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 where 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 successful career. He played as a keeper for the Minnesota Kicks, the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Minnesota Strikers, and the Canadian national team (for almost 12 years), and is happy to reflect on the numerous changes to the game and its place in Minnesota. He led the Strikers to their runner-up finish in the ‘85-’86 playoffs, was voted Goalkeeper of the Year for the ‘86-’87 season, and joined the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2001.

Lettieri is a legendary keeper, but he didn’t do it alone; avid Minnesota soccer fans may remember the stuffed parrot he kept in goal with him. The bird’s name was Ozzie II — Ozzie I was, in fact, a real bird. Ozzie declined to comment on the advancement of video review technology, possibly because he is still mad about being banned by the NASL.

The Thunder Go Pro

For a time after the Strikers, pro soccer disappeared in Minnesota. But that didn’t mean the sport vanished, nor the love Minnesotans had for it. Keeper John Swallen was there for the start of the Minnesota Thunder, even before it was a professional club.

“Buzz Lagos kind of resurrected some kind of a pro team,” Swallen said. “We didn’t actually become pro until ‘95. But it was a good time to start it again, and it continued into this.”

He joined the club at its inception in 1990, playing all through its advancement into the USL First Division in 1995 and retiring in 2001. His favorite season was invariably 1999, when the Thunder won the whole league against the Rochester Raging Rhinos at the National Sports Center on a cold October day. The 2-1 victory rounded out a season in which Swallen walked away as both MVP and goalkeeper of the year. His place in the Thunder Hall of Fame in 2002 was a no-brainer.

Now, Swollen sees a Minnesota club with not just a quality first team, but a second team and three Academy sides. A Saint Paul stadium seating 19,400 fans. A full sporting staff, a front office, and training facilities unlike anything he could’ve imagined.

“It should have been like this a lot longer,” he said. “This is how it should be.”

The Five-Goal Game

Alan Willey came to the U.S. from England at 17 to play professional soccer. When he arrived for his first game in San Jose, the team went into a bar in the San Francisco airport, and Willey was shocked to be kicked out — drinking age was 21 here.

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

The Same Soccer Spirit

Alan Merrick has a framed jersey that he says represents the passion that has surrounded Minnesota soccer for decades. Why? It’s torn to shreds.

For Merrick, the only surprising part of the Loons joining Major League Soccer was that it didn’t happen sooner. The fanbase was always there; the Kicks averaged 32,000 fans in 32 games at Metropolitan Stadium, where the Mall of America is now. Merrick recalls the conference finals match between the Kicks and San Jose that took the Kicks to the 1976 Soccer Bowl Championship. The fans flooded the field in their excitement, and were apparently so excited that they tried to get the patches from Merrick’s jersey to commemorate the occasion.

“That’s why it’s the most important game,” Merrick said. “Because they ignited us in terms of what the possibilities were for the game.” That jersey now remains a symbol of the sheer exhilaration surrounding soccer in the ‘70s.

Merrick first played as a defender for the Kicks before his career took him all over the place: Pittsburgh, LA, San Jose, then back to the Kicks until they folded in 1981. From there, he went to Toronto, played for Team America, then coached the Strikers back in Minnesota. His Minnesota soccer legacy continues even now: His grandsons, Keane and Ty Perkins, are involved in the MNUFC Academy program. Keane currently plays as a keeper, and Ty just left to play college soccer in Green Bay.

From his glory days to watching his grandsons training at the National Sports Center, Merrick has witnessed firsthand the development of and devotion to the beautiful game in the Twin Cities. In his coaching days, the whole of his staff was an assistant coach and a trainer. Now he looks out at the training grounds and sees both the first and second team training, three fields, drones capturing footage, endless soccer balls, staff everywhere.

“These guys are in a different world,” Merrick said. “This is like going to a cricket ground and you see a whole, totally different sport.”

“Or a golf course,” Willey added.

But the spirit of it is the same one that tore the jersey from Merrick’s back all those years ago. Minnesotans love soccer. As the Loons’ fanbase only continues to grow, let’s not forget the men who laid the foundations: Kicks. Strikers. Thunder. Stars.