They wanted three points on the road, and they got it – but it wasn’t easy for Minnesota United FC, which had to erase 1-0 and 2-1 Atlanta leads on their way to a 3-2 win over the Silverbacks. The win puts Minnesota in a three-way tie for first place in the league with Carolina and Tampa Bay.

A few thoughts on the game (highlights here), and on the season so far:

* We’re starting to see how Minnesota wants to play, at least to begin this year. United played five players in midfield again in Atlanta – three attacking, two a little more reserved in the center. It’s a setup designed to pressure the opposition, with five players who can swarm forward; it also can put pressure on United’s defense, if the attack roams too far. It’s also a setup that requires an incredible amount of running from the three attacking midfielders. Saturday, it was Miguel Ibarra, Simone Bracalello, and Lucas Rodriguez in that role, and the three had to both press the Atlanta defenders in the middle of the field, and still get back and defend on the wings.

My memory of past seasons is that much of Minnesota’s attack has come via the wings. Ibarra and Rodriguez, and fullbacks Justin Davis and Brian Kallman, would push forward and try to swing the ball in from the wide areas. With the three attacking midfielders and one forward, it appears to me that United is trying to attack much more through the middle of the field.

* The Atlanta goals were less about defensive problems and more about bad luck. Atlanta scored twice from set pieces – once from a free kick, once from a penalty. In the first instance, Connor Tobin went for a block just outside the penalty area and got there a split-second late, leading to a Milton Blanco free kick that Daryl Sattler got a fingertip to but couldn’t save. In the second, Aaron Pitchkolan was unlucky to have the ball ricochet off his arm in the penalty area, leading to Ruben Luna scoring from the penalty spot.

That said, it wasn’t exactly a suffocating defensive performance for Minnesota, either. Atlanta had a handful of very good chances, including several in the final half-hour that should have resulted in goals.

* Simone Bracalello has been a standout for United. Bracalello’s re-signing got lost in the shuffle last off-season, with the team bringing in two midfielers and two forwards. At the time, I wondered where the Italian’s minutes would come from. Through three games, though, Bracalello has been excellent, scoring twice from the penalty spot – once on Saturday – and emerging as the team’s most consistent offensive threat. Along with Ibarra he’s perfect for the attacking midfield role that Lagos is using him in. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a dead-ball specialist; he takes most of the team’s corner kicks, and he came close to scoring from a free kick on Saturday.

* It’s notable that United has yet to score a goal from open play. Against Atlanta, it was Kallman and Pitchkolan turning home corner kicks. Against Edmonton, Rodriguez scored after a Pitchkolan touch on a Kyle Altman free kick. Add in a Bracalello penalty in each game, and Minnesota has scored five goals – but all five have been from set pieces. Scoring from a situation in which it’s possible to set up players in the area is one thing; creating goals from passing and from attacking is another entirely.

As I mentioned, United’s now tied atop the NASL standings, and Saturday, the Carolina Railhawks – one of its fellow table-toppers – come to town. It’s another big game in a season that will be chock-full of them.

Minnesota United FC makes its first road trip of 2013 this weekend, traveling to Atlanta to take on the Silverbacks on Saturday night. Atlanta, the only team to miss the NASL playoffs in both 2011 and 2012, has won both of its games in 2013, and sits second to Carolina in the standings with a game in hand.

To preview Atlanta, I talked with Michael Buckelew, who covers the team for the Gwinnett Daily Post. My thanks to him for educating us about the Silverbacks.

1. Both of the past two seasons, it took Atlanta until June to win a game; now they’ve won two straight to begin 2013. What, if anything, has changed?

A lot of it is luck. Last year they were up late 3-1 on Minnesota before a couple of late goals resulted in a tie. After three ties already, and being up so late, I don’t think the team ever really recovered until after the changes in coaches and players. In 2011, the team had just been put together a few weeks earlier. It was mostly a group of young guys who were still trying to learn to play with each other.

This year you have a nucleus of guys who played together in the second half last year, many of them from Cal FC. Forward Danny Barrera has good skill on the ball in the middle and has shown a good ability to score, and forward Pedro Mendes is a true attacker who has also shown he can score from distance. Borfor Carr gives them some speed and possession on the wing, and Ruben Luna is a guy with MLS experience. Defender Martyn Lancaster is a big guy in the back who is good at clearing balls when he needs to and, as a captain, is obviously a guy who is a leader on the team.

2. Former US National Team star and Fox Soccer commentator Eric Wynalda coming in last year as interim coach and technical director was obviously a big story. What’s he brought to the franchise?

At first he brought instant attention to the franchise. People who may have never heard of the Silverbacks at least knew Wynalda. Soccer people knew of what he did with the Cal FC team in the US Open Cup [beating the Portland Timbers with an amateur side], so after a lot of losing since joining the NASL you could see a reason for optimism.

His first game was so soon after his hiring that he didn’t have much of a chance to make many changes. But then in his second game the team gets a 2-0 win against Minnesota. In his third game, the team beats Puerto Rico for its first home win. So then everybody is believing the team can win games.

Wynalda also did a lot of roster overhauling. He brought in a lot of guys from Cal FC, who had the added benefit of some playing time together. People who didn’t fit into the system were let go, and I think the talent level has just increased a lot from the beginning of 2012.

3. Like Minnesota, Atlanta has a handful of new attacking options. Who should Minnesota fans keep an eye on, for Saturday?

Mendes and Luna both showed last week they can score [they had two goals each]. Be on the lookout for Carr, who can fly down the field. In the opener, he ran about 70 yards and gave a nice pass on the breakaway. The shot was slightly wide, but this all happened in about 15 seconds after Carr was given a yellow at the other end and the Strikers had a dangerous free kick opportunity. Barrera will on occasion use his ball skills to get open and take shots from distance or find a teammate with a pass. Defender Shane Moroney can also get involved from the back, and he got an assist on the first goal of the season with a throw-in that came down at the six-yard area.

4. Atlanta’s attendance was up 60% last year, second-highest in the league. What do you attribute that increase to?

Early on, I think the attendance boost was better marketing. The team advertised a bit more and got people interested. The park is at one of the busiest freeway intersections in the city, giving it easy access for anybody driving. I also think there is some good outreach to the Hispanic community nearby. There was a friendly in the post-2011 offseason with [former Mexico national team star] Cuauhtemoc Blanco‘s team, and Chilean Reinaldo Navia was a big part of the offense and a popular autograph guy early last year. Now you’ve got Ruben Luna, another Mexico native, on the team. I think all soccer fans love to see people from their native country play, and the Mexican community has that opportunity here.

Another key is how affordable the games are. For about $55, a family of two adults and two youths can watch a pro soccer game and sit right on the field. For that same price, you might be able to afford a single ticket to see the Braves, Falcons or Hawks. With 5,400 last week, the team is drawing pretty well compared to the nearby Gwinnett Braves (AAA baseball) and Gwinnett Gladiators (ECHL hockey) minor-league teams.

At various points during my interview with him, departing Minnesota United FC team executive Djorn Buchholz credited the NASL, the National Sports Center, head coach Manny Lagos, marketing firm Brave New Media, the team’s fans, and the community as a whole for the success of soccer in Minnesota.

If credit is being honestly apportioned, though, it would start with Buchholz himself.

For two years, he’s been the CEO, team president, general manager, and basic front-office dynamo for pro soccer in Minnesota. He took over a league-owned team that was in constant danger of folding, and he righted the ship, steering it successfully to the current situation – one that includes what he calls the “best ownership group in the NASL right now.”

If you attended a Stars game in the past two years, you saw him. He was everywhere – glad-handling VIPs, setting up chairs, coralling merchandise and program sellers. He even sang the national anthem regularly. “You could call it a little bit of a personal quest, but my goal was to get this thing to a point where we knew it was going to be here for a long time,” he said. “And that happened”.

Buchholz came to Minnesota in the fall of 2003 as the Minnesota Thunder’s sales and marketing manager. Two years later, former GM Jim Froslid left the team, and nominated Buchholz – “at the ripe old age of 24,” he says – to be the team’s new general manager. He worked in that role until 2009, when the Thunder folded under the weight of financial difficulties caused by the team’s owner. And when he left for a role with the expansion Austin Aztex in 2010, he thought he’d seen the last of Minnesota.

“When I left, I thought I was never coming back,” said Buchholz. The Austin ownership group had ties to English Premier League club Stoke City, and Buchholz had hoped to potentially get in to European soccer via their connections. But after a season, Austin’s ownership chose to move the team to Orlando to pursue an MLS franchise, leaving Buchholz free to return to Minnesota to work on the NASL-owned Minnesota Stars franchise.

Said Buchholz, “I didn’t hesitate about coming back, because I never felt good about the way the Thunder ended.”

He left Texas with nothing but his car and some clothes. “All of my stuff has been in a storage locker in Texas for the last two years,” he said. And now, he’s on his way to Kansas City, to take a job as the Director of Fan Experience for Sporting KC in MLS.

“I don’t think it’s any different than being a professional soccer player,” he said. “You want to do what you can do at the highest level possible. I know that the NASL is a high level, and we proved it last year on the field in beating Real Salt Lake – on the field the product is very similar. But MLS from a business standpoint is just a bigger animal right now. For me I look at it as not being any different from Captain Kyle Altman that goes and tries out at Portland. You want to do what you do at the highest level, and for me it’s no different.”

In some ways, it’ll be calmer for him as well, having only one job instead of having to wear many different hats. Effectively, his job is to manage everyone who comes into contact with fans at a Sporting KC game – from parking, to ticket sales, to merchandise and concessions. “They already have a fantastic fan experience,” he said. “My job is to come in and change the culture just a little bit, to not only make it a top MLS team, but from a fan experience standpoint, make it one of the best sporting franchises in all the country.”

“When I saw this job come up, it rung with me, in particular because of what I think we’ve done the last two years. We’ve created quite an incredible experience that not enough people know about yet. But once people get up there, I’ve never heard one person say, ‘I’m never coming back to one of these games again.’ And I think that’s all about the experience.”

Ultimately, though, he does have a soft spot in his heart for Minnesota – and despite all of the trials, he says he’ll miss not only working to help build the team on the field, but the bonds created by the siege mentality of the past two years. “I’m going to miss the camaraderie with the coaching staff and the players in particular,” he said. “Having such a tight space between our locker room and our front office, interacting with them every day, I think it really created a family. We had a team that didn’t have superstars on it. We had one player that made the NASL Best XI in the last two years, and we had a team that won a championship and a team that lost in the finals. And I think that tells you about the mentality of this team, that we were a family.”

“It’s time for me to get a new challenge. I’m officially the longest-tenured person in the country in second-division soccer. I don’t want that title anymore. It’s time for me to really take the next step and see what I can do at the MLS level.”

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

Minnesota United FC will likely be without its two main forward options on Saturday, a blow for a team that went scoreless in its opening match.

Pablo Campos is suspended for tomorrow’s 2:30 tilt against Edmonton, the last vestige of his playoff red card last season. The big news, though, is that his strike partner Etienne Barbara was termed “unlikely” to go against the Eddies by head coach Manny Lagos, thanks to a hamstring issue.

The good news for Minnesota is that most of the rest of the squad is rounding into shape, injury-wise. Forward / wing Max Griffin, who missed the opening game with a hamstring injury of his own, is ready to go for Saturday. Lagos was intentionally vague about who he plans to replace Barbara with, but he mentioned Griffin as a possibility, leading me to believe we might see Griffin make his regular-season debut in the starting lineup, possibly in tandem with Travis Wall.

Midfielder Bryan Arguez is also a candidate to make his first regular-season debut with the team, after missing part of preseason and the first game of the regular season with a quadriceps injury.

Left back Justin Davis, who hobbled off with a high ankle sprain against San Antonio, is also set to return to the field, just two weeks after his injury. With Edmonton looking much more dangerous offensively this season than in past years, Minnesota will be happy to have its first-team back line ready to go.

A few other notes:

Tchoupe moves on

In a press release, United announced that they have released center back Ernest Tchoupe. The Cameroonian was mostly a backup last year, and struggled during the preseason this year to press his case while other players were out of the squad. Kyle Altman’s return for the spring season gave Minnesota three experienced center backs, making Tchoupe somewhat expendable.

No longer on trial

The team also announced that it has signed midfielder / defender / jack of all trades Luis Heitor-Piffer, after the Brazilian impressed while on trial with the team. Heitor-Piffer was most recently seen at Des Moines’s Grand View University, where he scored 22 goals and had 14 assists and was the conference player of the year in both of his two seasons. Goalkeeper Peter McKeown, a Woodbury native, will also be part of the team, though mostly in a role as a practice keeper and assistant equipment manager.

Trinidadian Sean de Silva is the only player remaining on trial, though Lagos said that one or two more players could come in next week. Striker Joseph Lapira is no longer with the team as a triallist.

Calgary gets serious

Minnesota isn’t the only team that’s seen front-office departures. FC Edmonton announced this week that director of soccer Joe Petrone is leaving the team to become the point man for a Calgary bid to join the NASL, much as Peter Wilt did for Indianapolis, which will join the league next year. Edmonton and Minnesota are the only two NASL teams not in the Eastern time zone, and the league is actively looking to bring in clubs from the rest of the country. Calgary, as a built-in rival for Edmonton, might be a good fit.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

Saturday’s game is against FC Edmonton – which is a very different team than the one that Minnesota fans saw last season. For a scouting report, I went to Steven Sandor, who not only does the color commentary for FC Edmonton matches, but edits the11.ca, perhaps the best blog on the internet for all Canadian soccer news, including Edmonton news.

He was gracious enough to answer a few of my questions about the Eddies, who have a new coach, a host of new players – and are angling for a new stadium, as well.

1) How has bringing Colin Miller in as coach changed things?

When Miller came in, no one got a benefit of the doubt. He deemed everyone on the club a “trialist,” and basically ran practices like an open tryout. In the end, he ended up cutting the team’s lone member of the 2012 NASL Best XI, Paul Hamilton, out of camp. Colin said over and over that he inherited a last place team, and he wasn’t going to be complacent. It’s a total clearing of the deck. If the Eddies stay with the form of the last couple of weeks, they should only start three players (Shaun Saiko, forward Michael Cox and keeper Lance Parker) who were with the club last season.

2) Edmonton scored the fewest goals in the league last year. Where are the goals going to come from this year?

We have already seen a massive change in the number of chances Edmonton is creating. Really, this team should have six points from the first two games, but they have shown an uncanny knack for hitting goalposts and crossbars. They’re creating more sustained pressure, and bringing more midfield help for the forwards. They have also gone to what is a more traditional 4-4-1-1, rather than the 4-3-3 which has, frankly, been a failure across North America (you can’t foist 4-3-3 on players who haven’t been playing the system since they were kids). That change is a big reason for the success. In keeping things simple, they are really making themselves more effective.

3) The Eddies brought in a number of new signings. Who should Minnesota fans watch out for?

Well, there’s a good chance that Robert Garrett, a Northern Irish international who just came here on loan this week, will play. He’s a midfield spark plug. And he’s played with Daryl Fordyce, FCE’s recesssed forward, since they were eight years of age. Daryl came over here earlier in the year, along with Albert Watson, the defender who is now Edmonton’s team captain. All three played at Linfield FC in Belfast. Watson is out with a knee injury, but Fordyce has been very good through two games. There’s a joke out there that Linfield is now FCE’s feeder club.

4) What’s the current stadium situation in Edmonton?

It’s very simple. The city council has seen the plans. But, like most places, the idea of giving pro sports teams blank cheques to build stadiums is a dying trend. So, instead of “build it and they will come,” the mayor and council has told owner Tom Fath that they like the plans for this 8,000-12,000 seat stadium that can be built in phases, but they will only green-light it after looking at this coming season’s attendance. If they see the numbers, they will entertain the idea. If attendance for FCE games – and likely Canada’s friendly at Commonwealth Stadium on May 28 – is disappointing, then the city won’t spend the money. It’s now a case of “if they come, we will build it.”

5) Edmonton attendance hasn’t been great the past two seasons. Is this a make-or-break year for the team?

You have to discount last year’s attendance. Because of the issues with permits and such, the renovation to Clarke Stadium wasn’t completed and FCE had to call a 1,200-seat stadium home. So, you can look at it two ways — that the team had a small attendance number, or that it sold out every game (actually, more than 100 per cent capacity) last season. You can only sell the seats you have. So, with the renovation finally underway, and Clarke moving to 4,000 seats for this year, really 2013 is the first season in which we can fairly judge the Edmonton soccer market. It should be a good place to have a team – the average household income here is about US $90,000 a year, or about $40,000 higher than the average American household income. This is one of the wealthiest cities in North America.