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Showing posts from April, 2017

Structure vs separation

As FC Fargo, we set ourselves up as a partner to all the local youth soccer clubs, rather than just a senior team for one. When Dakota Fusion were founded a year later, they took the more direct route of affiliation with Tri-City Storm, including even their color scheme. Nonetheless, Fusion and FCF are/were geographically distant from anything like a pipeline for a league like NPSL where amateur status doesn't just mean "not yet in college" (see Fargo Force for a model of the latter). The clubs in the Twin Cities metro, on the other hand, have all partnered up with teams from the local amateur MASL structure. Two are direct relatives (Stegmans/Mpls City and VSLT squared) and the TwinStars have joined them in affiliating to Fire SC. City have also consciously promoted the ideal of local players on their locally owned club, whereas the Fusion are thus far a melting pot of varied roots. I have no info on Med City or Sioux Falls. It will be interesting to s...

Echoes of a foregone era

Update: As of April 10th, I will not be updating this post. Before the NPSL season starts up here on May 13th, I will post a fresh list of Red River Green n Gold who are playing elsewhere this season, along with any local school alums I can otherwise identify. ------- I'm not a Dakota Fusion fan. That might take me a while. However, as it says in the title of this blog , I've been supporting North of Normal soccer since 2014 and there is a remarkable amount of continuity in the form of FC Fargo alumni on the announced Fusion roster and the NPSL in particular. My fellow Manchester Red, Archie Suah from Liberia and Philly is with the Midwest Division's Milwaukee Torrent. Louis Grant, who played non-varsity soccer at Minnesota State Moorhead and tried out for us, was the Fusion's first name. I count seven former Mean Green: both our starting (Steve Harris) and backup goalies (Habib Beljulji), his other bros (Emra and Sunaj), Miah Wills, Fiaz Musa, George Gauld. Not a...