u/SeanOrange

Portland is the only team we haven’t faced at all yet this season. It looks like they lost to or drew against teams we’ve beaten (or also drawn to), but have also won against teams we’ve also won against. That doesn’t tell me much except their place on the table makes sense in comparison.

It does seem like they’re struggling compared to last year, and certainly well below their seventh place finish. But we’re also just had a hard time at a first away game since the undefeated home stand.

I suppose I’m expecting a W here, but haven’t really seen the Hearts play much this season to make a more nuanced assessment. I do love their stadium, though, and look forward to seeing the match; it’s one of the venues that really stuck out to me when I started watching Mingos games on TV last season.

Let’s go, Fortress Breese. 🙌

NWSL announced they would move to a summer-spring schedule before announcing “lol j/k”.

USL Super League is changing to a spring-fall schedule, with a mini-season this fall before beginning the new schedule in 2027 — done partly to align with NWSL for potential inter-league cups, and announced after they backed of their planned schedule change.

Now MLS has announced a change from spring-fall to summer-spring to “align with the global schedule”, do transfers in the summer off-season, etc, doing the opposite of USLS with a mini-season this spring to ease the transition.

Call me selfish, but I like the spring-fall schedule. There’s not much overlap with American Football, because as one is winding down the other is starting up. But probably more importantly, playing in winter is just infeasible in North America, even with a planned January break. (November post-season Varsity games in Wisconsin can be miserable; ask me how I know.)

I don’t see the men’s side of USL making this switch, especially with the plans for a three-tier interconnected pyramid, and the inertia the existing two leagues already have. This summer has been hot — and it’s only getting worse — but that can be mitigated. You can’t fix cold, at least not on the budgets of D2 and D3 leagues.

This new team was hot out of the gate, but I’m overjoyed by how well they’ve gelled during and leading up to this undefeated streak.

Just this season we went from almost dead last in both goals and shots taken to having the best goal difference in the league. As of last Wednesday’s game, we have the best PPG in the league. We’ve been at the top of the power rankings for weeks. (I heard someone say the team has been outperforming xG without stating what it is.)

Half of the season’s games have been played, and we’re one more win away from the top of the rankings — assuming no one else wins today.

Chattanooga had me a little worried in the first half, ngl — no cow kits! — but this team of Carmichaels is on fire. I’m pretty confident today’s Westchester game will go our way, but there’s always a Greenville lurking out there. Including today there are only two teams in the league we haven’t played, and I think it’s reasonable to expect to outperform matchups from earlier in the season — especially with the wins against Naples and Cosmos bringing a close to competition with those sides this season.

Here’s hoping the boys can take this show on the road, because it’s been an incredible ride.

I need to cover some ground before I get there, but S3E2 told us a LOT about how the show will adapt Shift and Dust, which characters will get focus while others are discarded, and why it may be for really good reasons.

(Like last time, I’m gonna use spoiler tags around hyper-specific references to Shift and/or Wool so you can choose what to see.)

1 - The amnesia plot was already in the books, actually

I had an inkling after S3E1, but now with confirmation in episode 2 that “Vitamin D+” is in fact the memory drug, I think this plot line is meant to replace the section of Dust >!that goes into specifics about the previous rebellion in Silo 18, and the full memory reset that resulted!<. This was written two books after Wool, and was meant to show us >!the history of Silo 18!< in a new light after the revelations of Shift — but we haven’t gotten to most of those yet on the show.

Instead, we’re only two episodes removed from the events at the end of season 2; how much more frustrated would viewers be than they already are if the show introduced >!another POV character (whose name escapes me), a whole new cast, and different time period, repeating the same rebellion storyline we just watched!<, only to be completely discarded afterward? We don’t all of that to understand how catastrophic it would be if everyone in the silo lost their memories forever, and we don’t need to take our eyes off Silo 18 to tell the story of Shift first.

It makes more sense for Juliette to become the first victim of the memory drug, because we already know her and care about her relationships to the people of Silo 18 — which episode 2 really hammered home. Condensing the story this way allows us to stay focused on the silo all season.

2 - The main conceit of Shift can’t work on TV

Besides, we’re already being introduced to a new time period, characters, and relationships with Daniel and his cohorts. The parallels between Charlotte and Juliette help ground the story as we learn how it relates to the history of the silos. (The soft launch at the end of season 2 helped a lot, especially the Pez dispenser.)

In Shift, the first victim of the memory drug is not Charlotte or Juliette — in fact, neither of them is given the drug. Instead, Shift switches between Daniel’s story and >!someone named Troy who works in Silo 1 managing the other silos!<, but by the end we find out >!Troy is just what’s left of Daniel/Donald when his history is selectively erased!<. To any extent we see this in the show, it’s still going to be a shock, but we won’t have to unpack it as much when it happens because viewers should fully comprehend what it means once revealed.

But the show needs to juxtapose Daniel’s story with something else, because on TV >!we can SEE Troy, and we would either understand he was Daniel, or be confused the whole time and think he was a clone or something!< — which come to think of it might also explain how he lived so long. Many could also have guessed from a production standpoint they wouldn’t sideline the show’s star and principal cast for a whole season, so Juliette gets the drug instead of >!Troy!< in Shift or >!still nameless rebellion POV character!< in Dust.

If we do end up seeing any of >!the first rebellion and how Troy deals with it!<, it will be after this revelation. To what extent depends on if I’m right about what it means that the Pez dispenser ends up in Silo 18.

3 - Not even the second memory wipe, but the third

I wrote, and then erased several times, an assertion that we will only witness the events of >!the first rebellion in Silo 18!< as it relates to Juliette, but I think that’s wrong. I think we’ll see it from >!Daniel’s!< perspective, like we did in Shift as he tried desperately to keep >!the safeguard from being used on Silo 18!<. But WHY was he so desperate?

I have thought since we saw the Pez dispenser at the end of season 2 that >!Helen will go into Silo 18 on the show as one of its first residents!<. By contrast, in the books (can’t recall if it was Shift or Dust) we find out >!she went into Silo 2, got married, had kids,!<, and seemed to forget all about >!Donald!<. His drive to save Silo 18 then becomes something he doesn’t fully understand, but I think it becomes very understandable if >!Helen went to Silo 18, instead of Silo 2!<, and he wants to save it because >!it’s people, or a specific person, are all Daniel has left of her!<.

I said above that I didn’t think we’d see any POV from >!inside Silo 18 during the rebellion!<, but limited to >!Daniel!< talking to a character to find out what happened to >!Helen!<. This person turns out to be >!one of her descendants!<. But then, tragically, everyone’s memory gets wiped to save the silo.

But I also think we’ll find out this is the second time a full wipe was used, with the present event in Silo 18 being a third (and final?) attempt. The show itself strongly hint that a mind wile was employed as people entered the silos, because otherwise first generation residents would be too depressed to live there and create a new society. So >!not only does Helen go into Silo 18!<, but the Pez dispenser, so imbued with meaning, prevents that first memory wipe from fully working, and the memory survives until the first rebellion and the second wipe. Perhaps the Pez dispenser is one of the catalysts for that rebellion, leading to its status as a red level relic. Perhaps this rebellion is when >!Viktor finds out that objects can circumvent the mind drug!<, as he tells Camille.

In any case, >!Daniel’s fixation on Silo 18 will be because of Helen!<.

I really hope for a win over Spokane, if for no other reason I’m still disappointed that Zephyr folded. But also this is one of the first games against a team at the top of the rankings since the Mingos found their stride this season.

Thanks to the advice of other folks on this sub, I got a free Fubo subscription to watch tonight.

(Also I marked this pre-game even though it’s almost halftime now, hahaha. I still don’t like the cow kit as much as the Flock, which I was expecting to see tonight since it’s an away game, but I guess since it’s on CBS they wanted to put their best hoof forward.)

Unless it’s on ESPN 2. Or the CBS Golazo! Network, apparently. I don’t know the next time my team is going to have a match I can watch because it’s so far out that ESPN+ doesn’t even have it on the upcoming section for the club or the league.

It’s cool if matches get more national attention, but don’t straight-up lie to me to sell a subscription.

Also, this is the 21st century; I can’t watch everything live, and I shouldn’t have to.

Honestly, did it ever?

All the recent expansion news got me thinking of the distinct lack of teams announced for Championship in 2027. I know one reason (amongst others) that the Milwaukee expansion stalled is because the cost to build a stadium in the Iron district ballooned upwards of $100 million.

Something I didn’t realize until more recently was this expansion was awarded to Big Top Events, owners of Forward Madison. At the time, fielding a new team was the path of least resistance into Championship, but with pro/rel looming there’s now another, purportedly cheaper route. Even if it’s a long shot, it sure would create some problems to own two teams and have one promoted — or the new one relegated — only to face each other in the same division.

Even without these new factors I don’t think there was a lot of reason to expect Milwaukee Pro Soccer was ever going to materialize, and I don’t know if anyone else can create a team there so long as Big Top holds the expansion rights. OTOH New York sure is starting to burst with teams, but that’s also the biggest metropolitan center of the country.

(I also wonder if one of the reasons Big Top didn’t start a Super League team despite prior announcements was because it was tied more to the Milwaukee site than to Breese, despite Breese seeming to meet the requirements of the PLS, and there were other issues to overcome.)

Is there anyone who’s been around the growing pains of USL more than I have who has a take on this?

Anyone else excited that both Madison clubs have been actively recruiting to bolster their respective offensive lineups?

I don’t want to paint too rosy of a picture (no pun intended), because Rally is currently at the bottom of the Heartland rankings as the only winless team, but it was awesome to see them rally (pun very much intended) after their goal in the first half against Sioux Falls City, and control much of the rest of the game. Even the home team announcers were giving them props for adjusting on the fly the way they did.

With 2/3 of the season left to go, and most of those home games, I’m really hoping to see them on the ascent. Their next game is a rematch against Minnesota Aurora, this time on the latter’s home turf, which I expect to be tough, but they were held to only two goals on their first meeting when other teams fell much more sharply. I’d love to see Rally force a draw at least, which seems doable if they can overcome getting scored on in the first 10 minutes as happened the last few games.

I also haven’t seen anything on Malia Zillman’s injury that forced her off the field. Hopefully it was just cramping from playing in the heat, as the announcers surmised, and she’ll be fresh for Thursday.