As many of us witnessed with great curiosity in the weeks and months leading up to the beginning of the 2014 NASL campaign, something of an arms race, previously a rarity in the American second division, was unfolding before our very eyes. In an effort to end the reign of the Cosmos before it could ever really manifest, clubs such as Tampa Bay, San Antonio and Minnesota invested in a myriad of new, quality signings in the hopes that such moves would see them claiming any of the three trophies on offer this year.
Indeed, Minnesota's cupboard was hardly bare from 2013, and the additions of Jamie Watson, Thiago Calvano, Juliano Vicentini served to seemingly fill in some of the cracks that ultimately caused Minnesota to disappointingly languish in mid-table anonymity last year. However, with Pablo Campos going down in the preseason by way of a torn ACL and MCL, Minnesota lost the very fulcrum of their potent attack and, for many pundits around the league, likely lost their contender status as well in that cruel moment.
Thankfully for the Minnesota faithful, pundits and talking heads don't determine results; players and coaches do.
Those deserving praise in the wake of Minnesota's spring season triumph, sealed on a dramatic evening away to Tampa Bay, are perhaps too numerous to adequately praise here, though the coaching job enacted by Manny Lagos is certainly deserving of much of the spotlight. With a glut of creative and incisive personalities in the midfield, it would be easy for many managers to horribly mismanage the players at his disposal and ultimately leave some feeling left out, disgruntled, and thus rather toxic to the locker room.
The rotation of players who have been rather accustomed to being amongst the first names on the team sheet over the years, whether the aforementioned Jamie Watson, Miguel Ibarra, Simone Bracalello, Daniel Mendes or Omar Daley, has been executed to perfection, and accordingly managers around the league have endured nightmares on more nights than not at this stage of the year. With this luxury of talent in the midfield at Lagos' disposal, Lagos has just about had every answer to every tactical question asked of him thus far.
In hearkening back to the considerable problems posed by the absence of Pablo Campos, Lagos' signing of Christian Ramirez from Charlotte of the USL has proven to be nothing short of a stroke of genius. If many wondered aloud just where the goals would come from without Campos, they have been surely silenced by now. Ramirez, who was perhaps good but not great with Charlotte last season, has apparently had an epiphany as a player upon stepping up to the NASL level and being forced into the lineup after he had been signed on to be scarcely more than cover for Campos. While Ramirez's stature leads one to view him as a quintessential target forward, his penchant for the remarkable and eye for the pass has shown him to be far more than that.
If defensive issues were in some ways Minnesota's downfall last season, they have been anything but at this rate. Brazilian veteran Thiago Calvano has lived up to every expectation placed upon him, and both Matt Van Oekel and Mitch Hildebrandt (especially as seen at Atlanta) have been stellar in goal. With Calvano's inclusion allowing Aaron Pitchkolan and his grit to push forward into a defensive midfield capacity, many opposing attacks have been disrupted before they could ever begin.
Understandably, the bigger names in the side garner a fair share of attention in the days following Minnesota's clinching of the first part of the NASL treble, but we would be remiss to omit mentions of others who have played a part. Greg Jordan has performed admirably in the heart of the midfield when called into action from the bench, and Brent Kallman did well in the middle of a makeshift back line that weathered a significant road storm against the Silverbacks. Such contributions only reinforce they idea that winning trophies is indeed an all-hands-on-deck endeavor.
For Lagos and Minnesota, the challenge that now comes is one of keeping the fire burning throughout the grinding fall season and upcoming Championship, in which Minnesota has already earned one of the four spots. As seen with Atlanta last season, remaining focused in the fall after winning in the spring can be a challenge. Yet, based upon what we've learned about this multifaceted Minnesota side thus far in 2014, perhaps there is little reason to believe that they won't keep pushing on towards the heights of the league.
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