They are now 8-0 on the season. The only downside I see to them looking unstoppable right now is that they're peaking too soon. This week brings the fourth and traditionally final week in the non-conference schedule, and it'll be an easy tourney. They go to Boise, Idaho, and will face Oregon St., hosts Boise St., and Idaho St. This will be the time where Head Coach Hugh McCutcheon should play his bench extensively.
#0: Gopher football (Last Week: -1). It's only been two games, but I'll admit that I'm buying what Head Coach P.J. Fleck is selling. In a game that earlier in the week could have been moved (in time and/or location) because of the wildfires dotting Oregon and the Western United States, outscored Oregon St. in the Second Half, 28-0, on their way to a noticeable 48-14 road route of the Oregon St. Beavers last (Saturday) night.
Say this for Jerry Kill and Tracy Claeys: They recruited so that the U.'s offensive strength remains on the ground. Fleck had his team run all over OSU, outgaining them rushing 253-80. Shannon Brooks scored three Touchdowns (all from one or two yards), and Demry Croft capped the scoring with about three minutes left by scampering 64 yards for a TD.
There are a couple of pundits who thought that the U. could win the B1G West Division this year. They conceivably could be 7-0 going into the Oct. 28 game at Iowa. They'll have to face fellow contenders ("fellow?" huh) Nebraska and Wisconsin, but those pundits believe the Cornhuskers and Badgers are vulnerable. Could the Golden Gophers be rolling into Indianapolis for the B1G Championship Game?
Next Saturday afternoon they host Middle Tennessee St. Although the Blue Raiders are a sturdy non-BcS program, the way Fleck has this team going, they should beat them easily.
#-1: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -3). Undefeated for the screening week -- 2-0, a hard win followed by an easy one. Sunday afternoon I saw most of the First Half of their Minnesota Classic capper against Providence. I was afraid I was going to miss some action once I left, even though there was no scoring in the half-hour I witnessed. I shouldn't have worried; there was no scoring the rest of the First Half, all of the Second Half, and the 10 minutes of Overtime. But with 26 seconds left in Double OT, Senior Maddie Gaffney dumps in the ball off a Free Kick from April Bockin to give the Gophers their first win in Added Extra Time since defeating Marquette a day short of two years:
Gaffney's game winning goal against Providence in double OT! pic.twitter.com/asyU27u0tN— Minnesota Soccer (@GopherSoccer) September 3, 2017
They finished the non-con by crushing Utah St. Friday, 5-0, scoring four Goals in the Second Half, the first two a Brace from Sydney Squires. What stands out from the club's 4W-2D-1L season so far: They have yet to concede more than one Goal in all seven games.
But now comes league play. Saturday late afternoon they start at Wisconsin.
#-2: Lynx (Last Week: -2). I missed most of the Minnesota-Providence women's soccer match to watch the last-ever (?) game the Lynx will play at the Xcel Energy Center. Like I blogged about, I didn't know if I should buy a ticket legitimately or scalped. I looked online and then I thought I could get it for cheaper. But when I got to the X, I didn't see any scalpers. Then I went onto FlashSeats on my phone while in the lobby, looking for tickets that would be cheaper than what was available at the box office, but the more I checked, the cheapest seats on the app kept disappearing. But then when I went to the box office, the cheapest seats also started to disappear. I went between FlashSeats and the box office a couple times, partly because I had to input information for another credit card on FlashSeats when I wanted to buy a ticket. I know that someone lifted my credit card information while I was in the lobby; I am so cheap that I risked getting my information stolen so that I didn't have to pay, like, an extra four bucks for a Lynx ticket. But I did it.
I am glad that I decided to take in a basketball game at the X. It's a hockey arena, obviously, and so they either ripped out the ice or laid flooring over it. There was a lot of empty space beyond both ends of the basketball court; it's nice to be reminded how bigger the field of play in hockey is compared to b-ball.
Anyway, Rebekkah Brunson came back for this final game of the regular season against the Washington Mystics; she had been sidelined with a sprained left ankle. And I think she was important to the Lynx running the table to ensure they got home-court advantage throughout the WNBA Playoffs, overcoming an early 7-0 deficit to win going away, 86-72. They still make mistakes, such as dumb passes and blown lay-ups. But the danger with this squad, the ability to think faster than their opponent on broken plays and their quick-strike transition game, is still there.
One overlooked benefit to clinching the #1 seed: They avoid the 3-seed, the very dangerous New York Liberty, in the best-of-five semifinals. They finished the season winning their last ten games, beating both the Lynx and the Los Angeles Sparks along the way. The playoff bracket is set up so that the Liberty will face the 2-seed Sparks in the semis, and it's not guaranteed at all that L.A. will make the WNBA Finals. In fact, I'll say right now that the Lynx will face New York for the title. Book it.
Lindsay Whalen is back for the postseason, letting her busted hand heal as much as possible. She will return to her college roots; the X will now be used by its primary tenant, the Wild, so The Most Successful Franchise In The Twin Cities get moved a second time and will play playoff games at Williams Arena, home to the University of Minnesota women's basketball team. They will face either Connecticut, Phoenix or the Mystics starting with Game 1 Tuesday.
#-3: Twins (Last Week: 0). Don't know what to make of this team right now. They started the week losing the series to Kansas City at Target Field, dropped two-of-three in Tampa, but that win was connected to back-to-back victories over the Royals in Kauffman Stadium, so the nine followed a three-game losing streak with a three-game winning streak, and possibly because of that, they are in a static position in the standings -- ALWC2, 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees for ALWC1, but two games better than the Angels. Appears as though every contender for the Wild Card spots in the American League -- and there are eight of them, the last two of which are the Royals and Bay Rays, the two teams the Twins played last screening week -- are chopping. In a situation like that, the teams in the two WC spots stay in the two WC spots. Good for the Twins.
Better yet, this should be a good week for them. After attempting to salvage a four-game series split against K.C., they return home the rest of the week. There is one final weirdo two-game series, and it's against San Diego of all teams, starting on Tuesday. They will then play four against Toronto, another retread team this season. If they lose two games in this six-game homestand, I think it should be viewed as a disappointment. I thought about going to Tuesday's game vs. the Padres, but my friend said that he had a free ticket for Friday's contest against the Blue Jays.
#-4: United FC (Re-Entry!). Not much else to say for this expansion side's expansion year; as of press time they are 11 points behind the sixth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference and nine points behind eighth place. Facing a similarly-adrift Philadelphia Union after an International Break, they drew last (Saturday) night at TCF Bank Stadium at 1 in a game where the most important figure was not a player and isn't even human.
In the 68th Minute, after a first half where the Goal by the Union's CJ Sapong (another early tally against MNUFC, BTW, this one in the fifth) was answered by new pick-up Ethan Findlay, a cross in the Loons' offensive zone wound up on the right hand of Philly Defenseman Oguchi Onyewu. The ref thus called a yellow, Sapong's second of the game, and since the handball occurred in the box, ostensibly that meant a Penalty Kick for Minnesota and a chance to take the lead.
But this is where Video Assistant Referee, or VAR (and should be pronounced like a word ''var") asserted itself/reared its ugly head. The ref sauntered to the sideline, looked at this medium-sized LED TV, and reviewed the cross with a fine-toothed comb to make sure he saw what he called. And the ref then changed what he called because he saw something that, in my opinion, didn't happen. He determined with the help of VAR that Sapong was pushed in the back. Therefore there was a foul against Minnesota (which player pushed Sapong I do not know). No PK, no second yellow against Onyewu (so he was able to stay in the match), and in fact it turned into a free kick for Philadelphia. And that was that (shrug).
This week will be a busy one. Two games, both on the road: Wednesday at Vancouver, Saturday at Montreal.
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