If you haven’t noticed yet, Round 25 is an odd one; it lasts only for today, and features six Wednesday night matches. This means that you need to get your rosters locked in today by 7:30 pm ET, and eight teams are on a bye: COL, DAL, NYC, NYR, POR, RSL, SKC, and VAN.
Three other important things to keep in mind:
- Round 26 starts Friday, August 26 – so you will need to make your transfers Thursday or Friday.
- International call-ups for World Cup qualifiers could affect some players in Round 26.
- Round 27 also has eight teams on a bye: HOU, MTL, ORL, RSL, SJ, SEA, SKC, and TOR.
For Round 25, let’s take a look at the players that I would buy, hold, and sell for this round:
BUY
The key here is to target players from teams that do not have any byes in the next four rounds. LA Galaxy have no byes and good fixtures: CHI (away), VAN (home), CLB (home), and then a double-game week. Daniel Steres ($5.5), Steven Gerrard ($10.7), and Robbie Keane ($11.5) are all solid bets that you can put into your roster and not worry about for a couple of weeks (fantasy injury gods-willing). Ola Kamara ($8.8) picked up an assist last week against the New England Revolution, and will be back at home against the Philadelphia Union and San Jose Quakes. For a bargain midfield option, take a look at Chris Pontius ($7.7) – he has scored four goals in his last six matches, and is matched up this week against the usually weak New England revolution defense.
If you need an extra cheap defender, Chicago Fire’s Jonathan Campbell ($5.1) and Philadelphia’s Keegan Rosenberry ($5.7) are two to look at. If you’re feeling brave, you could even double-up on the Union with Richie Marquez ($6.2) or Ken Tribbett ($6.2).
HOLD
Montreal’s Ignacio Piatti ($11.4) and Didier Drogba ($11.8), Toronto FC’s Sebastian Giovinco ($13.7), and Seattle Sounders’ Nicolas Lodeiro ($11.8) and Clint Dempsey ($11.0) have all been solid producers recently, but if you don’t have them, don’t spend a transfer to bring them in just yet. All of these guys will be unavailable in Round 27, but are definitely worth keeping on your team until then.
SELL
Sacha Kljestan ($12.7), Bradley Wright-Phillips ($12), Benny Feilhaber ($11.6), Javier Morales ($11.0), Diego Valeri ($11.2), Mauro Diaz ($11.3), and David Villa ($12.4) are all off this round, so feel free to drop these guys to give yourself some money to spend on players that will play tonight. Sporting KC and Real Salt Lake are also off in Round 27, so steer clear of those teams altogether until at least September.
How does your team look going into this crazy set of rounds and byes? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, best of luck this week!
