All season the Utah Freezz looked like a team worthy of making the playoffs, and Wednesday night it became official. Portland's 9-6 loss at Monterrey eliminated it from World Indoor Soccer League playoff contention with Utah securing the final spot.
"I always felt that if we could continue to get better that we could find ourselves in a position at the end of the season to be in contention," said Freezz coach Dave Poggi.The Freezz will travel to top-seeded Sacramento on Dec. 3 for a one-game playoff. The Knights haven't lost at home all year and beat Utah in three out of the teams' four meetings. Dallas will host Monterrey in the other playoff game Nov. 26.
Utah beat Sacramento 6-4 back on Aug. 21 in a home game, but dropped the next three, including an 11-2 setback in September. That loss kicked off a five-game losing streak that put the Freezz's playoff hopes in jeopardy. Five wins in their past seven games helped the Freezz recover just in time to edge Portland for the final playoff spot.
Monday's win over Portland improved Utah's record to 12-10, meaning the Pythons had to win their remaining two games to squeak in past the Freezz. Poggi was relieved the good news came on Wednesday so he didn't have to stress until Portland's game at Dallas on Sunday.
If Utah wins and Dallas wins in the first round, the championship would be in Dallas. If Utah wins and Monterrey wins, the Freezz would host the title game because of an agreement with the league preventing Monterrey from hosting a playoff game.
"At this stage everybody's equal, it doesn't matter if you're the one seed of the four seed, it's a two-game run at the championship," said Poggi. "We definitely can win it, but nobody's going to let us win it."
First Utah has to figure out how to win at Arco Arena, something it has two weeks to figure out.