Sockers Set to Contend With Injuries, Tacoma

Whenever especially talented athletes are assembled on one team, some people think the job of the coach or manager is to simply write down the lineup and then sit back and enjoy the performance.

Some may believe this true of Ron Newman, coach of the three-time indoor champion Sockers. But those critics wouldn’t want to be in Newman’s shoes now.

When the Sockers play Tacoma tonight at 7:35 in the Sports Arena, Newman will have to be at his coaching best. Consider:

--Ade Coker, one of the two alternating forwards, is out after suffering an appendectomy Sunday night.

--Steve Zungul, the other forward and the team’s leading scorer, has missed the last two days of practice with the flu and is questionable for tonight.

--Zoltan Toth, who alternates games at goalkeeper with Jim Gorsek, is still sidelined with a broken bone in the fourth finger of his right hand. That leaves Zungul as the backup goalie. If Zungul can’t play tonight, midfielder Brian Quinn and defender Kevin Crow are the backup goalies.

“You develop a format that works,” Newman said, “then injuries upset it. You’re looking at a dark tunnel and don’t know what is at the other end. With the injuries we have, all the combinations and formations we have worked on get disrupted.”

So, now it’s up to Newman to figure out solutions. One thing he will do is move midfielder Branko Segota to forward in place of Coker.

Segota played forward briefly when Coker suffered a strained knee against the Cosmos in East Rutherford, N.J., two weeks ago. The biggest adjustment, Segota said, is that a forward plays with his back to the goal and midfielders face the goal.

“I’m a center-forward outdoors, so I’m used to it,” Segota said. “When I played there against the Cosmos, it was OK, but I took a lot of punishment. People constantly mark you and kick you. You have to pay the price for glory up there.”

With Segota at forward, the Sockers pay the price at midfield. Segota may be the best midfielder on the team.

Should Zungul not play tonight, even another midfielder would have to move to forward, possibly Hugo Perez, Cha Cha Namdar or Jean Willrich.

“Hugo likes to play up front, but he may lack the speed,” Newman said. “He plays well with his back to the goal. Cha Cha might not be strong enough to take the punishment, but he has the speed. Jean has the speed and the brawn, but we may need him too much at midfield.”

With Toth injured, Gorsek needs to stay healthy. The only other natural goalie on the team is 19-year-old Miguel Garcia, who has yet to dress out for a game.

“We’ll go along and hope Jimmy Gorsek doesn’t get hurt,” Newman said. “If anything happened to Jimmy, I’d suit up Garcia the next game and go look for another goalie. You might be surprised what would happen if we ever had to use Stevie Zungul in goal. He’s brave enough in the goal-mouth to go out and make saves.

There is, however, a positive side to the injury situation. The Sockers will give playing time to such youngsters as midfielders Jacques Ladouceur and Raffaele Ruotolo.

“If you have to play guys like Raffaele and Jacques, it’s better to do it now,” Newman said. “What you don’t want is injuries in the playoffs. If you get injuries in the playoffs and these guys haven’t played before, you don’t know if they are ready. The benefit to injuries is that you get to develop younger players.”