This week at Soccer Insider, I looked a couple of steps forward in the evolution of MLS. When the league quits expanding, teams will start to move - and there are a few candidates that may end up being first on the list.

Given that it’s Super Bowl weekend, I wrote about playoffs in soccer - and whether they’re a good idea.

The United States should lead the world in women’s soccer - including having the best league in the world. U.S. Soccer, though, needs to make that a priority - not just line its pockets from the women’s national team.

This week at Soccer Insider, I looked back on the moment that transformed Miguel Ibarra’s whole career.

This week, I decided to write Soccer Insider about the two main supporters’ groups for Minnesota United FC - which have the same goal, but go about supporting the team in different ways.

My Soccer Insider weekly column at the Star Tribune has been going since summer 2015 - time for one-and-a-half Premier League seasons. 2015-16 was unprecedented and unexpected, but 2016-17 has been back to normal - and at the midpoint, that’s the topic of this week’s column.

Thanks to space issues, my column ran online only this week. P.J. Fleck, this is your fault.

This week on Soccer Insider, I looked back on the biggest stories of 2016, what with it being New Years Eve and all.

As most of the Northern Hemisphere takes a winter break - England, take a bow, you’re about the only ones that play on - I revisited the topic of the MLS schedule. Many people have called for the league to adopt a autumn-spring calendar, to match up with most of the rest of the world. As I wrote, that’s not the real problem with the MLS schedule - it’s midweek games that are missing.

Really, I guess this could be summed up as let teams pay for charter flights -> midweek games are less of a problem -> schedule more midweek games -> cut down on the playoff rounds while you’re at it -> now you can quit playing games during summer tournaments and international breaks. But I couldn’t submit a flow chart as a column.

Instant replay is coming to soccer - in MLS, starting next season. I think it’s a good thing, but only if it’s done right, which it hasn’t quite been in any other sport so far.

This week’s Soccer Insider is a preview of a few things to watch for in tonight’s MLS Cup Final.