DALLAS -- Knowing that his team hasn't exactly had a tremendous amount of road success this season, Utah Freezz coach Dave Poggi has to be satisfied with how his team played over the weekend.
Utah beat Arizona 5-4 on Friday and then fell to league-leading Dallas 5-3 on Sunday. Utah's record now stands at 9-9, good enough for a fourth-place tie with Portland. Four teams make the World Indoor Soccer League playoffs, so Poggi likes where his team is situated.Four games remain on Utah's schedule, including a season-ending home game against Portland.
"I've felt all along that it would come down to (the last match)," said Poggi. "We are playing pretty well, but we're just not putting the ball in the net."
Against Dallas, Utah jumped out to a 2-1 lead, and considering the Sidekicks played the night before, Poggi liked his team's chances.
"We came out in the second half and had a bit of a letdown. We kind of expected a team like Dallas to pick it up in the second half," said Poggi. "They scored 30 seconds into the second half, and that got them started."
Dallas reeled off four consecutive goals before Utah's Dan Sedgewick cut the deficit to 5-3 with 3 1/2 minutes remaining.
"Dallas is so good at holding the ball. When they are in that mode it's like a game of keep-away," said Poggi.
The win was Dallas' 21st straight home victory and tied the all-time record for pro soccer set by the New York Arrows. Utah's other two goals were scored by Beau Brown and Sterling Wescott.
Against the Arizona Thunder, Brian Alba and Dave Huber each scored late third quarter goals as Utah rallied from a 4-3 deficit to prevail 5-4. Utah won despite being outshot 35-20, but the Freezz did hold Arizona to just six shots during the scoreless final quarter.
Shane Jones, Brown and Justin Labrum scored Utah's other three goals while Stuart Dobson came up with 19 saves to earn the victory in net.