Indoor Soccer All-Stars Play at Cleveland

Today’s Major Indoor Soccer League All-Star is expected to draw over 16,000 fans to The Coliseum.

The game, the sixth annual all-star match, will be televised live at 2:30 p.m. PST by ESPN.

A last-minute roster change put forward Paul Child of Pittsburgh on the East team. He replaces Karl-Heinz Granitza of Chicago.

Granitza, a member of the Chicago Sting who leads the league with 47 goals and is second with 83 total points, said he will sit out the game because of physical and mental exhaustion.

Granitza said the decision is unrelated to a threatened boycott by team owner Lee Stern, who has since withdrawn the threat. Stern has said he was dissatisfied with MISL officiating.

Child’s selection brings to two the representation by the Pittsburgh Spirit on the Eastern Division team. Also on the team is forward Stan Terlecki, 29, Pittsburgh’s leading scorer.

Terlecki had been selected while on suspension from the Spirit for “selfish play.” He was returned to the Spirit roster after sitting out three weeks and the team lost six of eight games.

On the West team, Batata of the Los Angeles Lazers was on the suspended list but was granted league permission to play. Midfielder Jorgen Kristensen of the Wichita Wings says he has recovered enough from a pulled stomach muscle to get back in the game.

The West, coached by Roy Turner of Wichita and Ron Newman of San Diego, has won four of the five previous games. The East, coached by Baltimore’s Kenny Cooper and Cleveland’s Timo Liekoski, won for the first time last year at St. Louis, 8-6.

Cooper and Turner were coaches last year.

San Diego, with five players, has the most representatives on either team. Baltimore and Chicago each had four players selected originally. But Granitza withdrew, as have Gerry Gray and Pato Margetic.

Baltimore’s Paul Kitson replaced Gray, giving the Blast five representatives on the team.

The highest vote getter was Baltimore’s Stan Stamenkovic, the MISL 1983-84 Most Valuable Player, scoring champion and pass master. Stamenkovic has played in every All-Star game in his four seasons with the league and was the All-Star Most Valuable Player in the last two games.