The Minnesota Department of Health recently cleared all sports activities to resume by June 24th and FC Minneapolis was able to resume training on Monday, June 29th, and the club will be playing its first friendly game of the season on Sunday, July 5th, against Minneapolis Internationals, 5:00 pm CST in Shakopee, Minnesota.
Moving into this season, the club has made some updates on how things are going to look like for them as a team and has availed some opportunities to help local soccer players come play on the team this year.
Firstly, there have been some notable changes in the club’s coaching staff in terms of positions and their roles on the team. James Oluranti, a Nigerian International with European playing experience has been named the club’s Head Coach with Varney Cole working as his assistant and Miguel Lopez working as both a team trainer and a player.
Secondly, FC Minneapolis is not having its regular UPSL season this year due to the pandemic. Instead, the club is going to have a Minnesota based tournament called “Goals MN Cup” which will be comprised of 6 teams from the UPSL West Division of the Midwest Conference namely Vlora FC, FC Minneapolis, Maplebrook 58ers, Granite City FC, Turbo Sports FC, and Minnesota Brooklyn Knights FC. Games will kick off on July 17th and end on the 29th. All teams will play five group games, with the top four teams in the group playing a semifinal, and a final giving a total of 7 games. All games will be played at Fernbrook Synthetic Fields in Maple Grove, Minnesota, and the club will have detailed schedules on its website shortly.
In addition to the tournament, FC Minneapolis will have an exhibition season of friendly games starting this Sunday up to the last weekend of August giving the team a total of 14 games this season.
Thirdly, because of the pandemic, FC Minneapolis cannot its regular fields due to temporary closures but will maintain its training days as Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The club has some open spots on the team due to its international players failing to return to the United States in a timely fashion due to the pandemic and the club is trying to recruit some new players to help them go through these two months of football so all interested players are encouraged to contact the club for more details.
