First of all, a thank you to UCLA Bruins dot com for the perfect featured image for today's post.
It's game week slash round 5. This is the one we've been building for. It's DOUBLE GAME WEEK TIME!
Portland and Gotham will play each other in this round, in addition to Seattle and Angel City, respectively. This is because they will miss round 10 to, "contest the final of the CONCACAF W Champions Cup in Nuevo Leon", per Nick Manser. As both games will count towards this round's scoring, it's time to bring in Thorns and Bats to your fantasy team. If you haven't been doing this all season. Or even if you have, things change and plans have to adjust.
Here's who I think warrants a place in your team:
Portland
- Olivia Moultrie - consistent attacker with multiple routes to points
- Reilyn Turner - scored in each of her last two games
- Reyna Reyes - attacking fullback who is seemingly involved in everything Portland does
- Hina Sugita - who is somehow ACTUALLY involved in everything Portland does
Gotham
- Lily Reale - bargain price with double digit fantasy returns in each of her last two matches
- Esther Gonzalez - quiet start for her in fantasy despite taking a ton of shots, but coming off a brace against North Carolina
- Ella Stevens - see above (at least the quiet start part) but can always chip in with goals and assists
- Ann-Katrin Berger - not as cheap as she was last year in the fantasy game, but still one of the best keepers in the league
For my team, I already have Moultrie along with Jayden Perry (Thorns) and Gabi Portilho (Bats). See what I was saying about adjusting your plans? No sense selling them this week. They're potential two-gamers. I'm not sure either gets both starts, but that's the bed I've made for myself.
I think I'm going to bring in Lily Reale and Esther Gonzalez and take a minus five hit. For double game weeks, it's not really a minus five. Because they get AT LEAST a second start it's just a minus three. That's a bargain, especially in a game where four points returned from a player seems to be the minimum (Thanks, Marta.😖)
I'm selling Ashley Hatch and Gisele Thompson to accommodate Reale and Esther. That's... not ideal. But let's talk it through.
The Spirit play Gotham, who despite their thin numbers at the back have a strong defensive set-up. Hatch has done really well so far this season and is leading the Golden Boot race, and I just brought her in to my team last week. But she's not the player that creates her own offense like Esther and have we mentioned Esther has an additional game in which to earn points this week?
I may want to bring Hatch back in soon. In fact, I'll just shout out the Spirit as my team to target after this week. Following this match against Gotham, their next match against one of the top four -- for my purposes this is Orlando, Kansas City, Washington, and Gotham -- is Gotham again in August and then Kansas City in September. And even during that great stretch they get Angel City (more about them in a moment) and North Carolina as home games.
You know, if I were smart, I'd move Gabi to Esther and keep Hatch saving future me a transfer. That would deal me out of an additional two-gamer, so I'm not likely to do that. And also, I'm not smart.
Selling Gisele is less of a bother for me. Yes, she's been great and has been returning steady fantasy points. However, despite their undefeated start to the season I see choppy waters ahead. Their next three games are against Gotham this week and then Orlando and at the Spirit. That's a tougher run than San Diego, Portland, Seattle, and Houston.
So that's where I'm at. Burning five points to load up on Gotham this week, and probably moving them to Spirit players as soon as I can in the following transfer windows.
Good luck, all. As usual, if you have any thoughts or ideas, or see something that I've missed, I'd love to hear from you in the comments or on Bluesky .
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