Snowligan

 I posted a poll on Twitter that asked people if they preferred it when the team that knocks you out of the playoffs a) goes on to win everything or b) gets immediately eliminated.  Obviously, I prefer when my team doesn't get knocked out AT ALL. However, everyone but one team fails to lift the Larry O'Brien/Lombardi/whatever trophy at the end of the season.  I also prefer it when my teams make the playoffs, even if they lose immediately. After all, that's the experience of 90% of American sports fans who have no shot at the trophy.  However, this season was a weird one for Fusion men fans. Firstly, Duluth pounded everyone and ran away with the #1 seed. Under the conditions of last year, they would have lifted the Conference Championship, Fusion would have made it in as #2 seed and defending champs Med City would have seen their season end.  Instead of that scenario, NPSL changed the rules for the North this season and allowed the top 4 finishers to make the pla...

 I was going to publish a deep dive into the Fusion rosters as I did back in 2021, but since there is no discernible thread of local roots to the men's team, and because it's 1am (probably), I began to look at things more philosophically.  What does "Support local soccer" mean? Support the local side, regardless of the multinational nature of the 11 in front of you? Support those men and women who graduate local high schools, whichever team they end up on? Support the Bison/Dragons regardless of where their recruits come from? I think I will continue supporting Fusion until they go pop (which seems inevitable in the dog-eat-dog world of US soccer and in a market with ~1 article a season about the club in the local paper.) The high school stories were interesting, but if I'm honest, the current teams represent my own cultural makeup more than, say, Minneapolis City's root and branch local approach.  Fargo is North of Normal, after all. Out on an island.  There ...