The Baltimore Blast‘s opponent tonight was supposed to be ? at least according to playoff seeding ? the Detroit Ignition, Major Indoor Soccer League?s regular season champion.
But that all changed when a team from Mexico that very people have heard of provided the biggest upset of the postseason when the fifth-seeded La Raza scored a golden goal to win the series after the teams split two games.
So who is this team the third-seeded Blast face tonight at 7 at U.S. Cellular Arena in Milwaukee?
It?s the second straight expansion team to reach the championship game and a team that could very easily prevent the Blast from winning its fourth title in the past six years. The La Raza also is not a typical expansion team composed of second-tier players, according to Blast coach Danny Kelly.
“I know they have leagues with boards down there, and they also have Futsal [a five-on-five game played indoors]. I don’t consider them an expansion team,” Kelly said. “I don’t use the term, even with Detroit last year ? they had more all-stars than we did. I use that term very lightly.”
Monterrey (20-16) had more first-team All-MISL players this year than the Blast (23-11), with defender Genoni Martinez and midfielder Dino Delevski outnumbering the Blast’s lone honoree, goalkeeper Sagu.
Martinez and Delevski played in Philadelphia last season, winning a championship with the KiXX by defeating Detroit. Last weekend, Monterrey upset the Ignition when Byron Alvarez scored in the golden-goal session.
“They put a good team together,” Blast defender P.J. Wakefield said. “Dino [Delevski] and Genoni [Martinez] played on a championship team last year. They’ll be hungry for another one.”
In a sense, Wakefield was looking forward to playing Detroit, which beat the Blast in all four meetings during the regular season. But that didn?t happen. After Monterrey defeated Detroit, 15-11 in Mexico and lost 21-2 at Detroit, the La Raza scored first in the golden-goal session immediately after the second game. Monterrey was outscored, 32-19, in the series, yet still found a way to advance.
“In the golden goal, you might as well flip a coin,” Kelly said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s what happened there.”
The Blast won via golden goal twice in 2006, advancing in the semifinals before defeating St. Louis in the championship.
But the championship is a one-game showdown, which is just fine with Blast veteran Denison Cabral.
“I prefer to have one straight game and that’s it,” Cabral said. “I just don’t like the mini game. To me, the golden goal is disgusting. One bad bounce and you miss a chance to go to the finals. That’s ridiculous to me.”
THREE KEYS TO A BLAST WIN
1 Play team defense. Danny Kelly’s constant talk about “getting five men behind the ball” has been the mantra that?s pushed the Blast from being a .500 team last season to being the favorite to claim its fourth title in six years tonight. If the Blast limits its fouls and doesn?t put itself in man-down disadvantages, the Blast?s defense should take care of the rest.
2 Minimize Monterrey?s set plays. Dino Delevski (14 regular season power play goals), Genoni Martinez (six regular season re-start goals) and Byron Alvarez (team-best eight playoff goals) are dangerous on the offensive end. The Blast’s most glaring weakness is its failure to defend restarts, which often results in goals. The Blast can?t give up easy goals and expect to win.
3. Finish. Opportunities will come for the Blast’s start-studded offense, and the team must convert. Monterrey was the only team in the league with a better power-play success rate (57.8 percent) than the Blast (52.9) in the regular season. The team feels its defense-first mentality will lead to counter-attacks.
THE EXAMINER PREDICTS ?
Denison Cabral, Machel Millwood and Adauto Neto are too much for the expansion La Raza. Sagu and the Blast defense contain the Monterrey offense, and the Blast returns to Charm City with the game?s most coveted trophy. BLAST 14, LA RAZA 6.
