Sockers Win Penalty-Marred Match, 5-4

With absolutely nothing to play for, the Sockers and Los Angeles Lazers played like the world was coming to an end on Saturday night.

They pushed, elbowed and pointed fingers at each other all evening--and they even played entertaining soccer for 10,624 fans at the San Diego Sports Arena.

The Sockers finally won the game, 5-4, on fourth-quarter goals by Branko Segota and Steve Zungul. The Lazers made it a one-goal game on Greg Ion’s goal with 26 seconds remaining.

But the real story of the night was in the number of penalties.

The Lazers had six penalties and the Sockers had five. Each team had two misconduct penalties. San Diego was penalized twice and the Lazers once for having six fouls in a quarter.

“There was no reason for our players to play that hard,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “But once you get kicked, you play a little harder. When you get a little of that, it makes for a better game.”

The game was lowlighted by second-quarter altercations between the Lazers’ Gus Mokalis and the Sockers’ Brian Quinn that began with an argument. Then, Mokalis elbowed Quinn as he came down the field. Quinn retaliated the next time with an elbow to Mokalis’ face. Finally, both men received misconduct penalties.

“Maybe we did it because the referees were unsure about their decisions,” Mokalis said. “Maybe that made us get more aggressive.”

Said Quinn: “It was like an altercation. We apologized after the game. That’s it.”

As far as standings were concerned, the game was meaningless. Both teams already had secured byes in the first-round of the Major Indoor Soccer League playoffs.

But there were other considerations at stake.

San Diego won its 36th game of the season, tying the league record set by the New York Arrows in 1982. The Sockers could break the record tonight at Las Vegas in their regular-season finale.

The Lazers, who concluded regular-season play, were attempting to set a team-record 25 wins. Instead, they finished at 24-24 for the second straight year. However, the Lazers did set a team record of 232 goals in one season.

Zungul had one goal and three assists, assuring him of his third “triple crown.” He will finish as the league-leader in goals, assists and total points.

In addition, Segota scored his 100th point of the season. He and Zungul are the first teammates in the league’s eight-year history to score 100 points in the same season.

Zungul has 66 goals and 64 assists. He is one assist from tying the all-time MISL record. Segota has 62 goals and 39 assists.

Both men came to the Sockers after popular players such as Juli Veee, Alan Mayer and Gert Wieczorkowski were sold to Las Vegas.

Admittedly, Zungul and Segota were trying to earn the acceptance of San Diego fans at the season’s outset. They have done that, and then some. They have just about made Sockers’ fans forget about the players now in Las Vegas.

“When they lost Juli Veee, they needed somebody to be a name for them,” Zungul said. “They brought in Branko and I, who were both respectable. We didn’t come to replace the other players. We came to help this team win another championship.”

The Sockers have won three straight indoor championships, two in the North American Soccer League and one in the MISL.

But at Saturday’s outset, they were playing like anything but champions. Los Angeles took a two-goal lead within 4:38 on goals by Batata and Willie Molano.

The Sockers finally took a 3-2 lead 13:39 into the second quarter on goals by Segota, Fernando Clavijo and Kaz Deyna. Nathan Sacks of Los Angeles tied the game, 3-3, four seconds before halftime.

After a scoreless third quarter, Segota connected 28 seconds into the fourth quarter off a pass from Zungul. Quinn fed Zungul for the Sockers’ fifth goal at 10:42 of the fourth quarter.

Before the game, Lazer Coach Peter Wall said he was upset about comments made last week by the Socker’ Kevin Crow. Crow said the Sockers had only played at 60 to 70% of their capability in beating the Lazers, 3-2, a week ago.

Wall chuckled when told that Quinn said the Sockers played at 100% efficiency Saturday night.

“We wanted to prove we could stay with them,” Wall said. “Unfortunately, the game got out of hand with penalties. It would’ve been a great game without them.”