MN Super Cup Final: St Croix Legends 3-0 Mpls City SC

July 26, 2024
|In Leagues, Minnesota, USL League Two
|By Bridget McDowell
Players from Minneapolis City SC and St Croix Legends enter the pitch for the MN Super Cup Final at Macalester College on July 26, 2024.

The 2024 Minnesota Super Cup final on Thursday, July 25, featured cross-town rivals St Croix Legends and Minneapolis City SC, both making their first appearance in the championship game. St. Croix closed out a high-octane performance with a 3-0 win, leaving Macalester Stadium with a cup and a clean sheet.

The inaugural final in 2023 saw Med City FC defeat the MNUFC U-19s for their last piece of hardware before folding in the offseason. This year’s match-up was a little more personal, with an added dose of friendly competition. Following their meeting in the USL-2 regular season finale, which City won 2-0 on St. Croix’s own turf, Thursday’s match leveled the Oliver Derby.

Head coach Tyler Oliver’s Legends had a slight edge over Justin Oliver’s Crows, as the latter lost a handful of key defenders to the college season since that last match. The Legends capitalized on that shuffled backline early, opening the scoring in the 13th minute. Asher Ozuzu ran it in from midfield on a breakaway, slipping a shot past City goalkeeper Evan Siefken.

“I do think we got some great performances from three CBs who stepped up and played their first minutes of the season there,” said City head coach Justin Oliver. “Andrew [Soczynski], Sam [Keading] and Tomas [Menna] were all very good today and I’m so proud of their performances. That legends attack is really good and really dangerous so to only concede one through the run of play from them was big time.”

Ozuzu’s tally was the only goal to come from the run of play. Soczynski, Keading, and Menna, all grew into the match, which became more chippy and physical as the officials became more and more likely to call fouls by the Crows while saying ‘play on’ after similar fouls by Legends.

St. Croix scored their second goal in the 43rd minute, this from a freekick in a crowded box. Siefken and a number of defenders called for a handball but it was ruled a goal for St. Croix’s Stu Sain. City had a few decent chances, including a corner kick in stoppage time but the ball was skied over the crossbar, allowing the Legends a 2-0 lead at the break.

Nathan Donovan made it 3-0 less than a minute into the second half, another set piece that found Siefken’s defenders off guard.

Legends head coach Tyler Oliver praised his players’ offensive efforts: “Massive credit to the guys on our team today for creating a ton of chances and executing at a high rate on set pieces which was going to be strength of ours heading into the game because of no Kent brothers and others in the back. The game plan was to attack space and attack in transition today as that’s where we are the most dangerous and it showed today with Evan [Siefken] making a high high number of saves and Nolan [Meyer] being relatively uncalled on today especially in the opening 65 minutes.”

While the Crows spent plenty of time in the Legends’ final third through the last half hour of the match, they were unable to find a consolation goal. Had the match gone on for another 10 or 20 minutes, Sidike Jebatah could have leveled it himself on will, but he could not buy a goal in 90 minutes. Henri Tophoven and Eli Goldman also threw themselves forward.

“I thought we were brilliant on the ball today and just didn’t have that final ball or that finishing touch one of them was always missing,” Justin said of the Crows’ effort. “Tons of respect for St. Croix and they earned a win tonight by capitalizing off some moments we didn’t compete well enough on.”

He continued: “We went into the game with the same plan as always which is to press and defend as high up the field as possible while also always trying to build and play as much as possible too. The squad was absolutely good enough to win and get a result with a lot of guys that featured a lot this season and also a lot guys that were playing the first or first couple games of the season for us. We unfortunately didn’t defend set pieces well enough today and went down 2-0 on them.”

As the players’ focus shifts to the college season, so too for the Oliver brothers. Justin will return to his head coaching role at St. Olaf. Tyler, who serves as men’s head coach at Hamline, said, “It’s always great to coach against Justin. He won national coach of the year at the D3 level for a reason and he showcased that with City this summer as well. Nice to get one over him heading into the fall where it’s a tall task again.”

The Minnesota Super Cup will return for a third year in 2025 and, for the first time, will include a women’s tournament. Billed as “a showcase of the best pre-professional soccer talent in Minnesota”, the tournament has raised the interest and stakes in the state’s lower division market and added an extra layer of competition to the season. A touch of brotherly – and perhaps, one day, sisterly – rivalry is a nice keystone in that growth.

Justin Oliver Minneapolis City SC MN Super Cup St. Croix Legends Tyler Oliver