NSC Minnesota Stars 3:1 Fort Lauderdale Strikers
Minnesota: Hlavaty 3, Mulholland 53, Rodriguez 72
Fort Lauderdale: Davis (og) 52′
Highlights: Via YouTube

A few quick thoughts from last night’s first leg of the NASL finals:

  • You couldn’t ask for a nicer night for a game, at least in Minnesota in late October, and the crowds came out. The Twins bought 500 tickets for the game, the Wild and Vikings bought 500 more, and so a thousand fans walked through the gates for free, courtesy of the area’s biggest teams. According to the Stars ticket office, they think about two-thirds of these fans were attending their very first Stars game. If so, they really should be back next season, because they got a heck of a game to watch.
  • In a related story: I’ve never seen such a big turnout from the Dark Clouds, the fan group that supports the Stars. Three sections of the bleachers opposite the main stands were full of folks jumping up and down and waving flags and singing songs. The beer tent was three rows deep, too. It was a playoff atmosphere.
  • I sat in the reserved stands on the halfway line, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had better seats for a pro sporting event. (Why was I in the reserved section? It’s the only one with chairbacks, and I like to lean back. And though I love the atmosphere the Dark Clouds provide, I feel weird standing amongst them by myself. Gopher hockey fans have long complained of the energy-less “corpies” in the good seats at Mariucci Arena; I guess I’m a soccer “corpie.” In my defense, I didn’t spend all game chatting to my neighbor, and I yelled abuse at several Strikers players.)
  • Neil Hlavaty‘s free kick in the third minute was wonderful – low, powerful, around the wall and inside the far post. Just unsaveable. Luke Mulholland’s goal in the second half was just as good – a blast against the grain that the keeper had no chance of stopping. Lucas Rodriguez scored the third, as four Strikers defenders stood still while Rodriguez scored. As for the own goal by Justin Davis, you have to admire the sheer failure of it – no pressure, a ball that would have gone out for a goal kick, and a redirection via the chest right between the keeper and the post. Everything had to go wrong, and it did.
  • Take my biased opinion for what it’s worth, but Fort Lauderdale was absolutely awful. They created nothing. Their defenders did convincing imitations of traffic cones. I can’t remember if they even played any midfielders. Hlavaty and Andrei Gotsmanov kept receiving the ball in midfield, turning around, and realizing that they could run for thirty yards without being bothered. 3-0 or 4-0 would have been a more deserved scoreline.
  • On the other side, the Stars really controlled all but about twenty minutes of the game. For the middle part of the second half, they seemed to temporarily forget they were allowed to pass the ball from defense to midfield; every time a defender got the ball, he’d take two touches, look up, and boot it long at the lonely figure of Brian Cvilikas, who’d then get to try to win a header against three Strikers defenders.
  • For Man of the Match – Mulholland was tireless and scored a cracker of a goal, and Hlavaty was imperious in midfield. But my pick is central defender Cristiano Dias, who didn’t put a foot wrong all night. He was, in my view, absolutely flawless.

The second leg of the match is next Saturday, 6:30 pm in Fort Lauderdale. The Stars managed just two draws in four regular-season matches against the Strikers, so I can’t believe Fort Lauderdale will come out and be as bad as they were last night. But if they are – then the NASL trophy is coming to Minnesota.