Tacoma Stars Open PASL Home Campaign At Starfire This Weekend

December 2, 2011 - Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL)
Tacoma Stars News Release


The Tacoma Stars open its Professional Arena Soccer League home campaign on Saturday, December 3rd (7pm) and Sunday, December 4th (3pm) against the Phoenix Monsoon at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, where fans enjoy free admission all season.

Tacoma (0-2) opened the season with two road defeats to the Turlock Express in early November, and have had a full month to prepare for the home opener. Phoenix enters the game 1-3, having split games with Tijuana at home and dropping both games away to Turlock.

"It's been so long since we played, it feels like it's our first game," said Stars Head Coach and General Manager Todd Stauber. "The month long break in the season wasn't ideal, but we had a good exhibition game up in Bellingham before Thanksgiving and training has been good this week."

After the Turlock trip, then-head coach Leighton O'Brien made the decision to focus solely on playing, a decision that expanded Stauber's role as general manager to include the head coaching role. It's a change the players have taken in stride and that Stauber is enjoying.

"Leighton really just wanted to focus on playing, which is good for us because he's our best player when he's fit," said Stauber. "It didn't change our team dynamic much because I was running a lot of the training sessions anyways."

The Stars made the jump to the PASL's professional division last season and found great success, finishing second in the Western Division behind eventual champion San Diego. But after dropping its first two matches after being tied at halftime of both games, Tacoma is looking to get back to its winning ways.

Special teams are an area Tacoma needs improvement if they hope to climb out of last place in the Western Division. The Stars finished last season 14th out of 15 teams in the PASL when they converted just 7 of 33 power play opportunities. They opened the season 0 for 5 on the power play in Turlock, and Stauber seems to have lost patience in the matter.

"It's terrible, I'll be honest. Inexcusable at this level," said Stauber. "We have to create better scoring opportunities within our power play and be much more patient."

"Defensively we're giving up too many fouls and, in turn, too many man down situations. We have to be more disciplined and the guys know that. We played a man down for a total of 18 minutes during the second game in Turlock. That's over a quarter. It's never going to work out if that's the case."



Professional Arena Soccer League Stories from December 2, 2011


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