2026 Strategy Clinic Week 2: Picking Goalkeepers in Kickbase

By: The Fantasy Physician

Week 2 Big Questions – How Do I Pick Goalkeepers in Kickbase MLS Fantasy?

Information Overload. Are you there with me?  It’s enough to wrap one’s head around a nascent MLS season as the whole footballing world careens towards the World Cup, but MLS fantasy sickos are also figuring out at least one (if not four) completely new fantasy platforms at the same time.  If you are just arriving on scene and feel bewildered, check out last week’s article on the transition from the legacy Fantasy MLS game to the whole new world that is 2026, with a new official MLS fantasy partner, Kickbase. 

In matchday 1 San Diego FC pummeled a hapless CF Montreal side 5-0, and San Diego star Anders Dreyer scored big in Kickbase with a 255.  Those results square with prior understandings.  Denis Bouanga and Heung-Min Son also put up big fantasy numbers in a statement opening day LAFC home win against the champions from Miami.  Messi had an off day, but we saw a few of those in 2025.  Feel like you are getting your bearings? 

Ok, then how did Maxime Crepeau – freshly transplanted to Orlando after losing the Portland starting job to fellow Canuck James Pantemis – score a 275 (yes, better than Dreyer), making him the 4th best overall player in Kickbase’s matchday 1?  This was in a match his team Orlando lost 1-2 to a vibrant and rejuvenated Red Bull New York squad.

There is a lot to learn about Kickbase scoring, and in the process we need to unlearn some go-to player selection heuristics from the past.  This week we focus on goalkeepers because 1) we need to focus to adapt and 2) picking goalkeepers in 2026 (along with defensive midfielders) may reflect the biggest year-on-year change for MLS fantasy managers in Kickbase.

Understanding Kickbase Goalkeeper Scoring: Who Scores Best?

In the past few years of fantasy MLS, picking goalkeeper was largely about judging which teams had the best shot at clean sheets and otherwise fitting goalkeepers into a lineup, considering budget, the match schedule, and limits on fantasy players selected from a single MLS team.  Goalkeepers scored very few bonus points and benefited rarely from penalty saves.  How does this change in 2026 Kickbase?

To answer that, let’s look at a list of most of the important MLS goalkeepers and how their 2025 performances would have stacked up using the current Kickbase scoring system for goalkeepers.

2025 MLS GOALKEEPER TOTAL POINTS AND AVERAGE POINTS PER GAME USING KICKBASE SCORING NOTE:  chart arbitrarily limited to players scoring 700 or more total points

It’s a little easier to understand why Maxime Crepeau (15 starts, 3 clean sheets, 22 goals against) sits at the bottom of the average points list than how his Portland teammate James Pantemis (19 starts, 4 clean sheets, 26 goals against, 3 penalty saves) found his way to the top of the list.  The penalty saves are worth 100 points each in Kickbase so having three of them added about 16 points to Pantemis’ average.  Other bonus points had to figure in.   Likewise, Matt Turner playing on a team that went 3-5-2 in his 10 starts with 2 shutouts in 10 starts shows a surprisingly high average.  Since neither wins nor clean sheets explain their success, by default some agglomeration of bonus points – presumably from saves, clearances, and passing accuracy (most certainly not team wins) – overcame deficits that would have given them lower scores in the legacy FMLS game.

 The top clean sheet earners in the league in 2025 – Takaoka with 13, Kahlina and Lloris with 12 each, Coronel, Dos Santos, St. Clair, and Celentano with 10 each – did well, mostly with averages of 90 and above (exception Dos Santos).

Now let’s see how goalkeepers fared in the first week of the 2026 season.  

SELECTED STATISTICS FOR THE 30 MLS GOALKEEPERS ON MATCHDAY 1 OF THE 2026 SEASON

2025 Bottom dweller Maxime Crepeau – now at Orlando – had the top score powered not by earning a clean sheet but by making 11 saves on 13 shots on target by Michael Bradley’s energetic Red Bull New York Side.  Likewise, Kristijan Kahlina performed heroically in Charlotte’s road match against St. Louis, conceding only one goal against 11 shots on target.  These performances, reminiscent of Tim Howard’s “Minister of Defense” performance against Belgium in the Round of 16 in 2014 World Cup, look from week 1 to be the source of elite scores in Kickbase.  Identifying them may be tricky but present a real high ceiling opportunity for discerning managers who can identify strong shot stoppers in a matchup in which his team will be shelled with high numbers of shots on target, with potential for many saves.

There were 7 clean sheets recorded on matchday 1 (all home teams, mind you), and those squads’ keepers all registered triple digit scores, putting them at the top third of the table.  Clean sheet hunting will be a viable strategy in 2026 Kickbase goalkeeper selection (it works about 40% of time for best managers), but it will not be the only strategy. If consistent bonus point earners emerge, they may outshine that strategy.

A few goalkeepers did well despite recording neither a clean sheet nor a very high number of saves:  Ethan Horvath, Matt Turner, and Michael Collodi appear to fall into this category from the list above, but the consistency of those bonus points remains to be determined.  Horvath had an unusual number of points from “Accurate Sweeper Keeper” bonus for coming out of the box and clearing balls successfully to teammates.  Time will tell if that’s a characteristic of how he plays versus a product of that particular match’s dynamics.

Finally, goalkeeper choice may create opportunities for saving money that can be directed elsewhere in your squad.  Lookout for instances when the starting keeper is known to be gone and the backup is clearly established.

Goalkeeper Choices in Week 2

First, whoever you pick to start in goal has to play the match, and for those who haven’t realized it yet, the Kickbase game locks before the first matches of the matchday.  Durran Ferree started and earned a shutout in San Diego’s week 1, but he is not slated to be a regular starter, and they play in the last match. His seductive pricetag of $0.6M is likely to give you what you pay for –  nothing – if Pablo Sisniega starts, which is more likely.  If you want to be sure your goalkeeper is playing, there are solid choices from the first two matches of the game week: Ethan Horvath, Matt Turner, and Chris Brady all are viable goalkeepers that you can confirm are playing by checking lineups in the hour before Kickbase locks.

• Matt Turner (New England): playing away at RBNY, he is my “Minister of Defense” candidate of the week ie a good goalkeeper who has the potential to see a lot of shots on target and so accrue a lot of points for saves.  Despite giving up 4 goals last week against Nashville and only posting 4 saves, he still scored a very respectable 118, suggesting that bonus points (other than from saves) support a meaningful floor for him.  I like his floor and ceiling.  Don’t forget his average for 2025 was high, second in MLS.
• Ethan Horvath (Red Bull New York):  First week performance suggests he has a bonus point floor.  Playing at home against the New England Revolution.
• Chris Brady (Chicago Fire): Despite having conceded 2 goal against an improved Houston offense on the road last week, the Fire could very well have what it takes to shut out Montreal, who themselves were shut out last week.  Check lineups also to see if key Chicago defenders like Jack Elliott and Andrew Gutman are back.
• Yohei Takaoka (Vancouver):  MLS Clean sheet leader in 2025. Clean sheet in his first match in 2026. Playing at home against a rebuilding Toronto side.
• Brad Stuver (Austin):  At home against DC United, the team many managers have loved to pick against for years now.  Stuver had a solid average of 95 in 2025 and will likely generate bonus points to support a floor.
• Brian Schwake (Nashville):  Good budget choice at $2M and playing on a strong team.  Use him only if you need the money elsewhere, since his away fixture at Dallas does not predict an enormous point return.

It looks like Kickbase scoring will make picking goalkeepers fun in 2026.  And as a reminder, the purpose of playing games is fun.  Enjoy Matchday 2!

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The “Fantasy Physician” is Ron Birnbaum, @Half Century City on Discord
The “Fantasy Therapist” is Mike Leister, @Kenobi on Discord
The “Fantasy Meteorologist” is Asher Malaschak, @Storminator on Discord
The “Fantasy Gastroenterologist” is Christian Ward, @xward on Discord