Soccer — The future is here, and now

Demon Hawks’ young fans bring vuvuzelas to the game.

It’s called “the beautiful game.” Soccer has been known as joga bonito since 1970 when Brazil’s national selection won the World Cup with “total football” teamwork that has been emulated ever since. 

No other sport is loved world-wide like the beautiful game. With its 90 minutes of constant movement, no other sport is as creative, nor accessible. Football and basketball favor those with extraordinary size. Baseball demands rare hand-eye coordination. Track distinguishes sprinters from distance runners; no one can be both. People marvel when a 100-meter champion can also compete at 400 meters. Running further than that is a dream too far. 

But soccer players at the highest levels run up to 8.5 miles over 90 minutes in a game in which pace (soccer speak for sprinting) is what usually separates winners from losers. Americans are turning more and more to soccer because parents love that kids do not have to become “stronger, faster, higher” or bulk up like in other popular sports. They just have to be willing to run, run, run and wait for elusive opportunities to do something simple, but simply beautiful, with the ball.

Darwin Salas, Iowa Demon Hawks owner, says the future is here in Iowa.

Soccer is the world’s game and also Des Moines’ sports future. Recent Des Moines Menace rosters have included players from Spain, Liberia, Chile, Costa Rica, England, Canada, Libya, Jamaica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Trinidad and Tobago, and Japan. The Iowa Demon Hawks are primarily Brazilian. Their outdoor side is connected to Tijuana’s Mexican league team by coach. 

Hawks’ owner Darwin Salas told us that when he found himself in Des Moines 22 years ago with “no job, no wife and five kids to raise,” he looked at demographics. 

“Iowa was 8% Latino, but the Des Moines school system was 40%. I saw the future here.” 

The two teams’ locker rooms are the most cosmopolitan places in the metro, with the possible exception of the Windsor Heights Walmart on a Sunday. 

Now and forever

Menace players celebrate a victory against the Carolina Dynamo.

Soccer love is for life. One does not choose new teams to support like football and basketball fans often do. I witnessed a bar fight between middle-aged fans of Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday, both decked out in team colors and paraphernalia. That was in Guayaquil, Ecuador. 

Bloodied, those two rival fans then had beers together and united in their shared appreciation of the English national team. Soccer biographies always include both club and national teams. Soccer clubs, like the Menace and Demon Hawks, recruit supporters at very young ages. 

Menace sponsors “Just for Girls” tournaments in both fall and spring for under 9s to under 19s. “Junior Menace” is a seven-week developmental program for soccer players 3 to 9. Menace supports summer camps all over Iowa plus Mini Menace clubs and ball boys and girls. Iowa Demon Hawks provide free clinics to underserved youth, partner with local organizations, and offer athletes meaningful opportunities to train, compete, and give back to the region they represent.

While the Menace has decades of history, Iowa Demon Hawks indoor program was founded in 2021, building on the success of its outdoor counterpart Des Moines United FC, which joined the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) in 2017. Since launching, the Demon Hawks have earned titles in MASL3 and were 2024 MASL2 National Champions. In 2025, the club expanded to include a women’s professional team competing in MASL-W.  

Iowa Demon Hawks Raphael Nacimento and fans.

Worldly connections like no other sport

The most vital facet of soccer’s design is its overlapping connectivity. The Menace plays in an amateur league with rivals Peoria, Santafé Wanderers St. (Kansas City), Sunflower State FC (Kansas City), St. Louis Ambush and Springfield FC. At the same time, they also play in a knockout tournament that can match them against professional teams of the highest order. 

The Demon Hawks play in a league with female-owned St. Louis Ambush, Muskegon Risers, Minnesota Blizzard (St. Paul) and Wisconsin Conquerors (Marshfield). In April, they hosted the indoor national championships at level II. They were going for a repeat but lost “at the death” (with no time on clock) to Chihuahua City. That’s a Mexican team playing in U.S. Nationals because they are part of a Texas league. Next year, the Demon Hawks men will be promoted to Level I like all soccer teams in the non-U.S. world are when they win. 

The Menace make concentrated efforts to get area youth involved in soccer.

The Menace is connected to the highest level of world soccer by just one degree of separation. Menace ownership is the same as that of Parma Calcio, one of Italy’s most storied clubs that plays in the Serie A, Italy’s top league. Parma and Des Moines are connected in other marvelous ways. Both are in the capitals of agricultural wonderlands. Both honor the oak tree, la quercia in Italian and the name of America’s premiere charcuterie producer, in Norwalk. 

The Menace has been built on success. They won a national championship in 2021 in front of 7,342 fans in Valley Stadium. They only lost one regular season home game from 2017-2024. They did lose three out of four games to their new head coach Charlie Latshaw II. It’s the second time the Menace poached a coach who had beaten them.   

Menace games are family-friendly bargains. Tickets start at only $12. Season tickets are $90 to $125. People show up early and tailgate. Two fan clubs sit together and sing — the DSM Society and the Red Army. Players stay around after games to meet everyone, sign autographs, take photos, etc.  

Their roster, unsettled at press time, includes big stars like Olympian Sacha Kljestan, Sporting KC legend Benny Feilhaber, and two-time MLS Golden Boot winner Bradley Wright-Philips. The second-largest crowd in Menace history attended their Cup loss to Omaha’s higher level team this spring. ♦