Minnesota Twin Stars

Minnesota TwinStars FC
Full name Minnesota TwinStars FC
Nickname(s) TwinStars FC
Founded 1997
Stadium TwinStars Stadium
Ground Capacity ~1,000
President United States Peter Maracotta
Manager United States Youssef Darbaki
League APL
2014 4th, Midwest-Central
Final Four: DNQ

Minnesota TwinStars FC is an American soccer team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1997, the team plays in American Premier League, a regional amateur league at the fifth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. Prior to the 2011 season, the team was known as the St. Paul TwinStars FC.

The team played its home games at Augsburg Stadium on the campus of Augsburg College until 2011 and at Prairie Seeds Academy, in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota until 2013.

The TwinStars FC maintain a long-standing relationship with the Hmong community in Minnesota, along with the African community in suburbs such as Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. In the early stages of the team's history, the dominant ethnic group that played on the Twin Stars were Hmong, from Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Midwest (now Midwest-Central) division champions two times (2008 and 2009), and National Championship runner-up once (2008), in two NPSL Final Four appearances.

History between the TwinStars FC and other professional clubs around the world have been strong. Several players have gone on to play professionally in North America and Europe, such as Alex Nyom, Geoffrey Myers, and Liberian international, Ansu Toure. Equatorial Guinean international, Francis Mbome arrived to the Minnesota outfit in 2010 and played with them for two years.

The men's team is the senior representative of the Minnesota TwinStars Academy (TSA), which was founded in 2012. The TSA U-16 club was ranked first in Minnesota in 2014, fourth in the region, and 100 nationally in just its second year of existence.

History

Early success

2006–2010

The TwinStars have competed for the Midwest title throughout its existence. Their first taste of success was the 2006 season, where one of their players, Igor Stosic, was named to the NPSL Midwest All-Star team.

They followed up in the 2007 season, by having two of their players names on the All-Star team; Juan Fiz, and 3-time winner (two with the TwinStars) Igor Stosic.

Winning their first Midwest title in 2008, having five of their players named into the Midwest All-Star team, and one of the five, Geoffrey Myers, was named as the 2008 MVP, after scoring 14 goals and five assists in only 12 appearances. Following their triumph in regional competition, the club played in the NPSL Final Four in New York, where they were runners-up in the National tournament.

TwinStars FC won the Midwest title again in 2009, this time having four players named to the Midwest All-Star team. Once again having the league MVP, this time being the 5-time All-Star, Igor Stosic, becoming the most decorated TwinStars FC player in history.

The 2010 season saw the arrival of Equatorial Guinean international Francis Mbome. The TwinStars placed third of six teams in the Midwest division, having an overall record of 5–3–2. For the third season in a row, they had produced the league MVP, this time being former Liberian national team player Richard Kamara.

Developing years

2011–2013

The 2013 season saw many players from the youth sides advance into the senior team. Seven of the players who regularly started games for the TwinStars were in high school; all coming from Prairie Seeds Academy.

Crest and Colors

The club crest has been changed several times, usually featuring a dragon, with two stars above a red and black shield. The current crest, featuring a red dragon in front of the black half of the shield, and a black dragon on the red half of the shield, both clutching a soccer ball with two golden stars (hence the name "TwinStars") above them, is a modified version of one of the first crests, used in 2005.

Stadiums

Statistics and records

All-Star Team Players

Africa

Europe

South America

Club MVPs

Players

First-team Squad

as of 26 April 2015

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 United States GK Matt Elder
2 Liberia DF Moussa Toure
6 United States DF Brian Chapman
4 Morocco DF Hafid Darbaki
5 Mexico FW Oscar Cendejas
3 Liberia DF Emmanuel Brown
7 Morocco FW Mounir Darbaki
8 Honduras FW Samuel Contreras
9 Liberia FW Matthew Nyuah
10 Liberia FW Keido Pour
11 El Salvador MF Carlos Boquin
12 Ethiopia MF Isak Gutu
14 Morocco MF Karim Darbaki (Captain)
15 United States DF Nate Engel
16 Guinea MF Alieu Kamara
17 Mexico FW Giovanni Perez
18 Peru FW Dante Vargas
No. Position Player
-- United States MF AJ Albers
-- Liberia FW Emmett Bility
-- United States FW Chase Carey
-- United States MF Christian Deaconson
-- United States DF Grant Dumler
-- United States MF Kevin Hoof
-- Nigeria DF Lawrence Kwazema
-- United States DF Ben Miller
-- United States FW Chad Miller
-- United States MF Ethan Pitre
-- United States DF Angelo Silione
-- United States FW Jack Teske
-- United States GK Sean Teske
-- United States FW Chase Wright

Captains

Current technical staff

as of 28 April 2015

Position Name
Head Coach Youssef Darbaki
Assistant Coach Bulut Turk Ozturk
Goalkeeper Coach Brian Teske
Technical & Academy Director Youssef Darbaki
Trainer Dr. Nicole Hamel
Trainer Marcia Abbott

Seasonal statistics

Year Division League Reg. Season National Final Four Open Cup
2005 4 NPSL 4th, Midwest Did not qualify Did not enter
2006 4 NPSL 3rd, Midwest Did not qualify Did not enter
2007 4 NPSL 3rd, Midwest Did not qualify Did not enter
2008 4 NPSL 1st, Midwest Runner-up Did not enter
2009 4 NPSL 1st, Midwest Semifinalists Did not enter
2010 4 NPSL 3rd, Midwest Did not qualify Did not enter
2011 4 NPSL 4th, Midwest Did not qualify Did not enter
2012 4 NPSL 4th, Midwest-Central Did not qualify Did not enter
2013 4 NPSL 4th, Midwest-Central Did not qualify Did not enter
2014 4 NPSL 5th, Midwest-Central Did not qualify Did not enter
2015 4 NPSL 13th, Midwest Did not qualify Did not enter

Managers

Honors

Domestic

References

    External links

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, January 22, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.