I’m traveling in Wisconsin for work this week, so the bad news is that I don’t have much extra time to come up with a good theme for this week’s Answers. The good news is that I did see a USLSL game on TV at a supper club.
So speaking of bad news and good news…
What’s going on in Gotham?
Gotham won the CONCACAF W Champions Cup last month, and thus will represent North America in both the Women’s Club World Cup and the Women’s Champions Cup. Congratulations to Gotham!
However, the Bats are now winless in their last four league matches, and have only scored one goal in that stretch. Esther Gonzalez has cooled off after a torrid start to the season, and Ella Stevens was forced to leave last weekend’s match with an injury. Lilly Reale continues to rack up fantasy points, but it’s difficult to trust most other Gotham players with a starting spot on your FNWSL team for the immediate future.
Flipping back to good news, though, Rose Lavelle is back! While expensive ($400k), Lavelle will likely see significant playing time quickly (especially if Stevens misses any matches, which is likely at this point), and she is one of the most dynamic attacking midfielders in the world. I personally would probably wait a week or two, but if you do have some extra money lying around (e.g. if you still have Debinha on the roster, who is out through the end of June as far as we know), Lavelle is never a bad option.
How do we maximize the fantasy value of the Spirit attack?
To put it simply, the Washington Spirit are on a tear offensively. Though Trinity Rodman is out indefinitely, and Ashley Hatch was a late scratch in Round 11, several other key Spirit players (Spirits?) have returned from injury over the last few rounds – and the Spirit are cooking: Washington has notched three goals in four of their last five matches. This means that, from a FNWSL perspective, Washington is rapidly joining Kansas City in terms of overall fantasy value, and you probably want at least two Spirit attackers on your roster.
Assuming Hatch is ready to go this week, she’ll continue to be an ideal FW option. Recently, most of the other popular Spirit attacking options have been midfielders: Croix Bethune, Narumi Mirua, Leichy Santos, Makenna Morris, etc, – especially with the number of quality FW options in FNWSL. However, don’t forget that Washington’s other two FWs, Gift Monday and Rosemonde Kouassi, both cost only $150k and have actually been the most prolific Washington fantasy point scorers over the last couple of weeks. Monday has at least one goal contribution in all but two of her matches this season – if you need a third (or fourth) forward, perhaps if Riley Tiernan is unable to return from injury this week, take a look!
Editor’s note: while Gift Monday was subbed for injury over the weekend, we don’t know her status at this time. In the Spirit’s post-match, Head Coach Jona Giraldez did state he believed all injuries believed to have been incurred in game were actually cramps and humidity-related.
Did we learn anything about the Pride lineup?
Unfortunately, not really. We’ve talked a lot about the inconsistency in the Orlando starting XI over the last couple of weeks, and the difficulty it presents for FNWSL managers. There continues to be a lot of rotation in the expensive back line, and this week, even Barbra Banda sat out the first half. If you do have money invested in the Pride, continue to monitor this situation before the deadline. The Pride are playing Friday, and though it’s a late game and thus the lineups won’t be released before the FNWSL deadline, we should at least see the availability reports before you need to save your lineup.
What are your plans for Round 12? Comment or Bluesky @MansersAnswers!