Thursday, I wrote up a few notes from United’s first match of the preseason. Included is a note on a new triallist, a new signing (of an old player), an injury (to a new player), and some notes on the game itself. Read all about them at SoccerCentric.

This week at Twinkie Town, I go back to the subject on which I’m the strongest: parenting advice.

Well, I’m sorry. There was just no way I could let the announcement that Joe Mauer is having twins pass without comment.

NOTE: This appeared first on startribune.com.

Minnesota’s pro soccer team will again have a new look in 2013, as the team – known previously as the Minnesota Thunder, the NSC Minnesota Stars, and the Minnesota Stars FC – is re-branding itself as Minnesota United FC. The name, logo, and jersey change will allow new owner Bill McGuire to stamp a new identity on his team, thus completing an offseason that has seen great changes for the formerly league-owned club.

The club unveiled the team’s new logo and jerseys at a press conference at Midtown Global Market this morning, in front of a crowd that included both Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak **and St. Paul mayor **Chris Coleman, both of whom spoke at the unveiling along with North American Soccer League commissioner Bill Peterson. Rybak, who was part of the presentation ceremonies at the beginning of the 2012 season, vowed to reprise last year’s dive into the crowd at this year’s season opener. Fans will want to be on the lookout for flying mayors.

The new logo, as you can see, includes a loon taking flight over, with a single star representing the club’s league championship in 2011. In terms of symbolism, it’s been suggested that the sky blue portion of the crest is representative of the Mississippi River in between Minneapolis and St. Paul – the two towns that are “united” in the name. Also, note that the loon has eleven feathers, the number of players on a soccer team (assuming that forward Pablo Campos has not headbutted anyone and been sent off).

There had been some question of whether the team would keep its “Stars” moniker as an informal nickname for the club, but once the logo had been unveiled, there was no question that “Loons” would be the correct appellation. The press conference had hardly ended before the Dark Clouds were on stage, singing songs involving the word “Loons.” I talked to several fans, some of whom had their doubts prior to the announcement, but they all reacted positively to the change – a good sign for the team.

The team also introduced new jerseys, shown below:

Unfortunately, these jerseys will not be ready to go for the season opener, given that kickoff is just a month away. According to team jersey impresario Kevin Friedland, the team is likely to wear a simplified version for the spring season, and introduce the full version for the fall season. In the spring, the team will wear plain black and plain white, possibly with sky-blue socks, and the team crest (sans the wordmark you see in the above logo) in the same area.

Regarding the team name, club president Nick Rogers said that while there was some discussion about other versions of the name, Minnesota United FC was the clear winner in his mind. And while some have criticized the name as being generic, he believes that’s both fair – but also somewhat irrelevant.

“You’d talk to people about the Stars, and they’d say, ‘Sure, that’s the hockey team, they left a long time ago,’” said Rogers. “I think the name had a lot of connection to hockey. So I think it’s a fair criticism to say it’s kind of generic, but it’s also fair to say that ‘Stars’ was itself kind of generic. United is a name that unequivocally says soccer. And there’s only one other pro soccer team in the country with United in their name [DC United]. So we felt good about it.”

“One of the things that made us feel comfortable about changing the name of the team was the name of the Dark Clouds, which really only made sense was the team was called the Thunder. We figured out that people here just love soccer. ”

Rogers also says he’s not worried about trying to publicize the name, the fourth for pro soccer in the state in five years. “The research we’ve seen is that most people aren’t aware the Stars exist at all. The people that do know it’s there are going to be paying attention to us anyway, and the people that don’t know we’re here are going to be hearing about it for the first time, so I’m not too concerned about it.”

Everything’s new for United this year – or for the Loons, or for MinU, as @collinsolberg suggested on Twitter. Now all that’s left is to get the team on the field.

Note: As always, this appeared first at RandBall, your home for, um, stuff.

Don’t worry, everyone – Seattle is doing fine.

Like all of you, I’m sure, I was pretty worried about Seattle. It’s midwinter – well, it’s spring here in western Washington, but you know what I mean – and Seattle has no NHL team and lost its NBA team, and I was concerned that everywhere I went, fans would be wearing black armbands and mourning the lack of professional sporting events. I thought business owners would be standing on street corners with armfuls of cash, money they wanted to spend on suites and club seats that now, sadly, would be orphaned. And the newspaper, I thought, wouldn’t be even able to scrape together a section between B and D – if they were lucky, a page of faraway box scores, two pages of classifieds, and “Garfield.” A rainy Omaha, basically – I thought it’d be a gray, drizzly Omaha.

Much to my surprise, though, Seattle – similar as it is to the Twin Cities – seems to be doing fine. The newspaper is running excellent coverage of University of Washington sports, and of the state high school basketball tournament, and of the Mariners at spring training. Fans are genuinely excited about the Seattle Sounders, whose sold-out season opener is tonight. Heck, just a couple of years after losing an NBA team, the news is filled with stories about the Sacramento Kings, who seem quite likely to move here for next season.

It’s almost like we shouldn’t be that concerned, next time one of our Minnesota teams threatens to uproot itself and move to a new town. After all, it’s not like we’re hurting for other options; like Seattle, we have a number of other teams, both professional and college, to occupy our time. And just like Seattle – and us, come to think of it, in the case of both the NBA and NHL – when one team leaves, there’s always another that might come back around.

*On with the links:

*Three days of watching baseball with Bill Murray? I’m sold.

*Steve Adams at Twinkie Town looks at the Twins who are candidates for the Opening Day roster because they’re out of options.

*Chuck Culpepper at Sports on Earth reviews the career of the fifth-longest-tenured manager in pro sports – your favorite and mine, Ron Gardenhire.

*And finally: You remember Michael Beasley, don’t you? Ever wondered what your face looked like when he was on the floor? Suns coach Lindsey Hunter knows exactly what you went through.

NOTE: this appeared first at SoccerCentric.

NOTE: this appeared first at SoccerCentric.

It’s probably worth reviewing the current state of the Stars roster, just to lay the groundwork for the season to come. We’ve already covered the players who are trying out – let’s look at the players who are under contract, and likely to make up the starting eleven.

GOALKEEPER: One of the more intriguing battles of camp will be between Daryl Sattler and Matt Van Oekel for the starting role between the posts. Both Sattler and Van Oekel had very good seasons last year, Sattler for the San Antonio Scorpions and Van Oekel for the Stars, and it’ll be interesting to see how things shake out. The third keeper on the roster, Mitch Hildebrant, isn’t a slouch, either, but it would be surprising to see him surpass both more-experienced keepers to become the starter – at least by opening day.

DEFENDER: The back four is the area in which the Stars have seen the least turnover. Fullbacks Brian Kallman and Justin Davis return, as well as center backs Connor Tobin and Cristiano Dias. Tobin emerged down the stretch as one of the team’s two first-string central defenders, while Dias – who was the one who made way for Tobin down the stretch – will be looking to solidify his spot. Kyle Altman, who was part of the NASL Best XI last year in central defense, is a free agent. Altman is currently trying out with the Portland Timbers in Major League Soccer, and should he not catch on there, will have to make a choice between soccer or medical school.

As for players who are actually on the roster, new signing Aaron Pitchkolan is capable of playing in defense or as a defensive midfielder, and player/assistant coach Kevin Friedland could also be in the mix for regular minutes in the back line.

MIDFIELD: The team lost holding midfielder Neil Hlavaty to Edmonton, but the signings of Pitchkolan and Bryan Arguez should cover easily for that loss. Arguez and Pitchkolan, in fact, may be the front-runners for the central midfield spots, with Kentaro Takada returning to back them up. The central midfielders, whoever they might be, are one of the keys for the Stars – especially in the spring season, as the two will need to jell quickly to get Minnesota’s offense moving forward.

Out wide, speedy winger Miguel Ibarra returns, potentially to resume his role of “guy who spends the entire ninety minutes sprinting up and down the right wing, causing havoc.” Ibarra has the speed, but needs to work on both his crossing and his finishing to be the threat he’s capable of becoming. On the other side of the field, loan signing Jamie Watson has returned to Orlando City in the USL Pro league, and Lucas Rodriguez is a free agent, thus leaving a bit of a hole in the lineup. Simone Bracalello, though a forward on the roster, could also play on the wing.

FORWARD: The team’s biggest question at the beginning of the offseason has now become one of its most settled positions. New signings Pablo Campos and Etienne Barbara will resume the partnership that brought the pair 32 goals combined in Carolina in 2011. Bracalello will also be in the mix as a backup, as well as Nate Polak, a youngster from Hastings College who signed midseason last year and who is back in 2013.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

Monday at Twinkie Town, we turned to our fictional creation of the Twinhua News Agency to get our spring training news update.

It sparked the yearly discussion of whether we at Twinkie Town are doing anything worthwhile or if our stupid jokes are pointless, and that discussion is always fun.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.