NASL Championship Final Preview; NSC Minnesota Stars vs. Fort Lauderdale Strikers

Fort Lauderdale, Florida -

Stars coach Manny Lagos takes his team though their light travel day training session in Ft. Lauderdale the day before the NASL Championship Final.

The Minnesota Stars had one of their best performances of the season last Saturday in the 1st leg of the NASL Championship game at the NSC Stadium in Blaine, Minnesota. A dominating 3-1 win over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers sent the Stars off to South Florida this week with a “somewhat” comfortable 2-goal aggregate lead. Yet a look at the record of these two teams shows that Minnesota will need to have a repeat of last weeks performance and a rock solid defense if they are to hold on to that lead and hoist the new NASL Championship trophy.

In 2011 regular season play, the Strikers held the advantage over Minnesota winning twice and drawing twice with the Strikers outscoring the Stars 6-2. Over the last two seasons and including this past weeks playoff game in Minnesota, that record is a dominating 7-1-3 for Fort Lauderdale. Minnesota is 0-2-1 at Lockhart the last two seasons with a -4 goal differential.

Looking at the Strikers home record this year, they have been dominating when playing at Lockhart Stadium with a 8-3-5 record.

Another factor in this game could be the crowd. Over 6,000 tickets have been sold for the second leg Championship Final with a record 1,200 sold in one day for the Strikers. However, Minnesota has played two away playoff games in both St. Petersburg, Florida against the Rowdies and in Carry against the RailHawks and each had good size crowds. As well, the Stars had to win, and did, in their last regular game of the season. That too was in Cary, N.C., in front of a crowd well over 6,000.

Weather could also have an effect on both attendance for the game but also on the outcome of the match with Fort Lauderdale being more acclimated to the heat and humidity. While Strikers Coach Daryl Shore said after last weeks loss that he felt the cooler weather effected his team in Minnesota, it’s likely that the heat and humidity factor could have even a bigger effect on the Stars. Friday’s temperature was unseasonably warm at 85° F with a very high humidity when the Stars hit the training field late Friday afternoon. Conditions for game time on Saturday are predicted to be 70°F with a 50% chance of rain.

The 2011 Stars kept most of their games close this season, whether at home or on the road, but one of their more ugly losses was on June 11th when the Strikers defeated the Stars 3-0 at Lockhart Stadium.

Speaking after the teams Friday training session in Florida that included some loose and fun one touch games, crossing and finishing drills and penalty kick practices, team head coach Manny Lagos says he is fully aware of the teams past record in Florida, the weather as well as the crowd and has talked to his team about all these factors.

“Last week was a great night for Minnesota soccer and for our team. But we had to quickly move away from that because we have a huge challenge of playing away from home against a team that has put pressure on us when have played down here.”

Lagos said the teams 3-0 defeat at Lockhart, the last time the Stars played the Strikers in Florida, “was one of the most disappointing and challenging games” of this past season. “You take that into account and that tomorrow is going to be a whole new intensity, it’s a great challenge. But the team is excited for the challenge and are ready to play some soccer Saturday night.”

“I told the team if they think we are playing the team we played last weekend, we’re not! We’re playing a team that will be reacting to our performance last weekend and they’re going to be better. So if we don’t get better we are going to be in big trouble.”

“It’s definitely a bigger game than last week,” said Stars midfielder Neil Hlavaty. It’s the last one – the one to close it out. If they get a goal, it’s a whole new game, if we get a goal, it’s a way different game. The attitude on the team is good and we had a good travel day, so I don’t expect any problems tomorrow. I think we’re going to come out and play really well like last game.”