The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

Just want to note that typically (this changed this Year; the Loons didn't play for two Months due to the World Cup, so we've had several screening Weeks where there were only two teams I had to talk about) this marks the end of the fallow/easy season of The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey.  Gopher soccer starts their season tonight/Thursday night, and we'll just be adding teams from here on till, oh, the spring.  More work for me on this the rest of the Year.  Oh, well.

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  Started off their extremely busy Week by snapping their winning streak at ten with an inexplicable collapse in The Fourth Quarter at home Thursday to Los Angeles, losing 89-82.  Cheryl Reeve ripped her team a new asshole, and they responded Saturday afternoon finally putting away The Bastard Utah Starzz, 98-87, Saturday afternoon, then beating The Bastard Detroit Shock by 13 the next afternoon and, finally, holding off the Fire in Portland last/Wednesday night, 85-81 after leading by as much as 29 Points.  The Defense continues to crawl back from the mediocrity they fell into in the middle of the season.  Now, the big shortcoming is bench scoring; Minnesota may have the best starting 5 in all the WNBA, but scoring from substitutes is increasingly looking like a rumor.

And yet their Net Rating remains the best in the league, and of course they have the best record in the W, too.  That will be put the test as they continue a four-Game road trip this Week versus, respectively, the third- (Las Vegas on Saturday) and second-best (Golden State on Wednesday) clubs in the league.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2).  The Twinks traded for three Bullpen arms just before The Trade Deadline, and yet they continue to struggle to put Games away, as evidenced by back-to-back 4-3 defeats at The Bastard Seattle Pilots Saturday and Sunday.  And yet, after going through a 4-3 Week, they remain, stupidly, a 1/2-Game behind The Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0. for ALWC3 -- and they still remain below .500, too.

They continue their almost-maximum homestand with a weekend three-Game set vs. The Philadelphia Phillies.  They play Saturday and Sunday at Target Field.  But they start their series tonight/Thursday night in Dyersville, Ia., as the Twins "host" The Field Of Dreams Game at 6:30.  That's got to be something.  By the way, a ticket Tuesday night was being sold for over $800.  The Bastard Boston Braves then come in for a trio beginning Monday.

#-3: United FC (Last Week: -3).  First off, I have to say that the malaise infecting the senior team was on hand Saturday evening when I went to see MNUFC2 close by.  They took the lead on The San Jose Earthquakes 2 off a Penalty Kick, but that PK was initially missed; a teammate had to swoop in to pounce on the rebound.  The Twoons allowed San Jose 2 to equalize when on of the United FC 2's players made a backpass just as the Goalkeeper ran up to his teammate; an opposing player got to the ball before the backtracking Goalkeeper did.  Finally, right after the final whistle, MNUFC2 cracked under pressure and could convert only 1-of-4 Penalty Kicks, losing 3-1 after 4 1/2 Rounds.  Not a display of professional soccer there.

After hearing they lost to Tigres on Friday and knowing I had to go to Tuesday's meaningless Leagues Cup finale against Atlante because no one wanted my ticket, I was prepared to see an even more woeful performance than I saw the previous Tuesday against Juarez.  And the attendance sucked.  The combination of two Months off due to the World Cup (which is understandable but still disappointing), the almost-immediate post-WC dive into a contrived intercontinental tournament that many people are still lukewarm over, and, of course, United FC's piss-poor play is damaging fan relations in a way I haven't seen since they bought into top-flight soccer in 2017.  And so this is the time when the Loons decide to win, their first Win of any Match that counts since April 18.  Thank Buddha for Joaquin Pereyra; without his Brace, they wouldn't have been able to pull off the spirit-lifting victory.

Back to league action; they visit Real Salt Lake Saturday night, then host Atlanta Wednesday.

I know it's been hotter, and I know it's been more humid.  But I swear, when I tried going to sleep in my car at work yesterday/Tuesday afternoon, I never felt more sweltering in my life.  I knew as soon as I closed my eyes that the sweat would form all over my body and that I would be drowning in it before long.  I didn't get a second of shut-eye.  So glad I conked off at around 9 Monday (I think) and woke up around 5:30 Tuesday morning.  And since I have the early shift today/Wednesday, I think my body is still good enough for only four hours of sleep ... but I still should publish this quick and go to bed!

Great, Now I Have To Go To The Soccer Game

So there's one more Leagues Cup Match being played tonight.  Minnesota United FC wasn't going to be one of the four MLS clubs (out of 16 participating in this tournament) to reach the Knockout Round after losing in regulation last Tuesday to FC Juarez, but just in case, their Shootout Loss to Tigres eliminated them for good.

I knew MNUFC wasn't advancing after last Tuesday's Loss, so I didn't think there was any good reason to watch what was now a glorified exhibition, so I sold my ticket for Friday's Game.  That got swept up quickly; Tigres isn't part of the "Big Four" Liga MX squads that are considered the most popular, but maybe they are popular anyway.  I had also put up today's/Tuesday's ticket up for sale.  But probably because the opponent is a franchise, Atlante, that technically bought its way up to the Mexican first flight (it's a long story), the ticket hasn't been sold.  Thing is, when I saw it wasn't selling on SeatGeek for $20, I tried selling it for less, but it wouldn't let me.  Guess SeatGeek has some things they won't do.

But for a week now, no one was buying.  I really don't want to go, but I already paid for this ticket, so if no one wants it -- shit, man, I'll go, dammit.  I have to go now!  Weird saying that, but (and I'll touch more on this in the WMNSS), things with the Loons are pretty bad now, and I don't expect them to turn it around tonight/Tuesday night, even in a de facto Friendly vs. Atlante.

Another Busy Week Ahead

There's an MNUFC soccer Match I desperately want to get out of (more on that tomorrow, if I remember), and I have reserved a ticket to see the latest Spider-Man on Thursday.  (About that: When faced with the deadline to purchase an advanced ticket for five bucks, I chose Thursday ... just because.  And either I didn't think about it at the time or I decided I couldn't do it, but I now realize that I should have reserved a seat for an IMAX showing.  They don't have an IMAX screening on Thursday.  They have one tonight/Monday night ... but it's at a time where I would have to stay pretty late at work to make it make sense for me to drive to the theater instead of home.  Wish there was an earlier time that would fit a time I think I will get out of work tonight/Monday night.)  That also opens up the chance for me to see Super Troopers 3 on Wednesday, when I get out of work early.

So that's three days where I'm doing something after work, and they come back-to-back-to-back.  At my advanced age, that's a lot.  I'm tired just thinking about it.  But as long as I can frolic free without my parents even vaguely being disapproving (let alone knowing), I'll do it!

Great that I got a good night's sleep.  And in a vacuum, I'm not against going to bed at 10:30 and waking up at 6.  But when the only thing you have to do is a party at 2, and the thing you want to do is fixing sprinkler heads and it might have rained overnight, you're not wanting to do anything, even if I have as much energy as I'll ever have.

Well, I do have to water the plants.  And wash some dishes, like I wanted to last night.  And, you know, if it rained overnight, I won't have to really fix the sprinklers, do I?

All of a sudden, whoo! I'm tired.  I'll ... think about doing something and then either do it or not do it.

A Race Against Time To Use The Limes

On a whim, I bought a plastic-wrapped tray of eight limes that the discount grocer near me wanted to ship out.  I have used two already, might juice another two tonight for cocktails, but I don't know if I'll be able to use them all before they go bad.  But hey, I bought them all for $1.50, so when it comes to value (not necessarily food waste), I couldn't pass it up.

So I am working a Game this afternoon, but because my friend and co-worker got sick, I'm stepping up to take his job.  Generally speaking, it's a position I've done before -- long, long, long ago.  I hope that the combination of being thrust into this job just yesterday/Friday and the people I'll be working for and with are chill (fingers crossed) will make this assignment a non-bad one.  But do I have a guarantee the you-know-what won't hit the fan?  Nope.

Wish me luck.

My Sprinkler Head-Fixing Issues Apparently Continue

I have become obsessed (at times) with fixing the arc of the heads of the sprinkler system Father put in years ago.  When I see the cycle, most of the heads arc so far that they wet the sidewalks, curbs and, eek, the neighbor's driveway.  And so I have looked at the instructions to see how to fix that.

In case you don't know, the system comes with a key.  I had been using the metal, hex-style end to put into one of the holes on the top of each head; I twist it one way or the other and that is supposed to shorten the left-most side of the arc.  Alas, the arc didn't change.  After carefully reading the instructions, I realized that I needed to use the other end, the plastic end that's wider and have notches on the end.

I did that ... and it's gotten worse.  Not only do the heads (and I only tried to fix two of them; there are several others I still need to get to) still water pavement, they arc even further, jutting out onto the street and well into my neighbor's driveway.  I'm scared as hell one of the sprinklers will hit my neighbor as they're walking to the car, or they'll see their car drenched in water and that'll piss them off.  Worse off, the right-most side of the arc is different, too.  You can't use that key to fix the right side.  Instead, you have to literally take out the sprinkler head and re-orient it so that its right-most extent lines up with the edge of the grass you want to water.  I was able to twist off one of them, and I thought I had put it in correctly, but now that's watering my walkway.  I think it's hitting the side of the house, too.

Add that those sprinkler heads are a bitch to take out of the ground -- you have to dig around the head, and sometimes twisting and pulling them is difficult, and by the way, I was unable to find the ones I tried to fix without turning on the cycle so that the heads pop out from the dirt and grass that seemingly was buried above them, and that's a pain in the ass -- and after a bit more failed tinkering (I did all of this on Wednesday because I came home from work early), I quit.  Maybe I'll try again Sunday.  But even though the grass is yellow and crusty, I dare not turn on the sprinklers now, now that I've made a slightly bad situation a lot worse.  I just need to fix these damn things.

The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  They've run their winning streak to ten in a row, matching the Lynx squad from ten Years ago in reaching that mark.  And hey, they kicked ass for once, trouncing the Tempo in Toronto Thursday by 32 Points.  They followed that up with a Sunday afternoon national TV Game vs. Caitlin Clark MAGA bitch Sophie Cunningham and The Indiana Fever, The Team With The Most Toxic Fanbase In North American Sports.  I was home and could've watched it, but didn't because I thought they were going to lose because evil wins in this world.  Thank Buddha I'm wrong, even though the Lynx (once again) blew a double-digit lead in The Fourth Quarter before righting the ship and beating the Fever, 108-100.

The chemistry between Olivia Miles and Napheesa Collier is still developing.  Also, and sorry to sound like a broken record, but the Lynx were the #1 Seed last Year and not only did they not win, they didn't even make it to The WNBA Finals.  I'm still keeping them in negative numbers until they reach better milestones ... such as The Longest Streak In Lynx History, which they could reach tonight when they host Los Angeles.  They'll finish a four-Game homestand with a weekend back-to-back versus two pretty solid outfits -- The Bastard Utah Starzz Saturday afternoon (I'll be working this one), The Bastard Detroit Shock Sunday afternoon.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2).  They were busy adding Bullpen arms, three of them to be exact, at the Trade Deadline.  I'm sorry, but I don't care.  I still have PTSD from the unnecessary and cruel fire sale at last season's Trade Deadline, so I'm not over it.  This organization will have to take Years and Years of asset-hoarding in order for us to forget that shit.

As for the team in the present day ... well, they went 2-4 this screening Week, winning their two Games before losing their four Games.  And despite all of that, the Twinks are only one Game behind Cleveland and The Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0 for ALWC3.  That's how bad The American League is this season.  So no, I don't blame the Twinks for trying to compete.  They're just not going to win

They try and avoid the sweep at the Royals tonight/Thursday night.  They then travel to Milwaukee and face The Bastard Seattle Pilots for a trio over the weekend.  They then come home to host The Bastard St. Louis Browns for a three-Game series starting on Monday.

#-3: United FC (Last Week: -3).  I saw this on Facebook yesterday/Wednesday: The Loons have not won at home since defeating Portland 2-0 back on April 18.  Sure, there was that two-Month-long Olympic break, and they have drawn four times to two Losses.  But still, not being able to sing "Wonderwall" since around Tax Day really sucks.

I felt kind of good that MNUFC tied San Diego on Saturday, but they gave up a foul in the box that resulted in SDFC scoring from the spot.  What was really demoralizing, though, was the 2-1 defeat at Allianz Field to FC Juarez to start Leagues Cup play on Tuesday.  That's when it really dawned on me: The big problem with this XI is that they can't score worth shit.  Time after time on Tuesday they weren't able to string together the right pass in the Final Third.  And because they lost their first of only three Group Games, and because only the top four of the 18 Major League Soccer participating in this tournament advance to the Knockout Round, I think Minnesota United FC have already been eliminated.  I was able to pawn off my ticket Friday vs. Tigres (I should expound on this more, but if this were just a straight-up Friendly, I would have enthusiastically gone to watch the Match), and I'm in the process of almost giving away my ticket for Tuesday's Game against Atlante, but I can't set my asking price at SeatGeek lower than they say it can be.  Anyway, I don't think it'll be my issue anymore if I'm able to sell both tickets.

Hey, Does Anyone Want A Soccer Ticket?

So last/Tuesday night, at Allianz Field, MNUFC lost its first Leagues Cup Match to FC Juarez.  This is the first of three Group Stage Games.  The Leagues Cup is weird in that you play only three Matches, and all of them are against Liga MX, but you are in a "division" with all the other Major League Soccer clubs also playing in the Leagues Cup.  There are 16 in total, and only four from these 16 American franchises advance to the Knockout Round.

That means that with this Loss, there's almost no chance the Loons are reaching the Knockouts.  So honestly, I don't feel like going to the other two Matches.  Why?  What for?  I could be, you know, going through my stuff instead of seeing what is now a glorified exhibition.  So hey, does anyone want a soccer ticket?