by Ian Katan
MINNEAPOLIS — A largely-successful 2024 campaign for the Minneapolis City U-21 Futures drew to a close with a 4-2 loss to 1826 Academy in the UPSL Midwest West playoffs.
The U-21s had a standout league performance, recording eight wins, one draw, and one loss across the regular season. Twenty-five points marked the Futures’ second-highest regular-season total, and it was enough to top the Midwest West standings for the second year in a row.
“It’s been excellent,” head coach Josh Roy said, on his first year in charge of the U-21s. “The guys had a tremendous season, being excellent all the way through the UPSL season, and really through the entire run-in at the end.”
History was in City’s favor going into the game. The two sides had already met once in 2024, when the Crows took down 1826 5-3 in late May. Even better, the Futures had a formidable home record, having not lost a game at Edor Nelson Field in four years.
1826 Academy, to their credit, were also entering the playoffs off the back of a strong year, where they finished 6-2-2, and put together a six-game unbeaten run to end regular-season play. And in their inaugural summer, qualifying for the UPSL playoffs is a more-than-respectable accomplishment.
“Everybody was prepared, everybody was looking ready,” Futures forward Tomas Menna said after the game, reflecting on his team’s foucs ahead of the match. “We were excited, we’ve been here before, we know what it’s like. We knew it was gonna be a dogfight.”
Dogfight it was. Eight minutes in, 1826 clipped a ball behind Future’s backline. Rigo Arellano ran in pursuit, but excessively rainy weather in the previous days meant that Arellano’s slide on the wet turf carried him too far into the visiting attacker, who went down, earning a penalty. In a moment of good fortune for the home side, though, the shot met post instead of net.
Per Law 14 of the International Football Association Board’s Laws of the Game, a penalty kick-taker is not allowed to play the ball for a second time, until another player has touched it. And following the rulebook, when the ricochet came immediately back to the kicker, who tried again to find the net, the referee signaled for an indirect free kick and relieved the Crows of their duties defending the rebound.
Spared an early deficit, Minneapolis set about searching for a lead for themselves. In the 25th minute, they found it. Menna was quickest to an overhit cross, and squared up with his defender just outside the box. A quick sidestep and he was free, picking out a low cross towards Carter Hermanson at the near post.
Defenders gravitated towards the striker, not noticing Mitchel Munzing drifting in off their shoulder. Hermanson, rather than trying to force a tight-angle shot, smartly let the cross glance off his boot and towards the unguarded middle of the goal, where Munzing smashed it home.
“I saw Menna get the ball out wide,” Munzing described. “Tried to find myself in a good space, be patient, see if the ball gets through. And it, luckily, got through.”
Though encouraged by good possession and confident play through the first quarter of the game, and now with a goal to show for it, the Futures’ only lead of the game lasted just two minutes. A cross-field pass on a breakaway allowed an 1826 forward to, in similar fashion to Minneapolis’ opener, make an untracked run up the weak side, and pick his spot from 12 yards out.
“I think the group, it’s clear that they believe in each other, and they want to work hard for each other,” Roy said.
Though an intense season culminating in a league championship might have led to a slight emotional-relaxation ahead of the playoffs, the Crows did well to continue pressing. In the 36th minute, Munzing played winger Camel Htoo into a one-on-one in front of goal. 1826 goalkeeper Ayuub Ahmed—who played in the 2023 Futures Winter League—got to the pass inches before Htoo, clearing the danger.
The opportunity to go ahead would be looked back on regretfully for the Crows, as 1826 took their own chance to lead three minutes later. Another counterattack, this time up the left, led to a cross that found open space on the back post. A well-timed runner slid a one-touch shot under Chinavare’s leg for the go-ahead goal.
“1826 was really, really well-managed. They came out in a 3-4-3, with the outside midfielders connecting back, almost into a back-five. That allowed us a lot of territory and a lot of possession to start the game,” said Roy.
“After we got our goal, they pushed those outside midfielders all the way up the field, essentially creating four flat across the front. They were beating us in transition moments in the wide spaces. And we were just a little slow to adjust to it, and gave up the two back-post goals.”
1826 might have had an opportunity to stretch their lead seconds later, if not for another last-ditch sliding block from Arellano. And though the visitors missed the first chance to extend their lead, they took their second. A long ball caught the on-attack Rookery out of position, and 1826 toe-poked themselves into a 3-1 advantage.
That would be the last notable moment of an action-packed first half, sending City back to the locker room with work to do in the second period.
Eager to close the two-goal gap, Hermanson breathed life back into Minneapolis in the 57th minute. Htoo threaded a pass into the box towards the St. Johns striker, but an 1826 defender was well-placed to remove the ball from his shooting motion. Not to be discouraged by the missed opportunity, Hermanson quickly pounced on the loose tackle, firing the ball into the bottom corner, and the Crows to within a single score.
But, again, the excitement from a well-taken Minneapolis goal, and hopes of finding an equalizer soon, did not last long. Two minutes later, 1826 broke forward and fired a shot near-post to extend their lead to two for a second, and final, time.
“Every game, we’ve had each other’s backs, we’ve fought back from positions like this. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it today,” Menna said.
The scoring had concluded, but the remaining half-hour continued to be eventful. Two open headers for center back Jeffrey Richter nearly wrestled the Crows back into the contest. Munzing, Menna, and Hermanson fashioned close chances for a deficit-halving goal, and Chinavare stepped up with a number of last-man saves to keep the scoreline reasonable.
“I think we let the other team score goals that we probably shouldn’t have let them score, and then we missed chances that we should have scored,” Munzing said, postgame. “It easily could’ve gone our way today.”
A discouraging loss to end the season is not an accurate representation of the Futures’ otherwise impressive summer. 38 goals scored in 10 games, a fourth-straight appearance in the UPSL playoffs, and just a single league loss in four years, are all accomplishments that deserve recognition.
“Everybody wants to do it again next year, continue competing, hopefully play at this level as long as we can,” Munzing said.
“Next summer, we’d like to be in the same position, again,” offered Menna. “Ready to take over that moment in playoffs, just continue getting wins the same way we did this season. This season was great, and getting into those final moments, those elimination games, those knockout games, next year, that’s all we have to focus on.”
“It shows that there’s resilience in this group, there’s belief in this group that went all the way until the last minute, the final whistle of the game. They were fighting tooth and nail to try to get a goal back,” said Roy. “Those are really good building-blocks, from a cultural perspective.”
“To work with a group of guys who have this much ability, this much determination, this much desire to continue to improve and fight and win games, is a privilege to be with them.”
