The Michigan Stars won the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA) championship Sunday afternoon beating Albion San Diego 1-0 from Barnabo Stadium in Washington, Michigan.
The Stars are the second team from the state in as many years to win the third-division professional league albeit after Detroit City FC dominated NISA’s 2020 and 2021 seasons before making the jump to USL Championship this past year.
However, as far as yesterday’s title match, the Stars stuck to a game plan that saw them give up just six goals throughout their final 10 games of the season while putting together a 6-2-2 record. Michigan took advantage of their set pieces which resulted in the only goal of the afternoon when Steven Juncaj found Anthony Bowie on the near post in the 31′ to make it 1-0 in favor of the Stars. From there, the Stars would essentially do what they’ve always done all season, use their size to flood the box and in turn suffocate the opposing offensive attack while mixing in some cynicism along the way. It’s a simple game plan when you think about it that may only be useful in the third division given how things worked out for the Stars in the Open Cup back in April. However, what’s important in the here and now is Michigan’s opposition in NISA was never able to solve it resulting in the Stars securing their first league title in the Club’s history.
Yeah, it’s a legitimate championship
If you’re in the dark when it comes to lower-league soccer in the United States, chances are you’ve never heard of NISA. In any sense, though it’s a professional league, consisting of professional players, and the championship is undoubtedly legit. And when it comes to the players, Michigan obviously has compiled a group that worked for them to the point that they were able to take home a division three championship. I mean you don’t have to look past their keeper Tatenda Mkuruva who was in large part responsible for what Michigan was able to accomplish those final 10 games of the season and you have to wonder how long it’ll be before a bigger name club comes calling on the Zimbabwean national.
However, beyond players like Mkuruva or Leon Maric, the Stars winning the NISA title in 2022 was almost fitting in a way.
NISA in 2022 was a far cry from what it was in 2021 as any trouble the league was having coming out of COVID came to a head this past season.
Aside from Detroit City FC who left the league for second-division USL Championship, Chicago House and New Amsterdam wouldn’t return due to ineptitude from ownership while Stumptown who showed promise in 2021 seemingly ceased operations. Meanwhile, the stability of the league only got worse as the year went on as expansion side Bay Cities FC wasn’t financially solvent and had to duck out before the end of the campaign while immigration issues would also sink another expansion side in Valley United.
Coming back full circle to the Michigan Stars, NISA and their 2022 Champions certainly seem like they deserve each other, despite Michigan winning, which may in the long run be detrimental to the league.
There’s no whitewashing who the Stars are as a club
Despite what the players were able to do on the pitch in delivering the club a title, it’s still incredibly hard to take the Stars seriously as a whole. It’s also something we’re not going to pretend to do, even at this point.
It’s hard to take the Stars seriously for the simple fact that it doesn’t seem like they take themselves seriously. This is the same club that apparently refused to board a plane to play Cal United last season because they were supposedly unhappy about how they were being treated by the refs in a previous match. It’s the same club whose owner according to plenty of witnesses on the ground had to be restrained from getting at opposing supporters last November when the Stars and Detroit City FC finished up the season at the same place where Sunday’s championship game took place. Moreover, the Stars are the same club that dismissed their head coach and sporting director Trevor Banks midseason in 2022 without even addressing it until media day this past Saturday and will release bizarre statements on Twitter following a blowout loss in the Open Cup.
All of this too isn’t even considering the shitty politics that the Stars have chosen to identify themselves with. Owner George Juncaj and his family have hosted multiple members of the Trump family including the former president himself at the Michigan Stars Sports Complex in Washington, Township both in the middle of a global pandemic and to the dismay of the Township.
With all this in mind, it’s hard to believe that the league will be able to capitalize off of Michigan’s title win on Saturday in any substantial way. Unlike last season when it was Detroit City FC providing NISA with plenty of photo ops and opportunity to show what this league can develop, they’re stuck with platitudes, second-guessing, and talking points surrounding a 2022 championship owner and club that are still overshadowed by what they do off the pitch rather than what they have done on it.