Positive Numbers: Stars (New!).
I know I will say something stupid, but I am obligated to talk, at least briefly, about yet another championship team in Minnesota, albeit, like the Lynx, a minor one. The Minnesota Stars won the North American Soccer League championship last Saturday by tying the Fort Lauderdale Strikers 0-0 in the second leg of their two-leg championship series. (The NASL is the second-highest level of soccer on the continent, just below Major League Soccer. Consider it the AAA of soccer, even though there are no affiliations.) The previous Saturday they crushed the Strikers at the National Sports Center in Blaine 3-1, thereby winning the title on aggregate, 3-1 (you see how it works?).
What an underdog story this is. They had to wait until the last day of the regular season to qualify for the playoffs as the sixth-team in an eight-team league. They then proceeded to ambush three teams on their way to the championship. I was at the first leg of their semifinal against the top seed and best team in the NASL, the Carolina Railhawks. They both played stout defense until, with about ten minutes left to go, a rainbow chip-in from about nine feet went just over the leaping fingertips of the Carolina Goalkeeper and just under the crossbar. It's that goal, followed by a scoreless tie in Carolina, that, I believe, turned them from scrappy Davids to true contenders.
This team is so small they didn't get a parade, even a small one like the Lynx. Instead, on Tuesday night, there was a victory party at Brit's Pub downtown. That's cute, and I mean that sincerely. OK, so you may not have enough of a following to use taxpayer money for security, but you then just find the biggest room to hold all your supporters. I kind of regret not going just to see the scene, but only diehard fans seemed to be at the party, and I didn't want to be seen as a bandwagon jumper in a place so small.
It's been a banner year for Minnesota sports when it comes to minor leagues. The Lynx won the WNBA, the Stars the NASL, and the St. Paul Saints were one win away from winning the American Association Championship. The teams people care about can't do shit, but the niche teams can!
So congratulations to NSC Minnesota Stars for winning the second soccer title in Minnesota history (the previous incarnation of this team, the Thunder, won the equivalent of the NASL title in 1999). You, just like the Lynx, have a three-year amnesty from the WMNSS. You never have been on the survey till now because there's a superior league over you, but it still applies.
---
#0: Wild (Last Week: -3). Could the answer be at Goalie all along? The Mild have had a 3-0 week for the first time in who knows how long: A home-and-home sweep of Detroit (whom they have already played three times ... and won all three) and a 5-1 dicksmack of Vancouver at the X on Thursday.
The man in net is Josh Harding, the backup to well-paid starter Nicklas Backstrom. Should there be a goalie controversy? The Star Tribune's Mike Russo says that it feels like Harding will play tonight's game at home against St. Louis, then Backstrom will come back in for their four-game road trip, which begins at Calgary on Tuesday and San Jose on Thursday. If there is a marked difference between how the team plays in those games, expect that story to top the local sports scene.
#-1: Gopher men's hockey (Last Week: -2). I am starting to be impressed. Finished a sweep of Alaska-Anchorage, then beat North Dakota 2-0 at Mariucci Friday night in what looked to be a typical shove-after-ever-whistle fight. They now stand 8-1 overall and remain undefeated in-conference. North Dakota lost a lot of players from their Frozen Four team last year, but this would be the kind of game a Gophers team from the past few seasons would lose. Could the swoon in the program be over? Finish with NoDak tonight, then at Wisconsin Friday.
#-2: Gopher football (Last Week: -6). Is Jerry Kill beginning to turn this team around? You can't say a lot about the loss to Nebraska, but they didn't get killed like I thought they would, and they did win the second half of that game 14-7.
But I really liked how they gutted out a 22-21 win over Iowa last Saturday at the Bank to keep Floyd of Rosedale for a second consecutive year. They were down 21-10 when Duane Bennett ran it in from a yard out for the score. After the two-point conversion failed, they caught Iowa napping and recovered an onside kick (I love how Kirk Ferentz's teams just swoon in the second halves of seasons. Is there any heat behind him for an NFL job now?). And with under three minutes to go, MarQueis Gray kept the ball and scampered in from three yards out to cap the come-from-behind win. On the highlights I saw, the Minnesota sideline was riled up with excitement, jumping and yelling with every great score and tackle. That's the kind of emotion that a coach can instill in this team.
That's why I give them, oh, a 2% chance of upsetting Michigan St. this afternoon. They won't win, but I think they can cover.
#-3: Vikings (Last Week: -5). I was scared of this game. I thought Cam Newton would be able to zone-read and raced through the ViQueens defense whenever he wanted. And he had a ... uh, a game, hitting 22 out of 35 passes for 290 yards and three touchdowns. He was the Carolina Panthers' leading rusher last Sunday (53 yards, the longest being 24). And he drove them down the field for a field goal that would have sent the game into overtime.
But a man older than Jan Stenurud, Olinda Mare, missed hooked it from 31 yards out to give the Vikes a 24-21 win, only their second of the season. They were lucky to win that game. Because that contrasts to the performance under pressure exhibited by the Gophers, I'm putting these guys below them.
How big of a difference is Christian Ponder? We don't feel like comebacks are impossible now -- even with Ponder only going 18-28-236-1. The Quarterback play had to come up to a level where there is at least a threat that we can score through the air. If Donovan McNabb was still under center, we lose this game.
This is a very talented team that's 2-6. Adrian Peterson is once again the NFL's best Running Back, going for 162 all-purpose yards and a touchdown both running and receiving. And Jared Allen registered another sack, keeping him on pace to take Michael Strahan's season sack record and giving him Defensive Player Of The Month Honors. He's a legitimate contender for Defensive Player Of The Year ... so long as the Vikings win a game now and then.
They're off this week.
#-4: Gopher volleyball (Last Week: -7). Last week I was scared for this team; this week I can't figure them out. While watching the USC-Colorado game last night at a bar, I went over and looked at part of the Gopher match against Penn St. The Nittany Lions, four-time defending champs and currently ranked sixth, were up two sets to zilcho on the Goofs, ranked 15th. I saw them survive to take the third set, then noticed while I was watching the Trojans that they took the fourth set too.
Well, that shows some heart there, I thought. So as the fifth and final set came to its conclusion I walk back over to the TV showing it. The set was last tied at 11. At 12-13, Tori Dixon jump-served long. Man, I hate it when volleyball teams piss away points with service errors. The Nittany Lions, at match point, then served up a perfect jump serve that a Goof had to lunge to get. The ball went over the net -- it's called an overpass -- and Katie Slay slammed it back on the Gopher side to win the set 15-12 and survive the match 3-2.
One very interesting stat: Penn St. outblocked the Goofs 17.5-0. Minnesota officially recorded no blocks in this match, and somehow they came back from two sets down to tie it. How? Digs (the U. had 83, Penn St. 68) and errors (five for Minnesota, 13 for Penn St.).
But they did go 1-1 this week. Last Saturday they beat third-ranked Illinois in straight sets in Champaign. The Illini are the highest-ranked team Minnesota has ever defeated. The long-serving Dixon had six block assists and four aces. How in the hell can a player rack up four aces? How in the fuck does a team that got swept at Northwestern turn around a sweep the third-best team in the country? A combination of that and this Penn St. match means that this team is still very talented but does not have their chemistry down pat, making a run to the Final Four, a tournament which this year has a regional at the Sports Pavilion, highly unlikely.
Because of the addition of Nebraska, the once-traditional schedule of Friday-Saturday games is no longer scripture. They continue a four-game homestand against Ohio St. tonight (the same time as the men's hockey game? Doesn't sound like a good idea. I had a friend who went to see the hockey game and then traveled down to our GameWatch, and it must've been hell to get out of Dinkytown), then host Michigan St. Sunday afternoon.
They rebounded very nicely last night, routing third-ranked UMD (Minnesota is ranked fourth) 4-1 at Ridder; Jen Schoullis scored twice on the power play. They finish their two-game series against the Bulldogs this afternoon (finally, some sense from the U.; apparently three games going on at the same time in such a concentrated area is madness, but two's just fine!), then they don't play until the 18th.
#-Infinity: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -4). Their season is over after a needed miracle run through the Big Ten conference tournament fell short. They beat Wisconsin Wednesday 2-0, but were eliminated by Penn St. (they're ranked 10th or 11th, depending on which poll you look up) 3-1. They thus finish the season 9-10-2. Freshman Taylor Uhl scored her 15th goal of the year in the loss, the fourth-highest season total in program history.
I don't know what else to say about this.
No comments:
Post a Comment