MLS Fantasy Boss A Fantasy MLS Community
By: The Fantasy Physician
Round 29 Big Question – What problems may arise from a plan to take players in the last game of the week?
Are you one of those people who likes the end-slices on a loaf of bread or are you more likely to feed those to the birds? The ends of things are different, and that’s true of the final match of FMLS game weeks. We always begin to plan our squads by studying the schedule. Some weeks end with a few games at the East coast 10:30pm slot (this Saturday there are 4 matches then). However, in 2025 MLS and Apple TV decided they wanted to emphasize a single final match as “Sunday Night Soccer,” often at 7pm Eastern time. This week Eastern Conference contenders Cincinnati and Orlando play that game. Is Sunday Night Soccer good for your FMLS Team?
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Many FMLS managers – for good reasons and a few suspect ones – take players in the final game of the week. The switcheroo and keeperoo strategies (including the threeperoo) require late possibilities, and the last match gives you maximal time and flexibility to pick early games for your bench slots and to see how those play out.
Keeping some powder dry for the last match has some psychological appeal. We have all had the experience of having what seems like a successful game week end poorly when late-playing players not on our squads perform well for the other managers who have them. Many managers have a little emotional self-preservation bias toward the final match: since they don’t want to watch others zoom past them, they take players from that last game, sometimes at the expense of forgoing better players in better matchups from earlier matches.
Managers playing in head-to-head leagues (something I encourage everyone to do) may find strategic value in the final match. Because you can see your results and your opponent’s results at that point, you can decide to take risks with upsides, say with a differential player or by subbing a player on the field who blocks a bench player with a middling score, if you are trailing and need to make up ground. If you are winning the head-to-head, you can stick with a conservative choice and let the trailing opponent take the risk.
The biggest set of perils arises from the simple fact that options are very limited when we plan on taking players from the last match and it turns out he or they don’t play. This Sunday illustrates the risks there in general and ideas for mitigating those risks through good backup planning. Biggest dangers arise from picking forwards in final games (there are always more defenders and midfielders to choose from) and captaining a player from the final game.
Game Week 29 – What-Iffing the Final Match of the Week
With another mini-Double Game Week this weekend, most savvy managers will build their squads primarily from the four double game week teams, New York City, Miami, Vancouver, and Portland. That said, nearly all will also include single game players and will naturally eye the Sunday contest that pits FC Cincinnati vs. Orlando City.
1 – I don’t recommend captaining a player from this match. You have better choices from double game week teams. That said, if you take (or captain) midfielder Evander from FC Cincinnati, you have the option to switch to Martin Ojeda of Orlando City if Evander doesn’t play (or vice versa). I expect both players to play, but MLS and FMLS pack a lot of surprises, and the point is that you are limited to these two teams for your backup plans. If Cincinnati was playing Sporting Kansas City, I might like the matchup even more for Evander but would still be careful because I doubt there is another midfielder on either Cincinnati or SKC that would make a good alternative to Evander. Evander/Ojeda are better choices for a final game this week because the other offers an escape hatch. Creative winger Marko Pasalic from Orlando, despite weaker recent form, adds another backup option.
2 – If an autoroo or switcheroo strategy requires scrubs from a late game, be very careful to identify ahead of time that the game offers safe scrubs in the positions you need at prices you can afford. The safest scrubs are players on bye teams, but this week, like many this season, there are no bye teams. Many cautious managers put scrubs on the field from earlier games as soon as they know they want to trigger a score from the bench. But if your bench includes a Vancouver player whose score you will not evaluate until the Saturday night games end, you will need a scrub from this game. Defender London Aghedo of FCC has been a useful scrub all season and is again. If you need to scrub a forward, the now-departed Ramiro Enrique of Orlando is a choice if you have the money for him. Even with starting FCC goalkeeper Roman Celentano out, FCC has three other goalkeepers and one of them will not be in uniform this weekend. Managers who take Yohei Takaoka of Vancouver as a front-end keeperoo choice will want to identify a late GK scrub in this game and also think about who they will take if Takaoka posts a low score. Always check lineups if you can; the only truly safe scrub is one you have verified with your own eyes not to be suited up for a game.
3 – Forwards: as mentioned above, last match forwards add some risk because there are fewer forwards on the field. This game offers another pair that represent backup plans for each other, another single name Brazilian – Brenner from FCC – and Luis Muriel from Orlando. In games with single forward options, be very careful. Substitute forwards often represent steep drop-offs in quality and often are at risk for diminished minutes played. If Brian White is out at Vancouver, I would rather look elsewhere than take Daniel Rios, but if a match is the last match of the game week, there is no elsewhere other than players from the other team.
4 – Defenders – at first blush, backup planning for defenders’ unexpected absences seems easy; just take another defender. However, neither Cincinnati nor Orlando has kept a lot of clean sheets in recent times, so defender value may come from attacking returns and bonus points. In this case managers might look to Alex Freeman of Orlando or Luca Orellano of Cincinnati; again, the presence of an option on the other team makes this more appealing.
5- Alternatives at Different Positions – Say your plan was to take Evander but an unexpected viral illness takes him out of the game. Imagine that there are no good choices on the other team (there is one – Ojeda). Can you take a forward like Brenner or a defender like Alex Freeman instead? Well, yes, but only if overall you planned to have a scrub at that other position in this game AND Evander. You could take Alex Freeman or Brenner and then scrub out Evander with midfielder Favian Loyola of Orlando (check lineups!) who has yet to register an FMLS point.
Taking players from the final match can be no big deal if all goes as planned or can put your blood pressure through the roof if lineup drop gives you an unpleasant surprise. The best anti-hypertensive for last game surprises: backup plans. If a plan has no good backup plan, come up with another plan. Sleep well Saturday night knowing you are ready for anything come Sunday.
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
