When Minnesota United took the field against Portland Timbers on Friday, March 3, 2017, it celebrated the culmination of years of fervent passion and support for soccer in Minnesota while uniting the many different iterations — Kicks, Strikers, Thunder and Stars — and eras of the sport in the state under one banner.
Just five years after a lack of ownership was threatening to fold the franchise, “the team that nobody wanted,” now led by Dr. Bill McGuire and clad in Minnesota black and blue, was making its debut in MLS — marking an incredible and rapid ascent to the highest echelon of soccer in the United States.