Free Headers: Loons head to St. Louis, and who hates Iowa?

When I was a high school football player, we lost 55-0 (as I recall) to MACCRAY*. The next week at practice, our coach took the game tape, dug a hole, and buried it on the practice field; as I recall, he also tried and failed to set it on fire, but that may be a trick of my memory.

*There was a brief vogue for naming Minnesota compound high schools without hyphens or vague county-based names; MACCRAY, for the non-outstate knowers, is Maynard, Clara City, and Raymond. Rocori is Rockford, Cold Spring, and Richmond. BOLD is Bird Island, Olivia, and Lake Lillian, but they weren't confident enough to go with either BIOLL or BOLL, though if I remember the banners in their gym correctly, there was a pre-Olivia period where they were named BILL.

Minnesota wasn't quite ready to dig holes in the practice field on Friday, ahead of Saturday's trip to St. Louis, but it was clear that they wanted to move on.

"Step back and look at the bigger picture, we're still right there in the mix," said manager Cameron Knowles. "A point gets you into the play-in game, there's three that gets you above the line, and so it's all so tight and there's so many games still to be played, you know, and that's what we can't lose sight of."

It's not going to be an especially easy trip. As much as Minnesota has struggled, St. Louis has been flying; they haven't lost a game since May 3, and they're just two points out of third place in the Western Conference.

"There's a confidence that comes with going to difficult places, playing against good teams, and getting results and getting wins on the road," said Knowles. "When you look at the schedule and you know you haven't got results at home, you need to get the points somewhere else - and unfortunately we've been doing that and getting them on the road. So the group has a ton of belief going anywhere and playing anyone that we can get a result."

Injury, and visa, updates

Bongokuhle Hlongwane returned to training with the Loons on Friday, and according to Knowles, he was a full participant. He won't be in Saturday's squad, but the coach said he'd trained two days in a row, which usually means that he might potentially be available next week.

The other person on the Loons injury report is midfielder Peter Stroud, who doesn't seem especially close to returning from his hamstring injury.

New signing Cherrion Valerius has yet to make it to Blaine, but according to the coach, there might be some movement in his visa process. "We actually got word today that there was some movement on that," he said. "It's a little bit unknown, but maybe a week, maybe 10 days we get him here."

It's never particularly easy to get new players cleared to work in the USA, and even when the Loons do, we're talking about a 20-year-old who'll be moving across an ocean for the first time. It wouldn't be shocking if Valerius doesn't contribute a lot before the last four or five games of the season.

Only in MLS

I'm just going to cut and paste the following transaction: "Minnesota United announced today that the club has acquired $150,000 in 2026 General Allocation Money (GAM) and the 2027 MLS SuperDraft Second Round pick from LA Galaxy in exchange for a 2026 International Roster Spot."

I started writing a paragraph here, to try to put that in context, but I find that I cannot improve upon the beauty of that transaction detail. Look at all the capital letters! Look at all the dates! Look at all the terms that would require two-paragraph definitions! It's beautiful. It's baroque in one way, but modernist, even brutalist, in another. It is a maze, it is a hammer, it is inscrutable and childlike all at once. Gaze upon it, ye mighty, and despair.

Who hates Iowa?

In this era where the Big Ten sprawls from coast to coast and local rivalry has less to do with college sports than ever, I think we all need to focus on the important things, for the Minnesota Gophers. Here is my list of priorities, in every sport:

1. Beat Iowa
2. Beat Wisconsin
3. Trophies or whatever

At any rate, congratulations to the Gopher soccer team, which accomplished the first priority for any team by beating #25 Iowa 1-0 last night. Tenley Senden - great name - got a first-half goal by picking up the ball in her own half, beating three defenders, and then chipping the goalkeeper. The Gophers were out-shot 14-3 in the second half but held on for the win.

Minnesota plays at Wisconsin on October 18, in case you're wondering.

Podcasts and other media

In case you missed it, I launched the JonMarthaler.com podcast earlier this morning, and even now I'm working to make it so you can listen somewhere other than via that link.

I also did the Loons Matchday Preview podcast this week, with Jonathan Harrison and Manny Lagos, and I wore my Eric Quill hat to try to rally the troops.

And while we're talking about it, I've been posting short clips from training and elsewhere on Instagram.