Sockers Can Win 4th Indoor Title at Home Tonight : Newman Hopes Team Doesn’t Get Complacent Against Blast

While the Sockers were riding to the airport in Baltimore late Saturday afternoon, Coach Ron Newman decided to make a brief speech.

“Lads,” Newman said, “we haven’t won anything yet. We still have one win to go.”

The words came shortly after the Sockers had embarrassed Baltimore, 14-2, on national television in Game 4 of the Major Indoor Soccer League championship series.

Some Sockers may not have been listening then, but Newman’s point could be made tonight. The Sockers will attempt to clinch the MISL championship when they play host to Baltimore at 7:35 in the Sports Arena.

If they lose, it’s a different story. The Sockers would then have to play Game 6 on Thursday in Baltimore and, possibly, Game 7 on Saturday in San Diego.

Newman spoke to his team after Saturday’s game in hopes of guarding against complacency. He’s aware that it will not be easy to retain the intensity level that the Sockers had in Game 4.

“It’s difficult to keep that going,” Newman said. “Everything in my experience and our players’ experience says it is not easy to get a team high again after a game like that. But we know this is a very big game because we can win it at our place.”

The Sockers, who are seeking their fourth consecutive indoor championship, are undefeated in 19 home playoff games. Baltimore came closer than anybody to winning in San Diego when it lost Game 1 of this series, 5-4.

That game was three days after the Sockers had defeated Minnesota, 7-0, in the deciding fifth game of their semifinal series.

“The thing we have to bear in mind now is that it was hard to retain our level of play after blowing out Minnesota,” Ade Coker said. “But there are obviously two factors to get us up for this game--our fans and the championship.”

In retrospect, the Sockers had difficulty getting up for Game 1 against Baltimore after beating Minnesota. Baltimore jumped off to a 2-0 lead in Game 1, then it scored two goals in the final 4 1/2 minutes.

“It’s a different story now,” Socker Jacques Ladouceur said. “This isn’t just the first playoff game or another game. It could be our last game. We’ve beaten them in Baltimore. Now, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t win here.”

Kenny Cooper, Baltimore coach, can give two reasons why the Sockers shouldn’t necessarily win. Cooper reminded the Blast that they are 4-3 overall against the Sockers this season and that they did win its only regular-season game here.

But Cooper was more concerned with the aftereffect of Game 4 than the regular season when the Blast flew to San Diego on Sunday afternoon.

“The fact the game was on national television and at home made it tough to take,” Cooper said Monday. “There’s no way to explain why that happened. You have to take that game to the grave with you. When you look at what happened, I don’t think San Diego believes it can play that well again, and we don’t believe they can play that well again.

“On our plane out here, everyone put it into perspective. The perspective is that we’re down, 3-1, in the series. You can take away the 14-2 score and say we lost, 3-2. When you do that, we’re still down, 3-1.”

The question at hand is whether the Blast is too emotionally down to recover.

“Now is the measure and test of our character,” Cooper said. “The Sockers will come out with emotion and the big crowd behind them. We have nothing to lose and a lot to gain back. If we win here, the complexion of the series will turn again.”

Newman dreads the thought.

“If they get a good win here, it would be difficult for us in Baltimore,” he said. “They’d be the high team then. We wouldn’t want to have to come back here for Game 7. Anything can happen then.”

Socker Notes

Baltimore’s Paul Kitson will remain sidelined tonight with a sprained ankle. The Blast was hoping that Kitson, its third-leading scorer in the regular season, would make his series debut tonight. . . . Kenny Cooper, looking back at Saturday’s game: “What you have to say to yourself is, ‘why us?’ We have wanted to play San Diego for two years. For one afternoon, our two-year dream turned into a two-hour nightmare.” . . . Cooper reflected on better days. “On a day like that, Ron Newman doesn’t even have to coach. It has happened two times to me. We beat New York by 14 goals and Los Angeles by 12 goals. It was like I didn’t have to do a thing as the coach.”