Monday, August 23, 2004

 

TAMPA, FL – The Pro Soccer League semifinals Saturday feature two unique matchups with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds heading to Utah and the Charlotte Eagles playing host to the New Hampshire Phantoms. All four teams have winning all-time postseason records.

Pittsburgh and the Blitzz will square off first at 5:00 pm ET at Rice-Eccles Stadium in the first-ever meeting between the two clubs. Charlotte and New Hampshire kick off at 7:30 pm ET at Waddell High School.

Utah is the perennial power in the west and has reached the semifinals in each of their five seasons of existence. The four previous semifinal appearances saw only one victory as the Blitzz downed the Stanislaus United Cruisers at home 3-0 and went on to capture the 2001 title. Two of the three semifinal losses came on the road at Charlotte in 2000 and at Wilmington in 2002. The Blitzz lost at home to Wilmington 2-1 last season as the Hammerheads went on to claim the title. Utah has a 7-3-0 postseason record.

This season, Utah recorded the most losses in team history with an 11-6-3 record.  The team’s 2001 hero, Fadi Afash, returned this season after a stint with the A-League Portland Timbers and recorded six goals. Despite being loaned back to the Timbers recently, Afash has been pulling double duty, suiting up for Utah in the playoffs. Leading the Blitzz in scoring is Richard Breza with five goals and five assists for 15 points. Matt Evans has six goals and an assist and BJ McNicol has four goals and three assists.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is in its first season in the PSL after spending their first five in the A-League with varied success that saw only two playoff appearances with a postseason mark of 7-3-0. Last year, the team saw a tremendous turnaround once Ricardo Iribarren took over as coach, finishing out the season on a 10-2-0 run and coming up just short of earning a playoff berth.

Iribarren has continued the team’s success with just two losses this season at 17-2-1. The Riverhounds lost many of its top players to other A-League clubs, but veterans like Gary DePalma and David Flavius combined with rookies Said Ali and Greg Chevalier proved a near unbeatable combination over the course of the season as Pittsburgh finished second in both goals scored on the season and fewest goals allowed.

Saturday marks the second meeting of the year for Charlotte and New Hampshire. The Phantoms dominated the visiting Eagles July 2 for a 3-1 win. New Hampshire countered a 30th minute Jacob Coggins strike with three unanswered in the second half. Mark Manganello provided the fireworks, setting up Bjorn Hansen in the 67th and scoring two himself in the 78th and 84th for the win. It was the third all-time meeting between the two. Charlotte won 3-2 in 1999 and lost 4-3 in overtime in 1998 in the previous two matches, both in New Hampshire, making this Saturday’s contest the first between the two in Charlotte.

The pair have similarities in their postseason history with both having missed the playoffs twice. In addition to each missing the postseason in their inaugural campaigns, Charlotte missed the 2003 A-League playoffs and New Hampshire failed to make the 2002 postseason. New Hampshire has only reached the final once, falling 3-2 in overtime to the Chicago Stingers in Austin, Texas in 1998 while Charlotte had advanced to the big game three times. The Eagles lost in their first two appearances in 1996 and 1997 before winning the 2000 title and moving on to the A-League. Charlotte boasts an 18-11-0 playoff record and New Hampshire has a 9-6-0 record in the postseason.

Like Pittsburgh, Charlotte dominated during the regular season, but saw a minor slip on the final weekend in a pair of meaningless matches on the road in Pennsylvania, falling to Pittsburgh and Harrisburg to finish 14-4-2. After years as the team’s star striker, Dustin Swinehart took on a midfield role in 2004 and finished second on the team in scoring with 10 goals and 10 assists for 30 points after leading the team in scoring the last five years. Replacing Swinehart as the new star forward this year was Jacob Coggins, who in his fourth year with the team registered 20 goals and 10 assists for 50 points.

New Hampshire was mired in an extremely competitive season in the Northern Division, where all three teams finished within one game of a .500 record. As the lone team to qualify for the postseason at 10-9-1, the Phantoms received a bye to the semifinals. The Phantoms won their final game of the season, 4-2, against Westchester to advance, ending a six-game losing streak. Longtime PSL veteran Bjorn Hansen led the team in scoring with 13 goals and five assists for 31 points.