#-1: United FC (Last Week: -1). A very important three Points picked up by the Loons Saturday night in Cincinnati against an organization that, it needs to be said, is two Years into its life in Major League Soccer and is completely lost. FC Cincinnati is dead last in the league, and I think they were last Year, too. As shitty as MNUFC was in its second Year, they have never been worst in MLS, and by the time they moved into Allianz Field (which was last Year), they forged an identity and immediately turned things around. FC Cincinnati appears to have great and genuine grassroots support, so it's sad that they are rooting for a franchise that seems to have no ideas on how to get even marginally better.
But I digress. The Loons had 18 Shots to FCC's 12, and on the radio it sounded like they were peppering Goalkeeper Spencer Richey at will. And yet they weren't getting the ball into the net. I was happy with the team at least getting in position to score, even though it was frustrating that they didn't score ... until, finally, in the 92nd Minute, when off a Corner Kick that FC Cincinnati did not think should have been rewarded, a scramble ensued and, of all people, Aaron Schoenfeld scored his (I think) first-ever Goal with the team.
That vaults, for now, MNUFC into fourth in the West with only two Weeks and four Games left. By no means has the squad locked up a playoff spot, but like I said last Week, this was a prime opportunity to get three Points and stay apace in the race.
The club hosts Colorado (which, because of an outbreak of COVID-19 infecting the entire organization postponing Matches, it currently has played as many as seven fewer Matches than other teams and will not be able to make them all up. The Rapids will finish this unprecedented regular season playing only 18 Games; Minnesota has already played 18 regular season Games) tonight/Wednesday night. Striker Kei Kamara will not play in this Match -- not because of injury, but because when he was traded from the Rapids, there was a, ahem, "gentleman's agreement" where Kamara would not play this regular season Game against his former team. Never seen that before. On Sunday they play their final road Game, vs. Sporting Kansas City.
#-2: Gopher football (Re-Entry!). I really had high hopes for the Minnesota Golden Gopher football team. They were coming off what was their best season in my lifetime and things were lined up for even better things this Year. (Well, a Year that would not have started until next Year; I still think it's fucked up that they are having a season at all. The Big Ten did the right thing in postponing all sports until after the New Year, but a thirst for money and pressure from Republican anti-masker dumbasses made them change their minds, so last weekend they began play right in the middle of a surge in coronavirus cases all through B1G Country. We're such a stupid, selfish country.) Rashod Bateman, who said he was leaving the club to prepare for the NFL Draft, changed his mind once the conference changed its mind, health and safety be damned. And they were playing a Michigan program that, under Head Coach Jim Harbaugh, has continually underachieved.
The Game Saturday night, the marquee matchup according to ESPN, started out great: A Wolverine drive ended with a blocked Punt that wound up at the Michigan 17, and then it took only two plays to hit paydirt. The Wolverines scored to tie it up at 7 and then the U. had a three-and-out, but then Michigan missed a Field Goal. On the first play of the ensuing drive, however, Gopher Donovan Jeter fumbled the ball and the Wolverines scoop-and-scored -- and they never looked back. The U. was down 35-17 at Halftime, and despite an 11-Play drive that ended with a Touchdown to begin the Second Half, they couldn't muster up any more Points and lost, badly, 49-24.
Now, it was just one Game ... although there are only nine this season. They are still undefeated (at 0-0) in the B1G West Division. And they play bottom-dweller Maryland Friday night, although that Game is at College Park. But to show that this program can sustain itself, at the very least the team needed to put up a better effort than the one they showed at Das Bank v.1.0. Saturday night. The sky isn't falling. But the gulf between Minnesota and the group of big-time college football programs was both clear and wide in that humbling contest.
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