FiftyFive.One
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Category: The Angle
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Designated Report: DC United
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Designated Report: DC UnitedAs MLS grows as a league, the braintrust keeps referring to a goal to become “one of the top leagues in the world” by 2022. Along with expansion, player compensation has seen a massive overhaul in the past five years. Player salaries are increasing thanks to many undefined mechanisms like GAM, TAM, WHAM!, AM, and…
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Safe Standing Takes Shape in Minnesota Stadium Plans
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Safe Standing Takes Shape in Minnesota Stadium PlansLead designer for Populous, Bruce Miller, speaks exclusively to FiftyFive.One about the ‘safe standing’ supporters section planned for the Minnesota United stadium. When Minnesota United FC publicly unveiled its stadium design back in February, primary owner Dr. Bill McGuire made a point of highlighting the club’s plans to incorporate a large, single tier supporters section…
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Designated Report: MLS (Series Overview)
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Designated Report: MLS (Series Overview).As MLS grows as a league, the braintrust keeps referring to a goal to become “one of the top leagues in the world” by 2022. Along with expansion, player compensation has seen a massive overhaul in the past five years. Player salaries are increasing thanks to many undefined mechanisms like GAM, TAM, WHAM!, AM, and…
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Can Professional Soccer be Successful in Minnesota?
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Can Professional Soccer be Successful in Minnesota?The Minnesota State Legislature will soon decide the fate of a Minnesota United soccer-specific stadium at the Midway bus barn site in St. Paul, Minnesota. Just this weekend the Star Tribune editorial staff wrote a piece that warned legislatures not to squander the opportunity to bring MLS to our state. They correctly pointed out there…
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Surviving Midway
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Surviving MidwayWhen I moved my family from suburban Northeast Minneapolis to the neighborhood around the new Minnesota United FC stadium (in the inner city of St. Paul), I thought it would put me closer to the things I loved: soccer, community, and French Vietnamese bakeries. Never did I ever consider that I was moving them into…
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The Greatest Goal I’ve Ever Seen: Johan Cruyff and the Minnesota Connection
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: The Greatest Goal I’ve Ever Seen: Johan Cruyff and the Minnesota ConnectionOn March 24, 2016, the football clock stopped at full time for Johan Cruyff. He was –perhaps – the greatest player to ever grace a football pitch and certainly one of the most influential players of all-time. My friend Bill Goff wrote to me last Thursday morning after hearing the sad news. Bill shared a…
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Self-Help; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Soccer
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Self-Help; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the SoccerI need you to sit down before you read this, but MLS is just OK. NASL, well it’s a little less OK, USL? Yeah. I say this because we need to (I’m including myself in this) stop caring so much about what other people say about the teams, leagues, and sport we love. Prompting these…
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How the Deal Got Done: A look at St. Paul’s Minnesota United Stadium Coup
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: How the Deal Got Done: A look at St. Paul’s Minnesota United Stadium CoupAt the beginning of 2015, Minneapolis looked a lock for Major League Soccer. Whether it would be in the ZygiDome or a Minnesota United stadium on the Farmer’s Market site, it was not going to St. Paul. Almost a year after MLS announced Minnesota United FC as a new franchise, Dr. Bill McGuire will be…
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Opinion: Peak MLS – Two “United”s Good, Three “United”s Baaaad
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Opinion: Peak MLS – Two “United”s Good, Three “United”s BaaaadApparently MLS would prefer that Minnesota United FC drop the “United” from their name. Why? We haven’t the foggiest idea. Traditionally when a lower division team has entered into Major League Soccer, the club has undergone a redesign to their crest and tweaks to their colors to bring the club’s identity up to a 21st…
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Opinion: What On Earth Is The NASL Doing?
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Opinion: What On Earth Is The NASL Doing?Divining the intentions of the NASL has always been more of an art than a science, but even seasoned NASL watchers were baffled by this week’s announcement of new expansion club Rayo OKC. The NASL has had a turbulent history since its inception in 2010, yet the league has nonetheless made some serious strides. The…
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Dispelling the Myth: Foreignness and MLS Coaching
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: Dispelling the Myth: Foreignness and MLS CoachingOn Monday, NYCFC announced that Patrick Viera would take the reins of the team’s sophomore year in MLS. The MLS internet responded with a collective snark. Jason Kreis, the MLS golden boy and future World Cup winning coach of the USMNT, couldn’t do it (because of those meddling foreign owners!) so how could someone with…
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How and Why a St. Paul Midway Soccer Stadium Could Work
Categories: The AngleContinue Reading: How and Why a St. Paul Midway Soccer Stadium Could WorkOn March 25th of this year, Major League Soccer announced Minnesota United as an expansion team and the league’s 23rd franchise. While the event was a spectacle – some called it the best attended and celebrated franchise announcement in league history – momentum was quickly lost. Minnesota United owner Dr. Bill McGuire and his MLS…