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The San Diego Flash lost 2-1 to the Minnesota Thunder in game 2 of the Western Conference final series, in front of 3,181. The Thunder have won the Western Conference, and will now advance to the A-League championship game October 17th against the Eastern Conference winner, either Rochester or Hershey.
For the Flash, we ended a great season. It was bitter to end on a loss, and on our own field, but overall we accomplished so much more than we could have expected from the beginning. This team was completely new from the ground up, and we made it to the conference final. I know the franchise used to be the Colorado Foxes, but no one from the Foxes, not any player or office people, carried over to the Flash. This whole franchise has been built from the ground up by Yan Skwara, president and general manager. The road was bumpy at times. We lost our head coach midway through the season, and also some key front office people. Yet the team played hard, played well, and gave us fans something to look forward to every week.
I know I'm using first person plural, saying "we" accomplished a lot, but the Flash has made me, as a fan, feel part of the organization. I think that's important in running a sports franchise. I think Yan and the Flash know that without the fans, there wouldn't be a soccer team, and they've always made the fans a part of the action. In addition, the Flash front office is full of soccer people first, then business people. While everyone in the office may not have known a lot about the game before they started working here, they all became soccer fans as time went on. Yan himself used to play soccer professionally, and has always been a fan of the game. I think he was a big part of making the whole office think soccer in all their business dealings.
I had fun helping to organize our little supporter's group (or "booster club") ironically called The THUNDER. I remember the night we named the group I was thinking about the A-League team called the Minnesota Thunder, but since they weren't on our regular season schedule I didn't think it would be any kind of conflict. Little did I know it would be the Thunder that would knock us out of the playoffs! I certainly look forward to doing more for OUR Thunder, and helping out the San Diego Flash in any way that I can. I'll always have my Thunder membership card with member number 001!
I wish Minnesota good luck in the final. I will be pulling for the western conference. It will make our defeat a little easier to take if we can say we lost to the eventual A-League champions. I didn't like the Minnesota players opening and spraying each other with their champagne bottles while still on the field after the game, but I'll probably forget that over time. They certainly played hard, and were the better team tonight. I hope they beat the hell out of Rochester!
It's been a great season, and I hope to do it all again next year!
GO FLASH!!!
-Eric Bekins-
San Diego Flash Supporter's Club, The THUNDER!
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