FIFA Women’s World Cup: Fantasy League Wrap-up

The pre-tournament favorites emerged victorious, the United States prevailing over the Netherlands in the final. Less heralded, a third-place match was played the day before, and Sweden defeated England. While one may have had the much larger audience on TV, both count equally for fantasy purposes. Such is the effect of managing a fantasy team: One becomes much more interested in less hyped players and matches as points are points.

~

Alehouse WAGs

My side did well in both rounds of the stage (though our fantasy format had only one last transfer window prior to the semi-finals, the semi-final round was scored separately from the final round). Firstly, I was fortunate that none of my players went out injured. Secondly, I was fortunate to have five of the nine goals on my squad, and my captain each round scored one of them.

Finally, I was fortunate that rotated players did not come in for cameos. When Rapinoe sat out of the semi, Alex Morgan became my captain and scored a goal. When Horan sat out of the final, Jill Scott chipped in 5 points from my bench.

So I gained ground with above-average earnings in each round (82 in the semis and 109 in the finals), rising to 5th in the NMA mini-league (of 34 teams) and 14th overall (up from 40th before the last transfer window!) out of 1853 teams. Amazingly, my 109 was the top NMA score in the finals. But if I wasn’t top dog, then we owe kudos to some others...

~

All Hail the League Winners!

Congratulations to Indomitable Drakaina’s who won both the NMA League and overall with 868. Honorable mention goes to Old Town Road (861) who snuck into first place after the semis only to be pipped in the finals (and was also 2nd overall!). Also scoring over 800 in the NMA league were Stained Glass Films (843), Wall of Glas (831) and my own Alehouse WAGs (823). Our NMA mini-league was elite within the overall game: our median team ranked 235th of 1835 overall, which is upper-eighth. Well done everyone!

I hope that, like me, you all found the World Cup to be more interesting when you had player selections driving you to learn various nations’ rosters. Let’s do it again in 2020 when the Tokyo Summer Olympics will give us international soccer tournaments for both men and women.

~

What was your final fantasy score and rank? What worked for you and what didn’t? Because of your fantasy investment, did you find yourself paying attention to matches and nations you normally wouldn’t? Please let us know in the comments below!

Also note that the Premier League season starts in early August. Official FPL has already launched, and Fantrax leagues will be along before the end of July.

~