Laredo Hopes to Remain on Top of Mid-South Division
Written by admin, Jul 17, 2010, 0 Comments
Courtesy Vanessa Guajardo,
Heat Set to Finish Regular Season on the Road in the Houston Area
(Laredo, TX): A win, a loss and a tie is what the Laredo Heat Soccer Club (8 – 4 – 1, 25 points, 13 games played) and the Houston Leones (4 – 4 – 4, 16 points, 12 games played) have in common as the 2010 Premier Development League (PDL) regular season comes to a close within the next ten days.
On Saturday afternoon July 17th, the Richmond, TX based Leones will host the current Mid-South Division leaders, the Laredo Heat, at Soccer World Center. Kick-off for this match is set for 5:00 P.M. This game is the last of four match-up’s between the two teams.
The Heat beat the Leones early in the season in Laredo by a score of 2 – 0 and then in the middle of June, when the Gateway City club made their first visit to the Bayou City, the Leones were very unfriendly host when they handed Laredo a 3 – 1 loss and then just one week ago in Laredo, the Leones silenced the Heat faithful after Forward Felix Garcia had given Laredo a 2 – 1 lead in the 87th minute and it looked as if a win was all but locked up, Houston found the back of the net in compensation time to tie the game up at 2 – 2.
“The top spot in the Mid-South Division has been a revolving door this season, most especially the past few weeks,” said Heat Owner and President Shashi Vaswani.
“Just a few weeks ago we were sitting in third place looking up at West Texas United (Midland) and DFW and now we are heading to Houston as the division leader to play a determined and formidable opponent in the Houston Leones who are currently sitting in fourth place but because of the number of points they have accumulated, have an outside chance of qualifying for the playoffs if things fall into place for them and one of those things is beating us at home on Saturday.”
“After our convincing win this past Wednesday over the Rio Grande Valley Bravos at home, it is now time to take the show on the road for our last three regular season games. As I have said before, the players and coaching staff know what is at stake at this point and it is up to them to execute and adapt the game plan in order to accomplish our goal of qualifying for the post season,” continued Vaswani.
“We will travel to Houston on Friday afternoon in order to get there in time to rest overnight for the afternoon match on Saturday. Obtaining three points with a win versus the Leones would be a great way start the road trip to finish up the regular season; however, a loss, while not worse thing that can happen to us at this point would certainly add more pressure as we would head to El Paso next weekend for two games and most importantly, would give the other Mid-South Division foes hope of catching or passing us in the divisional standings. It is always important to have the ability to count on your own actions to achieve a predetermined goal. With a win on Saturday at Soccer World Center, a place where we have never won, we would certainly take advantage of having our destiny in our own hands,” concluded Vaswani.
Heat Injury Update
Slowly but surely, the Laredo Heat are starting to turn the corner in terms of the injury bug that has plagued the team for some time now. Midfielder Greg Mulamba put in some strong minutes on Wednesday evening and Forward Felix Garcia has made the most of the minutes he has gotten the past few games. Former Alexander High School and future TAMIU goalkeeper Rodrigo Avila is the latest player on the club to start seeking medical attention with a right leg injury suffered two weeks ago. Avila should be good to go but will be monitored by Physical Trainer Albert Escovar.
For additional information on the Laredo Heat Soccer Club, please visit our website at www.laredoheatsc.com or call the Heat office at 723 – 4700.
