Story of the Club

Story of the Club

Growth Spurt

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Photo by Robert Sherman

Wednesday, May 9th, 2018 – Detroit City FC 1 Michigan Bucks 1 (5-4 DCFC on penalties AET)

Photo by Robert Sherman

Even if you’re not a basketball fan, you’ve probably heard the stories that players tell about growing up and learning to play the game. They usually go something like this: kid plays 1-on-1 with his dad or older brother in the driveway every night, dad/older brother always wins, over time, kid grows taller and stronger and starts to become more of a challenge, one day kid finally beats dad/older brother and things are never like they were before. They are now equals.

In 2015 the Michigan Bucks played City off the field, scoring their three goals in the first half an hour and quickly snuffing out any hope of an upset. It remains the most comprehensive defeat in club history and was a massive wake-up to those of us who thought City’s play would match up with that of their more seasoned opponent.

The 2016 matchup, while it went down as a penalty kick shootout victory for City, featured a similar disparity. They held on by their fingernails for 120 minutes, and their conservative gameplan and an all-time performance from keeper Evan Louro was what ultimately made the difference.

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Season Previews - Story of the Club

Season Preview 2018: Rebel Scum

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Photo by Robert Sherman
Photo by Robert Sherman

A Death Star hangs in the sky above us, its massive cannon poised to fire at everything we’ve built and fought for. It didn’t just randomly appear there; we’re partially responsible for drawing the Empire’s attention. And while not everyone on that battle station is evil, those who are in command see us as a threat to their dominance in this part of the galaxy. For we’ve shown there’s a different path to success, and they can’t allow our ideas to spread.

There are some people who are rooting for our destruction. They see us as petulant upstarts who care only about ourselves. “Why can’t you just step aside and let the true power take your place?” they ask. “The Empire will bring order and justice.” This is a lie, of course. One only need look around at other systems to see the results of submission.

And then there are those who suggest coexistence, as if it’s our desire to continue on in our current state forever, rather than continue the growth that’s brought us to this point. There can be no coexistence with tyranny except as its subject. Accepting the Empire’s domination will only diminish us and result in our permanent subjugation.

To be clear, we want to run this City. We want our colors alone on its buildings and in the streets. We want to become interwoven into its very fabric and become part of its history. We want our children and grandchildren to experience what we have and carry on the legacy. We want to build something that will last into the next century and beyond.

We want all these things, and we want others, wherever they are, to have the same opportunity.

It would be wonderful to go about our business and ignore the moon-sized weapon aiming at our heads, but that’s simply not a viable strategy – its mere presence has very real effects on our fortunes. The dark shadow it casts has scared away potential allies, yet still we work tirelessly to recruit more to our cause.

We’ve overcome other threats before, but they were more or less our equals. This new one is our greatest test. Even if our fighters can penetrate the station’s outer defenses and deliver a torpedo to its ventilation shaft, the Empire will be back. If we win a victory here, though, we’ll buy ourselves some time so that when they do return, they’ll be up against a mighty fleet.

This is the year on which our future hinges. What we’ve accomplished is significant; what we’re going to do is even greater.

Rebellion is in our blood. City is in our hearts.

General Soccer - Story of the Club

What Is and What Should Be

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Photo via DCFC

Saturday, April 21st, 2018 – Detroit City FC 2 Chattanooga FC 1

Photo via DCFC

Every year it becomes more evident that there are two competing visions of how to build soccer in America. The first, and the one that’s been around longer*, is the top-down, centralized model represented by the USSF, MLS, SUM, and their subsidiaries. The second is the grassroots, community-based model, best exemplified by independently-grown clubs.

While small, local clubs have existed in this country for over 100 years, it’s only in the past decade they’ve become truly relevant on the national scene. If I had to pick a date, I’d say the founding of Chattanooga FC in 2009 marks the beginning of that era. As the sport has grown in popularity and become more ubiquitous – just go to any public place with a good number of people and count the number of soccer jerseys you see – the number of independent clubs has exploded. And, while most of them sizzle for a year or two and then fade into nothingness, there are a few that stick.

Chattanooga and Detroit are very different cities with very different cultures, but the fact that lower-division soccer has flourished in both strongly suggests that it can happen anywhere. One thought I had while watching Saturday night’s match was, “This feels bigger than the exhibition it is. This is a glimpse of what American soccer can and should be.”

In my opinion, grassroots soccer is the best way to build a true footballing culture, one where kids play pickup at the local park or indoor facility and dream of playing for their hometown club one day. This model allows soccer to get into the nooks and crannies that the federation and first division ignore because they’re focused on chasing larger TV markets and the dollars that are included.

Detroit is a major battleground between these two opposing philosophies because everything about the city – population size, big money power-brokers, successful pro sports town – seems to fit the top-down approach perfectly. The problem is the grassroots movement has planted a flag and built a stronghold here, and might actually win.

While recent events in US soccer have been mostly negative (failure of USMNT to qualify for the World Cup, USSF’s “status quo” election, collapse of the NASL), they don’t necessarily affect those of us who are on the ground helping our clubs thrive. The only time the federation directly impacts us is when they fail to provide a league option that makes sense as a viable next step.

There’s a potential fix for that too. And even if NISA doesn’t get off the ground, the continued growth and development of independent clubs will eventually make the formation of another pro league inevitable. The only question is how long it will take.

What’s been built in Chattanooga and Detroit are the consequences of a rapidly expanding soccer culture, one that those in the power structure hadn’t foreseen, and that they probably aren’t sure what to do with. If the pair of matches between CFC and DCFC are visions of the future, we should feel excited and encouraged.

*I’m specifically addressing the past 30 years, aka the modern age of American soccer that began with the USMNT’s qualification for the 1990 World Cup.

Story of the Club

The Mouse

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Photo by Jon DeBoer
Photo by Jon DeBoer

One evening in the summer
Beneath the lights and smoke
A Battle of the Titans
Le Rouge and Mighty Oak

From Arbor over yonder
Unto the City gate
What brought the two together
Was nothing less than fate

The Red they started quickly
Striking once and then once more
Immortality was within their grasp
A place in City lore

But then The Tree responded
‘Our roots are deep and strong
Before this day is over
Our name shall be in song’

A blow and then another
The lead had been erased
A chilling silence filled the air
And worry marked each face

The warriors surged now back and forth
Deep on into the night
Then just inside the old south wall
One sought to end the fight

The Mouse was what they called him
For in stature he was small
But in this deadly game of foot
He was greatest of them all

The ball fell slowly to his Right
He took his chance with skill
His strike found home; He wheeled off
To celebrate the kill

The long-awaited day had come
The Tree had been chopped down
For forty days and forty nights
Joy swept through the old town

The hero’s name was Mondi
For ever tell his tale
That your children’s children speak it still
When they are old and frail

Story of the Club

Heart and Soul

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Photo by Nick Miko

Saturday, August 5th, 2017 – Detroit City FC 0 Midland-Odessa 0 (4-2 Midland on penalties AET)

Photo by Nick Miko

In the lead-up to this match my nerves were perfectly normal and I felt strangely calm. In my mind the Midwest title that had been won the week before was the #1 goal for the season and capturing it meant the year was an unqualified success. Finally getting over that hump, especially in such dramatic fashion, was so satisfying that anything after the fact would feel like mere icing on the cake.

That’s what I told myself, and I think I believed it for about 15 minutes. Once the match got going and we found ourselves once again in the heat of the moment, though, that whole line of thought melted away. I don’t remember when it happened or what precipitated it – maybe one of Fernando Pina’s incredible saves, maybe one of the referee’s dumbfoundingly puzzling decisions, maybe a chance of our own – but I distinctly remember thinking, “Damn, I really want this.”

Once that feeling bubbled up, it only kept growing. With every close call for either team and every awful call, this felt like life and death by the time the hour mark rolled around. The last 10 minutes plus extra time and the penalty shootout, while enthralling, were also agonizing.

Now, the day after, the mind races with all the what-ifs and what could’ve beens. That’s the way this thing works. One day you decide to check out a match, then, like a heavy-duty narcotic, one hit hooks you forever. Pretty soon you’re waking up in a cold sweat thinking about that one chance that hit the bar or the one that was cleared off the line.

Taking it in from a thousand foot view, these were two very good teams who played dead even and were only separated by the slimmest of margins. That may not soothe the raw, stinging sensation that heartbreaking losses tend to cause, but I feel it’s worthwhile to put things in perspective. One year ago Detroit City finished its season with a 4-4-4 record, missing the playoffs and setting up a long, dark, dreary offseason. Today we’re fresh off of the most successful season in club history, capped by (with all due respect to the Rust Belt Derby) the first piece of silverware.

Perhaps just as important, the early days when we used to worry about DCFC’s year-to-year viability as a club are far in the rearview. Additionally, throughout all the speculation and hand-wringing about the Gilbert-Gores MLS venture, City and its supporters have simply kept grinding on. With each passing year, the club wins more and more hearts, more firmly entrenches itself as a staple of the community, and inspires more dedication and loyalty.

Whether the jump to a professional league happens in time for 2018 or the NPSL purgatory continues, there’s no reason to believe those trends won’t continue.

The roots grow deeper every year.

Photo by Robert Sherman