Those Darn Rowdies

I'm enjoying these photoshop jobs by Minnesota United's PR team today:

Be part of something special. Our championship season continues Saturday! #MNUvTBR tickets: http://t.co/R8JXmSSDDa pic.twitter.com/4BIT7xKfuE
— Minnesota United FC (@MNUnitedFC) September 4, 2014

Two awesome fan images, blown up to add that nice pixel-look, making that cut-and-paste job that much more difficult for the art department. There's shade of the the LA Galaxy Landon Donovan send off in these pics:

Such a choppy beard, you have

Like the top image points out, United have a game agains the Rowdies tonight. There's a quasi-rivalry between these two teams because Tampa Bay and the Twin Cities make for a natural rivalry, geographically speaking.

Minnesota won the 2011 NASL championship in the league's first season, and Tampa Bay won it the next year. More recently, Minnesota won the spring championship at Tampa this past June. Both teams tend to score a lot of goals when they play each other, including a 3-3 draw this year and a 6-4 United victory last year. Tampa Bay's Brian Shriver won the golden boot last year and United's Christian Ramirez will most likely win it this year.

There's a lot of similarities between the two clubs and the league is eager to play this up into a rivalry. Maybe you buy into this, maybe you don't. Rivalries bring fans, and yet it's hard to find natural ones with a 10 team league. With that said, Tampa Bay already has a more natural rivalry with Ft. Lauderdale, and Minnesota fights for the Flyover Cup every year with FC Edmonton. Both seem to be a natural fit based on a map of NASL teams.

On the other hand, the drive to Edmonton from Minneapolis is 1200 miles, while a drive to Tampa is 1600. Neither distance really seems geared to foster much of a rivalry for fans. Maybe it's time for Minnesota fans to try and kickstart a more natural rivalry, say with a team like Indy Eleven. The only problem with that is Indy's team has won a measly 8 points out of 9 games this spring season, and it's much harder to start a rivalry with a team struggling like they are.

After thinking it over, maybe it's not such a bad idea to play up this Rowdies-United rivalry. I mean, seriously, who can love a team called "The Rowdies." And those colors. Green and gold? Ugly. Stupid Rowdies. I hate them so much. Go Loons!