The grin flickered across Julian Gressel’s face, followed by a slight chuckle, as he made a rare exception to the usual ‘one game at a time’ mantra so beloved by players and coaches when speaking to the media.
The reunion with his old team was still a week and a half away, with two other opponents to face first. But what would be the point in pretending such a tasty occasion wasn’t looming on the horizon?
“Yeah, that motivates me,” said Minnesota United’s newest arrival last week as he spoke to reporters in Loons colors for the first time. “That'll be a special game.”
Iced out in Miami
Fate and the schedule have aligned to pit the German-American veteran against his former club, a matter of days after his exit from Inter Miami CF. The Herons visit Allianz Field on Saturday (4:30 pm ET | Apple TV - MLS Season Pass) for a spicy Matchday 12 fixture the home side hope to turn into a northern ambush of the league’s glamour side, who will fly straight to California afterwards for a midweek encounter with the San Jose Earthquakes that will add up to well over 5,000 flight miles by the time they're back home for a Rivalry Week clash with Orlando City SC on Matchday 14.
It all makes for an irresistible narrative around this battle of the birds. Particularly given the abrupt, absolute manner in which Gressel was demoted from key piece – he started 31 league matches for IMCF and ranked third on the team in assists in their march to the 2024 Supporters’ Shield – to outcast following the winter arrival of head coach Javier Mascherano.
The two-time MLS Cup winner and 2017 MLS Rookie of the Year didn’t play a single competitive minute for the Herons this year, despite the intelligence, versatility and eagle-eyed service into the penalty box that made him a favorite of Masch’s predecessor, Tata Martino.
“Coaches make decisions for different reasons,” said Gressel of Mascherano. “He probably did his homework watching games last year, where obviously I played a lot, so he had a lot of footage to watch! But yeah, he basically told me that he doesn't think I'm going to fit his system. And yeah, that's kind of his decision that he made … and I'm grown up enough to respect that and then be OK with that, and ultimately try to just find the best solution to that situation.”
Loons come calling
That “situation” rumbled on for months; “It took a lot longer than I thought,” Gressel admitted, as he and his camp sought a new destination via a transaction that would also allow Miami to gain salary-budget relief. As jarring as the climatic and cultural change can be from South Florida to the upper Midwest, it seems to have worked out as a win-win in the end.
“The second he became a possibility, we started to have some conversations,” MNUFC coach Eric Ramsay said, calling Gressel a “serial winner” – and the Englishman has put him to use immediately, bringing him off the bench in last weekend's road win over Austin FC and starting him in the Loons’ midweek US Open Cup victory at Louisville City.
“We want to bring players in that you can say with certainty are going to have a level of influence on the team’s success. The fact that he has not played for five or six months with any real regularity doesn’t seem like it will be an issue. I think he’s a guy who will have looked after himself really well and should be able to hit the ground running.”
In logistical terms, his and his family’s move is still very much in progress: “I've been tasked with the job of finding a house and a school, so no easy task there,” joked Gressel, whose wife Casey and their two young children will likely relocate from Florida to the Twin Cities next month, after the school year ends. But this weekend’s game has probably been on his mind in some form or another for months.
New chapter
Does Miami’s cold shoulder fuel him, he was asked, providing the proverbial chip on his shoulder?
“Yeah, of course,” said Gressel. “But I've been in this league long enough, I've played a lot of games here where I've had that chip, I think, throughout my whole career.
“But I'm grateful to that organization for that year that I've been there and now it's just, turn the page, new chapter, trying to leave all that behind, trying to take the lessons that I've learned with me, incorporate them here, try and be a leader, to push this club forward and hopefully win some things.”
