I had an enjoyable time writing about Minnesota United in 2022. I started the year writing overly-detailed posts about the Minnesota United preseason, but before the season began, I was invited to write for Sota Soccer, which was just then launching. I did some game coverage and a lot of match previews, but mostly I just wrote columns. Here are the five things I had the most fun writing all year:

March 2: Welcome to Soccer, Angry Twins Fans!: Remember when Opening Day was canceled? Anyway, the potential for a lost baseball season didn’t actually come to pass, as baseball ownership - having proved that they were serious about ruining things for no reason - pretty quickly agreed to a deal with the players, and the games went ahead with a slightly later start date. But for a few days, it looked like it might be the Summer of Soccer in America, with baseball determined to shoot itself in the foot.

July 11: Cameron Knowles and MNUFC2 are still building something: For me, this was pure fun, writing a magazine-style blog about a random MNUFC2 game. There’s a recap, there’s some info about who played well, but it’s not a game story. I like writing this kind of thing because the internet is the only place it could possibly be published.

July 22: Everton, MNUFC, and the misery of fandom. Usually what’s happening on the field is the most interesting thing, but when Everton came to St. Paul (and walked out 4-0 losers), it was hard not to write about the angry people on social media.

August 18: The Joy of Emmanuel Reynoso: Again, this was so fun to write, and I can’t imagine an outlet publishing it other than the internet. If I had to pick, I think this is my favorite column of the year.

September 2: Brent Kallman steps again to the fore: Brent Kallman returned to the starting lineup when Bakaye Dibassy, which gave me a chance to write about the Loons’ longest-serving player, their one local link in the starting eleven.