Two Years Later, the Blast Is Back : Last Time, 12,948 Saw Sockers Win MISL Championship

When is a regular-season indoor soccer game not just another game?

According to Baltimore Blast Coach Kenny Cooper, the answer is whenever his team plays the Sockers.

“Every time we play San Diego,” Cooper said, “I feel like it is a playoff game.”

The last time Baltimore came to town was perhaps the most memorable game in the Sockers’ history. It was the fifth and deciding game of the 1982-83 Major Indoor League Soccer championship, which the Sockers won, 3-1.

Until the Padres made the playoffs and World Series this year, there may never have been a hotter single-game sports ticket in San Diego than Sockers-Baltimore/Game 5. Five hours after tickets went on sale, the game was sold out.

Baltimore will make its first local appearance since that championship game tonight when it plays the Sockers at 7:35 in the Sports Arena. More than 10,000 tickets have been sold, according to Socker officials.

Let’s take a look back at that memorable championship series of two years ago.

It started out embarrassingly one-sided. The Sockers won Game 1 in San Diego, 6-0, and they won again at home in Game 2, 7-0. The shutouts were only the second and third in indoor playoff history.

Bernie Rodin, then Baltimore’s owner, was irate after Game 2.

“He came in the locker room and went crazy in front of the players,” Cooper said. “He was embarrassed and humiliated, as we all were. He had the right to do what he wanted as the owner, but you shouldn’t kick a dog when it’s down. I spent the next 24 hours trying to get our players’ heads up.”

When the Blast arrived back in Baltimore, Cooper held a team meeting at the airport. He reminded his players that they were back home and that he had guaranteed the media that Baltimore would win the next two games.

Baltimore’s players got more stirred up when they read the newspapers. Julie Veee of the Sockers had said it was like the men playing against the boys, and he somewhat suggested that Baltimore should throw in the towel.

“It was a rather ridiculous statement,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “If I was Baltimore, I would’ve gotten as mad as they did. I’m sure it helped Baltimore get aggressive.”

“Julie is a great player,” Cooper said, “but he lit a fire under us. Many times, players can say their thing at the wrong time. It was the wrong thing at the right time for us. There was no way we were going to lose the games in Baltimore then. I felt he had rubbed it in our faces, and we never forgot about it.”

The Sockers played two games to forget in Baltimore. They fell behind, 4-1, in Game 3 before losing, 4-3. They lost Game 4 in overtime, 7-6, after having led by one goal with less than a minute to play in regulation.

But the most unforgettable thing about the two games in Baltimore was how Kaz Deyna, the Sockers’ team captain, had been injured by Petar Baralic of Baltimore. Deyna suffered a knee injury on a loose ball play that kept him virtually out of action in Game 5.

“Baralic kicked me in the knee, then he came to my body and pushed me again,” Deyna said. “Right away, I was finished.”

Baralic, still considered a villain in San Diego, told a different version.

“I had a collision with Deyna and we hit each other in the knee,” he said. “There wasn’t any fault at all, and the referee didn’t call a foul. Ron Newman tried to put pressure on me by saying I injured Deyna on purpose. He was trying to tell his players to put me out because I meant so much to Baltimore.

“Even when I was in San Diego a couple of weeks ago (with Kansas City), they still booed me. It doesn’t bother me now. I think it’s funny. But they should stop doing it because there’s no point to it.”

Deyna was not the only Socker injured in Baltimore. Goalie Alan Mayer also tore back muscles in Game 3 that made it very difficult for him to even walk. But he continued to play against doctor’s advice and was beaten in Game 4. In Game 5, Mayer was again at his best.

Tha final game was similar to a heavyweight championship fight with both teams feeling each other out early.

The Sockers scored first on a Nico Rohmann goal in the second period. Ade Coker scored in the third period and Jean Willrich in the fourth period, giving the Sockers a 3-0 lead. By the time Heinz Wirtz scored for Baltimore with five minutes to play, it was too late. It was also the first time the Blast had scored in 175 minutes in San Diego.

Mayer called it “absolutely impossible.”

“To this day, some Baltimore people think I either got shot up or took drugs,” Mayer said. “The truth of the matter is that Adrenalin took over and I felt fine for the game. I couldn’t walk for two or three weeks afterwards. I felt like I was 85 years old. But it was all worth it.”

But if one thing stood out about that final game, it was the emotion displayed by the 12,948 fans in attendance.

“One of the most important things to remember is that we couldn’t have won without the crowd,” Coker said. “They played a heckuva an important part in it. I can still remember the echo of ‘S-O-C-K-E-R-S’ filling the arena. I don’t think the crowd realized how much noise it made and the effect it had on players.”