The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Lynx (Last Week: -1).  The Lynx are matching the performance of the Timberwolves (at least this Year).  They won all three Games they played this screening Week, all by double digits (albeit all at home).  They are on a six-Game winning streak and have tied Connecticut for second-best record in the WNBA at 13-3.  It seems as though the Lynx, the Sun, and The New York Liberty are separating themselves from the rest of the pack, and I find that to be kind of odd considering I thought they would be middle of the road like they were last season.  But color me surprised.

Minnesota now goes on the road for four straight matchups.  The first one, however, is the most important.  It is the Commissioner's Cup title Game, "at" New York tomorrow/Tuesday night, but they're not playing it at Brooklyn's Barclay Center but instead at Elmont, N. Y., which I think is where Belmont Race Track is.  The reason it was recently moved?  They didn't the Liberty would be hosting, so they scheduled it in Brooklyn ... even though the Barclays Center is hosting the NBA Draft Wednesday and Thursday.  The Association needs to set up the event, so those teams can't play there.  And yet it was such a surprise that were scrambling to find an alternative venue.  Come on, WNBA, you can do better than that.  Afterwards, at Dallas Thursday and at Chicago Sunday afternoon.

#-2: Twins (Last Week: -2).  A 3-3 week punctuated on the low side by a three-Game losing streak where all three defeats were by a Run and on the high side by a 14-K, Complete-Game Shutout of The Soon-To-Be-Bastard-Oakland-Athletics yesterday/Sunday afternoon by Pablo Lopez and the white-hot start of the now-back Royce Lewis.  The superlatives on Twitter/X pointing to a promising germination of a career have been overflowing, but the hype seems real -- as long as he remains healthy.

Meanwhile, The Kansas City Royals seemed to have fallen off, so now Minnesota sits in second place in the AL Central, albeit 7 1/2 Games behind Cleveland.  Because there are so many clubs with great records this season, the Twins' 43-35 record gives them American League Wild Card 2.  Go figure.

They finish up their maximum-length road trip this screening Week with three vs. Arizona starting tomorrow/Tuesday and three against division-leading Seattle over the weekend.

#-3: United FC (Last Week: -3).  Saturday night's 1-0 Loss at home versus Austin FC was the most infuriated I've been with the squad in quite a while.  They're still missing four main dudes because they're playing for their countries, Teemu Pukki still has a bad knee, and Caden Clark is still dealing with a concussion.  Then, Hassani Dotson racked up two Yellow Cards in back-to-back Minutes in the middle of the First Half.  Diego Rubio scored in the 31st for the only Goal of the Match.

The thing that pissed me off happened from the Goal forward.  The played like they didn't care.  They played like they were just going to give the Match away because they were down a man.  They played like they're just trying to weather the storm until international play was over.  They really didn't get their asses in gear until the 65th Minute or so, but by then AFC put themselves in a low block and the Loons couldn't figure out a way to break it down.  It didn't help that, for some fuckin' reason, Eric Ramsay only used two goddamn subs.  Maybe he thought they were going to lose, too.

Austin isn't a good team.  But like Dallas and Seattle before Saturday night, MNUFC lost to them, too, and it wasn't close.  That's a three-Match losing streak to mediocre clubs, sending United FC to fifth in the Western Conference.  Sorry, chalking this up to all the guys you're missing isn't going to cut it.  It doesn't explain the desultory effort, and it doesn't explain losing badly to shitty teams you can still beat.  This is the first real emergency of The Ramsay Era, and even though I have to remind myself that this is his first Year at the helm, adjustments need to be made to show all of us that he can manage.

At Portland Saturday.