The tapestry of Minnesota sports is a storied one,from the 1905 Minneapolis Marines football team to the 2022 founding of USL W side Aurora FC. Names and mascots and colors, football and hockey and soccer, victories and losses and championships – and somewhere in the middle of it all, the heart of soccer in the Land of 10,000 Lakes was born.

With the Heritage Collection throwing it back to the days of the Kicks,Strikers,Thunder,and Stars,several former Minnesota soccer players attended the Loons’ game against the Seattle Sounders on August 16,witnessing the first-ever series sweep over the Rave Green and celebrating the strong foundation that’s gotten Minnesota soccer to were it is today.Before that, several of the same players showed up for a Minnesota United training session, where they reminisced on their varied experiences across the iterations of Minnesota’s pro soccer teams.

The Stakes of the Game

1986, the FIFA World cup. Canada vs. Brazil. Canadian goalkeeper Tino Lettieri is no stranger to high stakes, and winning this match would put the Canadian national team in the medal round. Not 10 minutes into the match, one of Canada’s players takes a shot that hits the crossbar and goes inside the net before spinning out. The linesman calls it a goal. But by the time the ball is returned to the center circle, the ref has disallowed it.Brazil wins the match, and Canada goes home.

Nowadays, that shot would have gone into video review – technology that’s changed the game, that could have advanced Canada in the World Cup. But in 1986, all Lettieri and his Canadian comrades could do is wonder what if.

Lettieri fondly recalls another match with the Canadian national team, this time in Mexico for World Cup qualifiers. In front of 110,000 fans, his team was winning 1-0 with just two minutes remaining. The ref gave Mexico a PK, which they converted to tie the match. Once again, VAR could have changed the game, and Lettieri is a staunch supporter.

“I love it,” he said. “There’s too much at stake today in the game.” When a penalty kick can make or break a match, every detail matters.

As much as he appreciates the advancement in video review technology, Lettieri didn’t need it to have a hugely succes

A Golden Age of Goals: remembering the NASL’s Minnesota Kicks

“Nothing’s changed,” he joked. But in terms of the game? Everything’s changed. one of the most evident shifts in approach to gameplay these days,he says,is the relevance of assists. He recalls only a single assist in his career that was actually just a deflected shot.Now, the amount of passing and emphasis on playmaking means the role of a striker is more than just going for the goal anytime they happen to be within range. “I just used to shoot a lot.”

and shoot he did. Playing for the Kicks, the strikers, Montréal, and San Diego, Willey’s Minnesota soccer career spanned the inception of the Kicks through the end of the Strikers, and he certainly made a name for himself. In the 1978 conference Semifinals, Willey scored five goals in a single match against the New York Cosmos. The scoreline ended 9-2, in favor of the Kicks, an insanely high-scoring match that went down in NASL history.

As much as he remembers his favorite match, he also recalls his least favorite – an outdoor game in fargo in the middle of February. Twenty-five below wind chill. No gloves.

“The ball was like kicking a brick,” he said. When he came off at half and went for a shower, the warm water was painful.

Alan Merrick, the captain of the Kicks at the time, remembers rooming with patrick “Ace” Ntsoelengoe in Fargo, a striker from south Africa. He approached Merrick and said he’d never seen snow; he didn’t know what to do with it and was not excited to play in it.

“Ace,” Merrick said, “soon as you score two goals, I’ll get the coach to get you off.”

Ntsoelengoe scored two goals in the first five minutes of the match. How’s that for motivation?

“it was a shining, sunny day in Fargo,” Willey recalls. “And guess what? I’ve never been there since.”