The Loons played an extra striker against Vancouver - but two strikers against four defenders aren't that much better than one striker against four defenders.
News and notes from Minnesota soccer - free to read.
xG+xA is great, Goals added is great, futi ratings are amazing. But there's a simpler way to look at whether a transfer or signing succeeded.
I always thought I needed the support of a larger outlet, for soccer writing. Now I'm trying it without one - but I need your support.
Every dad in the world wants you to know just one thing, right now, after the World Cup Final: defense wins championships. I wasn't alone with my feelings about the semifinals of this World Cup. France, my thinking went, had one of the greatest attacks ever assembled, and
Whenever there's a World Cup, men's or women's, the prevailing attitude across American soccer tends to be along the lines of "well, people are watching, here's our chance." It's an attitude that's not without precedent. The
Soccer and Minnesota United FC... and more.
We have reached the quarterfinal stage of the World Cup, which is when it transitions from being a worldwide celebration of soccer to being the European championships, with special guests Brazil and Argentina. This is the ninth men's World Cup since the fall of the Iron Curtain and
"Oh, he's just having an off day." This is one of those things that happens in every single sport, and probably every human endeavor. Anyone who's ever bombed a test in school or snapped in a meeting at work knows the feeling. And for
Maybe it's for the best that the USA's 2-0 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina happened the way it did. It is, after all, the way we like it. The Americans were up 1-0 at halftime and it pretty easily could have been 3-0; Bosnia
(Editor's note: we are switching to Ghost instead of Substack because we want to be like Stu. I am hoping you will not see a difference and you will receive this email as normal, but if there are any growing pains, let me know.) We're done
On the cruelty of disappearing joy.
A blue-and-yellow party in Seattle sends the Bosnians through to the next round.
With 32 teams in the knockout round, it's hard to get eliminated from contention early.
In which I watch the World Cup at Seattle Center with one billion of my closest friends.
Those ticket prices? They aren't coming down.
Belgium 1:1 Egypt, and what it was like to be in Seattle for the game.
Today's the day that I'm finally in the crowd for a World Cup game, and I'm trying to explain - almost to myself - why this is such a dream.
The USMNT starts the tournament off on not only the right foot, but a better foot than they've ever put forward before.
