Can a team of all Americans (well nearly!) challenge for the W League fantasy title? There’s only one way to find out….
So with no knowledge of the W-League, apologies, I’ve embarked on a team of as many Americans as I can. As an admin for ShePlays, I found it only right that I had to take part in the Australian fantasy competition as well as the English WSL.
After spending time in the USA and a little bit of research, I was curious to see whether a team, firstly could be made up of solely players with a USA nationality within the budget and secondly if so, how successful this could be. Therefore, ‘American Dream’ was born.
In total, there are (as far as I know) 22 Americans in the W-League this season; 2 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, 3 midfielders and 9 strikers.
So firstly with a budget of £550,000, I knew I would have to avoid some of the higher valued players so unfortunately out of the window went Carson Pickett (£70,000) and Lynn Williams (£70,000).
With Week 1 starting, not all the teams had identified their players so again my pool of players was shortened, so lining up for week 1 was the following in a 5-3-2 formation:
Goalkeeper = Aubrey Bledsoe (Sydney FC) (40,000)
Defenders = Sofia Huerta (Sydney FC) (£60,000), Amber Brooks (Adelaide United) (£60,000), Emily Menges (Melbourne Victory) (£45,000), Sam Staab (Western Sydney Wanderers) (£35,000), Julia Ashley (Adelaide United) (£35,000)
Midfielders = Haley Hanson (Melbourne Victory) (£40,000), Celeste Boureille (Brisbane Roar) (£45,000), Morgan Andrews (Perth Glory) (£45,000)
Strikers = Simone Charley (Canberra United) (£35,000), Kristen Hamilton (WSW) (£50,000)
Bench = Rylee Baisden (Brisbane Roar) (£17,500), Olivia Price (Canberra United) (£17,500), Chelsie Dawber (Adelaide United) (£15,000), Trudy Burke (Sydney FC) (£15,000)
So with a shortage of midfielders ahead of Round One as well as no game for Brisbane Roar, Olivia Price had to come in as one of my ‘adopted Americans’. Chelsie Dawber and Trudy Burke were also not American on the bench but with no £15,000 Americans I had to make do.
Round 1
After Round 1, ‘American Dream’ sits 17th in the global leaderboard after scoring a grand total of 117 points!
With tough decisions to be made up front with consideration of Adelaide’s Mallory Weber, Melbourne Victory’s Darian Jenkins and Sydney’s Veronica Latsko, my choice to go with Simone Charley paid off. The Canberra forward netted twice on her debut netting a total of 22 points, the highest in my team and joint highest with Caitlin Foord of the game week.
With five at the back, the defence provided a few points with a clean sheet for Bledsoe in goal a bonus. Sofia Huerta is listed as a defender and although it leaves me short of midfielders, the Sydney star pocketed me 17 points which was then doubled as my captain.
A goal for Kristen Hamilton up front also netted me a nice 14 points, while I was forced to use Olivia Price off the bench due to there being no Brisbane Roar game, seeing the young midfielder contribute 9 points.
Round 2 Preview
With Round Two fast approaching, I will be making one change as Canberra’s Kaleigh Kurtz comes in to my starting XI. The defender is valued at £35,000 and replaces Morgan Andrews. With no Perth Glory game and the loss of Andrews, I will be again forced to start with Olivia Price. I have also made the decision therefore to drop Amber Brooks to the bench.
To keep up-to-date with how American Dream are doing, follow @etiawneb on Twitter.