One of the great things about being on vacation in another country (especially when you’re in a place that speaks a different language), is that you can check out a lot of things that are going on in the world. For example, I haven’t seen any news about the American presidential election since Friday. So if Gary Johnson is now suddenly leading all the polls, I don’t know (if so, please don’t tell me).
On Sunday afternoon, I made an exception to that rule, and posted up in a Café Starbucks to watch the Edmonton-Minnesota game. After it was done, I packed away my computer and continued exploring Montréal. Let me tell you, it was so refreshing to do this. Instead of stewing in defeat and wasting my time in a cramped chain coffee shop, I rented a bike and gorged on poutine. And just like that, the cares of the world melted away.
So while I’m still in it, let me share some wisdom from this state of mind (the playwright David Ives would call it being in “a California”).
1. We’re all going to be fine
Yep, it sucked to lose on Sunday. But you know what? Sometimes you lose. Sometimes you come up short. Sometimes you’re not as good as you hope to be. That’s okay. There’s always hope for the future. On Wednesday, the Loons have a chance at redemption at home against Tampa Bay. And if they lose that, they’ll have another chance on Saturday. But before then, on Friday, Minnesota United FC is going to be officially joining MLS in 2017, along with Atlanta FC. This is really cool, really important, and something to be proud of.
There’s a beautiful stadium that’s going to be built and while all the work isn’t yet done, a lot of hard work has already been done, and it’s been done in good faith, and a lot of smart, clever people want this whole thing to succeed, so it probably will. When you look around and see teams who will almost certainly disband after this season, teams struggling to pay their players, teams struggling with horrible stadium deals, teams with noxious ownership, and so on, then you’ve gotta admit, we’ve been pretty fortunate in Minnesota.
2. The team isn’t perfect, but it’s still in a good position
There was a reasonable expectation that the Loons might be one of the league’s best teams, running away with the season trophy. That hasn’t happened, and looks increasingly unlikely to happen. But there’s a lot of soccer left to be played and Minnesota sit in the playoff positions, with a game in hand on their rivals.
Speaking of which, we’re going to have to get used to this. Minnesota have achieved 1.5 points per game, which is neither excellent nor terrible. In the league that the club is about to enter, that’s good enough for the lead in the eastern conference and fourth in the western conference. So in years when our MLS club is really doing well, it’s going to feel more or less the same as this, results wise. Let’s remember that now.
Oh, and MLS expansion teams almost always struggle, no matter what they do. So get ready to lose a lot and when it happens, know that it’s normal.
3. We’ve got some good players on this team
Flawed players, no doubt, but some good ones. I saw Lionel Messi fail to score from twelve yards out this summer, so you can’t tell me that goalkeepers aren’t allowed to throw the ball into their own net in a friendly, or undercook a back pass and feed the other team’s top scorer, or lose a mark, or miss an open shot. Single mistakes happen, and the fact that they do is not proof of anything.
I’m not saying is that our team is a finished product, or that we don’t need some retooling for MLS, or that player X or player Y are brilliant and should get automatic starting spots against Giovinco et. al. But I want to push back against the tunnel vision that says “because [player] made this mistake, he won’t hack it in MLS”. Zac MacMath, who everyone is now looking at as our potential MLS goalkeeper, once scored an own goal with his face and was chased out of Philly two years ago for being mistake-prone. Mike Grella once came to the NASL and was ordinary. He went on trial for NYCFC and they didn’t take him. He went on trial for the New York Red Bulls, Jesse Marsch snapped him up, and he’s made 61 appearances for an excellent team. In the right system, with the right partners, players can thrive.
4. Soccer is a random game and sometimes things don’t work out
And sometimes they do. And regardless of which way it goes, there’s always an element of luck to it. Trying hard isn’t always enough. Not trying hard enough is not always the answer. All you can do is set up a good system and keep plugging away at it.
That’s all I’ve got. Keep the #PANIC to a dull roar, please. And enjoy yourselves Wednesday and Friday night.
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