Episode 27 of the Sportive was mostly about ranting. We also gave marriage advice. (As the sole bachelor on the podcast, I stayed away from giving advice in that segment.)

*NOTE: This also appeared at SoccerCentric. *

Tampa Bay’s game-tying goal last Saturday, scored from a corner with the last kick of the match, was a shock to the system – a dagger, right at the end of a game during which Minnesota United had defended exceptionally.

If anything, it was a microcosm of Minnesota’s problems – good defense undone by one moment of relaxation when defending a set piece. In each of United’s past five games, the first goal they’ve allowed to their opponents came from a set piece of some kind, including all three goals that Minnesota has allowed in their three fall-season games.

“Massive frustration,” said defender Connor Tobin. “They’re cheap goals.”

I asked head coach Manny Lagos and defender / assistant coach Kevin Friedland to walk me through the team’s process for working on free kicks. According to the coaching staff, the team assigns specific roles to each defender for corner kicks; some players are assigned to mark specific opponents, while others are assigned other roles – presumably manning a post, or manning another zone in the defensive area. (The coaches, understandably, didn’t specify all aspects of their defensive plan for public consumption.)

The day before a game, the team runs through their set piece scripts, both offensively and defensively, just to make sure everyone’s on the same page. “We typically try to predict which ones of their guys will be coming forward and which guys will attack,” said Friedland. “For instance last game, the guys that we had predicted actually didn’t come [forward] in the first half, so we made some adjustments.”

According to Friedland, the team’s made a few tweaks in that preparation for the fall, in terms of which players are assigned to which roles – something that’s already had an effect. “Despite the goals we’ve given up being off set pieces, it’s hard to say, but I think we’ve actually been better on set pieces than we were, even though we have given up the goals,” he said.

The problem over the past few games has not been the initial ball into the box. Though all three fall goals allowed by Minnesota have come on corner kicks, none of them has been headed directly in from the corner; instead it’s the second ball in, or the third ball in, that’s ending up in the back of the net.

“We’re still defensively not finishing off plays the right way,” said Lagos. “We tend to deal with the first danger and get complacent. We’ve really been trying to stress finishing plays out defensively until the danger’s cleared.”

Said Friedland, ” I think sometimes you just have to finish the play; the ball is actually not dead until it clears. I think a couple of times we have our marks, and then a second ball coming in, we get caught ball-watching or trying to anticipate a play or a counter-attack to go in favor of us, and it doesn’t work out that way and then you’re out of position.”

“In my opinion, it’s just mental things,” said Tobin. “You look at it, all three of them aren’t the initial ball being served in, it’s all second or third balls. For me, that’s not a physical thing, that’s a mental thing. A lot’s been made of the defenders, but I think that it’s entire group mentality, everyone on the pitch, [needs to] get switched on.”

Ultimately, then, United’s issues are less about preparation, and more about concentration. For center back Aaron Pitchkolan, defending set pieces really shouldn’t be that hard. “Positioning-wise, all corner kicks are the same; they come from the same spots. It’s just knowing where we’re all supposed to be, and once the ball gets cleared out, knowing where our spots are supposed to be after that.”

For Tobin, Pitchkolan’s defensive partner, the team just needs to give a little more effort on the training pitch. “In my opinion, it’s in training, when we do set pieces, there has to be that urgency, has to be that hunger and realizing that we haven’t been good enough at it,” he said.

If the team didn’t have that sense of urgency before, they’ll have it on this week’s trip to Carolina. The RailHawks ended Minnesota’s spring-season chances earlier this year with two late goals to win the game – both of which came from corner kicks.

The Twins have made much over the years of doing things the Twins Way, which has mostly boiled down to “strikeouts bad, ground balls good.” Over at Twinkie Town, I wrote out the entire thing, mostly in the voice of former manager Tom Kelly, who seems like fun.

NOTE: This appeared at SoccerCentric.

Minnesota United heads back to Carolina this week, to revisit the scene of what was eventually understood to be the end of their spring-season title hopes. Up 2-1 with barely eight minutes to play, Minnesota allowed a pair of Brian Shriver goals in the span of two minutes, and lost 3-2. United didn’t recover for the rest of the spring, and only now is beginning to climb out of the hole they found themselves in that day.

Carolina, on the other hand, was in first place after that game, a place they retained until the spring’s final weekend, when a 2-0 loss at San Antonio allowed Atlanta to snatch the title. The RailHawks bounced back, as they always seem to do, and after three games in the fall season, they’re in first place in the league – mostly on the strength of two home wins, which is not a surprise. The RailHawks are undefeated at WakeMed Soccer Park this year, with ten wins in eleven games in all competitions; it’s only their road form that kept them from winning the spring title.

To get a little more insight into the RailHawks, I talked to Neil Morris, who covers the team for Indy Week (and who recently wrote this excellent article on the location-less Soccer Hall of Fame that you really should read). The scouting information below all came from him.

Standout: Brian Shriver

Though Shriver’s technically a midfielder, he’s played at forward this year. He scored five goals last year, but back and knee problems slowed him down as the year progressed. This year, he’s finally completely healthy, and has responded by banging in eleven goals to lead the NASL.

Said Morris, “Last year, he was called upon to play a lot of right and left wing. This year, Carolina has a number of players who can fill the wing position for the team and create opportunities. Shriver’s been able to station himself in the middle and up top in more of a forward position, so he’s more in a position to score goals.”

Strength: Attacking midfield

Carolina deploys a number of different players in midfield – last week against New York, it was Ty Shipalane, Nick Millington, Austin da Luz, and Brenier Ortiz. (Enzo Martinez and Cesar Elizondo have also seen quite a lot of time.) It’s a fast, creative group, one that’s learned to use the field at Carolina – one of the longest and widest in the league – to its advantage. “I think that’s their biggest strength is to be able to get forward in attack and move the ball and create opportunities,” said Morris.

da Luz was sent off last week, and will miss this game due to suspension – but Carolina has plenty of choices to replace him from that group of six.

(It’s also worth noting that Morris reported that Bryan Arguez, who the RailHawks acquired from United over the summer break, has been released by mutual consent after starting one game for Carolina.)

Weakness: Finishing chances up front

Last year, defense was Carolina’s weakness. The RailHawks allowed 46 goals in 28 matches, tied for worst in the league, but the signing of center back Paul Hamilton from Edmonton seems to have helped shore things up at the back for Carolina. Said Morris, “When all their defenders are healthy, they’ve got a pretty good back line.”

It sounds odd, coming from a team that’s had 11 goals from one player, but the thing this year that frustrates the RailHawks fans is the team’s inability to finish the scoring chances generated by the attacking midfielders. “Their conversion rate in front of goal has been sorry,” said Morris.

Carolina has tried a number of different partnerships up front, with Shriver being the mainstay. Zach Schilawski started most of the spring season, then gave way for two games at the beginning of the fall to Brian Ackley. The two, however, have scored just three goals – one of them Ackley’s conversion from the penalty spot last week. Even now, Carolina’s second-leading scorer in 2013 is Floyd Franks, who these days is part of Minnesota’s midfield.

Nicholas Addlery, who scored 48 goals for now-defunct Puerto Rico over four seasons, could be the forward Carolina’s looking for. Unfortunately for the RailHawks, he’s been beset by injuries, and hasn’t played a minute this season- though he was on the bench and available Saturday. Morris, however, isn’t too convinced he’s the solution. ” I think there’s a lot that’s being put on his shoulders, and I’m not sure that a 31-year-old coming off a month-long knee injury can be expected to help,” he said.

Matchup to watch: Carolina’s attackers vs. Minnesota’s defensive midfield

Minnesota has been deploying midfielders Calum Mallace and Sinisa Ubiparipovic as part of almost a triangle in cnetral midfield, with Ubiparipovic at the front and Mallace and another midfielder – Michael Reed last week – at the back. If they come out in a similar 4-2-1-3 this week, it’ll be up to Mallace and Reed to blunt the force of the Carolina midfield before it reaches the United back line.

Note: This appeared at SoccerCentric.

The exception was over at Arsenal. The Gunners scored six minutes in to lead Aston Villa 1-0, but everything collapsed from there; Christian Benteke scored twice from the penalty spot, Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny was sent off, and Villa defender Antonio Luna added a third to give the away team a 3-1 win.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has famously built successful teams on the cheap; since taking over in North London in 1996, he’s won four league titles and four FA Cups, all while spending very little to acquire players. He’s actually been a net saver in the transfer market during his stint – he’s brought money into the club by selling players for more than he’s spent, in sharp contrast to the spendthrifts at Manchester United and the oil-soaked profligates at Chelsea and Manchester City.

All of this is well and good, except that Arsenal hasn’t won a single thing since 2005. Wenger promised to spend money in the transfer market over the summer to improve a team that once again squeaked into fourth place last season, but so far this year, he’s put on one of his all-time miserly showings, spending exactly $0 and bringing in one player while letting an astonishing 22 (!) players leave.

After his team’s loss to Aston Villa, he sounded increasingly unhinged, railing at reporters, “You got what you wanted, you should be happy… Before the start the season that was all you write in the papers so what do you expect?” Sure, it’s early, but at the moment Wenger appears to have one of the richest clubs in the world headed for a rather confusing mediocrity.

Sure, this was a meaningless friendly, and neither the Americans nor Bosnia-Herzegovina had a full squad. Still, it’s an impressive win, on the road, over a team currently ranked 13th in the world. And Altidore – who’s only 23, and is just starting his first season in England, with Sunderland – is on the verge of becoming the USA’s next big star.

*This also appeared at SoccerCentric. *

Here’s my game story for the paper, as well.

Minnesota United has had a couple of heartbreakers this year – Carolina at home, Tampa Bay at home, and especially Carolina away, when United threw away a 2-1 lead in the span of three minutes and lost 3-2.

This one, though. Tampa Bay stole a point with literally the last kick of the match, which you have to admit, isn’t something you see every day.

Manny Lagos was not, in any way, happy with the referee; he had some rather testy quotes about how the game ended that will be in the story for tomorrow’s paper (which isn’t online yet). It looked to be a pretty heartbroken group on the field postgame.

On the other hand,** Andres Arango**, who got the equalizer for Tampa Bay, couldn’t have been more thrilled. His wife’s family is all from Minnesota – he played here from 2008-2010 – so he had a bunch of family and friends at the game. During the first half he took an inadvertent elbow to the face, which drew blood and left him with an angry welt under his eye, but he was all smiles after rescuing a draw. “We were battling, battling, we had a couple of chances, we weren’t really getting obvious chances but we were pushing forward,” he said. “To go home with a point, we’re still undefeated this season. It’s huge.”

A new defensive partnership

One of the positives United can take from the game, and really the last two games, has been the play of Connor Tobin and Aaron Pitchkolan in the center of defense. Pitchkolan played mostly in midfield in the spring season, but he and Tobin looked very strong – especially against massive Tampa Bay striker Carl Cort, who looks like he always should have villagers with torches chasing him.

“I thought they had a great game,” said Lagos. “They worked hard and limited Tampa’s chances, and dealt with some really big boys who threw a lot of balls into the box, and I thought they did a great job of navigating those.”

United’s now allowed a goal in all three games in the fall season, but not one has come from open play; all three were from set pieces. Obviously, that’s been the team’s Achilles heel all season on defense, but they can take some consolation that they’ve mostly shut down three teams in a row – especially Tampa, which just two weeks ago put seven past San Antonio.

Not much heat in Barbara’s return

I wondered if Etienne Barbara would get a frosty reception from the fans of his former team, after he ripped the club on the way out. The boo-birds mostly stayed away, though, and he played the final 30 minutes of the match without making much of a dent.

The player he was traded for, Mike Ambersley, probably had more of an impact in a third of the time on the field. Ambersley had one scoring chance, which ended up going straight at Rowdies keeper Diego Restrepo, but he looked like a possible force. It’d be interesting to see what he and Pablo Campos could do with some extended time together; Ambersley seems like a natural complement to Campos, who is much more of a target forward.

Notes

• Kevin Venegas started at right back; no word on what kept Brian Kallman out of the game. I know Kallman trained Thursday in full, but perhaps he picked up an injury between then and the match.
• United tried a little something different, formation-wise. Simone Bracalello and Max Griffin played very far forward on the wings – true wingers, really. In the midfield, Calum Mallace and Michael Reed **sat back, behind **Sinisa Ubiparipovic – almost in a triangle formation. The whole thing meant that the outside backs didn’t get forward as much as they might usually do, leaving it mostly to Griffin and Bracalello (who kept switching sides) to do so.
• Mallace looked a little frustrated a couple of times; he made good counter-attacking runs, and had his hand up and was open for a cross-field pass, but United just wasn’t switching the field very well. If anything, they got a little narrow at times; some width would have done them good.
• I chatted with Daryl Sattler postgame; he had surgery to repair the torn labrum in his hip, and was hobbling around on crutches, unable to put any weight on his injured leg. He said he was pain-free, but was getting pretty tired of not being able to get around very well, which I can understand.

Fox Sports 1 officially launches today, replacing the Speed Channel in your cable or satellite lineup. The network has been heavily promoted in recent days, mostly as an alternative to the monolith that is ESPN – just as the NBC Sports Network was when it rebranded in January 2012.

Of course, neither NBCSN or FS1 will actually challenge ESPN; the folks in Bristol have an enormous head start. To truly catch ESPN, Fox Sports would have to eventually launch at least three more channels, make its website into one of the most-visited on the internet, an emerge as both an important broadcaster and an important source of journalism. This, frankly, seems unlikely from the network that inflicts both Tony Siragusa and Cleatus the FOX Sports Robot on a cowering American public.

This is, of course, not excusing ESPN; the network’s myriad faults are on display every day. And so this got me thinking: if I was going to design a sports channel, what would it look like? Here’s what I came up with:

• There would always be a game on. There must be some kind of sporting event going on, somewhere on the Earth, twenty-four hours a day; surely it’d be possible to be broadcasting something at all hours.
• All “shoulder” programming – you know the type: preview shows and magazine shows and non-highlight review shows – would be relegated to the internet.
• Highlights shows would be required to show nothing but highlights, preferably with the announcers and crowd noise from the original broadcast. Anyone attempting to offer pithy commentary would be tackled and dragged off, except in the case of blooper reels, which are always fun.
• Any show that is based on old sportswriters arguing will be recorded, not live, and the recording will be put in a can, sealed in a shipping container, and dropped into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean or an active volcano.

So there you go, Fox Sports 1. I know you’re not interested in following my advice, but hey, a guy can dream.

*On with the links:

*Deadspin has an expansive profile of Michael Bradley, who is not the most famous American soccer player, but may well be the best.

*Parker Hageman – have I mentioned before how much I like Parker’s writing? – looks at the mechanical changes at the plate that Brian Dozier made to turn around his season.

*I like to write, but when I read Charlie Pierce writing about Tiger Woods, it turns out instead of writing I am only mashing my fists into the keyboard.

*Education time! Chris Brown at Grantland learns you all about the new option football, which involves running a passing play and a running play at the same time. And while he’s at it, he also explains the concept of the “option route,” which basically boils down to the “just go down and get open” plays you used to call in the backyard.

*And finally: Let’s all just watch Jozy Altidore’s free-kick in Sarajevo a hundred more times.

NOTE: This appears at SoccerCentric as well.

Be sure to read [David La Vaque’s ** profile of United midfielder ]2Edi Buro** in today’s paper; it’s a great story about a remarkable player. His preview box, which focuses on Etienne Barbara’s ** return to Minnesota after ripping United coach **Manny Lagos, is also online.

In their own words

United saw five new arrivals over the summer break, and while Calum Mallace and Sinisa Ubiparipovic have played most of the first two games of the fall season, we’ve yet to see much from the other three. Midfielder Floyd Franks has made a couple of appearances as a late sub, and forward Mike Ambersley played the final ten minutes in Fort Lauderdale last week. Meanwhile, winger Omar Daley has yet to appear in an NASL game.

Franks and Ambersley are NASL veterans, so longtime fans of the league will know about them. But for those fans who don’t know much about them, an introduction – in the players’ own words.

Ambersley: “I see myself fitting in very nicely. They have Pablo [Campos] who’s a proven goalscorer, a big guy, a target forward, and in the past I’ve always played well with a big target forward who can hold the ball up and I can make runs in behind. It’s kind of a dual threat for defenses, they have to think about going up against Pablo and also thinking about a guy making a run in behind. Once I get a little more fit, I think I’ll be out there and creating havoc.”

Daley: “Hopefully I can bring a bit more pace to the team, a bit more creativity – and hopefully I will get a few goals.”

Franks: “[I’ll be playing] in the center [midfield] for sure. That’s my position. I see myself fitting there, and whether or not I’m in it every week, I’ll be here working hard and trying to earn that spot.”

There, indeed, you have it: a second forward, a speedy winger, and a midfield stalwart.

Injury news

For a team that was decimated by injuries in the spring, United is remarkably healthy. Both Brent Kallman and Kevin Friedland are listed as probable on the injury report this week; though neither is likely to start, there’s no doubt that their presence in training has been a bonus for the team.

It’s also worth mentioning that Ambersley, who missed much of the first half with a knee injury, says that he’s back at 100%, as well. “I got over that probably two months ago,” he said. “[Tampa Bay coach] Ricky [Hill] was easing me in towards the final stretch. I think I came off the bench in three games, got my fitness, and then started the last two and did fine. And then once I got fully fit, we had a month break; it’s not ideal. I was fit in the second preseason at Tampa, and then I find out I get traded, and it takes me a week to get my family down here. So while I’m running, I’m not playing for a full week, so that sets you back maybe two weeks. I’ve been practicing for a full week now, and I think I’m getting close to 90 minutes fit.”

Haircut news

Presented without further comment or emendation: Michael Reed’s new haircut.

Game details

• Opponent: Tampa Bay Rowdies (four points from two games in the fall, tied for 1st; fourth place in the spring)
• Time: 7:00pm
• Location: National Sports Center Stadium, Blaine
• Previous meetings: Tampa beat Minnesota 3-2, with Keith Savage scoring a 90th-minute winner for the Rowdies. A week later, the teams combined for five goals in the first 29 minutes, but United hung on for a 3-2 win.

It’s rare that The Sportive actually has someone interesting on the podcast, but this week, we did – documentary filmmaker Hunter Weeks.

This was one of my favorite episodes so far.