It’s a little hard for me to explain the genesis of this week’s Soccer Insider column. Basically, I started thinking about a Patrick Reusse column from December 2000, in which Mr. Reusse went to the Xcel Energy Center and started quizzing Wild patrons on their favorite Wild players. Memorably, most of them couldn’t name a single Wild player on the expansion team that season; the only one so named was Darby Hendrickson, a former Gopher standout and Minnesota Mr. Hockey. (Also there was a Czech lady who confidently named Lubomir Sekeras.)

Minnesota’s MLS roster next season will be about that anonymous, for new fans. The team isn’t likely to have a big star to hang its hat on. And so I looked at who might play the Hendrickson role in this week’s Soccer Insider. The column also kind of spilled over into the short takes. The weekend watch guide is here as well.