Freezz 13, El Salvador 1
WEST VALLEY CITY -- Professional soccer made its debut in Utah Friday night, and the uncertainty felt around the E Center was mutual.Management, coaches and players were all curious as to how the Utah Freezz would be received by the fans. Would they enjoy the fast-paced, high-scoring soccer, or would it seem cheap with all those goals?
One thing is certain, what transpired Friday, a 13-1 Freezz victory over a club team from El Salvador, won't be duplicated anytime soon.
"We got off to a quick start and our speed and pace kind of surprised them," said Freezz forward Shane
Jones, who netted a hat trick.
In El Salvador, indoor soccer, or Futbol Rapido as it's referred to, is slowly growing, but indoor soccer is an American game. In El Salvador they play on a basketball-court type of surface, instead of the soft turf, and they don't utilize walls. They actually use lines like in outdoor soccer.
"They don't use that aspect of the game much, this is an American game," Freezz head coach Dave Poggi said.
Utilizing the walls is the prime thing separating outdoor from indoor soccer, and the Freezz clearly used the walls to their advantage.
Anyone who's played indoor soccer also knows how tiring the sport can be, and El Salvador looked tired. In fairness to the players, they only arrived in the United States Thursday night to begin their three-game exhibition schedule, and the jet-lag showed.
"I think opponents in general will be more tired here," Poggi said. "I don't know what the altitude is here, but fitness is such an important part of the game."
Utah's Kevin Henderson kicked off the scoring in the fifth minute of the first quarter after his shot was deflected in by a defender. Before the opening quarter ended, five more Utah goals had been scored. In the Freezz's victory at Portland last week, they needed overtime before they netted their sixth goal.
El Salvador just seemed content standing on its heels on the defensive end while waiting for Utah to attack. That resulted in plenty of Utah scoring chances all evening.
The Freeze led 13-0, much to the delight of the 8,808 fans in attendance, before El Salvador finally scored in the final two minutes.
"I was very disappointed not to get the shutout. But you need luck to have a shutout in indoor," Freezz goalie Stuart Dobson said. "The game was out of reach at that point and we got a little disorganized."
Barely missing out on his first indoor shutout was frustrating, but Dobson still knows his defense was a big reason why it nearly happened, even though their mistake resulted in that late goal.
"They were getting in El Salvador's faces all game and they weren't letting them play balls to the middle," Dobson said.
From the opening kickoff, Utah's defense was stifling. Most of El Salvador's good scoring chances developed from a counter attack, but two to three Utah defenders were always there quickly to close off the attack. When Dobson was called upon, however, he showed why he was the Eastern Indoor Soccer League goalie of the year last year.