I watched some of the eMLS last night, and let me tell you: I did not understand how eMLS works.

I assumed that signing up to play for an eMLS team meant that you had to play with the associated team in your FIFA games, but that is not the case. The Loons were wearing the Loons jerseys, but that was pretty much the end of the similarities.

Anyway, Ronaldo had a hat-trick for the Loons in the game I watched - not Cristiano Ronaldo, the Brazilian one from twenty years ago - with most of them assisted by Neymar or Kylian Mbappé.

So not only is there a fantasy component, there is time travel as well.

MNUFC’s eMLS player, a guy named Ehsan “Lamps” Zakeri, kept saying he was having trouble with his game lagging, but you couldn’t tell from how much he dominated. Lamps in eMLS »> Lamps for NYCFC?

In news that makes me sound less like a senior citizen, MNUFC made one selection in the 2022 MLS Superdraft, taking striker Tani Oluwaseyi from St. John’s University with the 17th pick.

It’s the third time in six years that the Loons have spent their top pick on a toolsy forward, and the others didn’t work out that well. Abu Danladi, the top pick in the 2017 draft, was mostly a bust; he had eight goals in 2017 but injuries and other struggles derailed his career afterwards.

A year later, the Loons took Mason Toye, who showed flashes - enough, at least, for the Loons to send him to Montreal late in the 2020 season, in exchange for a fair chunk of cash. Toye still may come through and be a success, but it won’t be for the Loons.

David Gass, who covers Big East soccer and also regularly appears on the MLS Extratime podcast, was high on Oluwaseyi, and thinks he can challenge for a roster spot and be a contributor in MLS in 2022, so that’s a positive note.

Plus, just yesterday I was writing about how MNUFC2 will provide opportunities for young players who need games, and here we are already and MNUFC has a young player who might need some games! The system works.

The depth chart for the front three is starting to look interesting. Beyond Adrien Hunou, Franco Fragapane, and Robin Lod, the team now has added Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Oluwaseyi. Niko Hansen, Aziel Jackson, and Justin McMaster are holdovers from last year, too.

There are options, at least. And given that last year at one point the Loons were down to “maybe Hassani Dotson can play wing” and “maybe Fanendo Adi has something left in the tank,” options are what they needed.

Also, in preseason news, Adrian Heath had an Emanuel Reynoso update in his draft press conference:

In a draft-day media call just now, #MNUFC's Adrian Heath said Emanuel Reynoso "for sure" will be in Blaine for training next week. He wouldn't comment further, other than to say club is working with MLS to review allegations made after he was arrested in Argentina last month.

— Jerry Zgoda (@JerryZgoda) January 11, 2022

There was lots more from the presser, so I advise you to read Jerry Zgoda’s notebook in the Star Tribune, or Andy Greder’s notebook in the Pioneer Press, or - ideally, of course - both.

Major League Soccer is launching its own developmental league this year, which they’re calling MLS NEXT Pro. It’ll have 23 teams this year, 22 of which are MLS-affiliated teams, plus an independent team in Rochester, NY. For Loons fans, the important thing is that for the first time, MNUFC will have its very own developmental squad, called - inevitably - MNUFC2.

When this was first announced, the consensus on Twitter was that the team should be called MN2FC, the Toonies (after the Canadian two-dollar coin), or the Doubloons.

Friday, the team held a press conference with MNUFC2 coach Cameron Knowles, who was a video coach with the Loons last year, and prior to that was the head man with Portland Timbers 2 in the USL Championship. Jerry Zgoda sums it up here for the Star Tribune, and Knowles said nothing unexpected.

The gist is that MNUFC2 will be a little bit like every level of minor league baseball, all rolled into one. It’ll be a spot for MNUFC first-team players that aren’t playing much to get a few games - in that way, it’ll be like a Triple-A team. It’ll be a spot for young, developing players to establish themselves as pros, like a Double-A team. And it’ll be a place for really young players - academy age, like late teens - to test themselves at a higher level, like Single-A or rookie ball.

As such, like in any minor league, the priorities for MNUFC2 will be a little bit skewed from what they might be otherwise, because the goal is to develop players while also winning as much as possible. It’ll be the same as it is for Wild fans checking on AHL Iowa’s results, or Twins fans looking at the St. Paul Saints boxscore - less about whether Iowa or St. Paul won, more about whether Marco Rossi scored or whether Jose Miranda got three hits.

Knowles didn’t know where the team will play, when the season will start, or how long the season will be; he said he’d been told that they were looking at a 24-game season beginning in late March, but noted that it was subject to change.

It feels like this is really the most significant re-shaping of the lower-division soccer landscape we’ve seen in the past few years, certainly the biggest change since the NASL (version 2) finally capsized. One of the odd things about the USL over the past few years has been the presence of MLS affiliate teams, whose incentives didn’t always line up with the traditional incentive of “winning soccer games.”

The MLS SuperDraft is today, and the Loons have the 17th pick, which honestly is kind of low to get a real difference-maker. As opposed to past years, though, Minnesota does now have a landing spot for their draft pick. Andy Greder notes that they don’t have other picks, and says that they aren’t planning to make any other deals.

Also, a hat tip to Brian Quarstad for this tidbit, which suggest that the Loons are signing striker Thomas Williamson, who was San Jose’s first-rounder last year. Again, if this move came in the pre-MNUFC2 era, it would make no sense; now it makes a lot of sense.

Perhaps it won’t be long until we can start putting together our own yearly version of Aaron Gleeman’s yearly Top 40 Twins Prospects ranking. For a club that’s always been about the here and now, it’s kind of exciting to think about the future, too.

Here is what we know for absolutely sure about MNUFC preseason, what’s been announced by the club and by the league, 51 days before the team opens the season at Philadelphia: (/faint sound of off-key pipe organ playing on windy day) UPDATE: Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press just published a notebook with actual preseason dates, so apparently writing about preseason this morning was timely. But still!

We can surmise two things. The first is thanks to longtime Minnesota soccer fan Scott Kerssen, who knows everything: Norwegian club Viking FK is apparently coming to America to play in the Portland Timbers’ annual preseason tournament, which will also include Real Salt Lake and Minnesota United FC.

The second was thanks to earlier stories about Emanuel Reynoso’s situation in Argentina; it was reported that he’d asked the Argentinian authorities for permission to travel back to the United States for preseason training, beginning January 13.

I guess I feel like something is missing here? Baseball’s spring training is wildly popular, to the point that if you tell some die-hard Twins fans that you’ve never been to Fort Myers for Twins spring training, they eye you with a mixture of pity and confusion, trying to figure out whether you’re some kind of dilettante impostor or merely just stupid.

NFL training camp is one of the most boring events you can imagine - the most exciting part is watching the punters boom the ball into the sky - and yet thousands of Vikings fans go to Mankato every year.

The NHL and NBA spend less time practicing in front of fans in their pre-seasons, but they hold multiple preseason games every year, and fans pay actual American money to watch them. The same goes for the NFL, come to think of it.

So why not MLS?

Last season, the Loons played four preseason matches. For obvious reasons, none of them had fans in attendance, but there wasn’t even a streaming broadcast. The Timbers’ preseason tournament has been streamed in the past, but MNUFC hasn’t even said definitively that they’re playing in the tournament, so streaming details are nonexistent.

A month and a half before the season, fans have no concrete idea where MNUFC is even holding preseason training or where they might be playing games, and even if they did know, they probably couldn’t attend and maybe couldn’t even watch.

It feels like MLS is missing something here.

The MNUFC news is starting to pick up now. Yesterday, MNUFC fans got not one but two stories to chew on, like a sign of spring: finally, things are happening.

The first story is that Brent Kallman is coming back for two more years as a Loon, according to Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press. You have to say that this is one of those deals that just makes sense for everyone.

MNUFC declined Kallman’s contract option in December, but the rumors were always that he would be back. Kallman is from Woodbury, a scion of one of the great Minnesota soccer families, and he’s been a Loon since 2013, the first season that the team was the Loons. He’s an Original Loon!

Because he’s been around for ten years, I still fall into the trap of thinking of him as a young breakout candidate, but of course he’s 31 years old now and an MLS veteran. He played both left center back and right center back last year, and once, memorably, in the center of a back three; he played well enough in mid-season, when he started eight consecutive games, that even when Michael Boxall was healthy there was some question from Adrian Heath as to whether he’d keep picking Kallman.

The Loons need that kind of depth. This is especially true since Boxall and Bakaye Dibassy are even older than Kallman; counting on the two starting center backs to play 35+ games next year is not realistic. Kallman is an imporant piece, in my mind.

He also scored two goals last season, tying him with Hassani Dotson and Ramón Ábila. That’s more than Fanendo Adi, Juan Agudelo, and Ján Greguš scored, put together. Brent Kallman: backup striker?

I am more of a parochial thinker than I should be, but Kallman - just by staying on the roster - provides a link to both local soccer, and to the history of Minnesota United (pre-2017 division), and those are two things I find important. It’s him, Manny Lagos, and Amos Magee. May Kallman sign for ten more years.

The second story is that MNUFC’s annual international friendly next summer will be against SC Paderborn 07, who are currently in the 2. Bundesliga. If tradition holds, they will be in a different league by the time they reach St. Paul. You have to admire this kind of commitment to excitement:

• 2013-14: Promoted to Bundesliga
• 2014-15: Relegated to 2. Bundesliga
• 2015-16: Relegated to 3. Liga
• 2016-17: Should have been relegated to amateur Regionalliga, except that 1860 Munich lost its pro license and went down instead
• 2017-18: Promoted to 2. Bundesliga
• 2018-19: Promoted to Bundesliga
• 2019-20: Relegated to 2. Bundesliga
• 2020-21: Extremely boring ninth-place finish

Right now, Paderborn is back in ninth place, except they are still just three points out of third place. This is boring, so I will tell you that in the past ten years, Paderborn has had four different coaches named either Stephan, Stefan, or Steffen.

This is the kind of stuff they don’t put in the season ticket advertisements.

Finally, my thanks to Mthokozisi Dube on Twitter, who cleared up the “what is Bongokuhle Hlongwane’s nickname” debate: It’s “Sanisa” or “Saniza,” given to him by youth coaches in Pietermaritzburg.

This reminded me of former Loons loanee Siniša Ubiparipović, who played seven games for Minnesota on loan in 2013, and whose greatest contribution in a United jersey was this game against Edmonton, when he came on as a sub at the hour mark and got himself sent off a minute later.

This is the kind of stuff they don’t put in advertisements, either.

Bongokuhle Hlongwane is a Loon! Minnesota’s first big-news offseason signing is a 21-year-old South African forward. I’m not going to pretend I know anything about him; Andy Greder wrote that “his nickname is believed to be ‘Bongy’,” which is frankly a great way to introduce any new player.

What we do know is that Hlongwane has been at Maritzburg United in the South Africa Premier Division for four years, and was rumored to be headed to one of South Africa’s big three - Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs, or Orlando Pirates. We also know that he’s been part of the South Africa national team, pleasingly called Bafana Bafana, and has scored two goals for his country - including one against Ghana in World Cup qualification.

What all of that means is anyone’s guess. Playing for the national team is good, but South Africa isn’t exactly an international powerhouse; they haven’t qualified for a World Cup that they didn’t host since 2002, and they failed to qualify for this year’s African Cup of Nations. The South African Premier Division appears to be Africa’s fifth-ranked league, and last year both the Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs reached the CAF Champions League quarterfinals, with the Chiefs going all the way to the final before losing to Al Ahly of Egypt.

So Hlongwane is good enough that he was a transfer target for some of the better club teams in Africa, as well as an exciting prospect for what is perhaps Africa’s tenth-best international team.

The videos with the club soundtracks - for there are always videos with dance music, no matter how obscure the player - show that Hlongwane appears to have a good touch, to be comfortable shooting with both feet (though perhaps most comfortable with his left), and to be at least a passable header of the ball. The clips show him playing as both an inverted winger on the right, cutting in to shoot with his left (this is how he scored his goal against Ghana in the World Cup qualifier), and as a traditional forward on the left-hand side. They also show him scoring two goals for Maritzburg in which the defense disappears so abjectly that you’ll rewind the clip to try to figure out what happened; we’ll call that “finishing ability.”

We also know that one of Minnesota’s greatest-ever players was South African. Patrick “Ace” Nstoelengoe played for Minnesota for virtually the entire run of the Minnesota Kicks, scoring 50 goals (according to Wikipedia) over six seasons, then returning to play for the Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa in the offseason. (This is also where I note that the Kaizer Chiefs, one of South Africa’s big three, were started by Kaizer Motaung, who played for Atlanta in the NASL - and named the team he founded after the Atlanta Chiefs, his NASL team. I just love that fact, that the NASL still lives on in such a strange way.)

I have to assume that Hlongwane’s motivation in signing with MLS is motivated as much by a desire to put himself in the shop window, so to speak, as anything. Looking down the list of South African national team players, there are a lot of guys in the South African league, a couple in other parts of Africa, and a handful in various European backwaters. I’m guessing it’s hard to get noticed as a young player from South Africa, even if he was to sign with a bigger club like Kaizer Chiefs or Mamelodi Sundowns. Say what you will about MLS, but it’s clear that its young players get noticed in Europe, and it’s clear that its clubs are motivated to develop young talent.

In that way, it feels similar to many of MNUFC’s other moves, where they’ve brought in players from places that aren’t exactly famous for soccer talent, and fans have done the same things that I’ve noted above. It’s the internet-enabled dance of the international transfer. Check Soccerway for his stats; marvel at how it’s possible that they’re so detailed. Read his Wikipedia article, if he has one. Search his name on Twitter and YouTube. Do exactly what I’ve done above, and try to build up some kind of coherent narrative, for it’s only the truly insane internet prospect hound that would already have been keeping tabs on a youngster from Pietermaritzburg.

So welcome, Bongy Hlongwane, to the land of Ace Ntsoelengoe. We’re looking forward to seeing you play in person, rather than through the random scraps we’ve collected from the internet.

Minnesota’s sports feel very familiar, at the moment. The Vikings missed the playoffs, and the only thing fans can’t quite decide is whether everyone involved should be drawn and quartered, or merely fired. The Wolves are inconsistent. The Wild were briefly the NHL’s top team, and have lost five in a row since, returning to their usual state of mild, basic competence.

With the present so unexciting and the past mostly barren, it’s understandable that fans get excited about the future - and right now, Minnesota’s teams do seem to have a bumper crop of hope. The Lynx have Napheesa Collier and Crystal Dangerfield, the 2019 and 2020 Rookies of the Year. The Wild have Kirill Kaprizov, who won the Calder Trophy in 2021. The Wolves have Anthony Edwards, who should have won Rookie of the Year in 2021. The Vikings have Justin Jefferson, who was on the 2020 NFL All-Rookie Team. Even the Twins have a passel of prospects that, increasingly, seem like they’ll have to shoulder the load next year - you know, if baseball plays any games in 2022.

And then there is Minnesota United.

When making these “Minnesota’s youth movement” lists, Emanuel Reynoso’s name occasionally pops up, but Bebelo turned 26 in November. This makes him young, for the Loons, but comparatively old; he’s one day younger than Karl-Anthony Towns, for example. And soccer is not like baseball, where most players need several years of professional experience before being ready for the big leagues, where 25 is still quite young. Soccer is a young man’s game. Major League Soccer made two major player sales this week; Orlando City sold Daryl Dike to West Brom for $9.5 million, and FC Dallas sold Ricardo Pepi to Augsburg for $20 million. Dike is 21, Pepi is 18.

The Loons have none of that type of teenage star. Every year, MLSSoccer.com does a list of the league’s best players called 22 Under 22. The league even has an entire “U22 Initiative”, with special roster designations and statuses, all designed to bring more young players through the league (and, potentially, turn them into players that can be sold, the same way as Dike and Pepi.)

Here is the Loons’ entire list of U22 players from last season, along with the number of minutes they played:

There is one player to highlight, though - not in that U22 group, but younger than Reynoso. He didn’t make the MLS 22 Under 22 list in either year he was eligible, but while other players got the hype, he was getting minutes, and now, he’s become a key piece of Minnesota’s plans: Hassani Dotson.

Dotson joined the Loons out of Oregon State in 2019, a second-round pick in the MLS SuperDraft. If you’re not an MLS fan, that probably sounds better than it is; a second-round pick in most other sports is a key prospect, a piece for the future. In MLS, a second-round pick is “a guy who will almost surely never play for your team.” Mostly, you don’t bother to learn the names of the second-round picks.

Confounding expectations, Dotson was immediately thrown into the mix for the Loons, and in the starting lineup by May. Since then, his role has been to provide depth at seemingly every position on the field. In 2021, he started games at left back, right back, defensive midfield (6), central midfield (8), attacking midfield (10), and at both left and right wing - seven out of the eleven positions in the Loons’ preferred 4-2-3-1.

Here’s a list of the United players who’ve played the most minutes over the past three seasons:

That speaks to how important Dotson is already for the Loons - without a set position, he’s still played the fifth-most minutes for the team over his career.

With Greguš and Alonso departing, however, it does seem like it may be time for Dotson to take a step forward, at the age of 24. If the season started today, he’d be a starting midfielder, the place that he appears to be most comfortable on the field. He’s been fine as a fullback, less so as a winger, but that number 8 spot seems like it fits his particular skillset the best.

Plus, it gives him a chance of adding to his “Bangers Only” tally.

He doesn’t have the trophies of Collier or Dangerfield or Kaprizov or Jefferson, or the highlight reel of Edwards. But as Minnesotans latch on to any hope they can find, I’ve got hope for a breakout season from Dotson - still young! - in 2022.

Minnesota United FC preseason begins in ten days.

It’s hard to believe, for a number of reasons. For one, it’s below zero outside, and it’s hard to think about summer and grass and all of those American fútbol things in the bleak midwinter. For another, the Loons are pretty short on players; so far this offseason, they’ve declined a lot of contract options, lost free agents Ethan Finlay and Ozzie Alonso, and picked up a third-string keeper with one MLS game to his name.

Even so, there’s only eight weeks - eight weeks! - until MNUFC opens the season in Philadelphia. And while there is much still up in the air with this team, there is one extremely key thing up in the air: what is going on with playmaker Emanuel Reynoso?

In early December, Reynoso was accused of pistol-whipping a teenager in his native Argentina. He spent nine days in jail before being allowed to post bail. He’s since requested to be allowed to leave Argentina for MNUFC preseason, but as of late December, was still in his native country.

MNUFC has made no statement beyond “we are taking this matter seriously.” They are letting the process, such as it is, play out; until the authorities in Argentina make their findings, we’re all just waiting, apparently Reynoso included.

Last August, there was a minor kerfuffle among MNUFC fans when Finlay, on Michael Rand’s “Daily Delivery” podcast for the Star Tribune, said that he wasn’t sure what the team’s identity was beyond getting the ball to Reynoso and letting him do his thing.

Left unsaid was the truth, which is that “getting the ball to Reynoso and letting him do his thing” was not a terrible identity. No less an authority than MLSSoccer.com’s Matt Doyle called Reynoso “a genius No. 10” and “maybe my favorite player in the league.”

With Reynoso, the offensive plan is to find three willing runners that can finish to surround him on offense, and six competent defense-first players to cover for a front four that’s constantly on the other end of the field (and, let’s be honest, not exactly tracking back). Fans can fill in those names pretty easily because, for much of the last two years, that’s exactly what we’ve seen.

Without Reynoso, though, the plan becomes - what? When they were missing him last year, especially in the second half of the season, things did not go well:

• at DC United: The Loons came out in a 5-2-3, with the intention of defending with seven and letting the front three play three-on-three as DC pushed up. Minnesota seemed to lose every 50-50 ball and only scored off a set piece; it was a total beatdown, 3-1 that didn’t feel near that close.
• at Sporting KC: This was the “maybe Adrien Hunou can work as a second striker, while Fanendo Adi is a target man” attempt. The Loons were also missing Hassani Dotson and Chase Gasper, they kept making crazy mistakes with the ball, and they got beat 4-0.
• at Seattle: This was probably the most straightforward game Minnesota played without Reynoso, as they simply inserted Hassani Dotson into central midfield and left everything else alone. The Loons lost 1-0 but had their chances, and could have earned a point.
• at Houston: The Loons won this one, 2-1. Taking anything away from that is difficult because it was Houston’s 15th consecutive game without a win, and they felt bad enough about it to fire their GM afterwards.

The Loons do not have a Plan A and a Plan B, based on Reynoso’s availability. Reynoso is Plan A, but beyond that, I’m not sure you can even say they’re back to the drawing board; it’s more like “Well, we should really think about getting a board for drawing on.”

With him, they keep it simple, get the ball to him, and let him do his thing. Without him, they either try Dotson as a half-replacement, or have to come up with an entirely different way of playing.

Ten days to go until preseason.

Now-former MNUFC winger Ethan Finlay, a free agent this offseason, has signed a two-year deal with Austin FC.

Finlay, who hit 31 in August, is one of those “solid career” type of MLS guys. Though he was born in Duluth, he grew up in North Carolina and then Marshfield, Wisconsin. He was driven enough that, when his parents opted to move to Marshfield when he was 12, he informed them that they were killing his soccer career.

Marshfield not being a soccer hotbed, Finlay would play on teams in Madison (145 miles away) and then in Milwaukee (191 miles), and it was enough to earn him a spot at Creighton University. You wouldn’t think that Omaha would be a soccer hotbed, either, but Creighton has been a consistent source of soccer talent, and a landing spot for Midwestern guys; Twin Cities natives Brent Kallman and Eric Miller both launched MLS careers from Creighton. And it worked for Finlay, who became a Hermann Trophy finalist and a top-10 MLS draft pick for Columbus.

In Columbus, Finlay had a breakout season in his third year, scoring 11 goals. The next year, in 2015, he was even better, scoring 12 and setting up 12 more as the Crew reached the MLS Cup final. He was an All-Star that year, and named to the league’s Best XI at the end of the year. When he re-signed with Columbus that winter, the announcement called him an “ascendant star” and noted that only Robbie Keane and Bradley Wright-Phillips had more combined goals and assists over the past two seasons. It even earned him a couple of call-ups to the U.S. national team, both in the annual January camp that winter and then for World Cup qualifiers in March, where he played 20 minutes in a win over Guatemala.

And then, well, things went wrong for Columbus, and Finlay. He scored six goals and set up six more, but the Crew missed the playoffs, and in 2017 he’d managed just a goal and assist in 19 games. Columbus signed another right winger, Pedro Santos, as a Designated Player, and the writing was on the wall; the Crew dealt Finlay at the deadline to Minnesota for a chunk of cash.

This was in the middle of Minnesota’s first MLS season, and by this point it was clear that the Loons were going to have to do a certain amount of switching boats in midstream. At the time, Finlay was approximately the tenth winger on the Loons’ roster, but after the team’s repeated face-plants to begin the year, they were on the search for talent of any kind.

Twenty-seven different players started at least one game for the Loons that year, and the kindest label you could apply to a lot of them was “inconsistent.” Minnesota built its inaugural squad with a few guys from their successful NASL sides, a few MLS veterans, a few MLS up-and-comers, and - oddly - a group of fairly unknown internationals from Nordic countries, on the theory that they could be easily convinced to play on the frozen tundra. It was the last group that particularly did not click; three of the four were back in Europe by mid-summer, and the Loons were rebuilding on the fly.

What Finlay brought to the Loons, then and over the following four years, was professionalism. He was the template for the guys that eventually turned Minnesota into a team that made the playoffs three years in a row: solid pros.

He turned 31 this year, and scored his 50th goal in MLS. He was not part of United’s first-choice attacking front four, and yet, paradoxically, he played more matches in 2021 than any of the first-choice players, starting 19 - the same as Franco Fragapane, two fewer than Robin Lod, and three fewer than Adrian Hunou.

His ability to play on the right wing was what gave the team any attacking flexibility at all. He would play on the right of Hunou or Lod, or would come in as a substitute for Hunou while Lod switched from the right to playing up front. He ran the hard yards without being an offensive focal point, always in the channel between the left center back and the left back, trying to stretch the defense. No longer an ascendant star, he’d become something that is also important to winning soccer teams: reliable.

Constructing a first eleven is one thing, for an MLS team. The realm of Designated Players and Allocation Money is spent to try to find those players that are a cut above the rest, that can provide more than just dependability. But to win, every team needs to find guys like Finlay, that can start and can back up and be dependable in both roles.

Minnesota has its starting lineup already filled out for next season, mostly. Ten of the eleven guys that started the playoff game with Portland are signed for next season, as well as first-choice goalkeeper Tyler Miller; only veteran Ozzie Alonso is still a free agent. But the depth on the roster - the guys like Finlay - is mostly missing. If the Loons are going to win next year, if they are going to weather injuries and try different lineup combinations and do all the things that good teams do on the way to the playoffs - they need to find more Finlays to make it work.

Leaving aside that current starting eleven (Miller; Métanire, Dibassy, Boxall, Gasper; Dotson, Trapp; Reynoso, Fragapane, Lod, Hunou) and backup keeper Dayne St. Clair, here’s who Minnesota has backing up.

Striker: Patrick Weah is out with an ACL injury, so right now all the Loons have is youngster Aziel Jackson, who may not even be a number 9.

Winger: The Loons were high enough on Niko Hansen that he made five starts early in the season, before injuries derailed his year. Right now, he’s in line to replace Finlay; young Justin McMaster is the only other forward held over from 2021.

Midfield: The one issue with Hassani Dotson being in the starting lineup is that he can’t provide cover at every other position on the field if he’s already in the starting eleven; he’s first in line to play every midfield position, both fullback positions, and both wing positions if need be. Other than him, the Loons have no backup number 10. Joseph Rosales showed promise in central midfield at a young age. Jacori Hayes was a depth option last year, and ended up making seven starts.

Defense: DJ Taylor played both fullback spots. Callum Montgomery and Nabi Kibunguchy played center back in the USL. Fred Emmings is a homegrown goalkeeper.

That, right now, is MNUFC’s depth. Three mid-20s guys who were spot starters last year, two young players who didn’t make a start, two Homegrown players (one injured), and three guys who played in the USL.

They need more. They know they need more. And the type of guys they need are like Ethan Finlay: solid pros who will do a job.

Art and commerce have always been linked. Sports, and the business of sports, are inseparable. For sports fans like me, this produces two dichotomies.

1. Understanding the business side of sports is crucial to understanding sports, and yet this understanding does not make me enjoy sports any more - in fact, if anything, the more I understand, the less I enjoy.
2. The most important and enjoyable figures in sports are the players, but even a basic understanding of the economic realities of any sport serve to align my incentives as a fan with the owners, not with the players.

Let’s look at the latest local example, the Minnesota Twins signing Byron Buxton to a seven-year contract, to illustrate what I mean.

Watching Byron Buxton play baseball is an enjoyable experience, both aesthetically, and as a rooting interest. He plays for my favorite baseball team, and he is one of the most exciting players I can remember. He may be the fastest player in the league. Over the past two seasons, he hit thirty-two home runs and twenty-six doubles in just one hundred games. He’s about to turn twenty-eight years old, the prime for most baseball players. He helps my team win games and he is fun to watch. I want him to stay on my team and I wish the team had twenty-five more players like him.

Considered narrowly, I am entirely and completely on Byron Buxton’s side, when it comes to his contract negotiations. I really don’t care how much money he gets paid; if he signs for a thousand dollars or a billion, it doesn’t make any difference to me, as long as he continues to play baseball for the Twins. Nothing changes in the money that comes out of my pocket. If he wants to get paid more, then I say he should get paid more.

Widen the scope, even to the still fairly narrow scope of the contracts of all of the other players on the team, and that view begins to change. Even at this narrow level, I understand that the team’s goal overall is to maximize the number of good baseball players it puts on the field, and that one of the limits on this is financial.

At this still-narrow view, my incentives have already stopped lining up with Byron Buxton’s. I want the Twins to not only have Byron Buxton but also have many other good players. Even when I get to the end of the above paragraph, where I wish for twenty-five more Byron Buxtons, I understand that the Twins will not be able to sign twenty-five more players to seven-year contracts worth nine-figure sums.

More than that, if I want to understand anything about the team as a whole - the players that they sign, and choose not to sign, and try to sign but fail - I have to understand far more than just that basic “money doesn’t grow on trees, son” truth. I have to understand not only the benefits but the risks of this contract, like Buxton is often hurt, and in the next 2-5 years his physical gifts will begin to diminish. Already I like him less! This sucks!

A large part, perhaps the largest part, of “analysis” of sports is occupied with these kinds of questions. The on-field and on-court and on-ice breakdowns are still there, but they are often swamped by management role-playing. What are the Vikings’ needs in the draft? Can the Wild trade for Jack Eichel and stay under the salary cap? Which expiring contracts might the Timberwolves target?

Thinking about sports in this way is interesting, even enjoyable, on its own. It certainly adds an intellectually satisfying puzzle on top of the basic experience of watching a bunch of people in colorful costumes run into each other. It’s fun to decipher the complicated systems that underpin the economic calculus that governs what happens out there between the lines. The on-field and the off-field parts all fit together as parts of a larger whole.

This doesn’t make it more enjoyable, though, at least not for me. The only enjoyment that it’s possible to derive from this is when a player is underpaid, in the same way I would say, “Wow, that burrito was great, I can’t believe it only cost three dollars.” Wild center Ryan Hartman has scored twelve goals in twenty-one games this season, an astonishing return for the team’s eighth-highest-paid forward. Great deal for the Wild! Terrible deal for Hartman! Because my incentives (to have many good players on the team, given the salary cap) match up with the front office’s incentives, not Hartman’s, I guess I can feel good about this? “Boy,” I can say, “the Wild sure got one over on the rest of the NHL, by paying less than the market value for this player!”

This feels instinctive, yet morally bereft. Hartman’s the one out there scoring goals, not GM Bill Guerin or owner Craig Leipold. I’m cheering for Hartman, not the salary cap. And yet it feels right to be even more satisfied with those goals, because I understand just what an extra benefit they provide to the team, because I understand the salary-cap portion of this particular puzzle. It’s even worse when salaries aren’t involved; caring about this sort of thing with college sports means being dunked into the sordid world of recruiting. If you think having opinions on other people’s paychecks feels soulless, imagine having opinions on the scholastic choices of teenagers.

I have never truly cared about a sports team without wanting to understand the big picture. At least for me, fandom doesn’t stop and start when the game does; I want to know more and go deeper. Otherwise, the experience is enjoyable but empty. Muzak, not Mozart.

Filling in the business side of the team fills in my need to understand. For me, though, understanding more means enjoying less.

Art and commerce, always at odds.

The MLS playoffs feel bizarre sometimes. The Loons played 34 games from mid-April to mid-November. They didn’t have their spot in the playoffs confirmed until the final whistle blew in game number 34. And now, two weeks after the conclusion to that very long season, they played a little bit of good soccer but a larger bit of bad soccer — and wham, season’s over. That’s an awfully long season to have the postseason be over after 90 minutes.

So what comes next for Minnesota United?

The Loons have until Wednesday to extend contract offers to anybody who’s out of contract. They have until the Tuesday following that to exercise any contact options. Here’s a list of players that are eligible for free agency (five years of MLS service and at least 24 years old), or are listed as out of contract on (the admittedly imperfect source) Transfrmarkt:

Updates 12/1/2021: MNUFC announced its end-of-season roster moves. This list and post were updated to clarify that Jacori Hayes was not out of contract, that Ján Greguš had a team option instead of being out of contract, and that Noah Billingsley, Nabi Kibunguchy, Callum Montgomery, and DJ Taylor had team options.

Here’s where that leaves the various units of the squad:

Keeper: Tyler Miller reclaimed his starting spot this year and is the favorite to be between the pipes for the 2022 kickoff. St. Clair could be facing a crossroads in his career; he burst onto the scene at the end of 2020 when Miller got hurt, but took the fall for the Loons’ four-game season-opening losing streak. Zendejas has been the depth option all season.

Youngsters: Seventeen-year-old Fred Emmings is the hometown kid, but is he ready for more?

Defense: Boxall is 33, Bakaye Dibassy is 32, and right back Romain Métanire will be 32 early in the 2022 season. Even Kallman, who I forever imagine is 22 years old and Brian Kallman’s little brother, turned 31 this year. That’s kind of an old group! Even so, I am assuming that Boxall and Kallman will both have their options picked up, given their performances. (UPDATE, thanks to Dan Wade: Boxall signed a new contract and the MLSPA didn’t seem to know about it.)

Chase Gasper is the left back for now and the future, but the backup spots are in flux. D.J. Taylor started six times this year, but by the end of the season, utilityman Hassani Dotson was filling in as a fullback instead of Taylor (or Jukka Raitala).

Youngsters: Soon-to-be 24-year-old Nabi Kibungunchy started 13 times for USL Sacramento this season; 24-year-old Callum Montgomery made 12 starts for San Diego in the same league, playing left back and left center back. 2020 draft pick Noah Billingsley only made one start this year for Phoenix in the USL.

Midfield: Alonso is out of contract (and 36 years old). Ján Greguš is not going to be re-signed, at least not as a Designated Player. Jacori Hayes is out of contract, too. That leaves Trapp - who led the team in minutes, and who I assume will be back - and Dotson as potential candidates to man the midfield. Reinforcements are likely needed.

Youngsters: 21-year-old Joseph Rosales was impressive in limited time in the second half of the year.

Attack: The front four of Adrien Hunou, Franco Fragapane, Emanuel Reynoso, and Robin Lod seems set, but behind them is (sound of wind whistling through trees). Finlay is a free agent, leaving Niko Hansen as first in line to back up on the wings. It’s kind of hard to believe that Adi or Agudelo would return, except perhaps as deep depth options.

The big news up front is that the Loons are reportedly close to signing 21-year-old Brazilian standout Rafael Navarro. Navarro’s 14 goals led Botafogo this year, boosting them to the top of Serie B and back to the top flight in Brazil.

Youngsters: McMaster (22) made seven appearances as a sub on the wings for the Loons, earning a single assist - if he comes back, he could be in line for a larger role. Aziel Jackson, now 20, got some minutes at forward for third-division North Carolina this year; Patrick Weah, about to turn 18, played twice for the Loons and seven times for Sacramento.

Overall

Overall, the squad seems a little thin for next season. The team’s first-choice starting XI will be back, with the possible exception of Alonso, depending on whether he’s first-choice in your book. But as with most MLS squads, the first-choice eleven isn’t necessarily the problem - it’s the depth behind that first string that can cause issues.

Manager Adrian Heath, at least, was optimistic after the playoff loss. “Certainly this is the best group we’ve had since I’ve been here,” he said, though he also used the word “inconsistent” to describe his team across the season.

Heath described something less than a total rebuild as his offseason plan. “If we can add to [the team], which is going to be the objective in the offseason, to add one or two pieces with it, make us stronger in certain areas, then that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.

So what’s next for Minnesota United FC? At the moment, what’s next appears to be more of the same.