A Thankfully Sick Bracket - Week 14

 

Hello Gentleman!! I know its been almost two weeks since you've last heard for me so lets run though a few things.

1.) Post Happy Thanksgiving!! I should've schedule my blog around traveling and the holiday itself but work has been crazy and it basically came out of nowhere.

2.) I was (per usual) sick as fuck the entirety of last week and only stepped foot into the office for a total of 4 hours across two days.

3.) The World Cup draw happened Friday.

As the World Cup is coming quite literally here in June, as (the self-proclaimed) biggest fan/follower of the US team, I like to type out something for everyone to read. I did it 4 years ago and loved doing it. The goal of it is to just simply educate people on our players, our grouping, and our expectations. I guess as I am typing it out I don't know if people enjoy it or really read it to like "learn" but nonetheless I think its better than a bullshit AI-CBS-US soccer blog. That blog won't be coming till late-May/Early-June but be expecting it! Its going to be fun and give you a couple facts about our players if you go somewhere publicly to watch. 

Because I am so excited for this World Cup I am going to merge the Sexy Panthers Fantasy Football league and the teams participating in the World Cup into one blog. I am 100% treating myself in this blog and this could turn into a creed thoughts scenario but I hope you find it as a soft-fun-launch for what's upcoming here in June. 

World's Sexiest Panthers Cup:

Quick last few notes so this blog makes sense:

- FIFA's world ranking system isn't based on "who won last". France and Argentina were the in last world cup and neither of them are "ranked" #1 in the world. So I will start in order with the teams in our league I think are the best and finish with the worst. Basically this is my power rankings heading into the playoffs.

- I will be using the current "FIFA" ranking but that is not my personal ranking.

- I will not just be using 1-12 in the world rankings but bouncing around to countries I think fit your fantasy team. So a little extra futbol knowledge for those at home.

Worlds Sexy Panthers World Fantasy Rankings

#1.) Kirk - Spain (World Ranked #1): The favorite, the best team in the world, and my personal winner of the WC/Fantasy league. Kirk has JSN, RJ Harvey, and Tetoria McMillian which are all young stars that currently the best in Fantasy football and or playing beyond their expectations. Along with the young superstar talent, Kirk having Josh Allen, Josh Jacobs, Derrick Henry, CD, and even AJ Brown as of late means he has the young upcoming and the old heads that just makes him so dangerous. Spain is built almost exactly the same. A great mix of young superstars and a couple superstar veterans makes you a complete team that like Spain, are the heavy favorites to win the World's sexiest Panthers cup. 

Strengths: Kirk and Spain have a million good depth players. They can sub someone in/on and not skip a beat.

Weaknesses: Spain is somewhat treading waters into the ego-trip-ville. Their own self destruction is what could take them down. The challenge for Kirk's team is who is he going to start and who he isn't going to start. Derrick Henry goes for 11 while Etienne goes for 20 on the bench. I know AJ Brown for MHJ was worth it obviously now but not trading a piece for a stud tight end maybe the cause of your ego-trip-ville downfall.

#2.)  Dustin - Portugal (World Ranked #6): I know it's shocking to put Dustin at #2 as he is the 6th seed in the playoffs this year. But identical to Portugal, he is ramping up at the perfect time. Portugal has always been a mid-tier team but as of this last year, won Nations League in Europe (which means nothing but every team tried their dicks off). Dustin has battled injuries with Nico Collins, Bucky Irving, and Tee Higgins all year but as the bracket/playoffs start to get rolling here he's in the perfect spot for some "upsets". Similarly to Portugal his bench isn't that deep and relies heavily on their heavy hitters but when the hitters are hitting; they are a great team.

Strengths: When they get hot they stay hot for both teams.

Weaknesses: If they roll up and are off their game, they can even be worse than a mid-pack team. Losing to Morocco 1-0 in 2022 while also getting dominated by them was a sight to see.  

#3.) Chris - Norway (World Ranked #28): Again pay no attention to the "world ranking" to me ranking you 3rd. Perfect time to remind people that this is just my attempt at an equivalent comparison. The reason I have you paired up with Norway is because you have 2 of the best players at their position in Chase and Mcbride and the rest is just average. Norway as probably 75% of us know has Erling Halaand who is the best striker in the world (maybe mbappe) but is literally single-handedly carried his team to the world cup in 2026. 

Side note: I will say doing a deep dive into all of fantasy/players/teams I found this stat extremely interesting. Shout out Chris's team for pointing it out to me.

First the god damn gap between the scoring of running backs is staggering to me. I can't really remember another year like it. I know injuries play a massive role but running backs ranked 1-4 are out scoring running backs 7-the field by an average of 9 points a game which is bananas. 

Side Note 2:

Secondly, I think this is the first year in PPR formatted fantasy leagues I have ever seen:

- A 100 point gap between #1 WR and the #7 WR.

- Running backs across the board out scoring receivers by a fucking grand canyon of a gap.

Back to Chris: Because other than your two superstars, I just see a ton of "okay/good" players and a whole lot meh. The goodnews is that meh is needed on any roster and even though its maybe not players that going to get 20+ points a game, certainly can help and facilitate the superstars like Halaand/McBride/Chase to win you games.

Strengths: Norway/Chris knows what their team is. He won't have any issues getting a starting lineup that's going to give him the max amount of points possible (Corum doesn't count because they benched everyone as the 4th quarter started). 

Weaknesses: Soccer teams that have a solid pair of starting center backs can and will shut Halaand down. Similarly, with Higgins possibly out, and Mcbride the main target for the Cardinals, if teams have a good defense and focus on those two players I think you can get bounced quick.  

#4.) Alan - Belgium (World Ranked #8): In the upcoming World Cup in 26, exactly like Alan's team, both are entirely built on 1 or 2 young stars, but other than that, just the oldest team in the tournament and everything lies in their hands. The problem with drafting/relying on players of this age is durability and play time. Adams has 14 touchdowns through 4 weeks, but only had 50 some catches on the year. Purely dependent on touchdowns/play time. Aaron Jones the same. Alvin Kamara. Chris Godwin. Dallas Goedart. James Connor. Lets not forget now that the man handing JT the ball is a 44 year goat but teams are certainly taking him out of the game and forcing into the Rivers hands. 

Strengths: Can score and can be very dangerous.

Weaknesses: I look at the entire roster and I question who is going to win this team the game. A 33 year old KBD/Adams is a lot to put on a team.

#5.) Brian - France (WC Ranking #3): More of a 2022 comparison than now, but heading into the 2022 WC (even though they made the finals), France was by far and away the most injured heading into the tournament. In comparison, Brian having: Mike Evans, Rome Odunze, Woody Marks, Drake London, and Trey Benson all banged up is a horrible start for his championship dreams. Still having Puca/Mbpape now healthy, means hes dangerous to score and win at any point. With Drake Maye/Dembele also being a top player in their roles will surely help.

Strengths: Best team in the world when healthy, so they just gotta get there.

Weaknesses: Depth. France and Brian have probably the best lineups in the world when healthy, on the flip side, a little weak if you have to rely on Chubba and Troy Franklin to start.

#6.) Lukas - Morocco (World Ranked 11): Maybe the easiest comparison of this entire blog. Morocco had a once in a generational run back in the 2022 world cup. They beat Spain and Portugal in the knockout stages which was truly the greatest WC run in our lifetime. In that same vein, Lukas having only 1692 points but at 11-3 is bananas. 

Quite literally the best record with the least amount of points for. Other than Gibbs this team is truly just winning games by playing defense and doing just enough to get the W. Lukas averages 5 points more per game than Will, Will who is 7-7 and out of the playoffs. Lukas and Morocco are a dark horse so treat them accordingly and don't get lulled to sleep.

Strengths: This team loves the piss out of each other.

Weaknesses:  Other than Gibbs, nothing on this team says they should be 11-3 and here.

#7.) Will - Brazil (World Ranked #5): The perfect fit. Brazil and Will were the favorites heading into the season and promptly bottom out and have a terrible loss. They make terrible tactical decisions, terrible lineups, and come up terribly short due to expectations. The trade for MHJ I criticized and that costed you a playoff spot. Not flipping one/two of your 5 runningbacks that would start on any team in this league for a WR was dumb. All around failure from the top of the organization to the bottom. Whenever I watch soccer and believe, if I was coaching the team I would do a better job, that applies here. 

#8.) Kyle - Canada (World Ranked #27): As much as I despise this comparison and hate myself for even thinking of it..... it fits. I have a top player in world/fantasy football in Rashee Rice/Alphonso Davies and I have a mediocre Treyveon Henderson/Johnathon David. Other than that this team is a bunch of meh. I have Micheal Wilson who is kinda showing out but I don't know if that's a permanent thing. 

#9.) Dan - Poland (World Ranked #31): Lewendowski and Poland are going at it in super dramatic fashion. Tons of soccer drama and dumbass ego shit. Hello George Pickens and Justin Jefferson this year. Tyler Warren is a solid player like Piotr Zielinski but other than that this is a fringe WC team and a fringe playoff team. 

#10.) Cody - Turkieye/Denemark/Austria (World Ranked 25/24/21): The first 3 team comparison of the blog! In simple terms: this team is full of a bunch of okay players. No world beaters, no player that can takeover, and no names anyone would recognize (I would due to gambling problems) but still are decent. Much like the WC, I don't think this team is actually bad but will forever in its current form will never make the playoffs.

#11.) Doug - Cabo Verde (World Ranked 68): Happy to be in the league/World cup and won't win a single game. Qualified by a miracle and somehow this team ended 7-7 with 1400 points scored on the year the second lowest in the league. 

#12.) Austin - Haiti (World Ranked #87): Qualified for the first time in a million years. The only reason they are here is because Canada/Mexico/USA auto qualified. Along with they qualified without having actual jerseys as they didn't have the name of the players on the back of it as they are so poor. 

~ My Brain