“San Diego is like the Edmonton Oilers of the MISL. You can’t match their talent . . . “ : --Tim Robbie, Minnesota Striker General Manager : Is Anybody Capable of Stopping the Sockers?
On Wednesday, a thumbs-up day for the Sockers, club owner Bob Bell was talking about his thumb for another reason. With four straight indoor soccer championships, Bell and the Sockers only have one more place to put a ring.
You guessed it.
However, Bell must be cautioned. Remember the Pittsburgh Steelers? They wanted to win One for the Thumb in 1981, and their thumbs are still ringless.
Around the Major Indoor Soccer League, people are wondering whether the Sockers can be stopped before they have baubles on every finger of each hand. The question concerns which team might be capable.
Could it be the Baltimore Blast, who lost to the Sockers in two of the last three MISL finals? Or could it be the Minnesota Strikers, who lost to the Sockers in this year’s semifinals, three games to two? Is there another team on the horizon capable of dethroning San Diego?
“If everybody goes back with the same teams next year, San Diego would probably be just as dominant,” said Rick Benben, Kansas City coach. “It makes it very difficult on everybody else, but it gives a clearer picture of where your team needs to go. I was happy with our progress this year. Obviously, we’re a long way from being like San Diego.”
The Sockers swept three games from Kansas City in the quarterfinals. Minnesota did better against the Sockers by extending the semifinals to five games, albeit Commissioner Francis Dale helped by awarding Game 4 to Minnesota after the Sockers used an ineligible shooter in a shootout.
“I don’t think there is a feeling around the league that San Diego’s invincible,” said Tim Robbie, Minnesota general manager. “The fact we took them to five games shows they can be beaten. From our viewpoint, we don’t feel we are that far from being on an equal level with them.”
The Sockers will attempt to maintain their superiority next year with much the same roster. Four of their top offensive threats--Steve Zungul, Branko Segota, Jean Willrich and Brian Quinn--have multi-year contracts.
But there are question marks.
Kaz Deyna is 37 years old and his contract talks have stalemated. Management is not pleased with Hugo Perez, whose contract expires in November, because he has been playing exclusively with the U.S. national team the past three weeks. Jim Gorsek has a multi-year contract, but team sources say he is unhappy with his $50,000 salary. And Kevin Crow may be leaving the Sockers to play in England’s First Division outdoors.
“The first thing we have to do is keep our nucleus,” Bell said. “We aren’t planning to make any major changes. We need to make one or two minor changes.”
The major changes came after last season when San Diego sold Alan Mayer, Juli Veee, Gert Wieczorkowski, Martin Donnelly and Gerry O’Kane to Las Vegas. In return, the Sockers signed Zungul, Segota, Fernando Clavijo, George Katakalidis and Zoltan Toth.
Ron Newman, the Socker coach, has become tired of people saying he has by far the league’s best talent.
“People think of us as a dramatically great side,” Newman said. “Players we have like Zungul and Segota have been available to other teams at times. Why can’t other teams find this type of player? I don’t know.”
Zungul and Segota came as a package deal when Carl Berg of San Jose became one of the Sockers’ minority owners this year. Berg, who had Zungul and Segota under contract, paid part of their salaries this season.
Other teams must find their own Zunguls and Segotas to be competitive with the Sockers. Kenny Cooper, Baltimore coach, is going to Europe this off-season in hopes of finding such quality players.
“We look awesome because we have won four championships,” Newman said. “Baltimore has bloody good players, too. When Kenny goes to Europe, he’ll probably dig up a couple more superstars.”
But could even a couple of superstars make another team superior to the Sockers?
“San Diego is like the Edmonton Oilers of the MISL,” Robbie said. “You can’t match their talent, so you have to try to beat them with other things like working harder. They won with Veee and Mayer, and now they have that Zungul-Segota group. It’s a different cast of characters, so it’s not like the same people have won four years in a row. I don’t think you can call them a dynasty because they have so many new people.”
No matter what you call the Sockers, opposing MISL teams would like to call them beatable for once.
Socker Notes
The Sockers will have two victory celebrations today. The first will be at 11 a.m. at the Community Concourse downtown, the second at 7:30 at the Sports Arena.
