It was good news kind of night Saturday for the Salt Lake Sting soccer club, which has had its share of woes this year.
The Sting finally got a victory, a convincing 3-0 win over the Miami Freedom at Derks Field. They played in good weather just missing a thunderstorm two hours before the game. And they played in front of a representative of the American Professional Soccer League, who waxed optimistic about the immediate future of the Salt Lake franchise.What more could the Sting have asked for?
Well, a few more fans would have helped. A crowd of just 2,218 turned out, an improvement over the first two games, but less than half of last year's average. Still, considering the uncertainty over the Sting's future all week, not to mention the pre-game storm that scared off some folks, it was a decent turnout. And the fans on hand had plenty to cheer about.
After a scoreless first half, the Sting came out and scored early in the second half when Jim Hutchingson drove a left-footed shot into the net from 10 yards out off an assist from Cesar Plascencia.
Then at about the 10-minute mark, crowd favorite Dzung Tran dribbled down the left side, beat his man, got the goalie to commit then stuck a left-footed shot into the right corner.
The final Salt Lake goal was nearly scored by Sting goalie Mark Lehnert. His long kick bounced high and when Miami goalie Tony DeFillippis fell down, Derek Sanderson was there to punch it in.
"It's been very difficult for our guys, very shaky," said Sting Coach Valery Volostnykh about the lack of team ownership lately. "We wanted to play tonight and right now we have to win. I'm optimistic about our guys."
"I'll tell you, the situation with the club has made it hard for the players to concentrate," said Sanderson. "Tonight we tried to put all that behind us and come out and get results."
While Volostnykh and Sting players preferred not to speculate on the club's off-the-field problems, an APSL representative acted very optimistic about the club's future.
Greg Todd, the general manager of the Colorado Foxes, was sent by APSL commissioner William Sage to oversee Saturday night's game, now that the league has taken over the Sting operation. He claimed several groups in Salt Lake are interested in buying the Sting.
"We're getting closer to a conclusion and hopefully we can come to some terms this week," said Todd. "The league is very interested in making sure this city is serviced by a team in the APSL."
Fred Gray, the Sting's director of operations, believes the matter could be resolved as early as Tuesday. But Todd is hoping for a resolution sometime in the next week.
"There are a lot of details in putting this together," he said. "The league is sincere in helping this franchise be successful, because it has all the ingredients to be a success."
Todd said a sign of the optimism is the fact that travel arrangements have already been made for the Sting's trip to Colorado next weekend for a Sunday game. Before that, the Sting will play Penn-Jersey on Friday night at Derks Field.