NOTE: This appeared at SoccerCentric.

I wrote this morning that United needed to find creativity on their wings to get better in 2014. Turns out, they were all ready to make that happen in the last game of 2013.

Winger Omar Daley had a hat trick and set up another goal, and Pablo Campos added two more goals, as United beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies 6-4 to close out the NASL season. Two of the ten goals were from the penalty spot, one was an own goal, and four were scored in the final ten minutes.

Floyd Franks opened the scoring from a Daley cross in the 10th minute, before Daley took a punt from keeper Mitch Hildebrandt and turned it into a solo goal in the 17th minute, giving Minnesota a 2-0 lead. Luke Mulholland pulled one back for Tampa after halftime, scoring from the penalty spot in the 52nd minute after Etienne Barbara had been upended by Kentaro Takada, but eight minutes later, Daley added his second to restore the two-goal lead, turning home a rebound from a Campos shot.

Next, Aaron Pitchkolan got on the scoresheet – but for the wrong team, accidentally volleying a cross into his own net and making it 3-2. But he had only six minutes to wait for Campos to erase his error; the big Brazilian striker controlled a corner kick in the Minnesota end, and dashed the length of the field to score.

Daley completed his hat trick in the 83rd minute, getting behind the defense and chipping keeper Diego Restrepo to make it 5-2. In the ten minutes of chaos that followed, Evans Frimpong scored twice for Tampa, while Campos was chopped down by Restrepo in the Rowdies’ area and scored from the resulting penalty.

The 6-4 final had head coach Manny Lagos smiling ruefully when he was interviewed on the Tampa Bay broadcast. “Wild game,” he said. “A lot of our games down here have been wild.”

For once, the United manager was happy with his team’s offense. “Boy, did we attack well today,” he said. “Both halves, we just came out flying.”

The win pushed Minnesota up to fourth in the final fall standings, tied with Tampa for third but one goal behind on goal difference. It also makes the team’s offensive numbers look a bit better; they’re now tied for third with 21 goals in the fall season, behind the Rowdies (who scored 30 but also gave up 27) and the New York Cosmos, who scored 22.

Campos’s two goals left him just short of winning the league scoring title, with 13 goals over both halves. Carolina’s Brian Shriver also scored twice on Saturday, to edge out Campos with 15 tallies this year. Still, Campos has scored double-digit goals in every NASL season, with 12, 20, and 13 (for three different teams); say what you want about him, but he scores goals, a commodity that is in short supply in the NASL.

Daley presents an interesting case; he started the final two games of the season after signing over the summer with United, and he set up two goals and scored three more in that span. This time last year, Daley was in the Scottish Premier League with Motherwell; it’ll be interesting to see whether he tries to use United as a springboard, or if he’d be interested in staying on for another year.

Regardless, a 6-4 game was an entertaining way to finish the year. Now, Minnesota can only hope to use it as a springboard for 2014.

Note: this appeared at SoccerCentric.

It’s been a disappointing season for Minnesota United, one that – for the first time since 2010 – is going to end without an appearance in the league final. And so, in the final week of the season, everybody with the club is preparing for a week of lasts – last practice, last road trip, last game.

Tomorrow’s game against Tampa Bay is, effectively, meaningless. All that’s at stake is the final standings for Minnesota, and to find out just how far behind the New York Cosmos the team will finish.

Despite that, head coach Manny Lagos still thinks there’s something to learn from the final trip of the season.  Said the coach, “I think every guy can have a different definition of what being a professional is, but I think these moments, where it’s important to take the game and take what we’re trying to do seriously, it comes out.”

Lagos is also trying to look forward; in some ways, he’s thinking of Saturday’s game as the first game of next season, and is unwilling to say he’s glad for the season to be over. “I’m never glad when we’re not in the final,” he said. “In my mind, I’m only glad we finish [the year] so we can get started again to build the team again.”

Certainly, the team is already on track to finish the fall season better than it finished the spring; Minnesota’s 3-1 win against Fort Lauderdale guaranteed that. The spring squad finished the half-year by losing 3-1 and 3-0 and generally looking disinterested in playing soccer at all, but the fall team appears to have kept its collective head in the game more succesfully.

A couple of weeks ago, defender Aaron Pitchkolan agreed with his coach about the need to focus on the future. “I think Manny’s done a good job of just letting the guys know that we’ve got to keep working hard and doing the right things and start building for next year,” he said. “You never know who’s going to be around next year. You always want to build a foundation and keep a foundation and build on the success we had. It’s not a lost year, just because we didn’t make the finals. You’re always building for something in the future.”

Two wins to close the season won’t erase the defeats of the 2013 season as a whole; United has endured too many letdowns for that. Another win, though, would certainly speak to a team that’s being professional – which would be a good sign as thoughts turn to 2014.

United defender/assistant coach Kevin Friedland is always a good quote, but after Saturday’s 3-1 win over Fort Lauderdale, he couldn’t think of much to say.

I asked him what his emotions were, following his final game in front of the Minnesota crowd. “I’m speechless,” he said.

Friedland was all but certain to play on Saturday, but Connor Tobin limped off with an injury after just 22 minutes – leaving Friedland to come off the bench and finish the game. As I wrote in my game story, it was fitting that the 31-year-old, who has done it all for Minnesota, would have one last chance to fill in wherever he was needed.

The Dark Clouds serenaded Friedland all night, alternating between “Kevin Friedland is a Blue” (to the tune of “London Bridge”, a callback to his Thunder days) and “Please don’t take our Friedland away” (to the tune of “You Are My Sunshine.”) They also brought a large banner that read “And God said: LET THERE BE FRIEDLAND,” a reference to just how long he’d been with the team.

It was also a chance for Friedland to play in front of his family. According to him, it was the first time he’d had his family in town for a game since 2010, and for this one he had everyone together – his dad Les, his brother Jake, and his stepmom Deb were all out from New Jersey, and his mom Shellee, his sister Allison, and his niece Madison were here from California. Put them together with his girlfriend Katie, who is from Minnesota, and it clearly meant a lot to him to play in front of the whole group – you could hear a catch in his voice when he talked about them.

“I think last night and this morning was like, I’ll see, if I get in, I get in,” he said. “Obviously I didn’t care either way, but it’s a good way to go out. I had no idea, no expectations if I was going to play tonight. I was hoping, starting on the bench, for maybe twenty minutes or something – maybe get out wide or in front of the goal or something like that. They needed me to play center back, and that’s what I did, and we got the result. Most important.”

Again, as I wrote in the game story, if it hadn’t been for Friedland’s tireless efforts, I’m not sure there would be a pro soccer team in Minnesota this year. He did everything for this team that he was ever asked, and it was nice that the team got a win for him in his last home game as a player.

Hildebrandt good in goal, Campos good in front of it

The story of the night was Friedland, which unfortunately overshadowed two more goals from Pablo Campos and an excellent performance in goal from Mitch Hildebrandt.

Campos had a classic game for him, scoring twice and setting up another one, all by being physical and never quitting on an offensive chance. His first chance was created by an excellent cross-field ball from Omar Daley, who got his first start of the fall; it was a fifty-yard pass right to the feet of Lucas Rodriguez, who took his first-time chance to roll the ball in front of goal, where Campos bulled his way in to score.

His second goal was almost similar – the ball fell between three Strikers defenders, none could clear, and Campos threw himself into the middle of all three to poke the ball past keeper Richard Sanchez. It’s no wonder Sanchez was caught completely flat-footed – nobody should have been able to get a shot off from there.

Campos also created the second United goal, boxing out two defenders to head a corner down for Aaron Pitchkolan to prod home. That’s eleven goals from Campos this year, and five assists – invaluable for a team that’s struggled to score.

The two goals pull Campos within one of the league lead for 2013; it’s not inconceivable he could end up winning the league’s Golden Boot this year.

Hildebrandt, meanwhile, made at least three key saves to keep the Strikers to just one goal. He had at least a couple of them in the second half, when United only led 2-1; he was in the discussion for Man of the Match with Campos (but, let’s be honest, the award was always going to Friedland on this night).

NASL Update

The New York Cosmos clinched their place in the Soccer Bowl with a 2-1 win in San Antonio, so even though there’s a week to play in the season, the Soccer Bowl – New York at Atlanta – is set.

United, for their part, is up to fourth place. They’d like to stay there, if for no other reason than to end their streak of sixth-place finishes that dates back to 2011.

NOTE: This appeared at SoccerCentric.

If there is a god of sportswriting, here’ s how United’s game tonight with Fort Lauderdale will go: defender Kevin Friedland, playing his last home game in Minnesota after a ten-year career, will come on as a substitute at the end of the game and score the winning goal, following which he will be carried off the field just like Sean Astin in the movie “Rudy.”

Maybe that’s not exactly how it will go down, but Friedland will be in the eighteen-man squad for the game this evening. It would be pretty shocking if he didn’t play at least a few minutes – perhaps enough to get the ovation he deserves.

In other lineup news, goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt will start in goal for United, his first start of the season. Hildebrandt endured an early-season ankle injury, and fell to third on the keeper depth chart behind Daryl Sattler and Matt Van Oekel – but after serving as a “valiant backup” all year, as head coach Manny Lagos said, he’ll get a few minutes in front of the home fans.

Lagos listed defender Connor Tobin as probable on his weekly injury report, but noted that he was likely to start. Midfielder Michael Reed, however, is done for the year; he had surgery Friday to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder.

It’s an honor just to be nominated

Defender Aaron Pitchkolan and winger Miguel Ibarra made the league’s shortlist for its “Golden Ball” (read: MVP) award, along with 14 other players. The winner will be announced in the leadup to the Soccer Bowl.

The nominees came from the league’s head coaches. The rest of the group:

Atlanta – Joe Nasco (GK), Martyn Lancaster (D), Richie Menjivar (MF), Danny Barrera (MF)
Carolina – Brian Shriver (F)
Edmonton – Albert Watson (D), Chris Nurse (MF)
Fort Lauderdale – Ivan Guerrero (D)
New York – Marcos Senna (MF)
San Antonio – Hans Denissen (F), Tomasz Zahorski (F)
Tampa Bay – Diego Restrepo (GK), Georgi Hristov (F), Luke Mulholland (MF)

On the air

Tonight’s game is live on TV on KSTC, better known as Channel 45 in the Twin Cities. This does, however, mean that the game won’t be available via live streaming to anyone in Minnesota, so if you don’t have cable, you’ll have to dig the bunny ears out of the back of your closet.

The league also announced that November 9’s Soccer Bowl would be broadcast on ESPN Deportes (in Español, of course), and on ESPN3 in English.

Out in the cold

Game-time temperatures figure to be in the upper 30s, the first particularly chilly game of the season for Minnesota. Despite that, Lagos says that his team won’t play any differently. “We try to play the same way,” he said. “I don’t want to overthink what the weather’s going to be. We’ve kind of set up training outside this week in the cold so I think we’re used to it; unless things change with the weather the game plan for tomorrow is going to be the same.”

More troubling is the team’s lack of psychological edge at home, cold or no. Said Lagos, “We haven’t quite had that this year, as we have in years past. We certainly had a lot of special plays and good moments this year, but it wasn’t consistent across the board. Typically at home if you’re playing well and consistent, you tend to win.”

Details

It’s a 6pm start in Blaine tonight. As mentioned, you can see the game on Channel 45, or head up to Blaine for the team’s final home game of 2013.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

HEADLINE | For years, Barcelona has been the byword for beautiful soccer, known for Lionel Messi and company passing the ball around so quickly that eventually the ball becomes a blur and defenders, enraptured by so much one-touch passing, fall to the ground and experience enlightenment.

But there are those of us who remember when it was Arsenal – Bergkamp and Henry, Vieira and Pires, Ljungberg and Wiltord and Gilberto Silva – who were known for free-flowing, effervescent soccer. And after Saturday’s display against Norwich, in which the Gunners won 4-1, it’s time to wonder again: is Arsenal finally back?

Watch the goals from Saturday’s game; they’re enough, at least, to remind us of some of Arsenal’s best teams. The first goal in particular, when Santi Cazorla, Olivier Giroud, and Jack Wilshire pinballed passes through six near-stationary Norwich defenders, was as good as anything the Invincibles of 2003-04 ever produced.

Granted, Arsenal have played exactly zero games against Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool; in fact, only one of their first eight games, a 1-0 win over Tottenham, came against a team in the top half of the table. And true to form, Arsenal followed good things with bad, as they lost 2-1 at home to Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday in the Champions League.

Still, though, there are positive things happening at the Emirates – and that hasn’t always been true over the past decade.

PREMIER LEAGUE | Meanwhile, panic time is still on in Manchester, as United dropped points again on Saturday. Adam Lallana scored in the 89th minute, giving Southampton a shocking 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. United have yet to record consecutive wins under new manager David Moyes, who insisted that he’s not worried about the team’s stuck-in-molasses start – an attitude that must be more difficult when Sir Alex Ferguson is in attendance, as he was on Saturday.

ITALY | A word of congratulations to Roma, the last team left in a first-tier European league with a perfect record. The Giallorossi have an astonishing eight wins from eight, during which they have scored 22 and given up just one solitary goal. Roma beat second-place Napoli 2-0 over the weekend – probably the closest any team has come to dealing with Roma so far this year.

The weekend in Italy also saw Milan, Inter, Roma, and Torino punished for racist chanting, which I suppose is a reminder that Italy is still, unfortunately, Italy.

INVERNESS CALEY THISTLE | The official best name of SoccerCentric lost 2-1 over the weekend to – I just love this – Partick Thistle, 2-1. Kris Doohlan scored twice for the visitors, who took home the Thistle Trophy* for the win.

*Note: Not true, but wouldn’t it be great if it were?