MINNEAPOLIS — In the latest iteration of Minneapolis City SC’s Twin Cities Derby, it’s fair to throw out division standings and team records. For the second-straight summer, Justin Oliver is coaching against his twin-brother Tyler’s St. Croix SC. Additionally, on Wednesday, brothers Jake and Joe Swallen, along with Shea and Ryan Bechtel, squared off against one another for the Crows and Legends, respectively. And, with bragging rights on the line, each meeting has been strenuously contested.
The Crows were also arriving back in town to kick off their longest homestand of the season, and coming on the heels of a two-game winning streak. Confidence was high, as was the energy in the stands at Edor Nelson Field. After three years wandering in the wilderness, City looks to have found its way back to winning soccer.
A criticism voiced by Justin Oliver is that his side has not started quickly enough in a handful of games. That was not the case against St. Croix, with Minneapolis getting on its front foot immediately. Which is why an early concession against the run of play carried a notable sting.
A turnover deep in City’s defensive-third sprung Mathis Guffroy, who squared for Liam Ireland, who poked a close range shot past keeper Daniel Sessler, to put the visitors up in just the 12th minute.
If there is any consolation in giving up a goal, early, it lies with early. With nearly 80 minutes left to hunt down a victory, the Crows were undaunted.
“Just to keep going, keep doing what we’re doing. Everybody knows what we need to do to get a result,” said Jake Swallen, about what was said on field after falling behind by a goal. “I think we showed great character in the comeback. We’ve been down before, even this season, and throughout our careers. So, we just wanted to stay calm, play our game, keep the ball moving.
“I think we knew we were going to find goals.”
It took just short of a half hour, but the Crows kept applying pressure until they were able to equalize.
In the 39th minute, midfielder Ian Shaul did well to pick out winger Morgan Olson for a free shot from inside the penalty area. Legends keeper Quinn Millerd — who had made a fantastic save of a Joe Highfield shot earlier in the half — stopped the initial effort. But for the second-straight match, Shea Bechtel played fox-in-the-box, pouncing on the rebound before rounding Millerd and bundling in a goal, ending up sandwiched between the keeper and the near post for his trouble.
“Big goal by Shea to level it back up. Came out of halftime with a very good response,” said Justin Oliver. “Got another goal, which was good.”
Playmaking once more, this time six minutes after the restart, Shaul squared a ball through the St. Croix midfield to find Highfield 25-yards out from goal. In a pocket of space, Highfield had time to fully put his laces through the ball, line-driving a shot past Millerd and into the back netting.
“Second half, again with them losing, naturally, they’ll get more aggressive and find more of their way into the game,” said Justin Oliver. “So, I think that was the most we’ve probably been pinned back in a second half, with not as much of the ball. It’s probably one of our first games of the season where we’ve been out-shot. Sessler had to make two huge saves.”
It was Nolan Meyer in goal in City’s win over the weekend, away to Rochester FC. And City’s manager had continued his practice of rotating keepers, no worse for it, when getting an excellent performance from Sessler on the evening.
Postgame, Sessler was asked, directly, whether or not being in and out of the starting XI makes it any more difficult to remain sharp.
“Personally, no,” answered the keeper. “I think our goalie room, like me, Nolan and Jack [Roach], we’re very competitive. I think we’re all very high-quality goalkeepers. So, in training you get in game reps, game-quality reps, with us three. And, yeah, it’s really easy to stay sharp in those moments.”
Following Highfield’s goal, in just the 54th minute, St. Croix nearly equalized when Ryan Bechtel placed an extremely dangerous cross on the foot of Asher Ozuzu inside City’s six-yard box. The first-touch shot occurred perhaps faster than Sessler could comfortably react, and even though the cross had been hit with pace, it did not travel faster than Sessler traversing his goalmouth to preserve the Crows lead.
“That was just right place at the right time. Got my face to it which is fortunate, to keep it a 2-1 game. And I think from there, it deflated St. Croix a little bit, gave us a little bit of momentum to go get our third. And after that, you know, we could sit in and see the game out. Kill it.”
Kill the game, following Sessler’s save, Minneapolis all but did. Jackson Kirsch found just enough space along the touchline to pick out his Drake Bulldogs collegiate teammate and second-half substitute Preston Kipnusu with a curled cross. The big No. 9 buried his header, and a glancing touch from Millerd wasn’t enough to keep the ball out of the Legends’ net. Having checked into the game in the 61st minute, it had taken Kipnusu only four minutes to ink his name on the scoresheet.
A few more clutch saves from Sessler were required to make the scoreline stand, as the Legends fought to find a way back into the game. But there were no more goals to be found for either team ahead of the final whistle.
Among other things, the game was a showcase of the roster assembled by sporting director Casey Holm and the rest of the sporting staff. Rotating in for Highfield against Rochester, and Kipnusu on the day, Shea Bechtel has scored in each of his starts at forward. And, being able to bring Kipnusu off the bench to score his fifth goal in seven games is testament to the team’s depth.
“It’s just everybody,” said Sessler, on which of his teammate’s performances stood out. “It’s really easy to play goalie for a team where you have 10, 12, 14, 16 guys that can come in and put in a shift, and make my job a lot easier. So I just give great applause to our backline, midfield, strikers — all of them.”
Familiarity Breeds Co… mpetition
That the contest between the Crows and Legends encompassed Oliver versus Oliver, Swallen versus Swallen, Bechtel versus Bechtel, and too many former teammates now on opposing sides to list, was both a source of tension and excitement — at least for Justin Oliver.
Interestingly, when asked if it made the game more difficult to approach, Justin disagreed, focusing on positive aspects.
“Everybody kind of knows who’s who,” said City’s head coach. “I think it also raises the competitiveness between teams, because everybody knows when you’re playing against one of your best friends, you play a little bit harder and a little bit tougher. And you compete and do that little bit more. So again, that’s where I think the game was. Very, very competitive today and close.
“Like you said, funny watching the Swallens go against each other in the midfield at different points. Shae and Ryan [Bechtel] didn’t get to have as much of a matchup, but it’s an interesting dynamic. And then, even then, like we have players starting for us today — Shea, Cole [Schrage], Jared [Hecht] — people that had played at St Croix last year are now here.
“It’s always a cool dynamic when there’s brothers playing against brothers, coaching against brothers. I thought that, again, St. Croix did very well. I thought that we did well. I thought it was a good game between two good teams that, again, have familiarity.”
Looking for More
The victory was just the Crows’ second of the 2025 League Two season that came by more than a one-goal margin, and it felt as if the Crows were in control following Highfield giving them the lead. Postgame, there was praise to go around.
“Jake Swallen was exceptional today. He was so, so good for us,” Justin Oliver said. “Cole made a couple of huge, big defensive interventions on some of their counter attacks that were big time. Sessler was obviously very, very good. I think that was Joe Highfield’s best performance in a USL2 match. So that was big time from him. I thought Shea did a very good job.
“We had a lot of solid performances from people. But the top ones for me were, again definitely Daniel Sessler, definitely Jake Swallen, and I thought Shea.”
And yet, both Justin Oliver and Jake Swallen, postgame, declined to include the two-goal victory among City’s best performances of the summer.
“I think just speed of play. I think the details,” Jake Swallen answered, when asked where improvement was needed. “I mean, Sess — Daniel Sessler — made a couple of big saves. We just want to limit those high-probability chances for our opponent, which come off of transition, and then just our mistakes. So, if we can limit those two, three big chances of the game, I think we lessen our goals conceded by a couple goals a game, which leads to more wins.”
Added Oliver: “Our division is so competitive, every-single game is decided between one-to-two goals, and again, executing in critical moments. So, I think you can see anybody-against-anybody can take points off of anybody on a given day. I also believe that we can go toe to toe with everybody in our conference and leave with 3 points on that day.
“I love our squad. I love our player quality, and I know that we have, again, the quality to be competing for top of the division.
“But the best way to do that is… treating everybody with respect, giving them our best game. And, I don’t think we’ve done that yet, so I’m very excited to see us keep building. Because when it does all kind of fall into place and the pieces of the puzzle do fit together, I think that we can do some special things.”
Race for the Heartland
We’ve updated our recurring Race for the Heartland section. Pre-professional soccer, indeed, and it has been pointed out to the author that only three second-place clubs from the Central Conference’s five divisions qualify for the postseason, based first on points-per-game. Thus, we have added what will be a floating line representing the minimum points-per-game the second-place Heartland Division team will need to make the playoffs, based on what that number is at time of publication.
Presently, among second-place sides, Lexington SC (2.13 PPG) of the Valley Division and FC Buffalo (1.86 PPG) of the Great Forest Division are on the outside looking in.
The good news for Minneapolis fans is that the Crows have back-to-back home games ahead, and immediately following, will not be subject to any road weariness in their intra-metro rematch away to St. Croix in Stillwater, Minn.
“I’m not sure, exactly, what the standings look like, right?” said Jake Swallen, postgame. “[B]ut we pretty much control our own destiny. So, I think, like you said, two games at home is huge. I think we’ve played everybody in our [division] right now. I’ve seen kind of what our team is like against those guys, and I think that we can beat everybody in our [division].
“So, I’m pretty confident going into our next three, and I think we should be able to pick up 9 points from our three. So, I don’t know, I’m excited.”
