Minnesota Update, 7.3.2023
The Half-Reynoso plan is working, and the Twins are all Lombardozzis and Laudners now.
TIRED: Emanuel Reynoso needs to be here for the entire MNUFC season.
WIRED: Give Emanuel Reynoso half the season off, then watch him torch the league for the rest of the year.
It worked in 2020, when Reynoso’s midseason arrival was the impetus for the Loons to make the playoffs and go all the way to the conference finals. And it’s working now, especially on Saturday, as Reynoso scored twice on the way to a 4-1 MNUFC victory against Portland.
Reynoso’s first game of the year was June 3. Since June 1, among players that have played at least one game in that span, he’s leading the league in xG + xA, and second in MLS in Goals Added (both of those stats are from American Soccer Analysis).
Effectively, they have added the best player in the league.
Hammering Portland, at home, is the kind of result that gives fans hope. This whole season has been a whirlwind of 1-1 draws and blown late leads, so for Minnesota to lead 2-0 at halftime, give one back, then step on the gas… It’s the kind of thing we’ve been hoping for all year.
The Loons’ next two games are Austin and Houston, two teams ahead in the standings, but within three points. The next ten days could be pivotal for the year.
What did I say about the Twins? You can’t trust them! You can’t trust them to get hits, not even when they won 8-1 on Friday, and so it proved over the weekend - they scored two runs, in two games, and only some miraculous pitching got them a win.
In fact, they were fairly close to winning 1-0 two straight days, but Jhoan Duran ended up being the reliever to falter on Sunday, and they lost 2-1. I continue to encourage you, though, to focus entirely on the hitting. When the offense scores one run, there’s no point in talking about who pitched well, or badly.
That said, in terms of things that have no point, there’s certainly no point in being angry about the Twins’ offense. It is what it is. The only two guys on the team that can hit are Jorge Polanco and Royce Lewis, and they’re both on the injured list. The rest of the lineup is guys who can occasionally run into one, but otherwise are far more likely to not get a hit.
It’s all Lombardozzis and Laudners now.
The Lynx, who beat league-basement Phoenix on Saturday, have won three games in a row. They’ve won seven of ten. Rookie Diamond Miller scored 25 points against Phoenix. Napheesa Collier was named to the All-Star team.
Are they going to beat Las Vegas? No. Can they run with New York, or Connecticut, or even Washington? Probably not. But this is not a bad team, certainly not bad enough to head for the bottom of the standings and compete with Phoenix and Seattle for the worst record in the league.
Minnesota’s coming up hard on the halfway point of their schedule, and is in the playoff spots; assuming Miller doesn’t hit the wall, and everyone stays healthy, they look like a playoff team.
The hope of getting Caitlin Clark is fading… but the hope that the current roster has the foundation it needs is growing.
I’m not going to pretend I understand how the USL W League playoffs work, but it’s strange to me that the Minnesota Aurora are going on the road for the playoffs. The Aurora finished off a perfect regular season, hammering Chicago City 7-0 and finishing the year 12-0-0.
The Aurora scored 60 goals this season, and allowed four. Their reward for all this is to play the first two rounds of the playoffs in Flint, Michigan, starting with a knockout game against… Chicago City SC.
I don’t get it! But I’m still putting my money on the Aurora.
In other soccer news, Kameron Lacey had a hat trick, and MNUFC2 put a hurting on Portland Timbers 2, 4-0… and Minneapolis City SC drew on the road with the Milwaukee Bavarians.
Finally, let’s appreciate the series the St. Paul Saints are currently having against Gwinnett. They’ve won all five games so far, and they’ve scored ten runs in each of them, including 10-6 and 11-5 wins over the weekend.
The following Saints have OPSs north of .900 this year:
OF Matt Wallner
CF Andrew Stevenson
C-1B Chris Williams
DH Trevor Larnach
2B Anthony Prato (partial season, promoted from AA)
Can’t imagine why I’d mention this!
TONIGHT’S SLATE
TWINS vs Kansas City, 7:10pm
SAINTS vs Gwinnett, 6:07pm
ON DECK
LYNX vs Indiana, Wednesday
LOONS vs Austin, Saturday
AURORA vs Chicago City (at Flint, MI), Thursday
CROWS at Thunder Bay, Friday
DOUBLOONS vs Real Monarchs, Sunday
Lombardozzis and Laudners