For some of you, the first week of MLS Fantasy Soccer was a rough one.
Maybe you thought you could count on Aurelien Collin to anchor your defense, only to see him go studs up and earn a red card. Perhaps you handed the goalie gloves to Jaime Penedo or Dan Kennedy, only to see their understudies shine in their places. Or maybe you just took a bunch of zeroes in your starting lineup.
No matter how it happened, there’s one surefire way to get your team back on track: the Week 2 wildcard. Or, as I like to call it, the YOLO-card.
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The YOLO-card straddles the boundary between insanity and genius. It’s pressing the reset button on your entire team and selecting a new one.
I’ve seen it used to great effect in previous leagues. There’s generally a correlation between team value and team performance. If you feel like you can pluck the rising stars now and ride them through the end of the season, the Round 2 wildcard could pay for itself in no time. In addition, the wildcard is valid all the way until the week begins, meaning you could blow things up on Wednesday and still do some tinkering on Friday.
Now, the risks are obvious. You only get one free wildcard all season long and there are still 32 rounds to play. One week is an awfully small sample size when trying to determine who will stand out for the rest of the season. And, as much as you’d like to think you’d come out with a perfect team, there’s always a chance the wildcard could result in a team that’s still terrible, just in a different way.
For the purposes of this argument, I’ve decided to assemble a team for under $120m. Let’s see what that could get you:
Goalkeepers: Tyler Deric (HOU, $5.1m), Josh Ford (ORL, $4.0m)
Defenders: Omar Gonzalez (LAG, $9.2m), Steve Birnbaum (DCU, $7.6m), Ike Opara (SKC, $7.1m), Donny Toia (MTL, $5.0m), Axel Sjoberg (COL, $4.6m), Taylor Peay (POR, $4.0m)
Midfielders: Clint Dempsey (SEA, $11.2m), Benny Feilhaber (SKC, $9.2m), Davy Arnaud (DCU, $6.6m), Jose Villarreal (LAG, $6.1m), Patrick Doody (CHI, $4.0m), Ben McKendry (VAN, $4.0)
Forwards:Obafemi Martins (SEA, $11.2m), Jozy Altidore (TFC, $9.7m), Jairo Arrieta (DCU, $6.6m), Dominique Badji (COL, $4.5m)
That lineup clocks in at $119.7m, but it’s rich in attacking talent and will probably win you a few head-to-head matchups. Still, burning your wildcard early is a high price to pay.
Only you can decide if you have the cojones to make such a YOLO move. But just imagine turning your entire season around with one swift click of the mouse.
Wouldn’t that be something? You only live once, after all.
