City Soccer Final : It’s Much Ado About Nothing-Nothing

Ordinarily when teams win championships, there are smiles all around.

But Thursday night, after Garfield and Kennedy battled to a 0-0 tie and were declared co-champions of City soccer, only angry words of denunciation were heard.

The object of most of the anger was a decision by City Commissioner Jim Cheffers, who said before the match that if regulation play ended in a tie, only two 10-minute overtimes would be played. If neither team was able to score, then both would share the City title.

The decision was a shock to Kennedy Coach Fred Singer, whose team finished 14-1-5.

“To make a long story short, we get here and a half hour before the game we’re told only two overtimes,” said Singer, who last won a City title in 1981. “I mean, we played Jefferson 18 overtimes this week. That’s the only fair way.”

Singer was referring to a marathon semifinal match that extended over two days and finally was decided on a goal by Kennedy’s Greg Friedman.

Garfield Coach Tony Critelli, who collected his fourth City title, also was outraged.

“They (City officials) don’t care about soccer,” said Critelli, whose team finished 14-1-2. “They don’t pay attention to us all season and then they stick themselves in this. Cheffers is a football man, he doesn’t care about our sport.”

Val Rodriguez of Banning, who announced the match, was at a loss to explain the decision.

“I think the 18 overtimes gave us a lot of publicity,” he said. “People came here expecting to see a winner. The coaches voted earlier to go two five-minute overtimes and then play sudden death. I guess they (City officials) just didn’t want us to play all night.”

All night was a distinct possibility since the play of goalies Eddie Gil of Garfield and Josh Klapow of Kennedy was excellent. Each survived an almost sure goal.

Klapow’s came in the first half, when he diverted a penalty kick by forward John Ortega.

“That was nerve-wracking,” said Klapow, who was in goal for the entire match against Jefferson. “All you can do is guess and hope you guess with him. I just picked my best side and went for it.

“This wasn’t too bad, in fact it was nothing. I was just getting warmed up. I forgot about being nervous tonight. Nervous is when you play 18 overtimes.”