Double points are coming up in the knockout stages of the Sun Dream Team World Cup fantasy football. I’m concentrating on making sure that obviously I have the best players but also that I have 11 players live for the second stages. To have that you need to understand the likelihood of teams progressing to the quarters and beyond. Here’s some thoughts on how the pathway to the final could look and the effect that it could have on your transfer decisions for transfer window 1
Sun World Cup fantasy football tips – some thoughts on the best countries for transfer window 1
The Round of 16 matches:
Here’s the matches and how I think they will play out.
Brazil v Chile – A tough one but I think the crowd and the defensive frailties of Chile will see Brazil though but it will be difficult
Colombia v Uruguay – A tough one but I’m banking on Colombia squeaking through
Holland v Mexico – A very difficult one given the defensive performances of Mexico. I’ll go for Holland though.
Costa Rica v Greece – Another difficult one to call but if I had to pick I would continue with Costa Rica
France v Nigeria – France all the way
Germany v Algeria – Germany all the way
Argentina v Switzerland – Argentina all the way
Belgium v USA – Tricky one given Belgiums poor form but I would still bank on Belgium progressing.
The resulting quarters:
Transfer window 2 will be before the quarters. Ideally you will want all 11 of your players to get through the quarter finals as after that the number of games are the same. However to do that will involve some bold choices. You may want to accept that not all will play after the quarters to minimise a huge loss of players if your predictions are wrong:
Here are the resulting fixtures as they would be based on my last 16 predictions above:
Brazil v Colombia – difficult to call
France v Germany – difficult to call
Holland v Costa Rica – Holland shall win this
Argentina v Belgium – Argentina should win this
The semis that follow will be impossible to call so its a case of trying to have some balance in your team or backing teams you think will win and loading your teams at the quarter stage accordingly. The 2nd is far more risky obviously
So what does this mean?
Here’s a few thoughts on the above information:
1. Argentina have the best passage to the semis and beyond in my view. You should have Messi without question. The defence is ordinary but the next 2 games aren’t against the best attacking teams. Rojo is very good value in defence and a good addition.
2. Holland need to get through the Mexico game. That won’t be easy given the defensive performances that Mexico have put forward. Holland, assuming they get through, then have Costa Rica or Greece next which should see Holland through to a semi against an Argentinian team where defence is not their strong point. Robben and RVP are the attacking threats and Blind is great value in defence.
3. Don’t overload your teams on potential quarter final opponents. It maybe tempting given the last 16 fixtures to have only French and German players in your team. However they could play each other in the quarters which would mean half your team was going home with no futher transfers after that game. You only have 4 transfers fto get you through the quarters, semi’s and final so you would immediately be short of players for the semis and beyond. Calculate, given the path to the semis, how many players you are likely to lose as your players are likely to be playing each other in the quarters or back one opponent for each potential quarter final place and take a risk. So using my quarter final path above if you’re backing opponenets you would say, I’m backing Brazil to beat Colombia so no Colombian players in my side. I’m backing Germany to beat France so no France players in my side. Obviously you have 2 transfer windows but think about how you want to play it before you make your transfers. I’ll illustrate my thought process when I do mine.
I will probably play it a mix of both. I’ll spread the risk for the last 16 on Brazil and Colombia but back the Netherlands to beat Costa Rica and Argentina to beat Belguim and have no players if possible from those losing teams. I may take the view to lose a couple of players in the quarters rather than risk everything backing 4 teams only to get through the quarters
Thats it I hope that gives you some thoughts on how your team could be structured.
Follow us on twitter @fantasyfoot20 or www.facebook.com/fantasyfootballgeek
Our website is free. If you find the site useful please support us via the donate button on the site
Sun World Cup fantasy football tips
Sun World Cup fantasy football tips