With the first casualties now having fallen from their World Cup perch and had the hopes and aspirations nurtured and chased for the last four years dashed, there are some surprise names among the top of pundits’ “top praise” column. The likes of Costa Rica and Mexico have put in solid showings thus far while Spain – who have dominated the international scene for the last six years outright – have gone the way of Cameroon and group foes Australia in crashing out after only two games. They do still have a farewell appearance to come when the group fixtures round off over the next week or so, but for these teams the final game will be a sad formality before their respective journeys home.
We will here be taking a look more on the aforementioned surprises at the top of the list, rather than those regarded among the competition’s elite. As mentioned in a previous piece, Mexico have been the biggest surprises arguably, with their two clean sheets from two games ranking their defensive players in particular right up among the top points scorers – they do have a crunch game against Croatia coming up, and so Guillermo Ochoa (80 points – tied top points scorer in the tournament so far), Rafael Márquez, Francisco Javier Rodríguez, Miguel Layún (60 points each), Paul Aguilar and Héctor Moreno (both with 55) will have to repeat their heroics thus far if they are to ensure qualification alongside hosts Brazil from Group A.
Of those players mentioned, Layún and Aguilar look particularly tempting for fantasy managers, with values of only €2.50m and €3.50m respectively – that’s 115 points for an outlay of only €6.00m! Throw in goalkeeper Ochoa too, who is valued at €6.00m, you could have a whopping 195 points from only three players who cost a grand total of €12.00m, though you will have to consider the maximum number of players from a single nation rule – this would take up that quota for Mexico.
Colombia defender Pablo Armero has earned himself a great 50 points from his single appearance in South America thus far, scoring a goal and helping keep a clean sheet at the back during his 74 minute outing against Greece. He is a defender, and so could fit in nicely alongside the Mexican pairing – he is valued at only €6.00m himself, so why not make it 245 points for only €18.00m making up four fifths of your defensive line? There is also an added bonus that Colombia could still qualify before they next kick a ball competitively – should Japan and Greece draw, that would put the South Americans firmly out of reach inside the top two at least. This means Armero has definite potential for a longer run in the tournament, though he can only feature as long as his country are in there, so that may be a consideration.
That pretty much sums up most of the more surprising – or, perhaps more appropriately considered lesser known – names towards the top of the points scorers charts so far in the competition. It is no coincidence that these players are all defensive, and while there have been big hitting attackers those accolades tend to stay with some of the sides more fancied to travel much further in the tournament.
One big consideration, however, is that the players mentioned here are all turning out for South American nations – they have performed so well thus far, and their experience playing in the climates will surely continue to serve them well ahead of their European counterparts. That said, that is not to take away any credit to them – they have done fantastically well, with Chile – another South American side – the team responsible for ensuring reigning champions Spain would be travelling home early. They put in a great performance – so fantasy managers should not be afraid to go for players that they may be a bit less familiar with – the flair is in making the fine selections, and the devil is in the detail – this defensive line should be able to give our fantasy managers something of a start in shaping their squads for the next phase of the competition.
