After a brief break, the USL-1 Project returns. Up next, the Minnesota Thunder.

Thanks to Brian Quarstad of Inside Minnesota Soccer (I highly suggest you go there, get educated, and then return here to read the rest of my nonsense), I have plenty of good information on the Thunder.


Geography

I'm beginning to think that it was a bit unfair of me to include "geography" in the scoring process; I'm not likely to have strong connections to any of the localities involves, which generally leads to low scores for everyone. I prefer to be consistent, and since Minnesota is team number six in the journey, I'm going to stick with it. As you can probably guess from my babbling here, Minnesota doesn't do well on my arbitrary scale; no family connections, never lived there, etc., etc. I did fly through Minneapolis once, and that has to be worth something, right?

Scoring: 5

History

This is where Brian's information came in particularly handy. The Thunder were established in 1990 as part of USLSL, the forerunner of the modern United Soccer Leagues. Twenty years of continuous operation is pretty damned impressive in American soccer, and speaks well of the Thunder's support and management through those years. Add to that solid history the fact that the Thunder have had three (THREE!) head coaches in their entire history, and this is looking like a big winner for the club up North.

Score: 8

Name/Colors

I'll try not to be too harsh here, and please remember that this is a subjective exercise based solely on my ridiculous feelings: but when I hear "Minnesota Thunder", I think minor league hockey. It's not something I can help. I spent a few years in Wichita, Kansas, there the local minor league hockey team was known as the "Thunder"; I therefore connect "Thunder" to that minor league hockey team, which lead to my negative feelin about Minnesota's nickname. Still, I don't mind the colors, and the logo is nice, so I won't completely kill the Thunder in this category.

Score: 6

Supporter Passion

Again, I have to thank Brian for giving me a little background on the Thunder's support (Inside Minnesota Soccer, and it's not just Minnesota focused). The main supporters group for the team is called the Dark Clouds, and they're clearly passionate about their team. Brian himself is prominent in this piece from the Star-Tribune. I taken by this group; this is exactly the type of thing I love to see at any level of professional soccer in the U.S., so I could absolutely see myself joining up. Atmosphere is tough to judge from my vantage point (something I've mentioned ad nauseum; sorry about that), and Brian concedes that almost all USL stadium atmospheres trail that of Portland: but it's not always about the numbers, and I'm still a big fan of the passion Thunder supporters display.

Score: 8

Total Score: 27

Very strong score for the Thunder, no doubt influenced by the extra information I received directly from one of their most ardent supporters. I'm not above being influenced by something like that, especially because both appreciate the effort and see it as visible evidence that the team engenders the type of passion that makes a team attractive.

Thunder links, before we get to the updated scores:

Inside Minnesota Soccer (one more time, because it's a fantastic site)
Minnesota Thunder Official Site
Dark Clouds Forum
Minnesota Thunder Wikipedia Page (wish this was a little better)

On to the current standings:

Montreal Impact 30
Austin Aztex 29
Minnesota Thunder 27
Carolina RailHawks 22
Cleveland City Stars 20
Charleston Battery 18


Still tight at the top. This is going to go down to the wire (and bonus points could still be awarded at my discretion).

The remaining clubs:

Miami FC
Rochester Rhinos
Portland Timbers
Vancouver Whitecaps
Puerto Rico Islanders