Every once in a while it’s fun to take a small number of matches and run the rule over the players involved. The playoffs in Major League Soccer started this weekend - the single-elimination tournament is contested by the top 14 sides in the the league with New England Revolution (top in the East) and Colorado Rapids (West) receiving a bye to the conference semi-finals where NE now play NYCFC and Colorado face Portland Timbers fresh off their 3-1 opening round win.
Still in the mix are the top scorer in the MLSPA pool in recent weeks: Sporting Kansas City’s Johnny Russell (L5:69.5) is already through to the next round where he awaits the winner of Albert Rusnák’s (L5:84.5 including a massive 30.6 AAS) Real Salt Lake or Crisitan Roldan’s (L5:63.2) Seattle Sounders. At this stage in the season, where any match could be your last and even the very best players only have three games left in the season, it is hard to buy. But if you’re looking for top options with plenty of career ROI remaining, New England duo Carles Gil (age 29) and Gustavo Bou (age 31) have been amoung the best SO5 assets to own and play for the club which set the regular season points record this year.
Carles Gil - Limited 172/1000 2021 is closing on Tuesday, in plenty of time to use him in a Week 223 lineup.
This approaching midweek is heavy on Campeonato Brasileiro Série A matches with six contests, and a further 11 matches in Argentina, which makes the MLSPA cards less valuable on their own. I did recently cover the Brazilian cards released on Sorare with an eye on stacking the end game of the season.
In Korea we are also down to just two final rounds of matches, with those schedule to be played in the coming two weekends (Sorare Week 222 and 224)
And Pohang Steelers is in the AFC Champions League final! Impressive, especially given domestic form this year which sees the club end the season in the bottom six. 6pts clear of relegation at home, the AFCCL final would be their fourth and a welcome addition to the trophy room. In a very nice move, Sorare has made them a featured club to scout (unfortunately that doesn’t come with any added tools or data, but maybe someday!). The final is the only match in Champion Asia this midweek so if you’re looking to build a stack you would get the midweek followed by matches against Incheon and FC Seoul before the year ends.
Al Hilal FC (Riyadh) v. Pohang Steelers FC
Pohang have Sorare cards of their own, but Al Hilal also have players on the roster with Sorare cards! Of the players, those which cards include Luciano Vietto who has three straight DNPs on his scoresheet. Moussa Marega has cards from the last two Sorare seasons, six starts with two goals in his Sorares scoring including Decisive scores in two of the most recent three.
On the Pohang side of the ball are five field players with 100% played in their last five and an exceptional SO5 asset in defender Kang Sang-woo has four goals with eight assists this season.
Kang has two DNPs over the break, those were international DNPs - for the club he has 35 starts and leads the team in appearances, starts, minutes and assists. I can’t really recommend rushing to buy any of these cards just for the remaining three matches of their season but if you’re into building stacks like that it’s notable that they have three matches to other K League teams two and they are playing two teams below them in the table in their final two league matches.
Fucking Racists and Assholes Keep Ruining Sport
It is the world in which we live, and it is at times simply vile. Whether the attack on Dimitri Payet which led to the suspension of the Lyon v Marseille match yesterday was racially motivated or simply run of the mill assholery, it is patently unacceptable.
That the fan in question was reportedly a) slapped by his fellow supporters and b) removed from the ground is hardly sufficient and early reporting on Monday has Marseille prepared to press charges. Good.
In Sorare-related news, the match was abandoned so you’ve likely already seen that your players will not collect a score. The starters all will have reflected a score initially when the Opta feed populated the first few minutes of the match stats; the abandoned match means the stats don’t count.
Fair Warning - Key Auctions Ending Tuesday
Been a minute since I did a Fair Warning but I have been spending a lot of time watching auctions recently - notably the top end of the Champion Europe market for Limited cards. I picked out a couple closing tomorrow here, as well as two other cards which I think are worth a gander and maybe a cheeky bid. All data visualizations via SorareData.
Samuel Umtiti - Rare 44/100 2021-22
22 days ago a Rare Umtiti went under the gavel for $302.06 0.071 ETH. That was just after Ronald Koeman was sacked. The appointment of Xavi has seen Umtiti make the bench, but he hasn’t cracked the centre back pairing of Eric García and Gerard Piqué. He’s obviously not replacing the 20 year old, but Gerard Piqué is 34 and could need some rest; Umtiti making the bench is at least a positive step forward. However, the 28 year old likely has the most value leaving the Camp Nou. The current bid on this one is already $361.73 0.088 ETH with an early Tueday am closing.
If you prefer your cards Limited - there is one closing close to midnight EST. That card is already $46.040 .0112 ETH but has seen recent gavel prices as high as $77.23 0.019 ETH and as low as $33.54 0.008 ETH.
Sebastián Coates - Rare 20/100 2021-22
His 3DA of 0.650 Ξ is driving prices here, with the current auction price up to $2,712.97 0.66 ETH already. It helps that Coates remains one of the highest scoring SO5 assets and somehow his L5:88 makes his L40:67 look amateur.
The 31 year old still gets matches for Uruguay as well, leaving precious few blank spots in a sparkling scoring record. Reportedly under contract with Sporting through the end of next season, buying a Coates is a cheat code - you instantly have a chance in every division where the card is playable and at a price which is far less than the Champion level players.
Limited 125/1000 is closing around 6:00 CET is around $450 FIAT so if you’re dumping in fresh capital while slumping you’ll be out a fair few bucks.
Serdar Gürler - Rare 3/100 2021-22
The Konyaspor midfielder has regained a spot in the starting XI this season after a year when he made just three Süper Lig starts. Gürler suffered a cruciate ligament rupture, which can significantly disrupt a career, but the 30 year old has demonstrated skill and end product across his career. As recently as 2016-18 he posted back-to-back 10+ goal seasons, first hitting 13g 3a for Gençlerbirliği and then 12g 5a for Osmanlıspor. So far this season he looks close to his best: 13 appearances, 10 starts netting twice with four assists. I don’t see top-end upside but his recent regular All Around Scores of 10+ mark him as good value for when he nets a Decisive and his price is low enough that he’s an ETH grinder with upside. If you guys could let me cop one before pushing the bidding out of my price range I’d love that.
Limited? Limited. 27/1000 closes earlier Tuesday. Recent auctions suggest little faith (also, massive competition in the same scoring range in a market that is flooded with product).
Albant Lafont - Limited 158/1000 2021-22
It’s a rarity right now when a regular starter with upside hits the market and isn’t immediately bid on. Get within 12 hours of closing time and those bids inevitably get close to, or over, the 3DA. Somehow the current Lafont card is still a couple bids short of his 3DA 0.101 Ξ $433. Nantes’ captain may only be 22 but he is a known commodity and his January birthday means he has the rest of this season plus one more in Sorare’s U23 tournaments. That hands him plenty of immediate value on top of another 10+ years in his career.
First cracking the starting XI for Toulouse at age 16, he’s amassed 211 top flight club starts in France and Italy for three teams including 79 in his 2+ years with Nantes. The down side is few clean sheets - just five last season and 17 total for Nantes - and that keeps him SO5 score averages south of 50.
Vincenzo Grifo - Limited 86/1000 2021-22
The 28 year old Italian midfielder is in the midst of building a second successive star-level season. I say that without hyperbole; it is hard to score 10+ goals and add 10+ assists, and Grifo fell just one goal shy last year with Frieburg. Last term he collected 7.9 xG and 6.2 xA, hitting 9g 10a in real life, regularly scoring north of 60 points. 3.3 xG and 2.4 xA this year have translated to three goals with two assists in 12 appearances (11 starts) with an L5:63.
His L15:61 also boasts a pair of 100pt outings. For all that his price has remained very reasonable: $138.19 0.033 ETH