Here’s two more weeks’ worth of posts.

Star Tribune - Soccer Insider

• January 23: MLS insiders can’t stop talking about Jürgen Klinsmann, and the reason is revealing.
• January 30: I talked to Minnesota native, and Montreal and US U-23 fullback, Eric Miller, who is in USMNT camp for the first time - but still looking forward to March.

Northern Pitch

• January 19: Minnesota United fans are going to stand anyway. The team’s new stadium design might as well make it safer - which would allow the team to pack more fans in, too.
• January 29: Back in the day, when I wrote for Twinkie Town, I used to take Fridays to do stupid joke posts. I may start doing the same at Northern Pitch. One of my first: National Sports Center executive Barclay Kruse announces “Barclay’s Premier League”

The Sportive

• #143: We weren’t too happy but tried to be positive. (We failed.)
• #144: I ranted for five consecutive minutes about a man who hasn’t coached Gopher football for almost a decade. All I can tell you is, when it was over, Brandon said, “I need a cigarette.”

So, I went awhile without an update. And made a technology change to the blog, about which more anon. That said, this has always been, as much as anything, a record of things I’ve written, so allow me a long list of posts:

Star Tribune Soccer Insider

• January 16: NASL vision needs professionalism and stability to compete with MLS
• January 9: Carl Craig gets set for the MLS Combine
• December 19: Abby Wambach isn’t easily replaced
• December 12: Why is Chelsea so bad?
• December 5: Columbus vs Portland is new vs. old in MLS Cup
• November 28: Leicester City surprises atop Premier League
• November 14: Stanford is holding Jordan Morris back
• November 7: Previewing Ottawa-Minnesota in the NASL playoffs
• October 31: Young players a good reason to watch MLS playoffs
• October 24: United’s move to MLS is a complex issue
• October 17: On Jürgen Klinsmann and the U.S. National Team
• October 10: USA-Mexico is the end of an era
• October 3: Rivalries are better with history, not geography
• September 26: It’s time for instant replay in soccer
• September 19: Loons seek to - finally - beat the Cosmos

Northern Pitch

• January 3: Previewing MLS’s Conference Alignment, post-Expansion I also appeared on episode 4 of the Soccer Bites podcast to talk about this.
• December 23: Happy Festivus! And now, the airing of grievances
• December 14: Jackson Yueill is a potential MLS target
• November 25: Local friend running out of ways to tell you he doesn’t like soccer
• November 17: How the end of the MLS expansion draft could benefit Minnesota
• November 3: United training notes (I actually covered something!)

The Sportive

I won’t actually list all of these out, but just link you to the podcast page. Suffice it to say that we’ve been keeping up with what’s going on.

Bringing this site back to life is going to be fun.

Here’s quite a lot of links to things I wrote or did over the past three weeks:

• August 23: Made it over to Elizabeth Lyle Robbie to cover Gopher soccer’s 0-0 draw with Kansas.
• August 27: Sportive Episode 120 was just a nice, normal episode. Kind of fun!
• August 27: I wrote a satirical post at Northern Pitch about the lack of news on the Minnesota United stadium. People thought it was great; I also got some insider blowback for it.
• August 28: Your soccer weekend. I’d like to think these preview posts live on beyond the weekend.
• August 29: Soccer Insider looks at New York City FC, where money can’t buy anything but failure.
• September 1: Sportive Episode 121 sees my brother Dave join us for Gopher football talk.
• September 2: I covered Minnesota United’s 1-0 win over Indy for the Star Tribune.
• September 5: Soccer Insider: When Minnesota United are gone from NASL, who will challenge the Cosmos?
• September 11: Sportive Episode 122 covers everything but the Vikings; recorded the same night, Sportive Episode 123 is our Vikings season preview.
• September 11: Your soccer weekend has your schedule lined up pretty good.
• September 12: Soccer Insider studies the hardest thing about the Champions League – playing well in both Europe and domestically.

Here’s everything I worked on this week:

• August 19: We got recognized at Legends while recording this week’s podcast, with special guest Liz Welle, and also got stared at by half of the patrons.
• August 21: Got some good feedback on my extended weekend soccer schedule at Northern Pitch. If nothing else, I wrote late at night and then laughed at myself twice while re-reading it the next morning.
• **August 22: **Soccer Insider covers Gopher soccer, which kicked off their regular season last night with a 3-0 win. They need more goals, and are leaning on the depth of some new freshman to get them. Plus: Chelsea’s early panic, USWNT beatdowns vs. the NWSL, Miguel Ibarra, and a (much shorter) weekend watch guide.

Free band name idea: pic.twitter.com/Z1UCxujNGa

— Stacey Burns (@WentRogue) August 15, 2015

It took one game to fall in love with the Bundesliga, and specifically with the nuttiness of Bayer Leverkeusen. With five minutes left in a game they’d eventually win 2-1, most teams would think defensively. Not Leverkeusen, who had eight players in the opposition penalty area, trying to score a third, and allowing Hoffenheim a chance going the other way. That’s the kind of hell-for-leather, poorly-thought-out strategy that we appreciate!

Here are links to an awful lot of things I’ve written or said over the past couple of weeks.

• July 27: Following the Gold Cup, I wrote at Northern Pitch about the curiously unjudgeable Jürgen Klinsmann.
• July 29: Patrick Donnelly joined the Sportive at Town Hall Brewery to talk Twins, and Jürgy.
• July 29: At Northern Pitch, I look at the birth of MLS, and how a bunch of inexperienced executives and owners did everything wrong and saw everything just work out fine.
• August 1: Three players are leading the charge for Minnesota United, and I wrote about them for Soccer Insider. Plus: notes, and watch guide.
• August 5: The podcast spent a heck of a lot more time on Prince vs. Michael Jackson than we did on sports, to be honest.
• August 9: A Soccer Insider Premier League preview – looking mostly at the exciting teams just below the top. The notes include my semi-insane league predictions; the watch guide includes two English games.
• August 12: Eric Durkee joined the podcast to talk about farting on people and soccer, though not necessarily at the same time.
• August 15: Soccer Insider covers the Bundesliga, which kicked off a week after the Premiership – and on broadly-available American TV for the first time in awhile.

Here’s everything I did this week:

• This week in MLS, I predict the MLS playoffs at Northern Pitch.
• Soccer Insider is looking at Jürgen Klinsmann after the latest step back for his USA team.
• The notes from this week’s column got CONCACAF’d.
• Plus: what to watch! And an insult to Mexico!

Life goal: get job where the first thing I do every day when I get there is read about four or five newspapers.

— Jon Marthaler (@jmarthaler) July 16, 2015

Until that happy day, here’s everything I worked on this week:

• This week’s podcast was kind of fun except when I was getting mocked about soccer.
• I wrote a post about MLS Week 20 at Northern Pitch, except I ran out of time.
• This week’s Soccer Insider can’t understand why politicians love other sports but hate soccer. Plus there’s Yago! notes, and what to watch.

I was out for the last four days for the 2015 edition of the Great Baseball Road Trip – my third, the 16th overall. We went to six games at five parks in four days, in the Chicago area, South Bend, and Toledo. I lobbied hard to replace the Toledo trip with a Chicago Fire-Seattle Sounders game, but was overruled.

Because of the road trip, I was a little short on soccer content for the week. Here, then, is what I did last week:

• July 8: Episode 113 of the podcast is all about Australian Rules Football. Really.
• July 11: Soccer Insider looks at Minnesota United’s box-office success – and their new struggle to turn ticket buyers into fans. The notes focused on Mexico’s coaching situation, the NWSL, the Andrea Pirlo signing for New York City FC, and “Atlanta United FC.” The watch guide was, frankly, sparse; July is a tough month.

Congratulations! Our ladies are the champs! @FIFAWWC FIFA Women’s World Cup Champions 2015…

— Mr. T (@MrT) July 6, 2015

Here’s everything I wrote this week:

• June 30: Three thoughts from the USA’s 2-0 win over Germany, the greatest game the US women have ever played.
• July 4: Soccer Insider previews the USA-Japan World Cup final, while the notes look at the US Men’s National Team, Copa America, Minnesota United’s future signings, and the MLS schedule. Plus the (inaccurate) watch guide.
• July 5: Three thoughts from the World Cup final. It got a little long. It might have been more than three thoughts.

#USWNT system finally looking like a single DM. Brian connected to defenders; Lloyd connected to strikers. pic.twitter.com/nZ0rMeajDN

— Devin Pleuler (@devinpleuler) June 27, 2015

And that goes double for me.

Here’s everything I wrote this week:

• Tuesday: The USA women beat Colombia 2-0, and at Northern Pitch, I had three thoughts.
• Friday: With the Women’s World Cup reaching the quarterfinal stage – i.e., the point at which the games actually start to matter – I wrote a preview of what to watch for in the four quarterfinals for SoccerCentric.
• Saturday: Soccer Insider in the Star Tribune this week looks at Teal Bunbury, the standout Minnesota kid that somehow flies under the local media radar. (Seriously, he’s like the Tyus Jones of soccer. Why he’s barely been covered is beyond me.) Plus some short takes on Women’s World Cup ticket sales, Jonny Steele, Copa America, and the upcoming Gold Cup, and a weekend watch guide.
• Saturday: More thoughts, this time from USA-China, as the USA has now finished the warmup rounds.