Why You Should Care About MLS Fantasy Soccer

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By: staff Posted: May 12, 2009

Soccer

(or the other football for US Fans) is one of the growing sports in the country. Its professional league, the Major League Soccer has been growing in support and franchise for the past few years. Thanks to David Beckham, the very patient fans of the league as well as the general popularity of the sport around the world, Soccer is set to be the next big thing in terms of professional sports. Although USA is already in every World Cup and performing well, the acceptance is not the same as the European and Southern American leagues. Just take a look at some of the fiercest riots and many are caused by Soccer fans.

Landon Donovan, Chris Klein and David Beckham - Los Angeles Galaxy

But aside from the Beckhams (yep, including Posh Spice), World Cup and riots, MLS is also a great place to fantasy sports. If you think NFL fantasy is too simple for you, try MLS Fantasy for a change.

The following are the reasons why MLS Fantasy would be an interesting game:

Familiarity with the sport – Unfortunately, not everyone is familiar with the sport, at least as a game. But this makes it even more interesting your group might not have a clue as well on how the game is played. Everyone will have to scramble for data so that they would be able to be better than others. Research as well as increased interest of the game has to be done.

The salary cap scenario – in other fantasy sports, drafting players is always the common norm. On the other hand, fantasy MLS commonly use rotisserie form with salary cap scenario. You’ll usually have $5,000,000 in budget to create a team including the coach. Some fantasy sports also make it more interesting by limiting three players per team.

David Beckham of the Los Angeles Galaxy and other teams...

The scoring system – everyone knows that the scoring system of soccer is relatively limited. A 1-0 score is expected from soccer which means only one player will receive the highest points of the game. Other stats are also considered such as saves of the goal keeper as well as assists and shots on goal. But these are very limited scores as success rests on a goal. That explains why a goal receives a very enthusiastic response from their fans.

Week by week games – MLS games are almost the same as NHL in the regular season which is once a week. For that reason, you can easily research and update your roster almost every week so that you can increase your chances of winning.

Schedule – you have to give credit for the league administrators and owners in scheduling the game. Instead of competing with NHL, NFL and NBA, the league opted to schedule most of their games during the off season and playoffs of other leagues. This means more focus for the fans and even inviting new fans for the league.

Now go out and consider some of the MLS fantasy games going on right now. As of this writing, the league is on its week 8 so it should be very interesting as the league is already half way of its regular season.