks it down
San Jose: 5-0 winners over Sporting Kansas City.
We all saw that coming, right?
Managers who did manage to Nostradamus this blowout scored a huge leg up on the competition. The Quakes’ clean sheet boosted the night of Clarence Goodson and the San Jose defense, while the attackers had a field day.
Popular budget addition Quincy Amarikwa rewarded owners with a strong eight-point night, while Chris Wondolowski came through with 13 in the one-sided rout. Thanks to his pair of goals, Cordell Cato earned the most points in midweek--if he can keep it up, the $6.6m midfielder could be a sneaky differential play.
Finally, Shea Salinas came through with 12 points while fellow midfielder Anibal Godoy (selected by 0.0% of teams) found his way onto the midweek dream team with nine points.
On the SKC side--well, maybe let’s just not talk about that right now.
It's just another example of how unpredictable MLS Fantasy can be.
Poku to the fore for NYCFC
Simon Borg’s favorite midfielder is starting to get a chance to show what he can do. In the two matches he’d started prior to last night’s contest, Poku notched a combined 30 points. He was back at it again last night, scoring both of his team’s goals in a rain-interrupted match in Columbus.
Poku’s first was a real gem off an assist from David Villa. Ten minutes later, his opportunistic strike off a corner kick gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Poku led the line from a fantasy perspective with 13 points, followed by Andrea Pirlo (eight), Andrew Jacobson (six) and Villa (five).
On the other side of the ball, Kei Kamara put himself in the middle of the action once again, scoring once to give Columbus an early lead and linking up with Cedrick Mabwati for the equalizer. Finlay’s assist on the opening goal gave him a respectable seven points on the night, with Federico Higuain also posting a decent total with five.
How did those midweek games treat you? Did you manage to take advantage of San Jose’s offensive onslaught? Let us know in the comments below.
