Story of the Club

I once played a game of rec soccer against a team with Seb Harris on it. As a defender, I was less than enthused when I realized he was going to be playing forward that day. For the most part, though, he was fairly quiet, until a cross came into our box in the second half. I elected to mark the player in front of me, a girl who stood maybe 5’4″. Seb crashed the back post, unmarked, and put home an easy header for the goal.

As frustrated as I was at myself for leaving him all alone like that, I quickly realized it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference. While I’m of respectable height – 6’0″ in cleats – I surely would’ve met the same fate as so many other defenders who tried to stand in the way of one of Harris’ thundering headers.

Dave Edwardson arrived at City in 2013, part of a crowded midfield group that included Kevin Taylor, Latif Alashe, Spencer Thompson, Locky Savage, and T.J. Van Slooten. As the season wore on and injuries took their toll, Dave rose to the top of the depth chart. His play over the course of that unbeaten regular season only served to cement his place. By the end of the Cass era, his leadership qualities had become evident, and with Josh Rogers’ retirement, there was never any real doubt as to who would inherit the captain’s armband.

Most admirable was Edwardson’s willingness to sacrifice the bodies of opposing players for the good of his team.

 

And, every now and then, he’d fire in an absolute banger.

As Dave and Seb’s on-field roles diminished over the past couple of seasons, their status within the club only grew. There’s no point in building a culture if it’s not passed on to the next generation, and the two of them embodied the culture of City perhaps to a greater degree than any other players who’ve worn the Rouge and Gold.

With City’s move up to the pro level, there will be, by necessity, a more cutthroat approach to roster building and player selection. We may take on guys whose first and only goal is to earn a paycheck, there will be loan signees in the squad for short spells, and there will inevitably be fewer local products in the side on a weekly basis.

Simply, it will be harder than ever to maintain that City ethos among those who take the field wearing our crest. It’ll be up to the next group of veterans – Stephen Carroll chief among them as the new permanent captain – to carry the fire and show the newcomers who we are, what we stand for, and how things are done around here. Their job has been made a little easier because they’ve learned from the best.

Saturday, October 19th, 2019 – Detroit City FC 0 Milwaukee Torrent 1

On January 1st, 2012, the amateur and professional soccer landscape in Detroit and the Metro area was a barren wasteland.

Detroit Arsenal won the NPSL Championship in its inaugural season, 2005, then played one more year and promptly folded. Meanwhile, up in Pontiac, the Michigan Bucks were running roughshod over most of their PDL competition, but were only drawing crowds comparable to medium-sized dinner parties. Then along came Detroit City, and everything changed.

I’ve spent the past 6+ years documenting the whys and hows of the club’s rise, so I won’t rehash all of that here. Instead, I’ll try to condense it down into a simple formula:

Professionalism + healthy dose of ambition balanced with an equal amount of realism + community engagement = Success!

The enthusiasm generated by City’s first season did not go unnoticed. Almost immediately, imitators began to pop up, looking to ride the wave of a massive hit, a la Battlestar Galactica in the wake of Star Wars.

The first, FC Sparta, came along in 2013, eager to get a piece of that sweet sweet supporter-driven action. While their ambition was sky-high, they lacked every other crucial element and got zero traction. Now in their third/forth/fifth? incarnation, they’re still trying to get it right.

After them came Dan Duggan and his plans to bring a USL team to Detroit and build a 5000 seat stadium in 90 days. Unsurprisingly, this highly-ambitious yet in-no-way-reality-based plan also fell flat.

Most recently, the Gilbert-Gores MLS to Detroit bid posed a very real existential threat to City and its future prospects. Luckily, for whatever reasons you choose to believe, MLS turned its attention elsewhere, bilking other municipalities out of millions of taxpayer dollars and folding existing independent clubs into the collective.

Through it all, City persisted, setting and accomplishing reasonable goals and biding their time while those around them bit off far more than they could chew. Now, every would-be local competitor has fallen by the wayside, and City stands poised to join the wider footballing world as a fully-professional club. This fall’s toe-dip into those waters showed that they’re more than ready.

As the amateur/semi-pro chapter of the club’s history closes, another begins. There will be new friends, new foes, new trash-ass, player-hatin’ refs, and unforeseen obstacles to overcome. That said, much will continue as currently constituted. City’s stable, competent ownership and well-established culture of professionalism has the club well-positioned to become a national, and perhaps one day, continental power.

More importantly, in lieu of a worthy challenger emerging, City will remain Detroit’s football club – today, tomorrow, until forever.

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Gallery photos by Franzi Loetzner

Wednesday, October 16th, 2019 – Detroit City FC 1 Michigan Stars 0
2019 NPSL Members Cup Champions

In the study of history, there are two classic theories, and while they’ve been thoroughly debated and criticized by modern historians, they still feature prominently in discussions about the past.

The Trends and Forces theory posits that events occur as a product of a growing tide or spirit of the age. For example, the American War of Independence and the French Revolution are seen as springing from the increase in rationalism and scientific thinking of the 17th and 18th centuries, which led to the questioning of the Divine Right of Kings and hereditary monarchy.

At the opposite end, the Great Man theory holds that single individuals have the ability to influence the course of history through their words and actions, and are the main drivers of change. The most often-cited examples are Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon.

As with most black-and-white thinking, the truth probably exists somewhere in the middle. Influential men and women are inevitably products of their time and place – there could be no Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos in the absence of the modern global economy, for instance – but there are still certain people who are able to take the opportunities that arise and make a profound impact.

To my knowledge, there are no cities named after Trevor James, and he’s never marched an army across the Hindu Kush, but in less than one calendar year he’s molded Detroit City in his image and taken the team to new heights on the field.

Most noticeable is his calm demeanor and how it’s reflected in the team’s play. They build confidently from the back, don’t panic under pressure, and keep their composure whenever something negative happens. And, as in Wednesday’s match, if a goal doesn’t come right away, they keep pushing and probing until they finally break through.

Another of James’s noteworthy qualities is his tactical flexibility. Quite often, in all sports, the head coach or manager attempts to run a system and squeeze players into it, rather than building the system around those players’ strengths. Sometimes it works, but more often it fails spectacularly.

Coming out of the summer, the highly-successful 3-5-2 formation had supporters singing Trevor’s praises. In the Members Cup campaign, fewer healthy options at centerback necessitated the switch to a 4-man back line. Despite the shift, team play seemed unaffected, and the defense proved just as stingy as it had in the classic season.

He took over a squad with a solid foundation and has turned it into an absolute buzzsaw. Aside from the disappointing Midwest Regional final, the team has been almost invincible. The consistency and improvement in level of play from May until now is unprecedented in club history and bodes extremely well for 2020.

That City’s first trophy as a professional club came against the Michigan Stars, who desperately want everything we’ve built while simultaneously treating us with a bemused contempt, made the victory even more delicious.

At no other time has this attitude come across than in the bizarre pre-match speech from the Stars owner. In it he announced (although it’s been public knowledge for some time) that his team will be going fully-pro and joining NISA next year. It was an obvious jab at City; his between-the-lines message went something like, “We don’t recognize you as a pro club, we think we’re superior to you, and we’re going to act as if we’re the main attraction and you’re just a sideshow.”

The words rung hollow, and in a week they’ll be forgotten. He and his ilk will continue to talk much and achieve little, as is their way. Meanwhile, the great men will continue to achieve great things.

The goal that did it for @DetroitCityFC . What a finish by @YazeedZeety pic.twitter.com/qT98T0DsBH

— maki (@NGSMaki) October 17, 2019

Saturday, September 7th, 2019 – Detroit City FC 2 Club Atlas 1

After the short-lived dream of NPSL Pro proved unfeasible and City announced its move to NISA for 2020, I expected the Members Cup and accompanying friendlies to essentially serve as an extended trial period in which new players would be given opportunities, Trevor James would try out some new ideas, and the club as a whole would troubleshoot any issues that come with running a fully professional operation.

While all of those things appear to be proceeding apace, there’s also the little matter of the team continuing to exhibit the confident, free-flowing play it showed during the NPSL classic season while mowing down nearly every opponent that steps foot in their path.

This was only a friendly, but Club Atlas competes in the top league in North America and was playing many of its regular starters. The win has to go down as the biggest pelt City has ever claimed, especially once you consider their recent results against teams of a similar caliber:

2018: Losses to St. Pauli (6-2), Necaxa (2-1), Frosinone (10-0)
2019: Loss to FC Juarez (3-1)

What was most impressive was the manner in which City’s victory was achieved. Rather than playing ultra-defensively and scraping a goal from a counter or set piece, they outplayed Atlas for the majority of the game and fully deserved to win.

The delicious frustration of the Atlas players was displayed by their refusal to shake hands at full time, resulting in the above photo of Stephen Carroll savagely waving them goodbye as they trudged off the field in a collective sulk.

Now that we’ve had a little time to process Saturday’s events, it’s clear that this win was a breakthrough, a program-builder, a 16-year-old-future-NBA-star-dunks-on-his-dad-for-the-first-time type of moment.

A full 80% of the Members Cup schedule remains, and it’s staggering how quickly some of the new players have established themselves. In particular, Ryan Peterson, Yazeed Matthews, Diego Casielles, and James Vaughan have slotted in seamlessly with the summer holdovers to form a starting XI that looks like it’s been together far longer than a few short weeks.

For those of us who were hoping for a respectable top 2/top 3 showing from City in the Members Cup, expectations just got ratcheted up a little higher. If they can win the next two matches – away to Milwaukee and home against NY Cosmos – first place is theirs for the taking.

Saturday, July 13th, 2019 – Detroit City FC 3 Kalamazoo FC 1

And then it falls to Diop, the ball finding a forgiving patch of an otherwise troubled field.

This allows him a simple first touch, inviting him to dribble forward.

The first cut is pure reflex. It briefly transforms a would-be tackler into a human pylon.

This move leads directly into another, a mirror image of what just transpired less than a second ago.

The third and final thrust displays a hint of swagger, a bit of controlled recklessness as a quartet of defenders closes in.

It’s often been said of the battlefield that you never see or hear the shot that kills you. It comes suddenly, unannounced, turning everything black in an instant.

Diop’s shot is something less than a bullet or rocket, more of a fast knuckleball with a barely-perceptible downward dip at the end.

The effect on Kalamazoo’s goalkeeper becomes immediately apparent. For a moment, his brain has been rendered inert. Just two months ago, he celebrated a win in front of City supporters by dancing an agonizingly-long dance. Today his feet are motionless. He’s unable to move them a millimeter.

His paralyzer wheels away toward the corner, leaving no fewer than six defenders in his wake.

It is his first goal for City. The lead is theirs, and will remain so.