Philadelphia Soul vs Pittsburgh Power Week 1 Preview

By William Barry III

www.MixMastaB.com

Tonight starts the beginning of the 2011 Arena Football League season, but more importantly it starts the defense of the Philadelphia Soul’s 2008 ArenaBowl championship. The Philadelphia Soul won the ArenaBowl by defeating the San Jose SaberCats 59-56, but soon found themselves without anyone to defend their newly won championship against as the league suspended play in 2009 due to financial reasons. In 2010 Arena Football 1 was formed consisting of many former AFL and af2 teams. AF1 would eventually purchase the assets from the AFL and changed its name to the more commonly known Arena Football League.

In 2010 when the league started back up it did so without the Philadelphia Soul meaning a new champion would be crown, the Spokane Shock. However if you ask the front office, the team, and the fans, they will tell you the Philadelphia Soul are the defending champions, because they never had the opportunity to defend their title.

The 2011 Philadelphia Soul squad is a shell of that 2008 championship team. Gone are quarterbacks, Tony Graziani and Matt D’Orazio, head coach Bret Munsey, and the team’s biggest non player/coach draw Jon Bon Jovi.

The 2011 squad is lead by veteran coach Mike Hohensee also known as Coach Ho. Coach Ho had enormous success as coach of the Chicago Rush, winning 6 division titles and ArenaBowl XX. Quarterback Justin Allgood will start his first season with the Philadelphia Soul but has a familiar target in Donovan Morgan, the two played together in Tulsa as part of the Tulsa Talons, hooking up for 52 touchdown scores. Morgan is not just a familiar target for Allgood but also familiar to past Soul fans as a member of the 2008 championship team. This squad is not completely brand new, joining Morgan are 2008 veterans and fan favorites, Larry Brackins and Mike Brown. Hoping to bring some of that passion and excitement from year’s past to the Wells Fargo Center and more importantly bring back some of those lost fans from 2008.

The Soul will be matched up against the Pittsburgh Power. A battle of Pennsylvania, however not much is known about the Power other then what you see on paper, as the Power enter their first season in the AFL. The newly expansion team is lead by an ownership which includes former Pittsburgh Steelers and NFL Hall of Famer, Lynn Swann. The Power’s roster is made up a young talent with very little experience in the AFL, but Swann hopes to bring some of that pedigree and swagger of the dominating Steelers teams of the 70’s to the Power.

You can catch all the action tonight on NFL Network and CW Pittsburgh at 8 p.m. EST LIVE from the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, PA.