Before I begin, I want to note how short the survey is. I only have two teams, United FC and the Vikings. It's mid-to-late October, a time when the sports calendar is chock full. In a usual mid-to-late October, along with the two above clubs, the Wild would have started their season and, more importantly, there'd be a ton of sports at the U. -- football, volleyball, and women's soccer. And November would be around the corner, and with it would come the Timberwolves and Gopher basketball and hockey, men's and women's. We would just be ramping up into what is one of the two busiest seasons in the Twin Cities sports calendar (March and April being the other time frame).
Of course, this is not a typical year. In fact, with only just two squads, we have been, for this past Week, in a part of the calendar that is as fallow as it can get -- well, save for the nine Weeks when there were no sports. Now, things will ramp up as of this weekend with the return of the University of Minnesota football team returning to action, and Gopher men's basketball presumably will come next month. But if toxic men have decided that no killer virus will stop them from the sports entertainment we all will enjoy, well, I want to enjoy the relative peace I have had these past several Weeks. It usually takes me more than an hour to do a WMNSS this time of the year. This should be less than that. And I will miss not needing to slave over writing about a dozen teams.
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#-1: United FC (Last Week: -1). The National Hockey League used to allow regular-season Games to end in a Tie. It didn't start out that way. At the league's beginning (I think), there was a 10-Minute Overtime period to decide Games. But starting in the middle of the 1942 season (because of rationing for World War II), there was no Overtime; Games that ended after 60 Minutes of regulation play just ended with a Tie. That actually lasted until the 1983-4 season, when the NHL built in a five-Minutes OT period where, after that stint ended, then Games ended in a Tie. (The North Stars were involved in one of two Games where this new format was used, on October 5 of '83.) That worked just fine until the 2005-6 season, the Year after an entire season was wiped out because of a lockout. After that five-Minute OT, there would be a Shootout where, eventually, there would be a winner.
Frankly, I miss Ties. I mean, what's wrong with Ties? Does there have to be a winner and a loser after every Game? Why is there a compulsion to find a result where one team has "more" than the other? Frankly, I think it's kind of sad and psychopathic.
Now, I could be saying this because I'm getting into soccer more and more. Also, I could be saying this because the two clubs in this week's survey spit the bit in their own ways and I'm trying to justify why I've got the Loons first. So, I refer to the result of their only Match this screening week, a 2-all Tie (or Draw) at The Nest versus Houston. See, MNUFC had a 2-0 lead at Halftime courtesy of a brace by Ethan Findlay. The XI then, naturally, coughed it up in the Second Half and was hanging on for dear life at the end. They were lucky to get a Point out of that Game even though they were lined up to get three. And they are still in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race in fifth, but they blew a great chance to improve their standing.
You know what? I might have to change my mind about Ties. Don't know if any of you remember the beginnings of Major League Soccer, but Matches back then didn't end after 90 Minutes. No -- because bigwigs thought Americans needed a winner, MLS Games ended with a Shootout of their own. That format ended after the 1999 season. But I can justify having a Shootout in soccer and not in hockey because not only does there seem to have many more Ties in soccer, but there are way fewer Goals in soccer, and so artificially pumping in Goals in a contrived, non-FIFA-sanctioned way isn't the worst thing in the world.
At Cincinnati Saturday. If there is any Match the rest of the regular season in which this team can win and take three Points, it's this one.
#-2: Vikings (Last Week: -2). Things are different with production this season. Because of COVID, I am not allowed in the truck nor on the field. I had to spend my day just outside the truck. And because (and I'm guessing here) they didn't want to get me in situations where I would be close to people for prolonged periods of time, besides helping another runner put some tables and chairs away, I did absolutely nothing while I was working the Game. Actually, for the Game, I discovered I could watch it in on my phone through the Yahoo! Sports application.
Seeing as they got crushed, at home, to a winless Atlanta Falcons squad that had fired its Head Coach and General Manager the previous weekend, that was a good thing.
Maybe it's the weather, but I wasn't upset about the loss. I had a bad feeling that the ViQueens were susceptible to losing to a team that had received a jolt of a double firing and may have been motivated to work for an interim Head Coach. And, well, seeing that on the first offensively play of the Game, Kirk Cousins threw the first of three First Half Interceptions, I kind of felt the loss coming. Actually, I was way more upset over the Vikes' loss to Seattle the week before; they were leading that Game and they blew it. This one, even against an 0-5 team, they weren't in it, and so I didn't feel anything was lost or squandered.
By the way, I felt as though the entire season went to shit after the Week 3 loss (at home) to The Bastard Houston Oilers. In fact, I thought the Vikings would go 5-11, and even that prediction looks too optimistic right now. I didn't think, however, that either HC Mike Zimmer or GM Rick Spielman were in danger of losing their jobs. They did win a playoff Game (in an upset, no less) last year, they were in salary cap hell and shed a lot of players, they are relying on a bunch of rookies to learn fast, especially those in the Secondary, and they had their big acquisition who was signed to stop interior rushing, Michael Pierce, due to the pandemic. Oh, and ... there's the pandemic, which has fucked everything up. The real world feels like reason enough to give everybody a mulligan, including NFL Head Coaches and General Managers.
But then I remembered a few things. One, this is the NFL, and there is no mercy because of a once-a-century pandemic. Two, people and, presumably, Zimmer and Spielman themselves said they were going to contend for a playoff spot. They themselves set expectations which they are miserably falling short on. (If they were honest and said this is a rebuilding Year, I think they would get cut some slack. Shit, for all we know, that's what Zimmer and Spielman told the Wilfs in private. Both of them did receive extensions, after all.) And even though I don't really like firing people after a playoff run, the Wilfs fired both Leslie Frazier and Brad Childress the Year after making the playoffs, the latter the Year after he got the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game.
So no, there is no respite from the Wilfs. Which means, yeah, there has to be some extraordinary improvement or else both of them are gone. Yikes.
Hey, at least they can't lose this screening week. Minnesota's on a bye.
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