2012 has been a brilliant year for the Minnesota Stars FC. It began at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis as the Stars took on the 2011 regular season winners, the Carolina Railhawks. The “Dome Opener” was the first chance Minnesota supporters had to parade the Championship trophy the Stars had improbably won in 2011. I say improbable because in 2011, Minnesota barely secured that last playoff spot and then went on a postseason run that would make the NFL’s New York Giants blush. The Stars were in a corner, they had nothing to lose and everything to gain—and these are mere sport clichés. The Minnesota Stars were a league-owned team in 2011 (and they still are in 2012), there was a looming anxiety that if the team didn’t perform and if supporters didn’t come out the team would be dissolved. There has been professional soccer in Minnesota for well over twenty years. The supporters in Minnesota refused to let their team down.
That supporters’ group, the Dark Clouds, showed up in force at every home game in Blaine, MN. They showed up and they cheered, they sang, they taunted (famously getting the better of Jonny Steele, who now plays for Real Salt Lake, with their smacktalk), they drummed and trumpeted, they set off smoke bombs and they struck flares. The Dark Clouds let their team know that the supporters in Minnesota valued them and had their back. It would be safe to say that this commitment bolstered the players. Come 2012, player-coach and front-office-jack-of-all-trades, Kevin Friedland designed an away jersey that literally allowed every player to take a bit of the home supporters away with them—the faces of the fans make up the team numbers on the back.
The Stars went into the 2012 season feeling strong, looking to defend their trophy. They’ve again made it to the NASL Final in much the same manner as they did in 2011. Once again the still league-owned Minnesota Stars secured the last playoff spot and faced a gauntlet of superior (at least on paper) teams. The quarterfinal pitted the Stars against the Puerto Rico Islanders, a team that regularly sees postseason action, who they overcame 2-1. The semifinal saw the Stars have to take on the regular season winners, expansion San Antonio Scorpions and their Golden Boot (20 goals) winner Pablo Campos. San Antonio not only towered over Minnesota in terms of the league table and goal scoring, but also literally. San Antonio’s starting XI is taller and heavier than Minnesota’s, a fact that has led some Dark Cloud supporters to refer to the Scorpions as “corn-fed bruisers.” The semifinal between the Scorpions and the Stars was a classic competition—the tall, strong versus the short, scrappy; the expansion team versus the team on the verge of dissolution; the upstarts versus the champions. When the dust settled Pablo Campos as been red carded, the Stars had scored all the goals and were on their way to the Final.
Now the match that will decide the 2012 Champion will be Saturday’s second leg of the NASL Final in Tampa. Already supporter groups of other pro teams in Florida are talking about making the trek to cheer and/or berate the NASL teams. Midfielder Jamie Watson is on loan to Minnesota from Orlando City of the USL and their supporter groups (Iron Lion Firm and The Ruckus) are already calling on their members to make the trip to cheer on their boy. Watson and the Minnesota Stars stand in a strong position to repeat having taken the first leg last Saturday by a score of 2-0. The NASL Final is determined by pure aggregate; there is no advantage for away goals. So being two goals up means that the Rowdies need to win by three or more goals on their home pitch—certainly possible, but if accomplished it will probably have more to do with some kind of grand collapse by the Stars.
But the Minnesota Stars refuse to fold; they are again fighting for their existence as the NASL board will meet soon to decide the fate of the organization. It’s entirely possible that Minnesota could repeat as champions and be dissolved by the league because of a lack of ownership. This fact hangs over every Minnesota supporter and every player on the team, which is why the bonds between the two are growing stronger. After the second goal was scored by Martin Nunez in the last seconds of stoppage time of the first leg match, the entire team rushed to the Dark Clouds section in the NSC Stadium and inspired a pile on that had to be broken up by the referees to see out the rest of the match.
Was it Minnesota’s last home game? If it was, after the final whistle the Minnesota Stars came over to the Dark Clouds section yet again to not just applaud the supporters but to serenade them. The Minnesota Stars sang to their fans; they cheered on their supporters with a heartfelt rendition of Oasis’s Wonderwall.
