NPSL Round Up: Week 2
Wednesday May 21st
Sioux Falls Thunder 3-0 Iowa Demon Hawks
After a promising opening 10 minutes for the Thunder at Bob Young Field, the Demon Hawks grew into the match. A back-and-forth period finished with the visitors opening the scoring in the 31st minute as Jeanderson Pereira hit the ball low from the penalty arc and it deflected before spinning away from Joseph Valler in the Thunder net. The hosts refused to lie down but the Iowa lead was doubled in stoppage time at the end of the first half when Saiheed Jah hammered home from the left side of the penalty area, from a square pass from the right.
Thunder had their chances to lessen the score-line but failed to break through, and their chances were further hurt by a 66th minute injury to Valler. The substitute keeper Aimar Aramendia would concede the final goal 10 minutes later. Mauricio Groppo crossed from the left and Robin Vanderwalle sliced it home.
Saturday May 24th
Iowa Demon Hawks 1-6 Joy AC
Two games in the week, two lopsided losses. This time it was Joy who took advantage of the Hawks. Philip Caputo, who has been in the Joy system since he was 8 years old and just left St Cloud State as an original member of the 4 year-old program - and an all time statistical leader for the Huskies - decided tonight was the night to light up the NPSL North too. His first goal came in the 21st minute, blasting low at the goalkeeper's near post from the edge of the area. Two minutes later, Carver Tierney hammered a ball into the roof of the net from the right, also at the keeper's near post, to make it 2-0. In the 32nd minute, Caputo chipped Tom Gallagher in the Demon Hawks net from the top of the box to make it 3. The Hawks' sole goal came from Guilherme Lima, only a minute later - slotting home from a quick counter. However, it was Caputo's game, and the striker completed his hat trick with an almost identical strike to his first, snapped hard and low to the keeper's near post with the first half not yet over.
Caputo truly put his seal on the game in the 71st minute when a ball straight down the middle from Joy split the Demon Hawks defense and he raced on to slot home his fourth goal. Tierney completed the rout in the 87th minute with his second, a self-made half-volley from the penalty spot.
Coming Up:
Tuesday May 27th
Duluth FC v Minnesota Blizzard FC
Friday May 30th
Sioux Falls Thunder v Joy AC
Saturday May 31st
Sioux Falls Thunder v Minnesota Blizzard
Siouxland United v Joy AC
Duluth FC v Iowa Demon Hawks
Sunday June 1st
Siouxland United v Minnesota Blizzard
Women's US Amateur Cup preview
The United States Adult Soccer Association runs Amateur Cup competitions for both men and women.
Milwaukee Torrent plays in both, with the women's tournament much less extensive. Only two teams are in the first round. Their opponents are fellow WPSL Lake Michigan Division club Green Bay Glory and both are undefeated after two rounds of play. Torrent finished last season 8-0-0 before falling to eventual National Semifinalist FC Pride in the Midwest Conference Final. Glory finished second in the division.
The match will take place on Wednesday at 7pm, at Lawrence University's Banta Bowl in Appleton, Wisconsin. Stay tuned to Northern Lights Football for coverage.
Men's US Amateur Cup (Midwest) Round 2: Vlora FC advance from a whacky one
Vlora FC (MASL/UPSL) 6-2 United Serbian SC (WSL)
Vlora FC began this game in control but it took a succession of yellow cards to tip the scoresheet in their favor as decisively as the final score would suggest. Vlora came into this match 1-0-2 in the Minnesota Amateur Soccer League Second Division (from where they qualified) but 3-1-0 in UPSL Premier Midwest West play. Their opponents were 5-1-1 in the Wisconsin Soccer Leagues' Milwaukee Premier League. Neither team will have prepared for the chaos that followed.
It was only 1-0 at half time of regulation, the red-hot Easton Hoch driving in from the left for Vlora and hitting a shot hard across the Serbian keeper, who could only parry the ball into Benjamin Peña's path for an easy finish in the 18th minute. In the 35th minute, it could easily have been 1-1 but University of Northwestern goalkeeping coach Austin Gunkel was equal to a shot, and Oscar Alvarez laid out to block the second shot. Three minutes later, Ibrahima Ndaw challenged the Serbian goalie, who nearly conceded a goal. Vlora had 9 corners in the first forty-five minutes but had been held to the one goal. It was a mismatch of stats they could have regretted.
In the 52nd minute, Oscar Gonzalez intercepted a poor pass inside the Serbian penalty area and slotted the ball across to Hoch, who notched a second goal of the tournament and a sixth of the season to add to his earlier assist.
Four minutes more had elapsed before the first of a number of second-caution red cards, this one for United Serbian SC's Reyes Perez. Soon after, Hoch went down in the Serbian box, looking for a penalty kick but not receiving one.
In the 65th minute, the game turned as the referee awarded a penalty kick for United Serbian SC for a stamp by a Vlora defender. Litigation and Risk Management lawyer Aleksandar Prpa, who is the vice-chair of USSC, stepped up and hammered the penalty home into the side netting to halve the deficit. Prpa then added a free kick (cleared for a corner) and a subsequent corner which was headed hard into the ground and up into the roof of the net by Vladimir Petrović for the equalizer in the 70th minute. Both teams had chances, including a Sohail Ebrahimi bicycle kick which cleared the Serbian goal in the 80th minute. In the 82nd minute, Prpa received a yellow card and he was lucky to remain on the pitch, given a final warning after another tough challenge before regulation was up. The Serbians chipped Gunkel from 40 yards out and it was only just saved.
Extra Time began with Ebrahimi heading over the crossbar from inside the 6 yard box and just failing to connect on a pass in the 94th minute. Two minutes later, he whipped a ball in from the left and Benjamin Peña slotted it home for his second goal. His joy would turn to despair in six minutes as was shown a second yellow card for a reaction to the referee after he himself had been fouled. One minute of even numbers had passed before Jeronimo Zelaya Diaz chested down and volleyed in the home team's fourth of the day.
In the 104th minute, Milorad Kosanović was issued a second yellow of his very own, for raising his hand into an opponent's face and United Serbians were down to 9 men for the remaining half of Extra Time. As Redouane Baarab came off the bench to score in stoppage time, the visitors were also down 5-2.
It remained a 3 goal lead until the last touch of the game as Petrović attempted a clearance and sliced the ball into his own goal.
Vlora FC move on to the Quarterfinals of the Region II Amateur Cup, two wins from the Bill Davey Cup and four from the National Amateur Cup title outright. They will face Milwaukee Torrent, who enter at this stage. Bavarian United are also entering at the Quarterfinal stage, and will be joined by 5 other winners from Round 2. Stay tuned to Northern Lights Football for further coverage of this tournament and others across the Northland.
Gallery: Aurora vs Rochester
Month: May 2025
Minnesota Aurora opened their 2025 season with a 2-0 victory over Rochester FC in front of 4,500 fans at TCO Stadium on Thursday night. These are our photos from the pitch.
Gallery: Aurora 2 vs Lakeville SC
Month: May 2025
Under the cover of rain clouds, Aurora 2 fell to Lakeville SC 0-1 in their home opener on Wednesday evening at Augsburg University’s Edor Nelson Field. Here are our photos from the pitch.
WPSL kicks off in the Land of the Lakes
Sunday 18th May
St Croix Legacy 4-3 Joy AC
In a back and forth battle, the home team finished on top courtesy of Tatum Trettel's chip of Joy Athletic Club goalie Sydney Potter in the 88th minute. Jillian Brown opened the scoring in the 10th minute for Joy, and Trettel equalized in the 35th minute. Joy went back ahead with 5 minutes left in the half.
After 15 minutes of possession by Legacy and counters by Joy, it was a Legacy counter which created the equalizer. Trettel squaring the ball to Amara Smith in the 6 yard box to make it 2-2. Smith herself then forced the ball off a Joy defender in their penalty area and then broke past Potter to make it 3-2 in the 65th minute. The patterns reasserted themselves for 17 minutes before Sophia King took matters into her own hands and drove down the Joy left before blasting it past Prates in the Legacy goal from the top of the box for the equalizer.
Finally, after scoring the fourth goal, Trettel had a chance in stoppage time to seal her hat trick but Potter pushed it away at full stretch.
Thursday 22nd May
Salvo SC 6-0 Manitou FC
Three goals in six minutes set the seal on a lethal first half display by the hosts. Riley Lijewski headed home from a corner, Elle Wildman finished a neat passage of close passes through the middle of the Manitou defense and Davy Mokelke darted in from the left wing to finish her second. Mokelke had earlier put Salvo ahead, controlling a difficult, bouncing ball into the box before volleying it home.
The second half saw both teams show moments but Salvo again showing some furious finishing, with Davy Mokelke wrapping up a hat trick from the left and Elle Wildman making it a brace from the right.
Coming Up:
Wednesday 28th May
St Croix Legacy v Salvo SC
Friday 30th May
Mankato United SC v Salvo SC
Minnesota Dutch Lions FC v Joy AC
Minnesota Bliss FC v Manitou FC
Sunday 1st June
Mankato United v Minnesota Dutch Lions FC
Minnesota Bliss FC v Joy AC
Crows draw with man-down RKC Third Coast in USL2 season opener
Minneapolis City SC and RKC Third Coast opened their 2025 USL League Two season last Sunday at Edor Nelson Field in Minneapolis. Unfortunately for both clubs, the match ended in a 3-3 draw after a series of late lead changes, sending both teams back to the dressing room in a less-than-jubilant mood.
After having massive success in the NPSL with three straight division titles, the Crows have struggled since entering USL2 in the 2022 season. City has finished no higher than second bottom in the Deep North Division over the previous three seasons, but in a new look Heartland Division the Crows aim to get back to their NPSL success. Minneapolis head coach Justin Oliver said, "To be honest USL2 is head and shoulders above NPSL so it’s been an adjustment period for the club but we are looking forward to doing better this season and in the future we want to get back to competing for championships like we were in NPSL but the quality of opposition is very high."
RKC Third Coast meanwhile has been a top contender in their previous two seasons, making the playoffs in 2023 and missing them by just two points in 2024. The 'Gulls will be shooting for a top two finish to make the USL2 playoffs in a newly reformatted Central Conference Heartland Division that sees quite a few changes, including longtime member Des Moines Menace moving to the Great Plains division.
RKC opened the match with a quick goal just two minutes into the match, with John Wandschneider nabbing the goal for the visitors. Wandschneider would not be on the pitch much longer as he was handed a yellow in the 8th minute followed by a second yellow and being sent off in the 34th minute. Even down one man though, RKC showed the boisterous crowd they were in control, before doubling their lead with a late first half goal from Jaden Prado.
Just two minutes into the second half, Jackson Kirsch headed up to the spot and put the Crows on the board, cutting the RKC lead in half at the 47th minute.
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Just before the 50th minute the Crows added a second goal from Preston Kipnusu to draw the match level, and later in the half Kirsch stepped up to the spot again and struck home to put the hosts up 3-2 and secure himself a brace. "It feels good to score a brace in the opener, said Jackson Kirsch. "I’m always happy to help the team in any way. I was glad to get off to a good start and grow some confidence for some continued output this season."
But the lead was not to last as with 10 minutes plus stoppage to play, RKC Third Coast's Nicholas Pendleton scored on a thundering shot from inside the box to draw the match level once again at 3-3, where it would end.
"It's a tough one to swallow not holding on to the result but sometimes that is football," Jackson Kirsch said. "I am proud of the lads for fighting and being resilient especially being 2-0 down at halftime. There is still much to be proud of."
"For the USL2 season we are going to go game by game and put our best foot forward each time and try to leave with 3 points," said Minneapolis head coach Justin Oliver. "We have goals and ambitions of being a top team in our conference and making the playoffs but you don’t do that by talking about it, you do it by have a process you trust in and buy into each day / game to try and get the best possible result."
Photo Gallery: Minneapolis City SC vs RKC Third Coast
Month: May 2025
Minneapolis City SC hosted RKC Third Coast in their home opener of the 2025 USL2 sesson. RKC’s John Wandschneider scored the opening goal and received his second yellow card all by the 34th minute. The Crows went down to 2-0 just before halftime but responded with two quick goals in the early portion of the second half.
City’s Jackson Kirsch put the Crows up 3-2 in the 74th minute but RKC rallied and scored six minutes later when Nicholas Pendleton scored the equalizer to take share of the points.
Month: May 2025
Gallery: Aurora vs Kansas City Current II Exhibition Match
Month: May 2025
Minnesota Aurora FC hosted Kansas City Current II for a preseason exhibition match at TCO Stadium on Sunday, May 18th. Aurora came away with a 2-0 victory after goals by Weslund and Wimes. Here are our photos from the pitch!
NPSL North kicks-off
Saturday May 10th
Sioux Falls Thunder 2-1 Siouxland United
Thunder left it late with goals from Sunao Midorikawa in the 82nd minute and Nick North in the 5th minute of second-half stoppage time to reverse the tide of a Siouxland derby which had seen the visitors go ahead in the 32nd minute through Harumi Yunaiyama.
Thursday May 15th
Duluth FC 3-1 Joy AC
Fresh from a National Semifinal, Duluth FC opened their league season at home against Joy Athletic Club, having already fallen in the US Open Cup to Forward Madison FC . An 8th minute cross from the right, headed back past the keeper from the left by Joy's Carver Tierney put the visitors ahead However, it was honors even at half time after sustained BlueGreen pressure told in the 37th minute, Teddy Miranda squaring from the right and Felipe Oliveira tapping it in from close range.
Early in the second half, Felipe Olivera picked it out from under his feet and slotted home from a Guerrero cross. In the 71st minute, Duluth FC played a searching diagonal ball to Liam Pritchard on the right, who crossed in for Caio Gomes to finish it and cap the win.
Saturday May 17th
Iowa Demon Hawks 2-1 Siouxland United
Guilherme Pereira scored twice for the Demon Hawks, opening the score from the penalty spot in the 16th minute and adding a goal from open play in the 26th minute. In what was a comfortable win for the home side, the Outlaws did get their own penalty goal from Takumi Sato in the 82nd minute but fall to 0-2 on the early season.
Minnesota Blizzard 3-0 Sioux Falls Thunder
This match was closer than the final score-line would indicate but it will go down in Blizzard history as the club's first outdoor win, following a disappointing debut season in NPSL. Jadon Morgan opened scoring in the 28th minute, tapping in from inside the 6 yard box after Cian Mcgoey burst down the left and crossed into his strike partner. Mcgoey himself made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute, lifting a free kick from inches outside the penalty arc over the outstretched Thunder keeper into the top corner of the net. He notched his second after a clearance from their own penalty area was allowed to skip unopposed to the Irishman, who finished from the edge of the Thunder area.
Blizzard now move to 1-0-0 on the NPSL season and Thunder drop to 1-0-1.
Coming Up:
Wednesday May 21st
Sioux Falls Thunder v Iowa Demon Hawks
Saturday May 24th
Iowa Demon Hawks v Joy AC
Gallery: MN Aurora vs Indy Eleven (Preseason Friendly)
Month: May 2025
Minnesota Aurora hosted USL-W rival Indy Eleven in a 0-0 draw at TCO Stadium on Sunday, May 11th, 2025. Here are our photos from the pitch.
WPSL PRO Interview Part 4: Enabling development
This is the final part of our interview with WPSL PRO Project Director Benno Nagel. The first three parts can be found here, here and here.
Where does WPSL PRO fit as a place for player development? Nagel is ebullient.
There's just so much territory that has not been occupied by these different leagues. The up and coming prospect is an easy story to conceptualize but think about the NWSL second chance player, or Luca Toni (who progressed from the lower league Serie C in Italy to a World Cup win in only 7 years)
Where would that player come from in America? If he was a woman in America, that would never happen. He would've become an accountant or a school teacher or whatever he would've gone on to do in his career professionally other than soccer. I don't know if it's gonna be 2027, but imagine in 2031 when the Women's World Cup is here in North America and there's an athlete that maybe makes the Women's World Cup team that started her professional journey in 2027 or 2028 with the WPSL PRO? There could be an athlete that could for whatever reason, not get signed by an NWSL club, not get signed by a Super League club, maybe wind up with the WPSL PRO Club on a good multi-year contract to start and they just crush it. Next thing they get transferred to an NWSL club or they get transferred to some higher level program and they continue to succeed and then they make it into the national team and play in the World Cup. And you could trace that player's moment of their breakthrough back to the WPSL PRO. That would be like insane, in a good way. That's what we feel the opportunity is, who would be the women's Luca Toni in American soccer right now? You wouldn't have 'em, they would be out of soccer. Or think about an NWSL athlete that had a horrific injury, or maybe stepped away from the game to start their family or had some other reason that they needed to take a one or two year hiatus and now they're looking to come back into play professionally. The WPSL PRO could be a spot for them to do that.
Over the next few weeks we will be bringing you profiles of some of the emerging markets in WPSL PRO, along with all the beginning of the Minnesota Super Cup, WPSL, UPSL and NPSL for this season. Anything else you want us to cover? Drop me a line at tim@lightsfootball.com or let us know on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Bluesky.
Photo Gallery: MN Blizzard vs Vlora FC (Amateur Cup, Round 1)
Month: May 2025
With two goals in the opening minutes, Vlora FC cemented an eventual 5-1 victory over Minnesota Blizzard in Tuesday’s 2025 National Amateur Cup Round 1 match at Eagan High School. Here are our photos from the pitch.
MN Blizzard host Vlora FC in an early season Amateur Cup test
Burnsville-based Vlora FC make the short trip to Eagan to face Lakeville-based Minnesota Blizzard FC as this regionalized, national tournament makes its opening visit to Minnesota for this year.
Vlora operates a UPSL squad, but they entered the draw as Minnesota Amateur Soccer League members. In that league, they finished third in the third division and won promotion to the second division for this upcoming season. They are two games into their UPSL season and are currently 2-0 with a 2-1 win over FC Minneapolis at home followed by a 5-0 drubbing of Rochester FC on the road. The squad will presumably be more UPSL than MASL because the latter schedule clashes with this match.
Minnesota Blizzard reserves also play in the third division of the MASL, and share a player pool with the first team NPSL squad from which the club will select their USAC squad. This match is the season debut for the team from the South Metro, who will follow up with a friendly against Wisconsin Conquerers. The NPSL season begins May 17th against Sioux Falls Thunder FC.
The US Amateur Cup has been played since 1923. The country is divided into the four regions of the United States Adult Soccer Association. There's a fuller explanation here, but for our purposes, it's only relevant that Northland falls in Region 2. 24 teams enter in the first round, and those winners face another round before the 6 left standing are joined by Milwaukee Torrent and Bavarian United for the quarter-finals. Torrent and Bavs received seeded entry because of their progress in last year's tournament.
The ultimate winners of Region 2 win the Bill Davey Cup and qualify for a national semifinal against one of the other three regions' winners. Whoever emerges from the national semifinals and the final the same weekend takes the National Amateur Cup title and a guaranteed spot in the 2026 US Open Cup.
So 5 wins (or 2, if you're the Milwaukee clubs) and you get a trophy. 7 (or 4) and you get a second trophy and qualification for a third.
Check back after the game for a photo gallery from the game by our Photography Director, Michael Lake.
WPSL PRO Interview Part 3: Empowering athletes, engaging fans
This is part 3 of our interview with WPSL PRO Project Director Benno Nagel. Read part 1 here and part 2 here
With no designs on Division 1 and amateurs at Division 4 level, Nagel explained to us how the new league is looking to empower athletes to advance.
We feel there's a tremendous breeding ground for talent for the next one up, that type of mentality. If you look at the NWSL right now I think it's 56% of the current players in the NWSL played in the WPSL over the last five years. I think there's already a lot of precedent to show that we've got a tremendous engine of developing talent. They only spend a couple weeks out of the year with the WPSL teams, but we've provided an environment for those players to kind of round out their college development years with adding those summer competitions. In addition to these professional teams, the announcement that we had on Wednesday is not as much for the national soccer audience as it is about the thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of female athletes, college athletes or high school athletes that would've seen that and would already know about the WPSL because they've played in it. They would be seeing the pathway in front of them and realizing like, "Hey, if I stick with this I have a chance to become a professional athlete."
I think that was probably the most important group that we were targeting for that announcement. Just to show those athletes that, Hey, we're fighting for you. We're trying to create a world for you to continue to develop in. Keep playing, keep training, keep making the commitment to what you're doing because we're gonna build a pathway forward.
So I hope that there was a lot of soccer fans that saw it, but I really hope that there was a lot of soccer athletes that saw it and I hope they can keep 'em dreaming for what we can what we can build and what they can achieve 'cause ultimately the athletes have to step up and hit that next level.
We're lucky that the WPSL has such a base of athletes already, to generate a couple hundred players that we would want to draw from to form the league. So I think we're in a pretty good spot, and I think a lot of credit, obviously to Sean (Jones, the WPSL President) and the folks that operate the WPSL and have for years and years. Even going back to Jerry Zanelli, the founder of the league. It's just a tremendous story.
With a blank slate, the new league has chosen the US tradition of a Spring to Fall schedule rather than the International calendar followed by (amongst others) USL Super League. Nagel's response is refreshingly candid.
For a lot of the country in those Winter months it's pretty harsh elements outside. And I just don't know if that's the right approach. I get it from the International calendar and what it does to unlock things within the summers.
Obviously people live in those elements, it's not like people aren't living in Minnesota in January. But we just feel that the Spring, Summer, Fall time period is gonna be a lot more conducive to families and sports fans that want to come out and spend two or three hours tailgating before the game and get to their seats early and just really enjoy the elements and the crowd and the stadium without having to wear 20 layers of clothing and go take a warm shower for an hour after they get home. We just really wanted to make sure that the fan experience was gonna be as uniform as possible across the league and not create any circumstance where folks are playing in weather conditions. They just aren't the best for pro sports.
For fans unable to make it to live games, the presence of Gravitas Ventures as an investor is seen as key.
We actually we feel pretty bullish about our networks in the media. If you look at Michael Murphy's professional background and his partner, Nolan's background with Gravitas Ventures. Their network's extensive, knowing all the various people. That's not gonna guarantee that we land some amazing deal with somebody to broadcast. But we do feel that we have some really strong starting points for relationships and we feel that we also have some pretty amazing stories that we can tell when you start thinking about these athletes and where they're coming from and just the desire that I think the sports fan and the soccer fan has to learn more about the athlete and learn more about their pathway and how they got to where they're going and I think the level of athlete that we'll be bringing in will also help us to tell those stories easier. Obviously we're gonna compensate all of our athletes and it's gonna be a fully professional environment but we're not gonna have a Lionel Messi playing in the league.
This isn't where we're gonna exploit the fact that they're lower level athletes trying to strive for a higher level but I think the ability to tell their story, I think that they will also welcome it because they want to amplify their profile and they want to show who they are. I think there's a lot of good synergy that will allow us to tell some really powerful stories authentically and again, really make this a league where it's athlete first.
If you think about that beyond just the game day broadcast, but the types of content that we can produce week in, week out, I think there's some really exciting stuff that we can do.
We're really excited to tell the story of these athletes. I think that's the biggest opportunity for us in the market is to really personalize the journey from a high school junior or senior through a top college player prospect and how do they get to the professional level? Who's gonna be the next superstar that we uncover? If you think to the MLS Next Pro as an example, you know who's gonna be the next Cavan Sullivan that comes through the WPSL PRO, and how will we tell that story?
I think that's interesting to think about, who are those players? Because we really do feel that there's a lot of those players in this country that just have not been discovered yet. Maybe not players at his level, he's a very special player as a young up and coming men's player, but we feel that there's a lot of undiscovered talent in this country, and I think that people are very interested to learn about who those athletes are, where do they come from there's just a lot that hasn't been touched upon with women's soccer, just because there hasn't been enough teams to tell those stories.
There hasn't been enough reach from the leagues to be able to get into those markets. I think that's why we're pretty well positioned to, to succeed with what we're doing.
We wrap up our interview next week, with a look at the development piece. Stay tuned.