|
|
|
Home  Articles 98/99 Season Home wins crucial for Drillers
|
|
Home wins crucial for Drillers |
|
|
|
|
Written by Norm Cowley
|
|
Friday, 18 December 1998 |
Home is never sweeter for a sports team than in the National Professional Soccer League.
So far this season the home team has won 50 of 73 NPSL games -- just down from last year's league-record winning percentage of .696.
Only one team, the Harrisburg Heat, has a losing record at home, while more than half of the 13 teams have either a zero or a one in the loss column of their home records.
The Edmonton Drillers, 7-4, are one of those teams that thrive on home cooking. The Drillers, 6-1 overall at Skyreach Centre, are riding a club-record-tying five-game win streak entering tonight's contest with the Montreal Impact at 7:05 p.m.
"At home, we definitely think we're pretty good," admitted Drillers head coach Ross Ongaro. "The guys are very confident at home."
But no one is underestimating the 5-5 Impact, which knocked off the powerful Cleveland Crunch 15-11 in Cleveland last Friday and won the only previous game between the teams this season 12-7 on Nov. 18th at Montreal.
That was a typical game for the Drillers, who fell behind 7-0 by halftime and then rallied to tie the score at 7-7 in the third quarter.
The only difference from Edmonton's recent home games is, while the Drillers dominated the fourth quarter, Montreal regained the lead, 9-7, and then added a three-pointer into an empty net after Edmonton pulled its goalie.
"We did well to come back and tie it but we couldn't put the final touch on a pretty good effort," said Drillers goalkeeper Pat Onstad.
"Over the last five games there were games we haven't played well -- Kansas City (last Sunday) was a good example -- but we found a way to win. Against Montreal, if you don't play well, it's very difficult to find a way to win."
The Drillers are usually a stronger team in the second half because they roll over three strong lines while most teams only use two regular lines.
"We kind of wear down teams with our speed and the type of game - - a high-pressure game," said forward Domenic Mobilio.
"When teams come in, they handle it the first half but we wear them down because most teams play with two lines.
"It just seems to work for us, and the bounces start going our way in the second half."
The Drillers would love to wrap up their seven-game homestand this weekend with a perfect 7-0 record but they aren't looking too far ahead.
"We definitely have to think about going 6-0 first," said defender Shayne Campbell.
"If we can get past Montreal, then, of course, we'd love to go 7- 0 but this is going to be a huge test for us," Onstad said.
The best thing about sweeping the entire 26-day homestand is that the Drillers would be in better shape to deal with their killer schedule later in the season when they play 11 of 13 games on the road from Feb. 5 to March 14.
"We've got to win as many home games as we can, because as our record shows in the past, we haven't done particularly well on the road," said Mobilio.
The Drillers, 1-3 on the road this year, were 4-16 away from home last season.
|
|
|
|