September 2003

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Minnesota Thunder Live at Brit's Pub

Filed under: Imported

The Minnesota Thunder will be a decided underdog going into Saturday's championship showdown with the Charleston Battery in South Carolina. In the 13-year history of the A League, only one visiting team has taken home the title. Which is strange, given that attendance at these matches is generally on par with that for rec-league kickball.

Based on the Thunder's performance last weekend, in which they systematically shut down the Seattle Sounders, the team's chances should not be discounted. The defense was particularly brilliant on Sunday, with the twin towers of Mark Schulte and rookie Dustan Branan squelching any semblance of a Seattle attack. Then there's Johnny Torres, who for the second week in a row sent a brilliant blast into the back of the net to seal the victory. After a ho-hum season, Torres has become a dynamo in the playoffs.

The championship match, which is being broadcast on Fox Sports World, will be shown live at 6 p.m. at Brit's Pub in downtown Minneapolis. Show up. Show the team some love.

Posted by Paul Demko at September 18, 2003 9:40 PM

 

Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3

Filed under: Imported

On Thursday night Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 will perform at the Turf Club in St. Paul. I had only vague notions of who the hell Steve Wynn was when I caught his act almost two years ago at CBGB's. The former Dream Syndicate frontman and his crackerjack band--Dave DeCastro on bass, Jason Victor on guitar and Linda Pitmon on drums--delivered two hours of VU-esque sonic bliss. After that show I purchased Wynn's two-disc masterpiece, "Here Come the Miracles." His latest album, "Static Transmission" is, if anything, even better.

I'll not attempt to write anything intelligent about Wynn's music, but instead direct you to his web site. It contains hours of fabulous material, including live versions of every song on "Here Come the Miracles," a four-hour taping of Vin Scelsa's "Idiot's Delight" radio show, and a lovely, odd cover of "The Long Black Veil" recorded with Johnette Napolitano in room 832 of an Austin, Texas Holiday Inn.

Posted by Paul Demko at September 16, 2003 9:27 AM

 

Troy Needs Prozac!

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Perhaps there's an upside to the fact that nobody attends A League playoff matches. On Friday evening, in Milwaukee, roughly seventeen people were on hand (the announced attendance was 1,927, but that figure is most definitely horseshit) to witness the Minnesota Thunder and Milwaukee Wave United soccer match. As a result, my little band of intrepid football geeks (all seven of us), camped out behind Milwaukee's goalkeeper, became absurdly entangled in the proceedings.

There's some history here. My cohorts apparently have long taken perverse pleasure in heckling Milwaukee's Dusosky brothers, Troy and Todd. There's a few reasons for this: a) The Dusoskys are originally from Anoka;  b) in 2000, at the end of a playoff contest between the clubs, Todd punched former Thunder player Morgan Zeba (admittedly a nasty cuss), instigating a bench-clearing brawl; c) Troy is notoriously thin-skinned.

Soon after the opening whistle, the catcalls began: Troooooy! Trooooy! You suck Dusosky! Pass it to your brother Troy! Pass it to your special buddy Troy! etc.

Now this is utterly harmless (and, granted, extremely juvenile) stuff. Comments of this stripe--and much, much worse--are commonplace at American sporting events of all kinds (and probably anyplace where more than fifty males gather in one place and drink beer). Generally, though, such bilious comments are drowned out by the roar of the crowd. On Friday, there was no crowd to roar. Every comment could be heard--even by Troy Dusosky.

A few minutes into the game, the defender turned to our group, put his index finger to his lips, and angrily shushed us. Naturally, rather than quiet my fellow Thunder fans, this move simply inspired them. That knucklehead is actually listening! My tribe began exclusively heckling the dimwit.

Apparently Dusosky is not the only Milwaukeean unfamiliar with sporting etiquette and the First Amendment. A diminutive Asian fellow seated nearby began vehemently insisting that we were somehow "cheating" by taunting the defender. This fellow then proceeded to bizarrely and repeatedly challenge one member of our group to a fight. Being marginally more intelligent beings than Dusosky, we ignored the man.

The culmination of this ridiculous interlude arrived shortly before halftime when the Thunder were awarded a corner kick directly in front of our seats. Naturally, the chorus of Dusosky heckling increased exponentially. "You're still my bitch Troy!" one person screamed. This comment was apparently too much for Dusosky. Just as the ball was about to be put into play, Troy turned to our group and began screaming. I couldn't make out much of his mad sputterings, but his last statement was, hilariously, "Show some class!"

Unfortunately for Milwaukee, this outburst precluded Dusosky from actually playing defense and could've easily cost his team a goal. But the ball was cleared harmlessly away and the Wave went on to win the first game, 1-0.

The crowd for Sunday's match in Blaine was slightly larger (announced at 2,649--again horseshit) but still anemic. That said, the Thunder supporters put on an impressive display of Troy Dusosky bashing, denigrating his intelligence, playing ability, alma mater, mother, father, and countless other aspects of his life.

Perhaps I'm naive and idealistic, but I would've guessed that Dusosky might've learned something from Friday night's experience--or at least been chastened into good behavior by his coach. This was not the case. Minutes into the match, the defender was once again wagging his finger angrily at the bleacher degenerates. Then he proceeded to--quite classily--flip us the bird.

(In fairness, I should point out that Dusosky did manage to control himself in the second half, despite relentless hectoring. And he actually played a fine match, at one point thwarting a Thunder breakaway with a dangerous, goal-saving tackle.)

But it was the Thunder's day. Johnny Torres put the team on top to stay early in the second half. A Milwaukee midfielder misplayed the ball straight to Torres and he calmly slotted it into the back of the net. At the end of regulation, the aggregate score from the two games was 1-1. Overtime. Just two minutes into the extra period, Johnny Menyongar sent a beautiful 40-yard pass over the top of the defense. Torres corralled it with one touch and again blasted the ball into the back of the onion sack.

Thunder advance. The Dusosky Brothers--and their Milwaukee teammates--are done for the season.

Minnesota will take on the Seattle Sounders in the semifinals this weekend in another home-away series. Sunday's return match in Blaine takes place at 4 p.m.

Coming later this week (provided I can get my butt up to Blaine tomorrow): a Q & A with Thunder coach Buzz Lagos.

Johnny Torres

Posted by Paul Demko at September 9, 2003 6:54 PM

 

Fuck The Vikings

Filed under: Imported

Provided I can get my shit together--and financial prudence doesn't prevail--I'll be traveling to Milwaukee for the Minnesota Thunder's playoff opener tomorrow night, and then on to Chicago for a Saturday MLS dust-up between the Fire and the Columbus Crew. 

The Thunder head into the post-season with a record of 17-9-2, tied for third best in the 19-team A League. Unfortunately, the team is limping into the post-season, having gone winless in its last four games, easily its worst skid of the campaign. That dry spell included a 3-1 drubbing by this weekend's opponent, Milwaukee Wave United (prior to this season known as the Milwaukee Rampage). The two teams split the regular-season series, with each squad winning three times. It's a home-and-away playoff contest, with the return finale slated for Sunday afternoon in Blaine.

I've witnessed just four Thunder games this season so I have no business making pronouncements about the team's play--but I will do so anyway. The one player who has repeatedly stood out is midfielder Marco Ferruzzi. Snatched away from the Richmond Kickers following an MVP season, Ferruzzi is a dominant presence in the midfield, spraying the ball around the pitch with an accuracy rarely witnessed in the A League. What he lacks in speed (quite a bit, frankly) the 32-year-old makes up for with creativity and poise.

That said, Ferruzzi's offensive statistics are surprisingly meager: six goals and four assists on the season. The explanation for this seeming paradox is that the Thunder's forwards--most notably Johnny Menyongar, Johnny Torres and Marshall Morehead--have at times seemed pathologically incapable of putting the ball in the back of the net. In two of the games I witnessed--against the Cincinnati Riverhawks and the El Paso Patriots--the Thunder thoroughly dominated possession and constantly had scoring opportunities, yet barely eked out one-goal victories.

These bouts of scoring ineptitude have not been fatal owing to the team's defense, which has allowed a scant one goal per game. This stinginess will be severely tested against Milwaukee, a team that has scored a whopping 61 goals, easily tops in the league.

Thunder downtown-bound? This will likely be the Thunder's last season at the National Sports Center in Blaine. The team will spend the offseason scouring Minneapolis and St. Paul for a new home. According to general manager Jim Froslid, fans have consistently expressed displeasure at having to trek up to Blaine for each match. My beef with the NSC has always been aesthetic as much as geographic. Despite being a fairly intimate stadium, the atmosphere is severely hampered by the presence of a 10-lane track in between the stands and the field, meaning that the closest seats are roughly fifty feet from the sidelines. Hopefully the Thunder can find a new home that is more fan friendly--both in terms of transportation and viewing. Lord knows where that will be.

Posted by Paul Demko at September 4, 2003 9:37 PM

 

St. Paul's Destiny

Filed under: Imported

Tomorrow's City Pages will contain my take on the forthcoming St. Paul City Council elections. (The primary is on September 9th.) No disrespect to our would-be public servants, but listening to them talk about the issues over the past couple of weeks has been a pretty banal experience. Everyone is in favor of cracking down on crime, spurring economic development, creating decent schools, etc. Of course, most of the candidates fail to discuss exactly what they would do to make any of these things happen.

I did, however, stumble across one concrete proposal that is surely unmatched in its audacity. Bill Hosko, a downtown St. Paul artist and gallery owner who is running for the Ward Two seat as an independent, proposes creating a "common man's Mt. Rushmore." "St. Paul needs something that would set itself apart, not only from Minneapolis but also from cities across this country," he argues. 

As I understand the proposal, Hosko envisions six 65-foot high stone figurines carved into the cliffs below Kellogg Park along the Mississippi River. There would be an American Indian man and woman looking east towards an arriving white man. The white guy would be trailed by people of Asian, African and Hispanic descent. "I call it 'Destiny' because this encounter was destined to happen," says Hosko. "It was unavoidable."

Hosko estimates that this piece of public art would cost $30 million. He plans to place it on a ballot referendum so that voters can decide directly whether their tax dollars should be spent on the project. As Hosko sees it, the sculpture would more than compensate for its cost by attracting visitors from across the globe. ""It can be and it would be St. Paul's gift to the nation and perhaps the world," Hosko boasts. "They would come year round, in all types of weather, day and night."

Somehow I'm not optimistic about Destiny's chances.

Posted by Paul Demko at September 2, 2003 4:04 PM

 

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