Minnesota has a 2-0 lead, heading into the second leg of the NASL championship against Tampa Bay – but the team doesn’t expect a calm game on Saturday. Apparently Tampa’s field is approximately the length and breadth of a standard-issue hockey rink, so the Stars are expecting that they’ll be under the gun from the Rowdies right away. On the bright side, we may see Simone Bracalello score from his own half, which I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, so there’s that.

My preview of the game – filled with quotes from Kevin Friedland, because he was the only one I got a chance to talk to this week – is up at SB Nation Minnesota.