For the 2nd year in a row the Blast will face a team from Mexico for the MASL championship. Anyone who has seen Sonora play, are they as good as their record shows? Looking at just numbers they have a tremendous offense, but their defense appears to leave something to be desired.
Also for those of us on the East Coast, stock up on the coffee for Game 2 with an 11:05 PM start time! If this series goes to the mini game, it's looking like 2 AM or so before it's over.
Because of that small field in Sonora games take close to 3 hours out there. As someone who watched the Sonora-Vegas game that started at 10pm East Coast time and went to Double OT in the Mini-Game I can vouch for that game ending around 3am. Add another hour to that since it will start at 11 instead of 10. Could be looking at 4am for a finish
Sonora is solid, but not as good as Monterrey last year IMO. This is only game I've watched from start to finish was the Vegas series to be fair, so I may not be able to accurately assess their true talent level. From what I saw, Sonora likes to use the goalie a lot to dribble up the tiny field. They put 2-3 men on the ball on defense, playing pressure over marking. From what I saw they play a very good small field game by clogging up lanes by doubling men. How this translates to a real sized field and against a defensively minded team remains to be seen. Should be a great series regardless!
Senora is the Best offensive team and Baltimore is the best defensive team in the league. Our issue is since we lost Viny we cant seem to score goals. The blast need to spend time working on its power play team . Senora has racked up 23 Penalties in the playoffs already . So we will need to capitalize on every single PP chance we get
Its hard to say how good Sonora actually is. They had a great first year, especially for being an expansion team. Their smaller home field is one of the big reasons why they score so many goals. They never did play the Comets or the Blast during the regular season, but they did split a series with the Sockers (2 and 2). Having that smaller field and that great fan support should be to Sonora's advantage for game 2. If I was the Blast I would not underestimate them and I'm pretty sure they won't.
One thing I noticed in their 4 playoff games, the Blast have given up 14 goals total. Sonora gave up 13 alone to San Diego in one game, and 13 to Vegas in one game.
Senora has the advantage for a few reasons Game 2 will be played at ( 10:05 pm est ) The Mini Game if needed will not end until ( 1 & 2 am est ) The time change alone is going to mess with Baltimore unless they are going to train these guys to play this late . Baltimore will need to start training on a much smaller pitch for the next week. The Biggest issue is the Baltimore has had issues scoring goals lately. Our Power play team will need to take advantage of every single power play situation and we must win game 1 in Baltimore to even have a chance in Sonora .
This is going to be a interesting series to say the least. The Blast have been struggling to score goals but we manage to always find a way to pull off the win.
So predictions for the final? I want to of course see the Blast win, but I feel that Sonora has the edge having the smaller field and the mini-game there. Sonora wins the championship in the mini-game.
I'm going to take the Blast. They are just too deep. Their power play and 6th attacker special teams will be the difference.
I'm going to say the Blast will win the series in 2 games. This will be the best team that Sonora has faced all year, especially when it comes to defense. I really did not think the Blast would beat the Comets, but they came up with a great game plan and took care of business. Game 2 vs Comets could of been a real blowout as the Blast missed many shots on goal. I believe the Comets are a better team than Sonora. I also don't think Sonora is as good as last years Monterrey team, but they have had a great year. I haven't written off Sonora and still think they have a chance to win it, if the Blast does not play to their potential and since Sonora has game 2/mini in Mexico with that smaller field and that loud crowd. Looks like there will be a good crowd in Baltimore as many tickets have been sold, according to the Ticketmaster map. Have not seen any advertisments or promos for the game though. Have heard some of the Blast players and DK on sports radio 105.7 promoting the game. Looks like the game will be on GLS and not espn 3, so who knows how that will turn out. Good Luck to both teams!
Before the season started, I predicted for the Blast to win the championship. So I am sticking to them. I will say they win it in two games.
Very physical game through3, Blast however have made the best of their chances and seem to control possesion. Will be an interesting 4th.
The Blast defense held the Sonora offense to its lowest goal output this season as they win Game 1 7-4. Very physical and tough game, with more fouls than I've seen at a game in a while called. It will be interesting to see how the Blast adapt to the smaller field Friday
Looking back now, Soccer Sam pegged it beautifully on his radio show this past Saturday when he told Andrew Hoxie he felt the best way to score on Sonora's keeper was long shots from deep. It seemed a lot of Blast goals came from those longer shots and even when they didn't score, it seemed to bother the Sonora goalie a bunch. Was fun atmosphere in Baltimore, very large crowd who were very vocal. I'm slightly worried about the smaller field in Game 2 and maybe 3. Sonora showed tonight they like to put men on the ball and have no problem double teaming at nearly all times on breakouts especially. While the Blast handled it relatively well tonight, it could be a different story on the smaller more compact field in Mexico.
We should be fine , The Blast practice on a Smaller field anyway Winning at home was the easy part winning in Sonora is going to be the hard part. We will be playing at 11:00 PM our time. The Mini game would start at about 1:00 am. The players have a meeting today and will be flying out tonight. Below was the schedule for the drivers . The Blast are going to provide transportation for the Sonora team in Baltimore and they will do the same for us in Mexico. We are renting four mini vans and we need drivers. The following is our schedule: Friday, April 8th -Meet at Blast office in Rosedale (6929 Golden Ring Road, Rosedale, Maryland 21237 @ 3:45 P.M. -Go to pick up vans at Enterprise on Bel Air Road. -Meet Sonora Team at BWI airport. Plane arrives at 11:36 P.M. on American Airline Flight 618 from Phoenix. -Take team to hotel in Baltimore – Embassy Suites Inner Harbor – 222 St. Paul Place Baltimore 21202. Saturday, April 9th -Pick team up at hotel and take them to practice at NERRC. Pick up at Noon. Practice is from 12:30 to 2:00. -Return team to hotel after practice. Sunday, April 10th -Pick team up for game. They will give us the time but it will be approximately 4:00 P.M. -Return team to hotel after the game. Monday, April 11th -Pick team up at hotel @12:30 P.M. to return them to BWI.
Quick correction, the mini game I would expect would start around 2 AM should it be needed. Needless to say I will be no good Saturday morning
The Sonora-Vegas Game 2 and Mini-Game took 4 hours 20 minutes. You can verfiy that by checking the broadcast on Go Live. If that happens again you are looking at a 3:20am ending on the East Coast. Every game down there takes 3 hours to play. Be prepared to stay awake until 3:30am just in case.