It's no more Mr. Nice Guys as far as Sting Coach Laurie Calloway is concerned.
Calloway is tired of his soccer team getting beaten and "bullied" by the Colorado Foxes. Salt Lake has lost three straight games to the Foxes this year and the Sting are down to their last chance Wednesday night.The Sting and the Foxes kick off their second playoff game at 8 p.m. at Derks Field. The winner moves on to play San Francisco Saturday in California.
Colorado has the easier task, since it already has a playoff win over Salt Lake, the 2-0 victory Saturday in Denver. A win puts the Foxes in the North Division finals.
However if Salt Lake wins, it will have to defeat Colorado again in a 30-minute "mini-game" directly after the regular game. If neither team wins the mini-game, a shootout will follow.
Calloway admits that Colorado has been more effective in its three victories (two regular season and one playoff) than the Sting. But he doesn't think the Foxes have been the superior team.
"Colorado was very physical, not pretty, but effective," he said.
Calloway warned that local fans may see a different Salt Lake team this time.
"We may be the bad boys this time," he said. "They were bullies Saturday and we allowed them to bully us. We can't allow ourselves to be intimidated by Colorado."
Something that will help Salt Lake to be more aggressive will be the return of Steve Senglemann. He had to sit out last Saturday's game because of a red card in the previous game with San Francisco. Senglemann also had to sit out an earlier game because of accumulating too many yellow cards.
The bad news for Salt Lake is that defender Kenny Mays is out after tearing a quadricep Saturday night.
Calloway said his team needs to improve its midfield play this week. He wasn't going to decide on his lineup until after Tuesday's practice. "We'll see who wants it the most," he said.
Colorado's strategy likely won't change from earlier in the year. The Foxes have been a defensive team that has waited for its opportunites, then pounced on them. They are led by league player of the year Mark Dodd, who has 14 shutouts as goalkeeper.
The Sting, who have scored just one goal in three games against Colorado, will need frontliners George Pastor, Derek Sanderson and Dzung Tran to put some pressure on Dodd.
"This is going to be war - we don't like them and they don't like us," said Calloway. "We haven't beaten them yet, but if we beat them this time that's all that matters."