bluebloodedjourno.com

Fantasy Soccer Bootroom is a weekly column devoted to the ins and outs of fantasy soccer, especially the game played on www.mfls.com, and the RevMFLS division.

Last week I talked about how it isn’t always a bad thing to take a zero from a player in your starting lineup when his team is on bye or he isn’t playing. As a case in point, I take my brother’s team, the CO Stormtroopers, this past week. He played three players on bye (Ralston, Parkhurst, Rocha), yet he still was the highest scoring team in RevMFLS this week with 26 points. He only had one negative score (Moreno, -3) and had five players with 3 or more points. Well done, little bro!
Read the rest of this post »

Blue Blooded Journo Power Poll is a weekly poll of all the BBJ bloggers. The rankings are compiled to form one composite list.

I didn’t expect so much movement with SuperLiga break going on, but 11 of 14 teams are in a different place than last week.
Read the rest of this post »

A few odds and ends:

• Did anyone think that the entire $1 million Superliga prize would go to the players?  The MLS players union thinks that’s how it should work.  Sorry guys, you don’t own the teams.  You play two less games than last year.  Sure, MLS should start working in international competition bonuses into their contracts.  However, the union should use that as arbitration leverage during the next collective bargaining agreement, not go out and make asinine statements about the guaranteed distribution of profit from owners to workers.  It takes money to fly players around the country for Superliga, and last I checked the teams aren’t exactly making a killing.  If the Revs won, they’d probably use it to make up for operating costs.  Due to the price of fuel and the team’s rural location, attendance has been slumping.  They sure as heck need the dough at this stage.  Read the rest of this post »

Been awhile since my last post. I’ve moved to Boston (Roslindale to be precise, slightly less riff raff but still in my price range) and it’s taken a long time to get settled in. Since I last posted, the New England Revolution have rebounded from a slight slump with two solid victories. That has left them comfortably atop the MLS ladder with a few games in hand heading into their Superliga hiatus, hoping for as many ties as possible during their absence. The Revs have also advanced to the US Open Cup semifinals by beating two USL-2 sides. This sets up an epic road matchup with DC United, and the winner gets to face a USL-1 team in the finals. Just a thought: If Superliga qualification is indeed set in stone (HA!), and we can take their press releases seriously (double HA!), then what happens if a USL team like the Charleston Battery wins the cup? An even funnier scenario would have Seattle winning the US Open Cup. They are disbanding, and then reforming under the same name in MLS next year. Would that incarnation enter next years Superliga? Those are all questions for the future. Sure, it’s fun to poke fun at the way MLS boasts about qualification standards, goes quiet for months, and then pop out of nowhere and makes up new ones. However, there’s bigger things going on in the New England Revolution’s camp and the biggest thing camping out is Superliga.

Read the rest of this post »

Fantasy Soccer Bootroom is a weekly column devoted to the ins and outs of fantasy soccer, especially the game played on www.mfls.com, and the RevMFLS division.

Welcome to the dog days of summer! As I pointed out last week, there are at least two teams on bye for each of the next five weeks. That will mean some hefty lineup shuffling for fantasy owners. These are usually the days that separate the casual fantasy owner from the hard core. The casual fantasy owner who loaded his lineup with DC players and never looked at his lineup again, he may have had a nice run the last few weeks, but SuperLiga will bring his team back to earth. Of course, there are some owners who can be overzealous, furiously shuffling the roster to deal with SuperLiga, only to burn roster moves on players who turn out to be duds.
Read the rest of this post »

Blue Blooded Journo Power Poll is a weekly poll of all the BBJ bloggers. The rankings are compiled to form one composite list.

Top three and bottom five remain the same. NE holds the top spot for the fourth straight week, matching Columbus’ reign from weeks 5 through 8.  All Eastern Conference teams are 9 points behind the pace or better, while the Western Conference teams are 10 points behind the pace or worse.
Read the rest of this post »

Fantasy Soccer Bootroom is a weekly column devoted to the ins and outs of fantasy soccer, especially the game played on www.mfls.com, and the RevMFLS division.

DC got off to a very slow start this year, and for those of you (like me) that gave up on them, you might want to take another look. After starting the month of May with four straight losses (outscored 8-1 in that stretch), they have suddenly found their offense, going 5-0-1 and scoring 18 goals in those 6 games. Of course, 4 of those games were at home and the other two were at Chicago and New England, two teams that seem to play better on the road than at home.
Read the rest of this post »

Blue Blooded Journo Power Poll is a weekly poll of all the BBJ bloggers. The rankings are compiled to form one composite list.

Top two and bottom three remain the same. DC’s destruction of the high-flying Galaxy moved them up 5 spots. Colorado dropped one to a season-low 11th.
Read the rest of this post »

Fantasy Soccer Bootroom is a weekly column devoted to the ins and outs of fantasy soccer, especially the game played on www.mfls.com, and the RevMFLS division.

There were 3 scoreless games this week, and 8 shutouts altogether in 8 games, which generally makes for a low scoring week fantasywise. Teams that loaded up on the eastern leaders Chicago and Toronto got no help, while New England scored twice in two games, but gave up three. Columbus managed 3 goals, but none from the usual suspects (Moreno and Rogers).
Read the rest of this post »

Blue Blooded Journo Power Poll is a weekly poll of all the BBJ bloggers. The rankings are compiled to form one composite list.

Must be vacation week, as I’m flying solo. RSL’s 4 point week jumps them up 4 spots. Chicago drops to their lowest rank since week one. LA reaches a season high, as does Toronto (tied with week 6), while Dallas drops to a season low. KC is the only former number one to appear in the bottom two (DC also if you include the preseason rankings).

Read the rest of this post »

Fantasy Soccer Bootroom is a weekly column devoted to the ins and outs of fantasy soccer, especially the game played on www.mfls.com, and the RevMFLS division.

Sometimes, the best moves in fantasy sports are the ones you don’t make. I was in a pickle last week with several of my starters away on National Team duty: Landon Donovan, Kenny Mansally, Amado Guevara, Adrian Serioux and Jim Brennan, plus Brandon Prideaux serving a red card suspension. With Columbus getting shut out four games in a row, I was hesitant to stick with Alejandro Moreno. With Kheli Dube’s three game scoring streak ending last week, I thought he might have hit the wall. So I researched, looking to add a forward, and settled on Luciano Emilio, only to discover I was $6 short (having previously blown most of my salary cap space on Blanco). After hours and hours of further research (OK, maybe it was 20 minutes), I reluctantly decided to stand pat, and I was rewarded as all three of my forwards (Moreno, Dube and Cooper) found the back of the net, leading to my highest score of the year (29 points).
Read the rest of this post »