Utah Blitzz coach Chris Agnello did not care how, why or by how much. He just knew his team needed a win. His team took some bulletin board material as motivation and responded with a 2-0 victory over BYU on Saturday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Coming into the game, Utah found itself in an unusual position. More than midway through the 2004 season, the team was on the wrong side of the .500 mark. Utah was 4-5-3 and coming off a pair of losses last weekend in California. The Blitzz have been a power in professional soccer for the past four years, including a national championship in 2001, so having a losing record did not sit well with Agnello.
"I challenged the team in the locker room," he said. "I told them that by July 18 (when the regular season ends) we would have a winning record. I told them the challenge to them would be how many of them would still be on the team."
As if that were not motivation enough for Utah, BYU's coach Chris Watkins gave the players something to pin up in the locker room. In an interview leading up to the contest, Watkins said that Utah would probably be in last place if it played in the same league as BYU. The Blitzz play in the United Soccer League's Pro Soccer League while BYU plays in the Premier Development League, which is supposedly a step below the PSL. Before Saturday's contest, the Blitzz were 1-3 against the PSL.
Agnello said he took about 25-30 copies of the quote and pinned them up around the locker room, but rather than trying to motivate his players to be angry at Watkins — Watkins was a player and teammate on the Blitzz during the 2002 season — Agnello simply said, "He's right. What he said is true right now. What are you going to do to change that?"
The players took the challenge and carried it with them through 90 minutes of soccer. Right from the start, it was the Blitzz who seemed to be winning the 50-50 balls in the middle. It was the Blitzz who were creating the more dangerous opportunities at the net. And it was the Cougars who seemed to be on their heels, only capable of counter-attacking after Utah would control an offensive thrust.
In the 29th minute it looked as if the offensive attack was going to pay off for the Blitzz. Ariel Bravo won a ball at the back of the BYU defense and raced in on the keeper all alone. But as he has done all year, BYU's Brandon Gilliam saved the one-on-one chance.
Just four minutes later, Bravo got his revenge. Alejandro Gutierrez beat a defender along the right end-line and fed a beautiful pass across the middle to Bravo, who slotted home the goal. It was the last good scoring chance for either team in the first half.
For much of the second half, it was a battle in the midfield. BYU was able to create a couple of scoring chances but unable to finish. Gilbert Gaertner had a chance to even the score in the 66th minute, but after dribbling through nearly the entire Blitzz defense, he pushed his wide-open shot from 10 yards out wide of the target.
It was the Blitzz who were finally able to capitalize in the waning minutes of the game. Gutierrez again went along the end-line and fed a ball across the middle. This time it took three Utah shots before Rich Breza finally fired a rocket across the goal line for the insurance goal and a Utah win.
Utah continues its season with an Open Cup game Tuesday night at Rice-Eccles against the Sacramento Knights of the U.S. Adult Soccer Association.
Agnello anticipates more of the same from the team: "We expect these guys to do a good job. This is their job. We pay them to put the ball in the net, or keep the ball out. It is what they do. I'm paying them to do a job, and they owe us some results."
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com