Sports stats



Tacoma Stars Weekend Preview & Review

January 28, 2011 - Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL)
Tacoma Stars News Release


Tomorrow Night - January 29th 7:30PM

The Stars welcome the Fire to the friendly confines of the Tacoma Soccer Center. The Stars are 2-0 vs Wenatchee this year (10-2, 11- 10OT). The Fire are riding a wave of confidence after knocking of Tijuana last weekend. Tacoma will have to keep their eye on the explosive offensive team. The Stars will again focus on their defensive intensity along with possession. As the season winds down, and playoff spots at stake, the Stars must come out and take care of their home turf.

Coach Howes explains, "Our goal at the beginning of the season is to go unbeaten at home and go .500 on the road and we are on pace for that (3-4 road, 4-0 home). We will have to start putting together 60 minutes of Stars soccer. We need to tighten up on the defensive side of the ball and get timely goals from role players. We have gotten consistent production from some players, but need to spread the scoring out to prevent teams from locking down on our main threats."

Daniel Grey and Leighton Obrien coming back from injuries and the Stars are getting healthy at the right time.

Tickets are available at TacomaStars.com

Last weekend Stars Review

Following a disappointing loss against Kitsap, the Tacoma Stars picked up a crucial Western Division win over Tijuana on January 22nd. The Stars are 2-2 over the last 4 games and 7-4 overall. The PASL-Pro playoff race is heating up and at the right time for the Stars. Sitting in second place in the Western Division behind league leading San Diego Sockers by 2 in the loss column. The Stars have five games remaining, four are at home. This weekend's match up against Wenatchee Fire is followed with a back to back home stand versus the league leading Sockers. The playoff picture could become clearer after the Sockers come to town.

1/21/2011 - Tacoma 5 Kitsap 8

The Stars fell behind early and were never able to get into a rhythm as they trailed 4-1 at half time on a first half goal from Ian Weinberg. The Stars seemed to find their groove in the third quarter with a quick goal from Greg Howes 28 seconds into the second half. The 4-2 contest went to 6-2 as Kitsap responded quickly to go up 5-2. Then a controversial call led to some ejections and yellow cards. The Pumas rattled a shot off both goalposts and bounced out of the goal. The referee's signaled a goal (6-2), which got a reaction out of many Stars players, that lead to Red and Yellow cards being issued.

"It is our Achilles heal, we score goals and the next shifts gives up a goal before we can get drinks. If it happened once or twice I wouldn't be as concerned, but it happens a lot. It is especially important when playing from behind, which is what we did all night. The Pumas deserved the win. They played with passion from the start they out worked us and they stuck to their game plan and it worked out for them." The Stars we never able to get close with second half goals from Mark Lee, Brayton Knapp and another by Weinberg. I thought their GK played a fantastic game, helping the Pumas to a big victory."

1/22/2011 - Tacoma Stars 8 Tijuana Revolucion 6

Coming of a loss on Friday, and disappointed in his teams efforts, Coach Howes thought about shaking up the line-up from top to bottom. "After a sleepless night of watching game film, I decided that in a must win game against Tijuana, I was going to test some character tonight. I challenged some guys to step it up, and decided to roll with same line-up except replacing Raphael Cox (Red Card) with Vitali Bulala." It proved to be the right mix."

The Stars went down 1-0, but quickly responded with 4 unanswered goals before halftime on goals from Ian Wienberg (2), Howes and Mark Lee, to lead 4-1 at half time. The Revolucion from Tijuana came out fighting in the second half and turned up their pressure. Howes, Wienberg, Lee along with Todd Stauber were able to find the net after the break to help Tacoma seal the victory.

The game was back and forth with lots of offensive opportunities, but the quick technical Tijuana squad could not break down Tacoma's strong defensive unit and when they did Tacoma Stars keeper Chris Kintz was up to the challenge. Kintz had 13 saves, along with some quality distribution for the Stars net minder helped preserve the win. " I thought tonight the team responded to last night's let down as I knew they would. Ultimately I thought the main difference between the games was Chris. In Kitsap he never settled down and seemed to lack the focus and energy we need from him. Before the season we talked about making routine saves, making a couple big saves each game, limiting turnovers in possession and having 2-4 games a year where he plays big and wins us those games. I think Chris responded tonight and played huge." It was good to see all the players put Friday behind them and step up to the challenge."

Coach comments: "I thought we deserved to go 1-1 on the weekend. It was nice to see how players responded to the lackluster performance in Kitsap. I though Ian Weinberg and Mark Lee had exceptional weekends and were key in our comeback efforts Friday and were huge on Saturday night. On Saturday night I thought every player brought it and played with the passion, intensity and intellect that we need to be successful."

• Discuss this story on the Professional Arena Soccer League message board...

Professional Arena Soccer League Stories from January 28, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central