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Chelis, Las Vegas Aim to Light it Up on Field

By CHRIS HOCKMAN - chris.hockman@uslsoccer.com, 11/26/17, 8:37AM EST

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Head Coach buys into Lashbrook's vision for 'spectacular soccer'


Photo courtesy Las Vegas Lights FC

LAS VEGAS – It’s almost a cliché in soccer that new teams promise to play attacking soccer when they come into a league for the first time.

But in Las Vegas there’s something different. When the leaders of Las Vegas Lights FC make that promise, you believe them. It’s the core of their philosophy, and with a myriad of entertainment options available in the Las Vegas area Lights FC owner Brett Lashbrook is determined that his team will play attacking soccer to bring the fans in.

It was that philosophy which guided Lashbrook’s search for an inaugural Head Coach, and that search ended with the popular Jose Luis Sanchez Sola, El Chelis, being hired. At the announcement of Chelis on last week, Lashbrook outlined his philosophy for his team.

“There were three things that we were looking for in this coaching search and it ties into our identity as a club,” said Lashbrook. “The first thing is that we have this awesome opportunity with a blank sheet of paper, I think soccer is more fun when it’s an attacking style of play, I think soccer is more fun when there’s a lot of goals scored. I think soccer is more fun when we have coaches that embrace that this is entertainment and we’re here to entertain the fans as well as winning, we don’t just try to pack it in for a 1-0 victory.

“I believe that teams should represent their community and when I look at Las Vegas it’s fast, glitzy, glamorous, and that’s the type of team I want to put together.”

That philosophy made the search hard, with many candidates thrown up that could not buy into Lashbrook’s philosophy. Many candidates liked the idea but didn’t see it as practical, likely thinking that like so many teams the owner was just talking the talk, that left Lashbrook frustrated by the whole process.

“I met Chelis later on in the process, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t getting frustrated with the process, and I was being told to open up the process,” he said. “My first conversation with Chelis was via a Skype call and I’ll be honest I thought ‘here we go again’ here’s another one, I’m going to give this passionate speech about attacking soccer and he’s going to tell me ‘I like goals too but we’ve got to play defense.’”


Photo courtesy Las Vegas Lights FC

But in Chelis there was something different. A former Head Coach in both Liga MX and MLS, Chelis was well known for being an exciting character off the field, but when they spoke for the first time Lashbrook was convinced he’d found the right man for the job.

“I told him what I wanted to do, he turns to me and says ‘it’s very risky, are you sure you want to do this?’” said Lashbrook. “But this is Las Vegas, so yeah we want to build a team for attacking. Chelis turned right to the camera and said ‘I love it, I’ve been waiting for you my whole life.’ It was at that moment that I knew we found our guy.”

It’s a promise that Chelis refuses to shy away from. Soccer is in the entertainment business, and Chelis has always understood that, from his bold statements off the field, like wanting his new club to ‘smell like Las Vegas’, to the style of play on the field, Chelis cannot be accused of not being entertaining.

“I have only one promise, when someone watches Las Vegas Lights FC, when you are watching a game you will forget your problems because you will be entertained, it will be entertaining,” said Chelis through a translator. “When you go back home those problems will still be there, but all I can do is make this entertaining with offensive players and scoring lots of goals. I want to win twice, if we are entertaining that is a win, and second if we score more goals and win the game that will be a double win.”

The mission of the Lights FC has from the club’s inception to be a representative of Las Vegas. That mission now has in Chelis a leader whose primary goal will be fulfilled in playing attacking, entertaining, soccer.

“This city is too much, it’s very impressive, this might be the most spectacular city in the world,” said Chelis. “So for a spectacular city you need spectacular soccer, win or lose, me and my team will do the best that we can and in the end God will decide. I’m very happy to be here, I’m going to work hard for this.”


Photo courtesy Las Vegas Lights FC

While just his first week in the job, Chelis is already shaping together his tactics, without a squad he can only speak in broad terms but explained his attacking philosophy.

“There are no secrets, if you want to play offensive soccer, the field is divided into two, it depends on where the team stands,” said Chelis. “Only the big teams in the world are able to play both like Real Madrid, and Barcelona and our team is not there, well not yet, so it is about making sure that we are playing on the opposing team’s half, and makes sure that the team recovers the ball on their side, not just attacking but defending in there too. That’s the way for the team to show it is an attacking team.”

With Chelis, Las Vegas has a Head Coach who can certainly be entertaining off the pitch, he will now be tasked with a lofty job of making sure his team is entertaining on it as well.

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