Pure Fantasy

Not quite this type of "fantasy soccer"

It’s still too soon to talk about what happened in Spokane, WA yesterday and I don’t feel like delving into the CBA, other than to say it’s for everyone’s best interest for MLS to start on time. And here we didn’t think compromise was possible in Washington, DC.

Anyway, I’ve long felt that MLS needed to do more with fantasy. It was the subject of first columns at Goal.com and I was in the running to write about fantasy for MLSnet.com prior to that until they decided to be cheap and stay in house.

If you think about the NFL, their explosion has come about in large part due to fantasy football. As a Redskins fan, there’s little chance I would’ve known who would start once Larry Johnson was essentially cut from the Chiefs if it wasn’t for the potential fantasy of Jamaal Charles. But thanks to fantasy, I did.

Friend of the Blog Kevin knows people in Seattle who were have always been fans of the English game, and now are supporters of the Sounders. Hold season tickets and all that. But they couldn’t care less about the result of a New York-D.C. United game, let alone bring themselves to watch because it doesn’t involve their beloved Sounders. However, toss in fantasy and the league is going to, at the least, drive more traffic to its scoreboard to see who had goals/assists/cards.

The one thing missing in soccer fantasy is head-to-head matchups. Now with 16 teams in the league, you could surely do a 10-team league. Sure, not everyone would have two ‘keepers to cover for bye weeks. But with situations like Preston Burpo starting for the spring in New England and the Kevin Hartman/Dario Sala situation in Dallas -- or the breaking news of Jon Busch being let go by Chicago -- it would sort itself out. The newly formed, and as our boy Craig Stouffer pointed out on Twitter grammatically horrifying, MLSSoccer.com should be on this. But you know they won’t.

As a result, we’re left with the next best thing: Major Fantasy League Soccer, or MFLS.com. And I don’t mean to downplay MFLS.com at all because it’s my favorite fantasy soccer.

I’m starting a league for the season called “Beckham’s Achilles Last Stand” and the password (case sensitive) is “Olsen.” You have until an hour before the Union make their debut in Seattle, so Thursday at 8:30 pm ET. Until then you have unlimited moves; after that you’ll lose transfers.

So join up. It’s a good way to follow the league for free. There are plenty of team previews -- Soccer By Ives, Soccernet (if you can find them), Steve Davis at SI.com has Conference Previews -- around so use them to find out the comings and goings and I know Ives has probable starting lineups.

Bushman should be in tomorrow and I’ll be back probably Thursday with predictions that will turn out better than my Oklahoma State one last week.

- Pat Walsh