Zungul, Tacoma Lose to Sockers
Steve Zungul flew home with the Sockers on Sunday night, but he already had proven that he was no longer a Socker at heart.
Zungul, who returned on personal business, took care of business Sunday afternoon with one goal and two assists against his former team.
However, it wasn’t enough as Zungul’s Tacoma Stars lost a penalty-marred game to San Diego, 8-7, on Brian Quinn’s short-handed goal that deflected in off a defender with 3:03 remaining.
The game featured 16 penalties, one short of tying the Major Indoor Soccer League record; a fourth-period scuffle and a controversial officiating call that took a go-ahead goal away from San Diego in the fourth period.
But most of all, it highlighted Zungul’s first appearance against the Sockers since being sold to Tacoma last week. It was a memorable game for both parties, which was best demonstrated by the bumps and bruises afterward.
Zungul drew a two-minute penalty in the second period for harshly tripping his best friend, Branko Segota. And Segota returned the favor with a stiff fourth-period trip of Zungul that drew a foul.
“Nothing was on purpose,” Zungul said. “You can get mad. You both want to win, and that’s good. We weren’t trying to hurt each other.”
Said Segota: “He gave me a knee; it was a dirty foul. I tripped and didn’t mean to do what I did to him. We shook hands, and that was it. You don’t try to hurt him. It doesn’t mean you don’t play tough against him.”
In return, Zungul intensely. Besides tripping Segota, Zungul committed Tacoma’s sixth foul (an automatic two-minute penalty) of the first quarter with a hard takedown of Jean Willrich.
He also argued continually with officials and often played possum in an attempt to draw foul calls, just as he did while playing for San Diego.
The Sockers got their shots in, too. Fernando Clavijo, Zungul’s teammate with three different teams, drew a foul with a hard takedown of Zungul in the fourth period. Zungul stared at Clavijo in apparent disbelief, not unlike he did after being tripped by Segota.
“My teammates could play for Alaska and they wouldn’t need a liftoff to play against me,” Zungul said. “As long as they are playing against me, they’ll always play hard to beat me. I like that.”
Clavijo, who marked Zungul most of the game, said he enjoyed the challenge of playing against his long-time teammate.
“Steve is a really good friend of mine,” Clavijo said. “I’d never try to hurt him, and he would never try to hurt me. He’ll do anything to score, and I’ll do anything to stop him from scoring. After the game, we can be friends.”
And so they were. Zungul even rode in a Sockers’ team van to the airport Sunday night.
At the outset of Sunday’s game, Segota and Zungul had a show of friendship. Segota tapped the opening kickoff to Zungul, and Zungul tapped the ball back.
After that, all friendships were put on hold until after 5 p.m.
Zungul scored the game’s first goal afte 1:38 had expired, kicking in the rebound of Ralph Black’s shot. He narrowly missed on his second shift by hitting the glass above goalie Zoltan Toth, the first of two times he had such a shot.
Early in the second period, the Sockers tied the game, 2-2, while Zungul was serving his penalty for tripping Segota. Hugo Perez scored the first of his two goals off an assist from Segota.
Nine seconds later, Zungul got even after Brian Schmetzer was penalized for a hand ball. On the ensuing free kick Zungul faked two kicks before passing left to Preki, who scored into an open net.
Zungul recorded assist No. 2 midway through the period, taking a loose ball and passing in front to Roy Wegerle for a power play goal. Clearly, the 13-18 Stars were feeling like a match for the 22-7 Sockers with their new star.
“The Sockers are a different team without Steve,” Tacoma’s Gary Heale said. “It’s not as dangerous playing against them. You can do more offensively against them without Zungul.”
But while Tacoma was going ahead more on offense, it forgot about defense. The Sockers came from behind six times before scoring their game-winning goal.
When the score was tied, 7-7, San Diego took an apparent lead on a Segota goal. At the time, Segota was among three Sockers in the penalty box. Though Segota’s penalty time had expired, the officials explained that Segota was not allowed to leave the penalty box under the circumstances until the next time play stopped.
So, instead of having an 8-7 lead, the Sockers were two men short for the next 1 1/2 minutes in a 7-7 tie. They killed the penalties.
The game-winning goal came on a two-on-one break with Quinn and Clavijo. Quinn’s attempted pass to Clavijo deflected off Keith Furphy, changed direction and caught goalie John Baretta leaning the wrong way.
“As I went to pass it, Furphy kicked it and it went in,” Quinn said. “If I had passed it to Fernando, he would’ve scored.”
Tacoma’s best chance to tie occurred when Zungul barely missed the upper right-hand corner of the net with 2:30 remaining. Even in defeat, Coach Alan Hinton found little to complain about because of Zungul’s presence.
“He’s an infectious type of person to be around,” Hinton said. “He’s a gentleman, a winner and a leader. We’ll have a lot of fun with him.”
Socker Notes
Coach Ron Newman was incensed by the goal that was taken away from Segota. “They (the officials) sent our players on,” Newman said. “There’s no way they can give us a two-minute penalty when they did that.” . . . Steve Zungul also was upset with the officials, especially for the two times he drew penalties. “The officials were not on the level,” Zungul said. “I don’t think San Diego needs help from the officials. The officials brought San Diego back into the game.” . . . Juli Veee and Tacoma’s Neil Megson drew two-minute misconduct penalties when they scuffled in the fourth period. Tacoma also received a two-minute bench penalty because some of its players left the bench during the altercation. . . . Branko Segota has 22 penalty minutes on the year. He must serve a mandatory one-game suspension when the Sockers play host to the Los Angeles Lazers on Tuesday night.
