World Cup DFS Picks & Strategy: Tuesday, June 30th
Four teams are through to the Round of 16 after Brazil, Canada, Paraguay, and Morocco advanced over the last two days. Three more teams will join them today, with the action starting at 1:00 PM ET. DraftKings multiple slates posted in both Classic and Showdown formats, and for this article, we will be focusing on the 3-game featured slate.
The first matchup of the day is Norway taking on Cote d’Ivoire at 1:00 PM ET at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. At 5:00 PM ET, France will take on Sweden at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The last game of the day will take place at Estadio Banorte in Mexico City, where the unbeaten Mexican team will take on Ecuador. According to the odds on DraftKings Sportsbook, France is the heaviest favorite of the day by a wide margin, while Norway and Mexico are each slight favorites to advance in their matchups.
Since we have reached the Knockout Stage, each team is just one win from the next round and one loss from going home. These 3 matchups are part of the Round of 32, which means that teams are just 5 wins from hoisting the World Cup. Extra time will be played if the game is tied at the end of regulation, with two 15-minute halves plus stoppage time. There is no “Golden Goal,” and the entire period will be played even if a team scores. If there is no winner at the end of extra time, the teams will have a penalty shootout to determine the winner. Penalty conversions and saves are important fantasy opportunities to keep in mind during this stage.
If you’re new to soccer DFS, don’t worry! We have you covered with my Beginner’s Guide to Daily Fantasy Soccer, our soccer player projections, and our soccer optimizer (LineupHQ). And last but not least, don’t forget to check out our World Cup DFS Simulation tool.
Forwards
Top Play: Kylian Mbappe, France ($11,100)
If you have the salary to pay up for a star forward, Mbappe is a great place to start your builds. He brings an extremely high ceiling against Sweden due to his scoring upside, but he also brings a high floor since he is so heavily involved in the offense as a whole.
He scored 2 goals against Senegal and finished with 28.3 DraftKings points. He had 2 more goals against Iraq in the next game and posted his highest total of the tournament (35.9 DraftKings points). In his third and most-recent match, Mbappe didn’t find the back of the net but did get a couple of assists, still ending up with 23.3 DraftKings points, even though it was Ousmane Dembele ($9,800) who had himself a day, with a hat trick and 40.7 DraftKings points.
Mbappe is still tied for 2nd behind only Messi for the scoring lead in the tournament, and he has a good chance to close that gap before Messi plays on Friday. The French goal-scoring virtuoso is in outstanding form after racking up 42 goals in 44 appearances across all competitions last season.
Sweden gave up 7 goals in their 3 games of the Group Stage, including 5 to the Netherlands in their toughest game. The Swedish defense will have its hands full with France’s many options on the attack, and Mbappe should put up another big total as the focus of the offense.
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About the Author
Zach Thompson is a featured writer at FantasyLabs for NBA, MLB, NFL, golf, and soccer content. Zach’s fantasy experience dates all the way back to high school, when he would manually tabulate fantasy football scores using Tuesday morning’s newspaper. Even though he was raised on the island of Guam on the opposite side of the world, Zach is a hardcore Boston sports fan who loves playing fantasy sports in almost any format. Zach joined the FantasyLabs team in 2022 and is also a contributor for DraftKings Network and RotoGrinders.