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One way or another, Minnesota United’s 2019 season — their third in Major League Soccer — will be interesting.
There are plenty of storylines to follow, from the integration of up to five new starters, to the opening of Allianz Field, to a real chance at the playoffs. With these in mind, we asked for your craziest predictions for the upcoming campaign. As expected, you delivered. We couldn’t use all of them for this article, but there were some great submissions.
Here are the nine craziest predictions, ranked by their likelihood of coming true:
Angelo Rodriguez scores at least one goal
— Emanuel of Minnesota (@OkayEma) February 19, 2019
I’ll call this one about as safe as it gets. It might take a few games, but this should really happen.
Allow fewer than 70 goals
— Drew DeLong (@whitecoco97) February 19, 2019
I really hope this is a safe one too. With the additions of Ike Opara and Romain Metanire to the back line, United should be able to keep their goals-against number below 70.
Should.
The home opener will be
— Taylor (@TaylorMoore42) February 20, 2019
SNOPENER PART 2; ELECTRIC BOOGALOO
It won’t snow in April, right?
April 13th was the start of the crazy blizzard last year...
B BBY will fend off another challenger to his #1 status
— Nate (@Mexinate) February 20, 2019
Now we’re getting into the iffy territory. Goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth did this last year, keeping Matt Lampson at bay, but this year brings a bigger challenge in Vito Mannone.
According to a radio interview he recently gave, Adrian Heath said Bobby was working as hard as he ever has to keep his spot.
We will have 3 wins in the bank before setting foot in Allianz.
— John Crouch (@JohnCrouch) February 20, 2019
The Loons’ first five games are all the road, at the Vancouver Whitecaps, the San Jose Earthquakes, the LA Galaxy, the New England Revolution and the New York Red Bulls.
But in 2017, United won three games on the road. In 2018, only once.
We'll sack Heath midway through the season and replace him with Alan Pardew
— Katherine Lackinger (@lacky14) February 19, 2019
If things aren’t going well at the midway point of the season, sure, sacking Heath sounds plausible. Replacing him with Pardew might be a bit of a stretch, but then again, he was linked to the Atlanta United job.
After all of our other strikers are injured, Mason Toye will pop his goal cherry and proceed to go on a rampage, scoring 10-15 by the end of the season.
— Joe D. (@NutsVT) February 20, 2019
Mason Toye has come to play in 2019. He’s bulked up and looks noticeable better. The caveat with all of United’s other strikers getting hurt makes me hope we don’t have to see whether this one comes true.
They’ll be undefeated at home and still miss the playoffs
— Adam Stacer (@AdamStacer) February 19, 2019
This would be crazy, but at the same time, it seems quintessentially Minnesota sports.
At the end of the season, we will worship A. Heath, flooding Twitter with #HeathStay
— Bart Kier (@bart_kier) February 20, 2019
Outlandish. Simple as that.
Have other crazy predictions? Drop them in the comments section below!