Del Do with a Brace as Minnesota Defeat the Silverbacks on the Road
Devin Del Do scored both goals as the NSC Minnesota Stars moved into second place in the North American Soccer League with a 2-0 win over the Atlanta Silverbacks in Atlanta, Ga.
Del Do put the Stars on the board before all the fans were even seated, beating Atlanta goalkeeper Felipe Quintero to an Andrei Gotsmanov through-ball and chipping it into the empty net in the fourth minute.
As Atlanta pressed for an equalizer in the second half, Del Do added his second goal of the night, rising to head home a Simone Bracalello cross from the top of the six-yard box.
The win improves the Stars to 4-2-5 with 17 points, and FC Edmonton’s loss to the Montreal Impact helps the Stars move into second place in the league. Minnesota has snatched 4 points in their first two games of a three-game road trip. The Stars are in action next Saturday in Fort Lauderdale against the Strikers to close out their road trip.
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The Stars are doing a great job keeping the other teams from putting points on the board. The match v. FC Edmonton was a let down, but beyond that I think the lads are playing some pretty good soccer. (I did think the midfield looked tired tonight.)
How can you take five points from two games?
Brian,
Did you watch the game? It was not Bracalello who crossed the ball, but what is more astonashing here is that even with 7 losses the Atlanta Silverbacks can still put over 2400 fans in a stadium. The Stars now second in the standings can’t put more than 1000 fans there. Whats the deal with the Stars fans. Although I live in Virginia, I still watch every game. It was also poor that only 100 online fans watched the game. I don’t see the passion from the fans side. The players are certainly doing there part, scoring goals, defending well. Just my thoughts.
Trevor,
That sir is what you call a typo.
Mr. VanOekel,
Your comment seems highly emotionally charged. Let me try to take the time to respond to them.
If you please take note, this article was (From the Wire) not me. I have yet to make a write up and yes, I did watch the game, thank you for asking.
The Stars attendance is a problem but it’s also a problem that the league, (meaning the NASL officials) scheduled 4 home games in May which if anyone knows anything about Minnesota weather is a HUGE mistake.
Being from the south I guess I understand that you don’t know what it’s like to live through decades of Minnesota winters and springs. But the league officials need to know better.
We actually had our first really nice Saturday of the year and it’s June. Sometimes we can have great weather in May, but most years it’s pretty much like what we’ve had. So to me the league needs to own much of this issue. By the way, the nice weather also explains the fans watching online. Unlike you we only get 3 month of good weather up here each summer. You take advantage of it when you can.
Yesterday on my way to the Sweetwater to watch the US National team game, I drove past one of the spots were the city dumps all the excess snow from the winter. Guess what. There’s still a dirty mound of snow and ice in the lot. Yup! It’s still there.
Also, the Kicks back in the NASL had the second highest average attendance for the duration of the league. The Thunder, as I have pointed out here time after time, had an average attendance of 3,200. Please actually look at the link.
http://is.gd/8tqcWN
I think it’s clear that the team has had good support in the past but has seen dwindling number since ’07 which I’ve also explained here before but will try to be patient and do one more time.
The first drop in numbers to that chart was when the Thunder moved to St. Paul over a dispute with the NSC on cost of the stadium use. The team moved to St. Paul but played on a very low budget. We had a good US Open Cup run in ’05 but other than that the team quality was going down hill. Interestingly, ’06 was the only year the team made a profit. It worked the heck out of it’s camps it held for kids and part of the players salaries were that they had to work at these camps. At the same time the team was hardly paying anything to the players. Quality on the field went down and they were playing in a high school football field that was so narrow they had to get permission from the USSF to play there.
Everyone was excited when Dean Johnson purchased the team and promised the moon. The team actually started rebranding itself, hired for the first time a top class marketing guy and started promoting the team as this sort of a Soccer in the City type thing. That same spring the team up and abruptly moved back to Blaine and played on an exhibition field until the NSC was redone. At that same time the marketing guy and their first ever full time ticket sales executive who had been hired from the MN Wild, parted ways and we were back to square one. After that everyone knows the Dean Johnson story by now.
So now we have a folded team, a new team started in 3 months by the NSC but no real money for marketing, and then a change of ownership again in the off months because of the new USSF D2 ownership standards and a league owned team who now again had 3 months to get their act together and field a team.
So considering all this apathy, confusion and poor scheduling of the team, are you still confused about the attendance?
By the way their attendance average is actually 1,423. Not 1000. I get your point however.
http://nasl.com/index.php?id=228
@VanOekel, I would agree that attendance is an issue. I think the front office is doing a better job than in years past to put butts in the seats. There are also a lot of dedicated supporters working hard on their own. I also do not think that the viewership numbers are a good way to gauge support. There were three people in my house watching the match, yet that only counts for one view. I would imagine there were quite a few people at the Sweety watching as well–the first two parties I went to at the beginning of the season had 40+ people each time.
Attendance is something we all need to be patient with. There is still a lot of bad feelings about what happened with the Thunder, and more and more people are taking note. Weather has also been a factor this year–there has really only been one “nice” evening for soccer.
My prediction is that if the Stars keep winning, they will have 2500-3000 people at matches by the end of the season.
Soccerboy,
(I did think the midfield looked tired tonight.)
Not to be an apologist, but did you consider conditions the boys were playing in.
Atlanta’s last match was 7 days ago.
Minnesota’s last match 3 days ago.
Atlanta at home on turf they are used to playing on.
Weather conditions 95 and humid.
I would have been sluggish also.
The Stars are a good team to watch. Atlanta is not. The Silverback web announcers are awesome. Nice touch to include the audience in their broadcast. Points that were made is Minnesota has beaten Atlanta 3 times which makes their record a little dubious IMO. Atlanta has only scored 3 goals this season which is nuts. They are out of the playoff picture. Minnesota has a good thing going with Edmonton (table wise) so it should be exciting the rest of the way.
I agree with Soccer Boy and BQ that attendance is something we will have to be patient with. However, I believe there is positive momentum. The Stars ran a Groupon deal this spring that drew some interest. In addition, this site by Mr. Quarstad is providing fantastic publicity for the Stars.
VanOekel you are right and we only have excuses to try to save our team, again!
It is a bit of a puzzle at the moment… We are playing good soccer and the supporters are growing at a good pace but the average fan (who knows nothing about the whole drama of team ownership and doesn’t really even care) just has not gotten excited yet. I don’t think anyone really knows why.
The foul weather, Mothers day, fishing opener, and the first good summer outdoor weekend weather have all been working against us for a few years now. Do we really want to start our games all on the road during May, most likely not.
The true test of the teams ability to bring in fans will be during the month of July (4 games, less excuses). That’s when we’ll know if we have a popular product here in Minnesota.
Remember one thing we don’t have an owner and have no control over dropping more money into marketing this year. I don’t think the other teams will add to that funding.
It is what it is, and our fans currently are who they are. The visibility of D2 soccer in Minnesota as a good option/value for entertainment is missing the casual soccer fan at the moment.