SOCCER

World Cup Daily Fantasy Helper: Tuesday 7/3/18

Harry Kane torched the group stage with five goals in two matches, and England are favored versus Columbia. Which other players should be on your radar for Tuesday's main slate?

After a four-year wait, the World Cup is back, and FanDuel is offering daily fantasy contests for the entirety of the tournament. For those who played DFS during the Premier League season, FanDuel has made some changes to their scoring system, so make sure you're up to date on how the new settings impact things.

Both of Tuesday's Round-of-16 matches will be on the main slate, which starts at 10 a.m EST.

Let's go through the four positions and look at some players to target at various price points.

Forwards to Target

Harry Kane ($13,000) -- Kane is England's talisman, and our numbers project the Three Lions to win 1.04-0.76. Oddsmakers have England with a 1.25-goal implied total, tops on the slate, so Tuesday's matches aren't expected to be high-scoring affairs. Kane is pretty goal-reliant in DFS, but we can stomach it for a dude who puts the ball in the back of the net as often as he does. In Premier League play, Kane scored 30 goals in 35 starts for Tottenham, and he's kept on producing in the World Cup, tallying an eye-popping 5 goals in 2 matches. At +115, Kane has the best anytime goal odds in the match -- by a pretty good margin -- and he should be well rested after sitting England's last match. The only negative here is Kane will likely be the slate's highest-owned player, so you have to consider fading him in GPPs.

Radamel Falcao ($11,000) -- Falcao is Columbia's target man, and if you want to fade England -- who will likely be the most popular team given their form (eight goals in three games) and name recognition -- you'll probably want to roster Falcao. He's got the best anytime goal odds (+210) on Columbia, and he totaled 18 goals with 4 assists in 25 starts for Monaco this past club season.

Raheem Sterling ($9,500) -- Sterling is a pivot option off Kane. Of course, there's that whole thing about Sterling not scoring for England as he's got a mere two goals in 40 appearances for the English national team. But Sterling tallied 18 goals with 11 assists in 29 EPL starts for Manchester City, and he finds himself in dangerous areas often for England. The breakthrough is coming at some point, and if you want to be contrarian in tournaments, Sterling is an enticing path to take. Make sure he's in the starting XI, though.

Midfielders to Target

Emil Forsberg ($8,000) -- Forsberg has yet to make the net bulge in the tournament, but he's averaging 3.7 shots per match, tops on Sweden. Oddsmakers have the Sweden-Switzerland game listed as a pick'em, but our models peg Sweden as a favorite, projecting them to win 1.18-0.78. That 1.18 total is slightly higher than England's (1.04), but with a lack of well-known stars, there's a chance Sweden doesn't see a bunch of ownership. All in all, Forsberg is one of the slate's better plays.

Juan Cuadrado ($7,500) and Juan Quintero ($8,000) -- James Rodriguez's fitness is a big question mark for Columbia, and if James sits, these two should be saddled with a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of creative duties. Quintero has a goal with two assists in the tourney while Cuadrado has a goal of his own. If James plays, these two lose some luster, but they'd also likely see less ownership, and they've proven they can put up fantasy points as James' sidekicks.

Xherdan Shaqiri ($9,500) -- Shaqiri produced at least 20 FanDuel points in two of the three group stage games, and when Switzerland go forward, he's usually involved. He leads the side in shots per game (3.0) in the World Cup, and he's been credited with six chances created across three games. The top-tier of midfield pricing could be depleted with James hurt and Dele Alli not a lock to start, so Shaqiri may not be popular if the masses flock to all of the appealing mid-tier options.

Defenders to Target

Kieran Trippier ($6,000) -- Trippier has been one of England's top players so far, and he dabbles in free-kick duties, boosting his DFS value. He's basically a midfielder when England plays three at the back, and he's a cheap way to get exposure to the Three Lions. Trippier makes for a great stacking option with pretty much any of England's attackers, and you could even pair him with a defender in the hopes of a set-piece goal. At $1,500 less than the top-priced defenders, Trippier is one of the best values on the board.

Ludwig Augustinsson ($5,500) -- FanDuel's pricing appears to have reacted strongly to some goals by center-backs -- which are a rarity -- as they have Yerry Mina ($7,500), John Stones ($7,000) and Andreas Granqvist ($7,500) priced way up. That makes the slate's full-backs look relatively cheap, and like Trippier, Augustinsson is a defender who spends a lot of time getting forward. He's created at least one chance in each match, and he also does enough defensively to offer a respectable floor. He's got FanDuel outputs of 14.5, 8.2 and 35.8 points so far in the World Cup, and he's in a nice spot versus the Swiss.

Goalies to Target

Jordan Pickford ($4,500) -- With a pretty level slate, we don't have any keepers with superb win odds, but we do have two guys with solid clean-sheet odds. Our numbers have Columbia scoring 0.76 goals, fewest on the day. Goalie was a worry for England coming into this tourney, and Pickford hasn't exactly quelled those concerns. But he's got a decent shot at a clean sheet, and we have England advancing 63.13% of the time, giving him solid win odds. The cheapest expected starting keeper, Pickford can help you pay up for the outfield players you want.

Robin Olsen ($6,000) -- With Pickford priced where he is, it's hard to get behind Olsen at his salary given that our numbers predict similar outcomes for both matches. But that could make Olsen an appealing GPP option if his ownership is down, and he's certainly been in better form than Pickford has, with the Swedish keeper registering two clean sheets and seven total saves in group play.



Austan Kas is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Austan Kas also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username akas247. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.