Iceberg88
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Friday, December 16, 2022 12:13pm Golden Valley, MN
You know what word I hate? Moist. Its a horrible word. Yes, its descriptive and all that but I still hate it. I wiped my hands on my pants. Then the horrible thought occurred to me that I’d left sweat marks that would freeze. I looked down and, thankfully, no marks.
I’d better get inside before my sweaty hands get frostbit. Minnesota in December isn’t very nice. Its 15ºF with a decent wind.
“Well, bombs away,” I mumbled to the departing taxi. I turned and yanked the door open.
“Hello, sir, how may I help you?” The young woman at the front desk said, looking up at me.
“Uh, I have an appointment with Manny, Alex, and Amos,” I said.
“Name, please?”
“Eric Sandberg.”
Click, click, click with her mouse. “Yes, Mister Sandberg is here.” Pause. “Yes.” Pause. “Yes, I’ll tell him.” Then to me: “Can I get you a coffee or water? Tea?”
“No, I’m good, thanks.” Honestly, I’d probably slop any beverage all over myself right at this moment. Need to steer clear of anything moist right about now.
“Have a seat, they’ll be right out,” she said as the trio entered.
We exchanged pleasantries about the weather. They inquired about my flight and hotel as they led me through the offices.
“You’re bigger than I thought you’d be,” Alex DeRosa, Vice President of Soccer Operations said as we walked past a set of conference rooms. We didn’t stop at the conference rooms.
“Yeah, I get that response sometimes,” I replied as we stopped again.
“One sec,” Manny Lagos, Chief Soccer Officer, said. He stepped into his office and reappeared with his parka.
“Really?” Amos Magee, Vice President, Youth Development said. “I guess I’d seen you that last season, your last season. Which year was it?”
“2019.”
“Yeah, 2019 with the Quakes.” Amos stopped and grabbed his coat. “I think we beat you twice that year, didn’t we?. That was a rough one for you guys, yeah?”
“Yeah to both.” This small talk was making my hands moist again. “Then Covid hit and I decided it was the perfect time to retire. End the suffering.”
“Then you got your certifications,” Amos continued. “And coached at DC United.”
“Yeah, Jimmy got me in.”
“Good old Jimmy,” Amos agreed. “He still there?”
“Last time I checked.”
Alex grabbed his coat.
I hate small talk.
“Didn’t we go over this on Zoom?” Manny said. I suppressed a smirk. “Alright, Eric. I’m not about to make you sell yourself in a conference room. Let’s drive over to the stadium for a tour. At least a tour of the warm parts. Then I think we’ll drag you up to Blaine to see the training facilities. I think we’ll have decided if we want to work with you once we’ve taken you around and, also, I hate interviews.”
MNUFC had missed the play-offs the previous season and sacked their one and only manager, Adrian Heath. The Minnesota franchise had joined Major League Soccer for the 2017 season. They weren’t promoted. There is no promotion or relegation in the USA. Its weird; they call it soccer here.
The stadium is right on Interstate 94 in Saint Paul which is a 20 minute drive east of the Golden Valley headquarters. At least if there is no traffic. In the afternoon, there was no real traffic in Minneapolis. The Twin Cities, as they are fondly known around here, are separated by the Mississippi River. You have to drive past downtown Minneapolis to get to Saint Paul from Golden Valley.
So we talked about the sport, theories of play, the low block, gegenpressing, and the latest fad sweeping outward from Brazil - Dinizball. We talked about England, Italy, Germany, and France. I’d played in all these countries. Well, the English Championship with Derby, Serie B with Parma, Bundesliga 2 with Schalke, and got relegated from Ligue 1 with Reims. We talked about San Jose where I spent five seasons. We talked college soccer, too, as we’d all played.
The stadium is really nice, really new. The training facilities up in Blaine were top-notch. Blaine is a northern suburb and the team played there at National Sports Center which boasts the most pitches in the Americas prior to joining MLS. Like all of the Americas — north, south or in between. It also has hockey rinks — Minnesota is the State of Hockey, and a velodrome.
Then it was all over and they dropped me off at my hotel as the sun set. Now if you’re not from Minnesota, you wouldn’t know how early this was. The sun sets in December at 4:30pm.
I flopped onto the bed in my room and stared at the ceiling.
After a minute my phone bleeped. It bleeped again. I answered.
“Hi, mom.”
“How’d it go, sweetie?”
“Fine, I guess.” I sat up.
“When will you know?”
“I don’t know.” The sunset was pretty out my hotel window. “I’ll know when I know, I guess.”
“Are you still feeling up for dinner? Your brother and them are all available.”
“You bet,” I said. “Where?”
“Where do you want to go, honey?”
“Let Ben decide.”
“Okay, we’ll text you. Should we pick you up?”
“No, Mom. I’ll Uber.”
“Bye, love you. Can’t wait to see you.”
“Love you, too. See you soon.”
Click.
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