Couch: Return of Lansing United's original coach sparks rivalry
Eric Rudland, instrumental in LanU's early success, returns Friday with his new club, AFC Ann Arbor
LANSING – Eric Rudland didn’t intend to leave Lansing United in the lurch after two seasons. It came down to geography and family. The only coach and general manager United players and fans had ever known left last fall for a similar opportunity nearer to his home in Dexter, a shorter commute from his wife and baby daughter.
But he also left for a National Premier Soccer League division opponent, AFC Ann Arbor.
And so tonight, when he returns with his new club to play his old one — no matter how sensible his decision, how aboveboard folks involved say it was handled — he’s going to hear it.
“Oh, he’s definitely going to get a hard time,” said Geoff Sykes, a member of United’s supporters group, Sons of Ransom. “There are a bunch of us from the last two years. Like most of our chants, it’s just going to come to us in the moment. Anything from what he’s wearing, to how he walks on the field. If he looks at us …”
And thus, a rivalry is born.
United hasn’t been around long enough to have many intense and organic rivalries. LanU now has two, with AFC Ann Arbor joining Detroit FC — the latter beginning two years ago on the final day of the regular season when a 2-2 tie sent Lansing to the NPSL playoffs and Detroit home for the year.
Rudland coached that near-perfect inaugural season in Lansing. He assembled an interesting and competitive roster — a mix of college players, foreigners and former pros, one a popular Brit, another finishing the season in MLS, while United finished in the NPSL national semifinals.
United owner Jeremy Sampson insists he harbors no ill will toward Rudland or AFC Ann Arbor, that the move was handled well and that he completely understands Rudland’s decision. After all, Sampson, a former local television sports reporter, has made his own career moves with family in mind.
“There’s no animosity whatsoever,” Sampson said. “Now I do want to beat them (Friday) night.”
Thankfully — for the sake of this column and the electricity at East Lansing Soccer Complex tonight — Sons of Ransom is bound by the emotion and devotion of fandom.
“We loved Rudland for two years, but there’s a sense among supporters of being betrayed,” said Eric Walcott, a founding member of Sons of Ransom. “We get wanting to have a job closer to home for family reasons, but he talked a lot about how much he loved Lansing and was loyal to Lansing United, and then went out and approached a division rival about a job opening they had. That kind of rubbed us the wrong way.”
Nothing Walcott said is incorrect — not how Rudland felt about Lansing, or how he left, or how Sons of Ransom feels about him leaving.
Rudland, 37, says he wouldn’t have sought out AFC Ann Arbor if the second-year club hadn’t planned to move up a level to the NPSL. And perhaps not if the hour-plus commute he didn’t mind before his daughter was born hadn’t begun to wear on him in year two in Lansing.
“At first it didn’t seem like the move was going to make sense, professionally and emotionally,” said Rudland, who also coaches youth soccer in the Michigan Rush organization and is an assistant men’s soccer coach at Madonna University. “But as things became more clear, it just became an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. It wasn’t a situation I took lightly. Obviously Jeremy gave me my first crack at managing a team in the NPSL.”
Rudland’s exit briefly scared Sampson. Franchises at this level of minor league sports can go belly-up in a hurry with one misstep. United was Sampson’s idea and his operation, but the talent acquisition and the soccer was all Rudland.
“Oh, absolutely (I was nervous),” Sampson said. “For two years, you work with somebody as closely as I do with our head coach, and Eric and I had worked really well together, so you’re hoping to build on that. So yeah, there was some trepidation with some change. But really throughout the process, it was clear Nate (Miller) was the guy going forward to lead us and he’s done a terrific job.”
Miller, who also followed Rudland as head coach at Spring Arbor University, has a different approach to forming a roster, building more with college players, locally and nationally, and less internationally.
Rudland has put his international connections to work at AFC Ann Arbor — something that he says is even more necessary now that there are six NPSL teams in Michigan competing for the same in-state talent. AFC Ann Arbor has players from Brazil, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Switzerland, Mexico, Germany, France and England. And while many are playing or have played college soccer in the United States, Rudland has two players from the Cuban National Team and two more coming directly from clubs in England.
By comparison, United’s 2016 roster has four English players, a Scot, a Dane, a German, an Aussie and a Canadian, but also 24 Americans, 16 of them from Michigan, eight from the Lansing area.
Rudland’s crew early on leads the NPSL’s Great Lakes West Conference Midwest Region standings with 10 points (3 wins, 1 loss, one tie). Lansing is fifth out of seven teams with six points (1 win, 1 loss, three ties), just ahead of Detroit FC, which United visits on Sunday.
What Rudland’s AFC Ann Arbor roster doesn’t have is many of his former United players, just a handful.
“That was Jeremy’s primary concern and really out of respect for him and the club in Lansing, I was pretty up front with the ownership group in Ann Arbor that I was wasn’t going to approach any player on Lansing United’s roster,” Rudland said. “I said from Day 1, I’m not going to chase these guys. I didn’t want to do that to the club after working so hard to build up that roster. I told Jeremy, if a player reaches out to me, I’ll have a conversation with them. If it’s a player that makes sense logistically, geographically for them to consider coming to Ann Arbor, then I’ll keep you in the loop on those conversations.”
There were advantages to working in Lansing, Rudland said. Namely, working for one owner — Sampson — that he liked. AFC Ann Arbor has nine owners, “More cooks in the kitchen,” Rudland said, “but on the flip side, I think the resources that nine owners bring instead of one are obviously greater.”
A year ago when these teams met in a friendly in early May, it was exactly that — two teams, an hour apart, in different leagues. All good vibes.
“Our rivalry was friendliest with Ann Arbor,” Sykes said. “We had a good relationship with their fans. Now that they took Rudland, we’re just kind of in a weird state of mind. It’s definitely a little bit of betrayal.”
Whatever Sons of Ransom are thinking tonight, Rudland knows it won’t be said quietly.
“It’ll be interesting,” Rudland said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be positive or negative, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
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Lansing United vs. AFC Ann Arbor
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: East Lansing Soccer Complex
Tickets: $8 online at LanUnited.com, $10 at the gate; $5 and $7 ages 12-under