MINNEAPOLIS — Earlier in the week, on Wednesday, July 9, Minneapolis City SC was beaten 3-1 away at RKC Third Coast. The defeat snapped the Crows’ six-game winning streak in League Two play. Coming in the penultimate regular-season game for Minneapolis, the loss raised stakes for the finale.
City, sitting in second place and trailing not only by 3 points in the standings, but in both the head-to-head and goals-for tie breakers, would need to beat first-place Sueno FC by at least two goals when the pair met at Edor Nelson Field on Saturday evening. Anything less from Minneapolis, and the Dreamers would hold onto first place, and with it, the Heartland Division crown.
Relevant, Again
The jump from the NPSL to League Two had proven a large one for Minneapolis. In 2022, the Crows managed a single win and 5 points in total. The following year brought modest improvement; three wins and 12 points. And in 2024, the club set new highs with five wins and 15 points, but along with seven losses, had once-again fallen short of producing a winning season in League Two.
Head coach Justin Oliver and assistant head-coach Tudor Flintham had taken over midway through the 2024 campaign. Sporting director Casey Holm’s addition turned the pair into a trio this winter. And the three would shape Minneapolis’ roster for the coming season to their preferences, instead of Oliver and Flintham jumping in to steer a team, midstream.
The author was seated next to club chairman, Dan Hoedeman, in the pressbox, an hour before Saturday evening’s 6:00 p.m. kickoff. Hoedeman was asked for his thoughts about what would qualify as success for the Crows that evening, and that summer.
Minneapolis had already clinched its first winning season in the league with its 2-0 win against Rochester on June 27. And it secured its first League Two postseason berth a day later when RKC drew Sueno at home. But now, 90 minutes away from its first trophy since 2021, would Hoedeman be satisfied without seizing first place in the Heartland?
“I just wanted us to be relevant, again,” said Hoedeman, after City had averaged three league wins a summer for the past trio of years. “That’s what I told Justin, Tudor and Casey.”
Hoedeman looked out over the stands as gameday interns were hanging club signage, ahead of the arrival of spectators, and noted, with a relaxed smile, “Our attendance has gone up every home game this year.”
The Finest of Lines
It had taken a lot to keep the division title in play amid an ultra-competitive Heartland schedule. And City had done it, often, by walking the finest of lines.
Away to River Light FC on May 22, trailing 1-0, forward Preston Kipnusu drew a foul outside the hosts’ penalty area in added time. A pair of Crows midfielders surveyed the defense ahead of the resulting free kick, and Ian Shaul whispered to Jackson Kirsch, “Maybe go under the wall.”
Kirsch did, and with the next-to-last kick of the game, stole a point on the road.
Coming off its first loss of the season, City trailed by a goal, late, away to Chicago City Dutch Lions on June 11. Though just the fifth game of the season for the Crows, dropping any points to the last-place Lions would be a painful blow to their ambitions for the season.
Eighteen-year-old Elijah Fearing, a recent graduate of Woodbury High School, and 66th minute substitute, found space along the touchline. The winger drove the ball into Chicago City’s 18-yard-box, shook his marker on the dribble, and won contact off a desperate lunge.
Kirsch converted the resulting penalty in the 77th minute. And seven minutes later, forward Joe Highfield would feed Shaul ahead of a deep run from midfield that would see the incoming Notre Dame sophomore nutmeg keeper Tobias Stirl to secure victory for the Crows.
Tomas Menna, having spent multiple years with Minneapolis’ second team in the UPSL, had earned a senior roster spot ahead of this season.
Entering City’s June 15 match at (then) first-place Rochester FC as a 74th-minute substitute, Menna was on the field when the Loons’ Alexander Matthews leveled the game at 1-1 via a rocket, fired from 25 yards, that struck twine with two minutes remaining in regulation. Putting his body on the line in pursuit of a loose rebound, Menna drew the game-winning penalty in the 94th, which Kirsch converted.
On July 3, Highfield left the Twin Cities at 6:00 a.m. to embark upon a two-day road trip, having been called back to Oregon to begin preseason training at Portland University.
The evening before, after missing a golden scoring chance inside the St. Croix Legends’ six-yard box, Highfield cleared his mind, and buried the next when it arrived, in the 77th minute. With what was his fifth and final goal of the year for the Crows, Highfield gave Minneapolis a 2-1 win in the away leg of the Twin Cities Derby.
Keepers Daniel Sessler, Jack Roach and Nolan Meyer had each, across City’s first 11 games, produced key saves to keep scorelines static. Clutch tackles from defenders on up to forwards had done so, as well.
In a regular-season run that would come down to just one, single goal, the feeblest attempt at brevity precludes mention of all but a fraction of the plays and individual efforts that were needed from the Crows’ roster. But the collective impact was evident.
“Last time I was on City [in 2023], we didn’t perform too well. I think we had some good performances and didn’t get results,” said Crows forward Shea Bechtel. “And this year, we put in a lot of great performances. We have a really good squad. I’m actually one of the older people on the team, so that feels a little bit weird, for once. But we strung together great performances, and then we put ourselves in a great spot to win a trophy.”
Bechtel’s Big Day
Sueno’s Easton Bogard scored in just the 11th minute. It appeared Sessler had been screened, or perhaps the shot deflected off of centerback Nick Kent, as the Crows’ keeper did not pick up the ball in time to offer at it.
Bogard, slipped into the penalty area by a neat diagonal pass, feinted, then cut back to curl the ball just inside the near post. The Dreamers’ first goal was taken with the game’s first shot. And it meant that City was now three goals away from the only result that mattered on the day.
“I just talked to Jake Swallen, and I looked at him, I said, ‘We’re good. We’re fine,'” Bechtel said. “When you concede early, yeah, it sucks. But there’s so much game left to be played. And, at the beginning of the game, Justin told us to never give up, because I think everybody’s been on a team that scored two late goals to win games. And so, I think the belief was always there, no matter what, when we were down.”
What followed was one of the best half-hours of soccer in City’s nine-year history. Needing to score at least thrice to take over first place, the Crows delivered.
“I mean, we’re the number one team. We didn’t come into that game thinking they were,” said defender Curtis Wagner. “We came into it thinking that we were, and, you know, we proved it.”
With Highfield back at school, and fellow 6-foot-4 forward Kipnusu’s workload being managed, the Crows would kickstart a huge rally off the head of the 5-foot-9 Bechtel in the 14th minute.
Kirsch’s blocked shot was collected by Wagner, and the defender sent a left-footed cross into the Dreamers’ 6-yard-box. Finding space in between defenders, Bechtel nodded the ball down off the turf and inside the far post.
Wagner leapt, pumping his fist, while Bechtel quickly grabbed the ball out of the net to run it back to the center circle.
Just three minutes later, a Crows throw-in was momentarily intercepted by Sueno. But Bechtel pounced, immediately, to win the ball back, and inside the attacking third. With his second touch, Bechtel played Mizael Harris toward goal.
A slide-tackle dispossessed Harris. And again, Bechtel was a half-step ahead in a crowd, and first to the loose ball. The forward’s first-touch shot was blocked and regathered, before he rounded a Dreamers defender and poked a ball across the mouth and just in front of keeper Alejandro Ortiz.
Harris, meanwhile, had picked himself up, and sticking with the play, drifted to the back post, where he did just enough to bundle the ball in to give City it’s first lead.
In just six minutes, the Crows had gone from three goals away from the division crown, to needing just one more score.
“The boys just absolutely erupted,” said Oliver. “And then the next 30 minutes was some of the best soccer that we played in terms of how I want our pressing, and our competing, and our winning first, second, and thirds. We didn’t necessarily play the prettiest tiki-taka soccer, but I just felt like we dominated the field. We were smothering them. We were winning everything. We were creating chances, set pieces, and just everything was going right.
“And so, for us to respond in that way to going down was… so big-time from the boys.”
Minneapolis would continue to pile pressure upon the visitors as the half progressed. And, before the Dreamers could escape to the locker room, the Crows struck twice more.
Wagner slipped Harris into the Dreamers’ penalty area with a well weighted pass, where the City winger was dropped by a Daniel Firs tackle. But Firs had also played the ball out for a corner.
There had been questions as to whether Firs had gotten body or ball, first, and shouts from the stands and Minneapolis bench inquired as much. Similar shouts had earlier been produced after separate collisions between Ortiz and Crows winger Bernard Aisseby-Rhule, and forward Julian Banks and a Dreamers defender, either of which could have resulted in a penalty kick had the referee been so inclined.
But karma, and a Jackson Kirsch corner, would provide City’s third goal. Kirsch’s in-swinger snuck just over a mess of bodies at the near post, untouched, and looked as if it might become an Olimpico. Sueno’s Sho Haggerty attempted to prevent the latter, and was struck waist-high by the ball, before deflecting it into his own net.
By the 39th minute, Minneapolis had achieved its requisite two-goal lead. Eighty-six seconds afterward, it would take out a priceless insurance policy.
Midfielder Morgan Olson laid the ball off for forward Julian Banks along the touchline. Banks was only-just able to sneak a pass through to Harris in the middle of the pitch. Harris immediately pushed the ball wide to Bechtel.
With the Crows forward picking the ball up precisely on the edge of the penalty area, the Dreamers had to be cautious with a challenge. Bechtel, for his own part, was also patient. An initial feint froze Andrew Brown in protection of the near post. As Bechtel drove inside, Firs rushed to cover. A second hesitation in the direction of a near-post shot froze Firs as the first had Brown.
With his next touch, the reigning two-time MIAC Offensive Player of the Year calmly rolled the ball into the far corner to score what would prove the division-clinching goal.
Charlie Norkett would pull a goal back for the guests in the 63rd minute, making the final half-hour a rather nervy affair for Crows players, coaches and supporters, alike. Multiple big saves from Sessler, a crossbar, a post, and contributions off the bench from Otis Anderson, Kipnusu, Fearing, and Menna were needed to make the necessary scoreline hold.
“I mean, that that’s something you can’t describe right there, that feeling of winning,” Wagner said. “I mean, we’ve been talking about it all year, and it came down to this, and we did it. We got the job done. Feels fantastic.”
And when the final whistle sounded, on a field in which he was surrounded by bigger, more athletic Division I players, it was Division III St. Olaf’s first member of the 40-40 Club, Shea Bechtel, that had emerged with a brace and an assist, and on the division-winning side.
“If you want to just look up what the definition of a dog is, it’s it’s Shea Bechtel,” said Oliver. “Because if you go and look at him, it’s not like he passes the eye test, where he’s super tall, like Joe or Preston. Or that he has just this crazy change of pace. But what he does is he just competes, and he plays with his whole heart. And then obviously he has a lot of quality, and he is massively underrated in that regard.
“But he just goes out and he checks every single box, and he puts his body on the line if you go look back at his goals. There aren’t these crazy, flashy finishes. It’s a scrappy goal against St Croix, where he hits his head on the post. It’s him getting the header back across on the goal line. It’s, today, getting that first one at the near post despite being the smallest player in the field.
“Then I think the second goal embodies him perfectly. You get to see him have the composure against a big-time player from Wisconsin, cuts in on his left foot. Another Division I centerback steps out to him, cuts past him as well, and just slots into the bottom quarter. So, even though he’s a Division III dog, there’s a reason that he’s a multi-time All American.”
Bechtel and his teammates, in claiming the Heartland Division championship, had won Minneapolis City’s first silverware in four years.
Sessler Is Golden
Each summer since 2020, following City’s final regular-season home game, the Minneapolis Citizens Supporters Group has presented its Golden Crow Award to the Minneapolis City SC player that has demonstrated the same level of passion and commitment to the club as its supporters.
On Saturday, goalkeeper Daniel Sessler joined fan favorites Jonah Garcia, Max Stiegwardt, Matt Murikami, Wes Lorrens and Even Siefken among the list of honorees.
It was recognition well deserved. Joining the Crows ahead of the 2024 season, Sessler’s dedication to the black-and-pink has been a constant. Serving as the second option behind Siefken last season, and filling in for the Futures team in UPSL games played in front of empty stands, there was no discernable change in Sessler’s drive and enthusiasm, even as compared to present day, as the established No. 1 on a Heartland Division championship side.
“I got so much respect for Sess,” said Oliver. “Obviously, he was big-time at St. Mary’s, and had a phenomenal career there being All-Region.
“Last year, he kind of found himself teetering, sometimes not being selected. And it was Evan Siefkin’s season. And despite that, he was at everything. He was committed. He was bought in. And then this year we had an open goalkeeper competition between Nolan [Meyer], himself, and Jack [Roach]. And every single time his name was called upon, he stepped up in a big, big way, and that was just kind of a key theme for him today. His three big, sprawling saves, coming off the line. There’s one to tip it onto the post. Just did some special, special things.
“I’m so proud of Daniel Sessler. He’s another guy who just, again, knows what it means to play for Minneapolis City, play for the fans — what it means to be a part of this club. So, there’s not a guy who’s more deserving of it, because, again, he’s made UPSL trips to go play in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin. And then, when he gets his opportunity this year, he’s just ran with it. So, I got just nothing but love and respect for that guy.”
The American fourth division has its own rhythms and conventions, and the Crows’ roster has always been a mix of collegiate players bolstered by a handful of local veterans. No player has been awarded the Golden Crow in their first year with the club, and four-of-five previous recipients were given the honor in what would prove their final season with City.
Having just completed his collegiate career, if 2025 proves Sessler’s last campaign in the City of Lakes, none can say he has not left his mark.
“I mean it it’s really easy to put in energy when you’re getting the energy in return. Like, our fans are fantastic,” said Sessler, on being given the Golden Crow. “I haven’t been to an away venue yet in my post-collegiate career that has had fans like this, that pour their heart and souls in every game. When guys are very committed, it’s really easy to be part of that. It’s the days where you know you really have to just grind through them, and it’s really easy to do that when you have guys around you, fans around you, coaches around you, that believe in you and put in the same effort.”
