Here’s our how to build the best World Cup Fantasy Team article with the 2nd draft FFGeek Team. We discuss strategy, players and the changes since our first draft
How to build the best World Cup Fantasy team – the FFGeek Team
A Few Links First
Follow FFGeek on twitter and Blue Sky for article updates and news.
Here’s the link to Play
https://play.fifa.com/fantasy/team
FFGeek League Code/Link
Code: F1MUQOX4
Link: https://play.fifa.com/fantasy/join-league/F1MUQOX4
World Cup 2026 FFGeek Slack Channel
Scroll down to the channel World Cup Fantasy 2026
https://join.slack.com/t/fantasyfootballgeek/shared_invite/zt-3n72s5gzm-tid7IiwcDVtE7hkCVENf3g
Read the FFGeek article regarding the rules
The Team
I’ll start by just showing you the latest team
There are 7 changes since the last article are. I’ll just list below and explain later
$1.0m in the bank btw
GK Kobel OUT and Galindez Ecuador IN
Def Kounde OUT and Upemecano IN – France defender choice change
Def Munoz OUT and Mujica IN – Colombia defender change
Def Wesley OUT and Portugal Inacio IN – Wesley injured and no cheap Brazil Def certain
Mid Doue OUT and Raphinha IN – France Mid Change
Fwd Kane OUT and Havertz IN
Mid De Ketelaere OUT and Luis Diaz IN
A Few Overall Points to start
I’m going to repeat a few things that I said in my first article
Strategy wise I have fixed on playing my Wildcard in round 3 where there will probably be alot of rotation with most of the leading sides already through. As the next round, called the Round of 32, allows an effective wildcard Rd 3 effectively becomes a Free Hit as we’d say in FPL. Therefore my team selections are based on Round 1 and 2 only.
You can change captains between each game if you think someone else will do better and continue doing that if you so wish throughout the round. There seems to be some opinion that you should hold out for at least 8 points but that’s obviously subjective and depends on your risk appetite. As Rangel plays on the first day of the Round then he makes sense to start as captain
This leads on to the 2nd glaring point of the subs bench. I’ve put the players who play in the round on the last days on the bench as you can then have the option to bring them on manually or not. Assuming you do it manually rather than let the site do it then I don’t think the bench order matters?
Given that I don’t really understand the role of the vice captain. I’ve just put it on Mbappe but there was no deep thinking involved
The Defensive Changes
With defence you effectively have 2 choices. Go for the attacking option or go for the 2 point under 5% owned bonus. Defenders do get 9 points for a goal so it’s that prospect vs 2 5% points if the team gets a clean sheet.
I have gone away from a default position of the most attacking player and tried to balance out the attacking player vs the under 5% player choice
GK Kobel OUT and Galindez Ecuador IN
I’ve been hearing alot about the Ecuador defence lately and the Clean Sheet odds Round 1 and 2 aren’t that different to Kobel’s Switzerland so I made the switch for the 5% bonus and the $0.5m saving
Def Kounde OUT and Upemecano IN – France defender choice change
Upemecano has the best goalscoring odds of all the French defenders with safe starting positions. Unfortunately I can’t find assist odds although I imagine Kounde will be way better. Upemecano saves $0.1m and is 4.7% for the 2 point bonus
Def Munoz OUT and Mujica IN – Colombia defender change
A more extreme change. It saved $0.7m and gave me the 5% defender as opposed to the more attacking defender. The anytime goalscorer odds difference are stark though. In the first game Munoz is $6.5 to score and Mojica $14.0
Def Wesley OUT and Portugal Inacio IN
Brazil RB Wesley has been injured and the LB position of Sandro/Douglas seems a bit uncertain.
So I’ve pivoted to a Portugal defender who have 2 reasonable games. Inacio is the cheapest and has the 5% bonus. However he didn’t start in the friendly v Chile so I’ll have to be wary
The Attacking Player Changes
Generally I’ve focused on players scoring odds but as there are no assist odds available all the midfielders are creators. Luis Diaz maybe the least.
In attack I’ve also tried to include Penalty takers where I can and Raphina, Havertz, Oyarzabal and Mbappe are the teams penalty takers. I’ve seen some stuff also saying that Bruno is over Ronaldo and Luis Diaz is James isn’t on the pitch.
Mid Doue OUT and Raphinha IN
While I think Doue will likely start he has competition from Barcola for minutes at least, as they do for PSG. I’ve put Raphina in as he has similar goalscoring odds to Doue in Rd 1 but better Gemini extrapolated odds for Rd 2 when Brazil play Haiti
Fwd Kane OUT and Havertz IN
I really don’t like Kane’s first fixture against Croatia and the fact that he’s £2.20 to score anytime doesn’t help me anyway.
Havertz has the great fixtures and I’ve nailed both the German penalty takers
Btw I don’t have Haaland as many people do, he’s £1.50 to score anytime which is pretty low odds vs Iraq so he’s definitely an option for my 12th man in Round 1
Btw 2 Kane vs Ghana in Rd 2 who are 73rd in the FIFA rankings are also an option for 12th man
De Ketelaere OUT and Luis Diaz IN
De Ket was the best with money left over in the previous draft and Diaz was the same even though I have $1.1m still left over
Lamine Yamal
I want to know he’s fit and going to start before putting him in. He’s a massive upgrade on Williams but it will need some tweaking to my team.
Williams at $7.8m plus $1.0m ITB is $8.8m but still $1.1m short so there would have to be another sacrifice
The Boosters
I’m not going to explain how they work again. This article is long enough, but here’s some initial thoughts. See my rules article linked above if you need to
Wildcard
As said above Round 3 is the current thinking
12th man
As I said above, I’m not sure. Haaland v Iraq at £1.50 to score anytime seems the obvious option. Kane maybe in round 2 v Ghana? Maybe Yamal in Rd 2 vs Saudi if he returns?
Maximum captain
Have not made any progress on this. I can’t decide if this is left to say the semi or final when it’s harder to pick the right captain and therefore the difference could be significant. Earlier on the scores are big and you automatically get the biggest captain under the chip but the difference may not be as significant unless you totally mess up the choice. Tricky. May listen to various other arguments
Qualification booster
Not available to after the round of 32 so parking it
Mystery Booster
TBC
Right hope you stuck to the end . There will be more articles so stay tuned
Scoring Odds Comparison
The Rd 2 odds are extrapolated by Gemini using to win and clean sheet odds from the Rd 1 odds
How to Follow my team
I will put all my transfers and captain changes in the comments of the Patreon version of this article as they happen so you can follow my team LIVE. I will also notify them in our World Cup Fantasy Slack Channel as they happen. That would give you an immediate notification. see link above
