#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -2). I portended black Days for the Lynx this screening Week as they faced two good teams (and one real good). What do I know: They clipped Washington at Target by five Wednesday, then, in a Friday Night Game on ION, the squad went to New York City (Brooklyn, to be specific) and defeated supposed Superteam The New York Liberty (although Courtney Vandersloot did not play due to "load management") by five. More amazing: Napheesa Collier did not play because she rolled her ankle. (Rachel Banham was out injured as well.) If I knew they would own the Libs, I would've stayed up for it. Instead, I conked off just after Minnesota took a 22-17 after the First Quarter and woke up to see a Lynx player on the Free Throw Line up by five with 18.3 Seconds left.
And yet ... winning against two good teams (one of them real good) is the worst thing to happen to the organization. They're now 12-13 in the WNBA. That's seventh in the league, 2 1/2 Games better than Los Angeles for ninth place and out of the postseason, and there are several clubs below the Lynx who have no plans on making a playoff run. Meanwhile, Las Vegas is 22-2. They may go down as The Best Team In WNBA History. The Lynx won't beat them even if they do somehow make it to the WNBA Finals. As I have repeatedly said, they are much better off tanking and rolling the dice on getting, say, Paige Bueckers or Caitlin Clark in a Draft that, admittedly, is so loaded they should get someone good picking seventh. But really, if you can't be champion of a league, it's best to be the worst so that you can get the #1 pick in the Draft. You really, really don't want to be in the middle, where you're not good enough to be champs but not bad enough to get a good Rookie. But that's where the Lynx are, and I think they're encased in amber as a member of the rudderless middle.
Then again, they do play three Matches versus the two best squads in the Eastern Conference: A pair at Connecticut this/Sunday afternoon and Tuesday evening, then a Friday night rematch with New York at home.
What I know I will believe till the day I die is that you really shouldn't be losing a series to a team that has lost more than twice as many Games as it has won. And you sure as shit shouldn't go 2-4 over a Week and be considered a serious team. But the Twinks have been in kind of a tailspin since completed a sweep of the White Sox Sunday and beating Seattle in 10 Innings (both Games at home) Monday. The Mariners are, like, Minnesota, bobbing around .500. The Kansas City Royals, however, are 31-75. And the Twinks have just lost the series to them in K. C.
I was unfortunate in catching the end of Friday's 8-5 Loss to the Royals in ten. The Twinks managed to scratch in a Run, but supposed shut-down Closer Jhoan Duran loaded the Bases in the bottom of the Tenth and then coughed up a Game-ending Grand Slam to Bobby Witt, Jr. And then last/Saturday night, once-solid Bailey Ober got shook down for six Runs in the first three Innings on the way to a 10-7 defeat. Remind you that the Royals are 31-75. This brings up a fear that I had two weeks ago and suddenly didn't have a week ago, a change of mind I should not have done: The pitching, which statistically was so good in the First Half, is cratering in the Second. The Rotation's ERA since the All-Star break is over 5. Great.
And yet they still lead the AL Central over Cleveland by 1 1/2 Games. And they still have a favorable schedule ahead of them, at least on paper. After finishing up with the Royals, they scoot eastward across Missouri and play vs. the moribund Cardinals for a three-Game set starting Tuesday, then come home for three against the once-flying-high-but-now-faltering Diamondbacks for a trio beginning Friday. Interestingly, the getaway Match against the Cardinals is Thursday night, not afternoon. So the Twinks will get in in the early morning and immediately have to go to Target Field to play against a rested D-Backs outfit? Great.
#-3: United FC (Re-Entry!). This isn't Major League Soccer play but the Leagues Cup, a five-Year-old tournament (only in its third true edition) that MLS is totally trying to make into a thing. Don't know if it's going to work. I question the motivation of the Liga MX clubs, who had to start their season June 30 through July 3, a mere Month after the previous season ended, because of it. Plus all these Matches are in the United States. It can be the designated home team all it wants, the home crowd likely will be against them.
That's what I gleaned seeing the Loons demolish Puebla, 4-0, Sunday. (Aside: I would have loved to have bought a Puebla jersey after they lost. It's like a souvenir!) Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Emanuel Reynoso both braced. Technically, MNUFC were the road team, which was weird. Also, since MLS is treating this these Games as neutral-site Games, both teams get to have their Goal song played when they score. Puebla scored late, but they had their Goal overturned on VAR. So we Loons fans got the best of both worlds: We got to hear the Goal music of a team from another league in another country who probably will never play here again, and we still get to preserve the Shutout!
But everything fucking came crashing down Thursday night at Allianz vs. the Chicago Fire. Bongi scored twice, only for the Fire to respond both times. Then, Chicago took the lead in the 83rd Minute courtesy of a Header off Kei Kamara, who had a cup of coffee with the Loons and who, funny, became another Striker scoring off his former XI. Right then and there there was a lightning strike within eight miles of the stadium, and so they had to delay the Match, and I couldn't fucking stomach seeing the end of another blown lead (actually two of them) because I knew they were gonna lose -- and they did, 3-2.
Like I said last Week, I didn't know if I was going to cover Minnesota United's exploits in this tournament. I decided to revert to what I usually revert to: I won't talk about the Wins but will talk about the Losses. And since they lost in choking fashion, well, I just had to slide the Loons to the basement of the survey. Good news, if it can be called that: They say the MNUFC has already advanced to the Knockout Round. We'll see who they face, and where, Tuesday, I think.
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