Happy Good Friday to my Easter Egg loving readers, and a happy first wrap-up on a Friday to the rest of you.
Figuring that most of the news that I’ll be posting pertains to the coming game, I’ve moved the weekly wrap-ups to Friday. Thursday will be the Better Know a Foe posts where I’ll post a bit about the team, and hopefully get a fan or two from our opponents to answer some questions. Sunday or Monday will be the Tactics posts, where I will look back at the tactical choices by Minnesota United during that weekend’s game, and then the loon ratings will come out on Wednesday.
A full week here at The Relegated, that’s for sure!
Minnesota News
Two Loons Make the NASL Team of the Week
Pitchkolan and Ramirez both made the NASL XI of the Week this week. Both were well deserved, although I would have liked to have seen Venegas honored as well. You’d think a clean sheet would have meant one of our defensive players might have been honored. Also Ambersley is in the XI. You can say you knew him when he wasn’t scoring goals for Minnesota.
Coaches Corner – San Antonio Scorpions
A great look at what went well and what the team needs to work on for the next week. Short answer, maintain possession.
Julius James accuses Calvano of intentionally head-hunting
While I think we all can agree Calvano’s play was reckless and deserved a yellow card, I just don’t get what James is trying to justify here. Was he somehow right to jump onto top of a player and push him down, apparently by the head?
I also love how some people are accusing Calvano of flopping. It looked to me like Calvano was initially just trying to protect himself. When a player is straddling on top of you and pushing you down, my reaction would be to roll over try and hide. I can guarantee any “flopping” on Calvano‘s part had nothing to do with the red card.
Fine San Antonio, we’ll be your rivals, just could you stop being such jerks about it?
Team Preview of Ottawa Fury FC Away
Goes into some depth of the team that Ottawa Fury has right now and what Minnesota might need to focus on to beat them.
Local Soccer Notes on SoccerCentric over at the Star Tribune
A little bit about Minnesota, but a lot about local players, include two playing for the U-18 USMNT and Kassey Kallman, the sister of two Minnesota United players, who is having success with Kansas City in the NWSL.
The Loons were an answer to a crossword puzzle
@MNUnitedFC Times are changing look at 53 down! pic.twitter.com/5FVwYyqtTe — Brian Kallman (@BrianKallman14) April 7, 2014
It was really cool to see that the team was being recognized as an integral part of NASL. This is a couple weeks old, but I thought it was great to see and wanted to share it here.
League News
Spring Season Makes the League More Exciting
Nice little article about how the spring season is great to make early season games meaningful for more teams. I have to agree, the spring season is full of excitement, or at least it was last season. We’ll see how it goes this season. It might quickly become a three or two horse race if a couple of teams get off to a fast start.
Other Soccer News
Armchair Analyst: Why comparing Kyle Beckerman and Michael Bradley is tricky business
Great article about how two players who seemingly play the same position and play it well can actually be asked to do very different things depending on the tactics of the team.
For your viewing pleasure
Matt Van Okel, organizing the Minnesota United front office.
