Dakota Fusion bring international talents to Fargo-Moorhead

MOORHEAD, MINN. (KVRR) – Dakota Fusion Futbol Club began their season on Saturday. The team features players from around the world who have decided to continue their soccer careers in Fargo-Moorhead.

Dakota Fusion Futbol Club has been playing semi-professional soccer since 2016, bringing players from all around the world to Fargo-Moorhead.

The National Premier Soccer League club hosts 23 players born outside of the U.S. featuring alongside local players.

Nicolo Lai, Vincent Sanchis and Ahmad Hijaz all came to the team having never been to Fargo-Moorhead before.

“I didn’t see too much, just once when we went downtown, and I like it. I didn’t expect that. I was just expecting another cornfield. I like it.”

One of the things that drew them to the Fusion however was the drive to compete.

“Everyone wants to go pro. Everyone puts the tackle on, the coach likes that. So he makes us improve everyday, and he makes us try to go into every match like it was the last one for us.”

And they all come from different backgrounds.

Sanchis grew up in El Puig, Spain, while Hijaz was born in Palestine but came up playing in Florida.

While in Italy Lai played against some of the best youth teams in the country.

“When I was in Italy I played for Virtus Entella which was in Serie B, and now is actually in Serie C. But it was professional, and we would always play against Milan, Juventus, Turin, all these kinds of teams.”

And now that they’re all together on the Fusion, they’ve set their goals for the NPSL campaign  high.

“So we want to win the conference. There’s only one that is going to the Playoffs, the National Playoffs, so we just want to win against Duluth. They won last year, so we’ve got to beat them.”

“It’s just focusing on making it to the playoffs; beating Duluth as Vincent said. It’s gonig to be challenging, but I believe we can do it. We have good players, good coach, it’s a great environment, the culture’s well at practice, and we’re ready.

“We are ready. We are ready for everyone that’s going to come up against us, and let’s go Fusion.”

The Fusion opened their season at home with a 4-0 win over Minnesota Blizzard and are set to square off against reigning conference champions Duluth next Saturday.