Blast forward David Bascome compared playing in an opponent?s arena to trying to find the bathroom in a stranger?s home.
“It takes time,” he said. “You?re just unfamiliar. It?s not your place.”
The Blast (11-7) is a league-best 9-2 at home, but away from 1st Mariner Arena, it is just 2-5 and among five teams in the nine-team Major Indoor Soccer League with a losing road record.
“When you go on the road, travel does take a little bit of a toll on you,” defender Mike Lookingland said. “It?s different. At home, we have without a doubt, the best fans in the league. We?re pumped up, we?re ready to go. When we go on the road, the atmosphere isn?t here. Flipping the switch, staying focused ? that?s been our problem.”
Part of the team?s success at home can be attributed to the Blast playing in front of a raucous crowd, as it averages a league-best 6,948 fans per game.
The Blast?s game tonight at 7:35 at last-place Orlando (3-17), coupled with Milwaukee?s match at Philadelphia (9-11), gives the fourth-place Blast an opportunity to move within a game of league-leading Milwaukee (14-6) and closer to a playoff berth after missing the postseason by a game last spring.
The Blast has won its past five games, but the team also opened the season 5-0 before losing its next five, so the team can?t rest on its recent success.
“We?ve learned a lesson from not only last season, but this season: You?re only as good as your last game,” Blast coach Danny Kelly said. “We need to go down to Orlando and prove that we?re a team that?s capable of winning on the road and keep this winning streak going.”
The Blast averages 12.7 points per game in 11 games at 1st Mariner Arena, but just 8.6 points in seven road games.
“There?s no secret to what?s going on,” Kelly said. “We just need to get it done.”
The Blast departed for Orlando on Friday afternoon in order to get in an extra training session before tonight?s game. After drumming Orlando, 25-13, last Saturday in Baltimore, the Blast is expecting a very physical game tonight.
“I think they?re going to come at us,” Bascome said. “We have to stay focused. It?s a new week, and they?re going to come out to play. They want some revenge. We have to go in and do whatever it takes. Each game, we?re striving to get to the playoffs.”
