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Lucania & Men's Premier Soccer League


TrueNorth

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Some interesting news from Manitoba as both Lucania and Sons of Italy will be playing the new Minnesota Blast team in exhibition games this summer. Has anybody heard about this team or the MPSL?

February 16, 2004 -- Lucania is pleased to announce a 4 game exhibition series against the Minnesota Blast. Lucania will travel to Minnesota to play the Blast on June 19th in Rochester, MN and June 20th in Minneapolis. This weekend should be an exciting soccer weekend as Rochester will be hosting a large youth tournament.

The Blast will make a return trip to Winnipeg on August 7th and 8th.

The Blast will compete in the Men's Premier Soccer League (MPSL) a recently formed US based soccer league, in 2005 season. Currently, the Minnesota Blast play in the Premier Arena Soccer League (PASL - www.arenaleague.com/) - a US based professional indoor soccer league.

Blast owner Ron Carter states "we are extremely excited about coming to Winnipeg. This could be the beginning of a great soccer rivalry (MN vs. MB) going forward. Commenting on the Blast's future, Carter states that "we deem the level of play in the MPSL on par with that of the A-League. Many of the current MPSL teams are former USL franchises. Interestingly, we have a number of Thunder players playing for us on our indoor squad in the PASL."

Lucania manager Mike Nardiello is pleased with Lucania's 6 game exhibition schedule for this summer. Nardiello states, "these games will go a long way in preparing our club for some of the challenges we will face here in Manitoba. They should be high energy, fast pace, and all around fun games to be a part of."

Details for the home games (times and location) will be released over the coming months.

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Started as a breakaway organization from USL in 2003, originally as a West Coast Us league, since expanding to places more easterly. Is competition to A-League, like the Women's Professional Soccer League (to which MPSL is affiliated, but starting in 1998 on the West Coast, and now all the way across the US) is to the W-League. The WPSL teams are probably equal in ability to W-League now, the MPSL may be equal to the A-League in a couple of years.

WPSL site: http://www.wpsl.info/

MPSL site: http://www.mpsl.info/

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According to rsssf, MPSL's Chico Rooks participated in the Lamar Hunt Open Cup as an amateur side. They got knocked out in the first round proper by PDL side. http://www.rsssf.com/tablesu/usacup03.html

The MPSL, like the WPSL and W-League (but not the A-League nor CPSL), is an "amateur" league that allows players to maintain NCAA college eligibility.

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Always happy to see some new faces kicking the ball around out here. Especially if they bring a quality game along with them.

And I don't think these clubs are in direct competition with the A-League. Sounds more like a regional elite amateur league. If we've got to settle for that, so be it.

Its not as though the A-League is bringing friendlys or competative matchs into Winnipeg to promote their league or groom the city for possible expansion.

The only budget that sort of team would need is a travelling one. And with likely weekend matchs only, the desirable scheduling consistancy would be there although these 2 games in two-three days I don't like. Could be a real good organization for a couple of MMSL clubs to have a look into (if it ever realy happens). Which I'm guessing is exactly what this MPSL is hoping for.

Keen to see how Lucania and The Lions promote their home legs.

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