This is it Soul fans. After 17 quick weeks and 15 games that had all kinds of ups and downs, the fate, at least in terms of playoff seeding for the Soul, all comes down to one game.
Tied at 12-3 with the Orlando Predators, the Soul will enter the Amway Center “Jungle” in Orlando tonight with the chance to clinch the top overall playoff seed in the American Conference, meaning they would host the conference championship game if they win the opening round next week.
It means that they would host the Tampa Bay Storm instead of the Jacksonville Sharks should they win, even though both teams haven’t amounted to a whole lot this season.
It means the PPL Center would more than likely welcome these Orlando Predators into their doors in two weeks, opposed to the Soul returning to Orlando for their second trip in three weeks.
The Soul can only host the Arena Bowl at this point if they reach the championship game and host any team from the National Conference that is not the Arizona Rattlers, as the snakes earned the tiebreaker over the Soul with overall points scored in their two matches.
Meanwhile, Orlando is entering this game knowing that if they come out victorious, they will be staying at the Amway Center as far as their season takes them, as they won that same tiebreaker over the Rattlers in their season series.
Philly looked dominant through most of their first match against Orlando back in May, until the Predators made a late push with some onside attempt recoveries.
The Soul will need a similar jump-from-the-start performance Saturday as they did in that match, as the Soul’s biggest weakness this season has been returning from adversity they face early on.
If Dan Raudabaugh plays like his MVP form of last season, and that of which we’ve seen most of this season, the Soul will be sitting pretty at the end of the night as they gear up for the Storm in eight days.
If he and his offense come out flat in an atmosphere that will most certainly be an electric jungle, it will be a tough battle to come back from, and we all know that when the rain has started this season, it quickly turns to downpour.
The match is as important as it gets, as both teams have lost three games each this season, and in both cases two of those three losses came on the road against teams that will be hosting the first round of the playoffs.
It’s not do-or-die, but it’s the next best thing.
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