Minnesota United received confirmation of one of their worst fears on Friday, as tests revealed that star striker Pablo Campos has a torn ACL and MCL.

Campos was injured in United’s match against Pro Player Academy in the UK. At the time, SoccerCentric correspondent Paul Duncan reported, “The only downside to what ended up being a nice workout was an injury to Campos, who needed treatment after tangling legs with a defender and falling awkwardly.”

“An MRI has confirmed that Pablo has torn both his ACL and MCL and will require surgical treatment,” said United team physician, Dr. Corey Wulf of Twin Cities Orthopedics, in a press release.

The 31-year-old Brazilian scored 13 goals for United last year, good for second in the NASL. Minnesota had been counting on him to continue in his role as the most effective part of a sometimes-struggling attack.

The injury means that more pressure will likely fall on the shoulders of off-season signing Christian Ramirez. The former NAIA All-American scored eight times in 23 appearances for Charlotte in the third-division USL Pro last year. United may also return to the market for another striker – perhaps immediately, given that Ramirez and Nate Polak are the only real forwards on the Minnesota roster.

Minnesota sports fans are starting to get used to knee injuries of this type. Vikings running back Adrian Peterson tore both his ACL and MCL in December 2011, and while Peterson famously returned for the beginning of the 2012 season and earned an MVP award, it would appear that recovery times of a year or more are far more common for other athletes. For example, superstar Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose had surgery in May 2012, and couldn’t return until the beginning of the 2013 season, more than a year later.

That said, United’s press release claims that Campos may be able to return for the fall season, so perhaps only time can tell on this injury.

NOTE: This appeared at SoccerCentric.

This week’s podcast had no point. Eventually I ended up yelling at Clarence about college hockey and newspapers. I can’t say it was my finest hour.

United posted photos of the team sheets on Twitter for the Matlock Town and Derby County games on their UK trip, and though the lineup shifted dramatically between the two matches, the formation did not. In both games, Minnesota deployed a 4-2-3-1, with one central striker and two defensive midfielders.

It’s a formation that – with its five midfielders – plays to Minnesota’s numerical strength. United have a large pile of midfielders, especially defensive midfielders; the team probably has five or six players who could ably play in front of the back four and work to stop the other team’s attacking midfield. Juliano Vicentini, Aaron Pitchkolan, and Kentaro Takada all got starts there on this trip, but a number of other players – Michael Reed, Floyd Franks, etc. – could also fill that role.

Up front, the formation also fits the personnel, as well. The team added Christian Ramirez in the off-season, who looks like he may play a large role for United, but is otherwise without another proven striker to complement Pablo Campos up front. The team struggled last year to find that “second” striker, as second-half signing Mike Ambersley struggled mightily; perhaps playing Campos or Ramirez centrally will be the solution.

Another benefit of the formation is that the two outside midfielders aren’t restricted to playing strictly as “wingers,” like they traditionally do in a 4-4-2. United has four candidates for the outside-midfield role – Miguel Ibarra, Jamie Watson, Omar Daley and Simone Bracalello, and all four play best when they have the freedom to both run the wing and cut inside.

That said, the worry with those outside midfielders is whether they can also track back and play defense, or whether they’ll leave the two defensive midfielders alone to try to cover the entire width of the field defensively. United fan Matt Kauko posted a few other links about the 4-2-3-1 on his blog, and they make for interesting reading – especially the ones that cover how speed on the wings can utterly defeat the formation. (The one saving grace is that speed is one of the hardest qualities to come by in the NASL.)

United also has to worry about finding the attacking central midfielder to make this formation work. Without some creativity from that position, and some ability going forward, the defense tends to be able to collapse on the single striker. The central midfielder might be more instrumental than any other player in creating space for the other attackers – but who can fill that spot for Minnesota?

Of course, this discussion could be entirely moot come April 12, when United could come out in an uber-traditional 4-4-2. And head coach Manny Lagos has always put more emphasis on movement, passing and hard work than he has on how players line up. So perhaps the discussion of formations is entirely academic.

Other friendlies – but unconfirmed

A few eagle-eyed fans have spotted details of potential home preseason friendlies. Creighton University lists a friendly against United this Sunday, March 23, while the University of Nebraska-Omaha has a game listed for Saturday, April 5. Both are scheduled at the National Sports Center – though with the week’s weather forecast, the March 23 game in particular appears to be extremely unlikely to take place, at least outside.

Last year, United played a preseason scrimmage at Augsburg in their “soccer dome,” against Bridges FC; with the matches still unconfirmed, of course, there is also no word on whether they might be moved indoors, to Augsburg’s facility or anywhere else.

NOTE: This appeared at SoccerCentric.

NOTE: This appeared first at RandBall.

Every so often, we get a weekend that lines up perfectly for you to spend the entire thing inside, watching sports. This is one of them. Let me take you through it, in the form of a question for every event.

3:30pm: Toronto at Seattle, NBCSN. The MLS game of the week – featuring American stars like Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey – is just the culmination of a day’s worth of soccer on NBC Sports Network, following up three Premier League games, beginning at 7:40 am (Man City-Hull, then Sunderland-Crystal Palace, then Chelsea-Aston Villa). The thing is, there’s just an enormous number of choices all day today – high school basketball championships, college basketball conference championships, even the NHL (Pittsburgh-Philadelphia at noon on the NHL network, for example). Pick anything – but why not pick some soccer?

7pm: Wild vs. Columbus, FSN. It’s the playoff race, and every game is absurdly important, doubly so for home games against the Blue Jackets. Can the Wild prove that their three-game swoon last week is a thing of the past – and close their grip on a playoff berth?

8pm: Hopkins vs. Lakeville North, Channel 45. There are a few prep teams – St. Thomas Academy in hockey and De La Salle in football spring immediately to mind – that the public seems to have a certain emnity for. Hopkins hoops is certainly on that list, as well. But will the Royals win state yet again?

1am tonight: Australian Grand Prix, NBCSN. It’s the first race of the Formula One season, and while Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing have won four straight titles, an entirely new engine and set of regulations have them scrambling to actually complete laps in testing so far in 2014. Can Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes vault ahead of them – or can Ferrari return to dominance with Fernando Alonso and the entertaingly-grumpy Kimi Raikonnen on board?

8:25am Sunday: Manchester United vs. Liverpool, NBCSN. United are out of the running for everything this year, but can still play spoiler for teams like Liverpool who are still in the race. Can ManU disrupt their old rivals?

10:55am Sunday: Tottenham vs. Arsenal, NBCSN. Arsenal fight to stay in the title race, Tottenham fight to stay in touch for a possible Champions League berth. Which of the bitter North London rivals will come out of White Hart Lane happy?

12pm Sunday: Twins vs. Miami, FSN. Go ahead, watch baseball. Maybe plan out your garden for the year. Think about changing the spark plugs in the mower. And with the Twins looking terrible, does it really matter who is in the lineup?

2:30pm Sunday: Big Ten basketball championship, CBS. I like to hope that this game goes into quintuple overtime, thereby ruining the tournament selection show that comes right after the game. Would Jim Delaney run onto the court and declare the game a tie, in order to appease the all-controlling TV networks?

5pm Sunday: NCAA Tournament Selection Show. One question: will the Gophers be in? (Okay, it’s unlikely. But you never know.)

What to read this weekend

Still got time? Read this in-depth study of the ball for this summer’s World Cup, which has already been scientifically proven to knuckle less than previous editions. (It’s more interesting than it sounds. Trust me.)

More? How about Eno Sarris, describing what it’s like to go inside major-league clubhouses as a baseball stats nerd?

Minnesota United took a big step forward on Thursday on the media front, announcing that all of the team’s 2014 home games would be televised live on KSTC Channel 45.

United’s final two home games of 2013 were also broadcast – the first on Fox Sports Net, the second on 45 – but before that, you have to go back to 2000 or 2001 to find a Minnesota pro soccer broadcast on wide-availability cable. The team has had games broadcast online for several years, and on Blaine public access TV before that, but has never before had any sort of deal that approaches this.

“Broadcasting all of our home games in primetime will help us reach a huge mainstream audience and is a major stamp of legitimacy for our team,” said team president Nick Rogers, in a press release. “We originally expected to be on TV in a few years, but it is a signal of our success that we have reached this milestone so quickly. With sports fans of all stripes tuning in to World Cup soccer on TV this summer, this partnership couldn’t come at a better time.”

Earlier this year, the NASL announced that it would charge fans for access to online broadcasts, ending several years that the games were freely available online. United’s deal with KSTC means that their games – at home, at least – will still be available for fans that might not be able to make it to Blaine.

United also announced that all of the matches would be televised at 7pm, the start time that has traditionally shown the best attendance. It’s a victory for a club that needs to attract fans to the stadium as well as to the broadcast, in that the team does not have to change start times to accomodate TV.

Play-by-play announcer Chris Lidholm confirmed, via Twitter, that he will return to call United’s games in 2014.

NOTE: This post also appeared at SoccerCentric.

We did eventually talk about Gopher basketball on this week’s podcast, with Star Tribune Gopher hoops beat writer Amelia Rayno, but first we talked about Bigfoot and Hanson for about an hour. Listen, won’t you?

*NOTE: This appeared at RandBall. *

Game of the Week: Wild at Stars, 7:30pm today, FSN

It’s the first game of the new-look Wild. Matt Moulson will be on the ice for Minnesota, and can start proving himself worthy of what his new team gave up for him. Until then, though, we have time to argue about the trade – and for me to tell you that the Wild gave up too much.

Torrey Mitchell, I don’t consider too much; he was a third-line forward that ended up struggling on the fourth line, and if nothing else, it was a mercy trade, a chance for Mitchell to start over fresh. His departure also gives the Wild their second-best benefit of the trade – a chance to take Mitchell’s $2.5 million salary for next year off the books.

Mitchell leaving is more or less a wash with Cody McCormick, the tough-guy forward who is likely to replace him at the bottom of the Wild lineup. But it’s the two draft picks – a second-rounder this year, a second-rounder in 2016 – that make me wonder if the Wild got the raw end of the deal.

If all goes very, very well, Moulson will score eight, perhaps nine goals in a Wild uniform. He is a free agent when the year is up, which – given the Wild’s position in the standings – it is likely to be after one round of the playoffs. Minnesota will likely have to play St. Louis or Chicago in the first round, and Moulson or no, they’ll be heavy underdogs to either.

Second-round draft picks aren’t exactly the crown jewels of the hockey kingdom, but neither are they worthless. The second round is where teams find second-line forwards and second-pairing defensemen, late-blooming goaltenders and future Selke Trophy winners. All draft picks carry the risk of being busts, of course, but the higher you go, the lower the chance.

So here’s the trade: two future top-nine forwards for nine goals and $2.5 million, and an ever-so-slightly-increased chance of not exiting this year’s playoffs immediately. That seems like a lot of future to give up for a little bit of present, which is the type of trade that Doug Risebrough always used to make — which is part of the reason that Chuck Fletcher has been frantically digging in the prospect ditch for his entire tenure as general manager.

In other words, I wish the Wild hadn’t made this trade. But I also hope that they’ll prove me wrong.

What else to watch this weekend

11:25am today: Chelsea vs. Tottenham (NBCSN). Chelsea need a win to stay atop the league; Tottenham need a win to revive their chances of finishing in the top four. It’s a game between a team with everything to lose, and one with everything to gain; now, can Tottenham actually score a goal, for once?

Noon today / 7pm today: State hockey championships (Channel 45). There’s a short list of events that rise to the level of “cultural touchstone,” that are the kind of event that you can ask others about, whether you know they’re a hockey fan or even a sports fan. This is one of them. I recommend that you watch.

12:05 Sunday: Twins vs. Phillies (FSN). I’m going to keep putting baseball on the watch list until it warms up around here. Just one 65-degree day. That’s all.

What to read this weekend

Kyle Wagner of Deadspin went to the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, and came away with the truth about the current state of sports analytics: there’s great, useful data out there. But people are keeping it to themselves.

We talk Wild trade deadline and make some Twins predictions in this week’s podcast. Plus: Stu runs through his top Little-Known Former Science Museum Exhibits, which is good times for all.

Game of the Week: Twins vs. Boston, 12:05pm today (FSN)

That’s right: today, you can sit around in your underpants and watch baseball. I give you permission to delude yourself and pretend that this is a sign of spring; in reality, we know that spring won’t be here until mid-May this year, and that the first televised baseball game of the year holds no special significance, even on the first day of March.

Still, though: try. You can go back to accecpting the icy realities and/or watching hockey later tonight. For now, watch some baseball, and enjoy yourself.

What else to watch

11:25am today: Liverpool at Southampton (NBCSN). Liverpool tries to keep the momentum going against the Saints, who nobody wants to play right now. This game is doubly perfect if you’re waiting for baseball to start, because you can get into it, then start flipping back to it between innings.

5pm today: Gopher hoops at Michigan (BTN) The Wolverines lead the conference; the Gophers may be just one win away from an NCAA tournament berth. Which Minnesota team will show up? The fun-and-gun team that beat Iowa… or the unmitigated disaster that lost to Illinois?

7pm today: Penguins at Blackhawks (NBC). I think the NBC’s expanded slate of outdoor games is one of the dumbest things the league has ever done. (The message: “Hey, remember that thing you thought was special? It’s not! Quit enjoying stuff, rube!”) Nevertheless, this game is at Soldier Field; it could be kind of fun to watch. Give it a chance.

3pm Sunday: Senators at Canucks (NBCSN). I’m not sure what’s more notable about this game: that it’s being played at BC Place, or that it’s televised in the United States despite not involving New York, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, or Washington.

We talked about everything we could think of on the podcast this week. It started with the Wolves, touched on the Wild, and at one point veered off to ranting about the Big Ten Network and discussing which championship we most wanted to see before we die. Have a listen, I hope.