December 20, 2023 – Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) News Release
Chihuahua’s Rough Weekend
In such a young season, these litmus tests often feel like finals. Add in two wildly dominant teams and a fierce rivalry, and you have this weekend’s home-and-home series between Chihuahua and Monterrey. The Flash came alive in the second half to win 10-6 at Corner Sport Arena in Chihuahua, ending the Savage’s perfect season, and then followed that up with a second victory, this time at home by a score of 3-2.
Both teams exchanged penalties about as often as they scored on Friday, but Chihuahua found itself in the penalty box four times during Sunday’s contest. Their final trip to the box proved decisive as Monterrey converted the resulting shootout for its third goal of the night. Chihuahua earned 40% of their season’s total cards in the match as the Flash finally found a way to address its own evident penalty problem, accumulating just one penalty late in the fourth quarter.
In addition to their abnormally numerous trips to the penalty box, Chihuahua was up against one of the most dominant goalkeeping performances we’ve seen all year. 22-year-old Christian Hernandez got the start ahead of Berna Valdovinos and made an instant impact, recording a staggering .926 save percentage with a whopping 25 saves on the night.
So, for Chihuahua, this was a punch in the mouth. A time to look in the mirror and reevaluate what they did right and what they didn’t. It’s clear from what we’ve seen so far that these are two of the best teams in the entire league, so with that in mind, two losses, though devastating at present, are far from a damnation for this Savage side. They’ll have the next two weeks off before a second home-and-home series against Monterrey, with redemption on their minds.
It will come down to whether Everardo Sánchez’s side can stay out of the penalty box and convert power plays into goals more frequently. Currently, Chihuahua has converted just 29% of its power plays into goals, which is below the league average of 39%. Their opponents so far have not been superb penalty-killing teams either, with an average of just over 60%.
Power plays are a unique tool in indoor soccer and not utilizing them is wasteful. Chihuahua had four power plays this weekend and only capitalized on one. Bump that up, and the Savage has every chance of beating Monterrey on Friday, Jan. 5 at 9:00 p.m. EST.
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