By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – After opening the 2012 Arena Football League season with road wins in New Orleans and Pittsburgh, the Philadelphia Soul play their home opener on Sunday evening at the Center against the Cleveland Gladiators.

Soul head coach Doug Plank is looking forward to this one.

“We’re so excited about being in front of the Philadelphia fans.  Nobody really wants to start on the road for two weeks, but one thing it does – when you have a brand new team like we have with a lot of players from all over the country, playing on the road really is a binding process, especially with the wins.”

Something has to give in this one Soul are the top scoring team in the Arena League  (73.5 points a game) while Cleveland has the top scoring defense (40 points a game) .  But Plank says the match-up goes deeper than that.

“Let’s not forget – the Soul were the worst team in the division last year.  Cleveland was the best.  So this is a battle between the best and the worst from last year and we definitely want to turn that around.”

Philadelphia and Cleveland kick-off at 6:05pm on Sunday.

Listen to KYW’s Matt Leon’s interview with Doug Plank: