The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: Positive Numbers).  OK, this is more like it.  The team sweeps the quick two-Game series in Phoenix by drubbing the Mercury by 31 three days after squeaking by them by six.  They then come home and outdistance Dallas Wednesday, 85-79.  The Lynx have won five in a row, and they have floated up to third in the Western Conference and fourth overall in the WNBA.  The chemistry many of us expected the squad to find earlier in the season seems to have come now; better late than never.  And Sylvia Fowles seems revitalized after an injury-marred 2020.

I should keep the Lynx in Positive Numbers.  But last Week I inflated the survey because I couldn't decide if the Lynx or the Loons should take the top spot.  This screening Week there is a clear #1, but I'm going to make up for last Week by depressing the survey.  And I can nitpick; they are four Games behind the top team in the league, the Seattle, and Minnesota has been a clear cut below the Storm in the two showdowns they've had.

They're in Vegas tonight/Friday night, then visit Los Angeles (worst in the West) Sunday.  And then -- I didn't see this until now, although I guess I should have realized it -- they take more than a month off for the Olympics.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -1).  A 3-4 screening Week -- not execrable, but nowhere near a vital sign that could even hint at the beginning of a miracle.  They began the final series before the All-Star Break last/Thursday night at Target Field versus Detroit, where the Tigers had an early 2-0 lead before, apparently (I was doing my test scoring job and decided to sneak-watch the Game 2 of the NBA Finals instead), there was a wild and wacky end that wound up with Minnesota winning, 5-3.

More illustrative, however, of this massive disappointment of a season are the previous two series, the weekend road one at Kansas City and the trio at home vs. the Chicago White Sox.  One opponent (the Royals) is spiraling; the other (the Pale Hose) has some weaknesses but is by far the class of the A. L. Central.  (Note I heard listening to Common on the Fan yesterday/Thursday afternoon: Four of the six worst records in the American League are in the Central.)  And the Twinks lost two-of-three against both of them.  White Sux fans are particularly loving their road victory; guess Josh Donaldson has run out of things to say.

I have never been less of an All-Star fan than I am nowadays.  It's an exhibition where the only thing you can get is hurt.  Why even bother playing?  I'm glad I have something to do that evening, and the other three nights where apparently the whole American sports scene shuts down.

#-3: United FC (Last Week: 0).  You remember when last week when I was pissing and moaning about not being able to sell Saturday's ticket to the Match against San Jose, then felt guilty once I did sell it?  Well, I think I am glad I didn't go.  Facing an Earthquakes club whose number MNUFC have gotten with regularity (the Manager insists his players play man-marking, which I guess is the equivalent of man-to-man in basketball; does this mean that soccer players essentially play zone Defense in a Game?), they gave up the first Goal on a really bad backpass to the Goalkeeper; got a rebound Goal from, of all, people, Last Vestige Of The Loons' Prior Selves, Brent Kallmann; got a rebound Goal off a saved Penalty Kick; then coughed up the lead with apparently another stupid play that wound up with a San Jose equalizer.  The Match ended at 2-all, and by all accounts (I only saw parts of this Match because I focused on all the others on my TV at the time, most significantly the Argentina-Ecuador Copa America Quarterfinal) it felt like a Loss because Minnesota United should have won going away.

Nevertheless they extended their unbeaten streak to seven with that Draw ... and then it was broken on Wednesday, at Colorado, 2-0, by the same squad that last beat the Loons, the Rapids.  (That last loss was also in Commerce City, Colo.)  I chose not to listen to the Game (Saturday night Matches are going to be on Channel 23 this season it looks like, but not midweek ones) because I was sneak-watching Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals while working, and by all accounts, that was the shittiest performance our XI has trotted out all Year.  And looking at the box score -- yep, giving up the eventual Game-winning Goal just before Halftime, shipping an insurance Goal nine Minutes from time and Ramon Abila getting red-carded five Minutes later adds up to a gloomy night.  And therefore they get kicked down toward the Western Conference playoff line.

International break?  They're off until the 18th, when they host conference-leading Seattle.