It’s a ritual. At the beginning of every road trip, after the Minnesota Aurora FC team bus pulls away from its Eagan training site, out come the board games. That’s forward Mariah Nguyen’s doing.
A soon-to-be graduate student at the University of Minnesota, Nguyen loved weekend game nights with her parents and two younger brothers growing up in Andover. So she started borrowing the games to take on the road with Aurora. What better way to bond with your soccer teammates than a spirited round of Chameleon?
“(Game nights) really united my family and kept us close, so I wanted to bring that here,” Nguyen said Wednesday after an Aurora training session.
“I think it’s huge, just for chemistry. We’re players, but we’re people first. When we love each other and get to know each other outside of the soccer, it really contributes to how we play on the field.”
Coach Jen Larrick appreciates Nguyen taking that on. “She’s just a really good human who creates a space where everybody can laugh together,” she said. “Five days away in Sioux Falls is a long trip. Being able to laugh over Pictionary is important.”
Nguyen and Larrick spoke on a gorgeous, cloudless morning at TCO Stadium, the Vikings training site that serves as Aurora’s base. Four days earlier, Aurora, the local amateur entry in USL W League, wrapped up its fourth undefeated regular season in four years of existence with a 2-0 victory over Rochester FC.
Aurora (10-0-2) had already clinched its fourth Heartland Division title and a berth in the USL W Central Conference playoffs, which begin Friday in Pittsburgh. Top-seeded Aurora faces the expansion Pittsburgh Riveters (6-1-3), with the winner advancing to Sunday’s final. The conference winner moves on to the league semifinals at a site to be determined.
It’s hard to talk playoffs around Aurora without bringing up its failure the last two years to match the stunning success of the 2022 inaugural season.
Built from scratch with community ownership and a handful of founders doing most of the work behind the scenes, Aurora took South Georgia Tormenta SC to double overtime in the USL W championship match at TCO before losing, 2-1. Aurora was the cool new thing that summer coming out of the COVID pandemic, averaging a league-leading 5,626 attendees per game, better than three of the 12 pro National Women’s Soccer League teams. Aurora attracted a season-high 6,489 for the championship, selling it out in less than 24 hours.
“Just the environment alone stuck with me,” said Nguyen, one of seven players left from that squad. “To have thousands of people out here cheering for us until a double-overtime, last-minute goal, it was heartbreaking. It was really hard.”
Aurora hasn’t gotten back to the final since, losing in the conference playoffs the last two years. Average attendance slipped a little this year, falling to 4,519 from a club record 5,799 in 2024.
But that 2022 vibe returned last Saturday. A season high 5,727 turned out for Pride Night and the season finale as the unbeaten streak reached 48 matches (43-0-5). The energy, the food trucks, the preteen and adult fans in Aurora gear … it was all there. Afterward, the players high-fived fans while walking the perimeter of the stands to the sound of ABBA’s 1976 hit “Dancing Queen.”
For all those wonderful moments, the loss from 2022 still bugs Larrick, an assistant to Nicole Lukic those first two seasons before returning as head coach this year. She said she brought it up before training Wednesday morning.
“In 2022, it was so close we could taste it,” Larrick said. “If I close my eyes, I can see Tormenta celebrating. I know what that felt like. That’s been a big motivation for me ever since. A good chunk of our players were there too. They care a lot about that.”
Related: Two goals for Minnesota Aurora: USL championship and getting into a professional league
This figures to be the last shot for most, if not all, of the Original Seven. Nguyen in particular tracks her growth from her Aurora experience.
She arrived that first season from Division II Bemidji State, scared and wondering how she would fit in. She went on to play 46 regular-season matches in four seasons, tied with Cat Rapp for the most in club history, while ranking second to Rapp in goals (19) and points (47).
“Coming from a D2 school, I remember my first day of practice,” Nguyen said. “I was just shaking. There are all these huge college players from big schools, and no one’s ever heard of my school. I felt so small.
“But over the four years, my confidence has grown a ton. I came in as a center back and outside back, and now I’m playing left wing and forward. Just to constantly have my coaching staff and my teammates pour into me, you can do this, you belong here, you can take those shots that feel icky that maybe you wouldn’t before … just complete confidence in myself and in my abilities.”
Transferring to St. Thomas after that first summer, Nguyen was a mainstay for three seasons in the Tommies’ transition to Division I, leading the club in goals and points as a sophomore and junior. A concussion limited her to seven matches as a senior. She graduated with a degree in digital media, and moved on to Minnesota to better prepare for a possible pro career.
“I’m so excited for her,” said defender Jelena Zbilic, another four-year Aurora veteran who finished her college career last season with the Gophs.
“She worked so hard. She brings such a positive environment to every team she’s on, and she keeps soccer fun. We all started playing soccer when we were little because it was super fun, and she does a good balance of working hard and keeping it fun.”
That’s where the board games come in. For the flight to Pittsburgh, Nguyen planned to pack Spicy Uno, similar to Crazy Eights with some funky rules; Chameleon, which involves guessing who holds the Chameleon card; and Telestrations, where everyone’s artistic skills (or lack thereof) come into play. The latter was a big hit.
“Everyone gets a card,” Nguyen said. “Their card has a word that you have to draw. After you draw it, you pass it to the next person, and you’re guessing what they’re drawing. It’s kind of like Telephone in a way, but drawing and guessing.
“We have some people on our team, some staff members even, whose drawing is a little questionable. But it’s so much fun. We spend more time with each other, take our minds off soccer and just enjoy each other’s presence.”
No better way to pass the time.
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