Kervin Arriaga was baffled; Dayne St. Clair was flattered and gave gifts; Emanuel Reynoso probably — and fittingly — didn’t even see it.

Those Minnesota United players, both past and present, are examples of the varying reactions to their likeness on banners and stickers made by longtime Loons fan Anthony de Sam Lazaro. At home matches at Allianz Field, he holds up a wide variety of big hand-painted banners, while also handing out small stickers.

The 42-year-old St. Paul man and his two preteen sons plan to be in their usual spot in the first few rows of the Wonderwall for the regular-season finale against St. Louis City on Saturday. It’s MNUFC’s fan appreciation night.

“It’s been phenomenal,” first-year head coach Eric Ramsay has said about the home support in 2024. “I’m just sort of regretful that we haven’t been able to have the home record (6-6-4) that our fans and environment deserve.”

The Loons’ previous game in St. Paul, a 3-0 drubbing of Colorado Rapids on Sept. 28, was the club’s best performance at home this season. They will look to build on it Saturday as they jockey for final seeding in the MLS Cup Playoffs, which start next week. The club is guaranteed at least one home game in the playoffs — wherever they end up in the standings, either a best-of-three series or a one-off wild-card match.

“We’ve got a chance with these two home games now to sort of right those wrongs,” Ramsay said this week. “In the sense that we can leave this season feeling very different about our home record.”

De Sam Lazaro will help make Allianz Field a unique environment for the Loons this weekend. Just like he did at the National Sports Center in Blaine for the Stars around 2011. And at James Griffin Stadium in St. Paul for Thunder games in 2004.

Anthony met his wife Stephanie at a Thunder game that year. The romantic in him recalls it being a “mild summer day, not cloudy,” while the historian in him recalls Nino Marcantonio scored a late game-winner for Milwaukee.

De Sam Lazaro started making the banners — which he holds up with two poles spaced a few feet apart — in 2011; that’s when the Stars won the Soccer Bowl, also known as the North American Soccer League Championship Series. One of the first players he honored was Justin Davis, a longtime Minnesota player who later made the jump with the club to MLS in 2017. The banner was a play on the Nickelodeon show “Doug.”

Then de Sam Lazaro got busy with work as an attorney, including 2 1/2 years as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota. He is now a Human Services Judge with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. He hears appeals on topics such as reductions to people’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

It can be a stressful job in need of mental breaks. So last year, he rekindled the light-hearted hobby of sign-making during the week and holding them up at opportune times during Loons games on weekends.

“It’s a way to be a little less serious and to bond with my younger two boys, who love going to games,” de Sam Lazaro said. “They have a lot of input on the two poles. They encourage me to do their favorite players, because they want to interact with their favorite players. And they want to lift up their favorite players.”

Anthony has made so many banners and stickers that it’s hard for him to keep track of them all. Loons defender Michael Boxall has received two banners, fitting because he’s the club’s beloved captain and also because he’ 11-year-old Michael de Sam Lazaro’s favorite player. But so is Dayne St. Clair and Joseph Rosales.

The first banner in 2023 was for midfielder Hassani Dotson, picturing him in a boxing robe and the phrase “don’t call it a comeback.” Dotson was returning from a season-ending knee injury in 2022.

De Sam Lazaro has done either a banner or a sticker for nearly every prominent Loons player, as well as back-ups. The list is shorter for those he hasn’t featured.

A collection of stickers made by Minnesota United fan Anthony de Sam Lazaro, photographed in Oct. 2024. The St. Paul attorney has honored many Loons players with his banners and stickers at Allianz Field home games. (Andy Greder / Pioneer Press)

When Reynoso had gone missing (again) in Argentina, he made a sticker, playing off the MLS All-Star’s nickname and former TV show.

“Where in the World is Bebelo Reynoso?”

That answer is now Mexico, after MNUFC sent the dynamic midfielder on a permanent transfer to Club Tijuana in early summer.

When Arriaga played in his final game mid-summer before he was transferred to Serbian club Partizan, de Sam Lazaro gave him his stickers. “I don’t think (Arriaga) really was quite sure what was going on,” he said with a laugh.

When St. Clair caught wind of his rendering, he gifted the de Sam Lazaro boys his cleats. “They were buzzing about the interaction with Dayne for a week and a half afterwards,” Anthony said.

That’s the standard. Loons players giving mementos to the de Sam Lazaros. After Robin Lod saw a play on a “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” theme, he gave them a jersey. So did Micky Tapias, Devin Padelford and Sang Bin Jeong. Zarek Valetin gave away his cleats. The list goes on, but mostly after wins and sometimes draws.

De Sam Lazaro did one for new forward Kelvin Yeboah as Mr. Freeze, which is based on the Kelvin scale of temperatures. “I’m not sure how nerdy to get,” he said. “But my brain was like, oh, Kelvin. Like, Kelvin degrees. And I’m not sure if anybody else gets that joke.”

It’s not just the best players who get de Sam Lazaro’s attention. When Valentin got in a rare, recent game, 12-year-old Andrew was on it with instructions: “Oh, dad, let’s get out the poles!”

Now that Valentin announced his retirement this week after a 14-year career, de Sam Lazaro wants to gift him the sign on Saturday.

Andrew is also a baseball fan, so Anthony brought him to a recent Twins game and had made an “All aboard the Buck truck” sign with Byron Buxton’s head on a semitruck. He wanted to drape it inside Target Field, but stadium attendants thought it was “a little bit big … a little bit too much” for display.

At Allianz Field, not so much. Yet de Sam Lazaro wants to be conscientious and will only display the two-pole banners during pregame warmups, if the player scores a goal or postgame. He doesn’t want to interrupt the view for supporters behind him.

Loons players are almost always flattered by the banners.

“These players don’t have the star mentality” of players in other leagues, de Sam Lazaro said. “I mean, I’m sure some of them do, but yeah, for the majority of them are like, ‘Holy crap! Somebody made a sign of me!’ ”