It wasn’t prettiest route, but the Philadelphia Soul
have qualified for the 2014 Arena Football playoffs after the Cleveland
Gladiators defeated the Tampa Bay Storm 56-49 on Saturday, July 26 in Tampa.
The Gladiators win was the only way the Soul could
advance to the postseason, after the Soul fell to the Pittsburgh Power 64-34
earlier Saturday night.
The Soul won’t be thanking the Gladiators too long,
however, as Philadelphia will be traveling to Cleveland to face them in the
opening round of the playoffs next weekend. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday,
August 2 and can be seen on CBS Sports Network.
Although the celebration appears a bit dampened from
the loss at Pittsburgh, Soul fans should remember that Philadelphia has been in
a similar situation before. Last season, the Soul traveled to a much lesser San
Antonio Talons team in the last week of the season with the chance secure home
field advantage throughout the playoffs, only to be handled by the Talons in
similar fashion. Even with the loss, this club was able to rebound and end up
in the Arena Bowl.
This season hasn’t been pretty for the Soul by any
means. The team got off to the worst start in franchise history, opening up 0-3
with three road losses, along with losing all five games against division
rivals Pittsburgh and Cleveland. They didn’t end the season ideally in
Pittsburgh, but at the end of the day, they’ve earned themselves a spot in the playoffs
and you can’t ask for much more than that.
So burn the game tape from Saturday. Philadelphia’s not as bad as they played in
Pittsburgh, but they’re certainly going to have to make some
adjustments before flying out to Cleveland later this week if they’re going to
pull off the upset. They have the potential to make some noise and get to their
third straight Arena Bowl, now it’s up to this team to take advantage of this
opportunity and do it.
Everything’s behind them now, and for the Soul and seven other teams, they’re now 0-0 and the real season begins.
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