For the 100th Time . . . : In Sports Arena, the Sockers Are Difficult to Beat

The Boston Celtics and the Boston Garden. The Montreal Canadiens and the Forum. The New York Yankees and Yankee Stadium. UCLA and Pauley Pavilion.

Teams that have had dynasties are associated with their homes and their championship banners and flags overhead. Those flags rovide comfort for the home club and are intended to intimidate the visitors.

The closest thing San Diego has to a sports dynasty is the Sockers, who have won four straight indoor soccer championships while playing in the San Diego Sports Arena.

Last Saturday night, the Sockers defeated Wichita for their 100th indoor victory at the Sports Arena. That includes regular-season and playoff games and excludes tournaments and exhibitions. The Sockers have won 77% of their regular-season home games and are 21-0 in the playoffs in an arena that is not usually associated with positive features.

Boston Garden has the parquet floor. Yankee Stadium has monuments behind center field. The Sports Arena has a roof that used to leak.

The Sports Arena is better known for the teams that deserted it. Remember the Clippers, Rockets and Gulls? The Sockers and the San Diego State basketball team are the only regular tenants.

“Our fans are worth one or two goals a game,” said Socker captain Jean Willrich. “That’s why it’s so important that we work all season to get the home-field advantage in the playoffs.”

With their win against Wichita, the Sockers are again assured of the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

“All those wins at home can get pretty monotonous,” Newman said, tongue in cheek.

There have been a lot of 9-4 routs that resembled clinics, but there also have been many memorable matches.

Here is a chronological list of 10 home games that the Sockers’ players and coaches, informally surveyed, consider to be the most memorable.

Feb. 13, 1981--In the Sockers’ first year of indoor soccer, this was the final game of a frustrating 6-12 season. Most of the crowd of 5,514 probably won’t remember thIs game, but an incident took place that Newman says he will never forget.

“We had a midfielder named (Dan) Jaha who was continually pickiNg up penalties,” he said. “Before the game, I told him that if he goes in the bloody penalty box, I would murder him.”

Jaha, who had 1 goal, 1 assist, 12 shots on goal and 21 penalty minutes in 10 games, received a 5-minute penalty late in the game.

“I was yelling at him from across the field as he went into the penalty box,” Newman said. Jaha served the penalty and avoided Newman for the remainder of the game.

“After the game, Jaha ran off the field, grabbed his clothes and took off,” Newman said. “He must have thought I’d wring his neck. The next time I saw him was years later in Tampa.”

March 1, 1982--A crowd of 12,840 packed the Sports Arena for the Sockers’ first sellout. Members of the team went out to the parking lot to see a sign marking the accomplishment.

“I can remember vividly that they put ‘Sold Out’ on the marquee outside the arena,” Newman said. “It was such a thrill because it showed we were being accepted in the community.”

The Sockers defeated Edmonton, 12-3, to sweep their best-of-three semifinal series and advance to the championship against Tampa Bay. Kaz Deyna scored four goals and Juli Veee and Lorenz Hilkes scored hat tricks.

May 13, 1983--Goalkeeper Alan Mayer shut out the Baltimore Blast, 6-0, in the opening game of the MISL championship series. “We never even dreamt about a shutout,” Newman said. Shutouts are very unusual in indoor soccer. The Sockers had played 48 regular-season games and five playoff games before Mayer blanked the Blast.

May 15, 1983--Lightning struck twice in three days. Mayer and his teammates shut out the Blast 7-0. “It was incredible that we could get one (shutout),” Newman said. “I couldn’t believe we could do it again. Those shutouts were special games and quite memorable.”

May 23, 1983--A sellout crowd of 12,948 (seating capacity had been increased) saw the injury-riddled Sockers win their first MISL championship with a 3-1 victory against Baltimore in the decisive fifth game. After winning the first two games, 6-0 and 7-0 at home, the Sockers went to Baltimore, where they were beaten (4-3 and 7-6) and beaten up.

“They kicked us about so badly in Baltimore,” Newman said, “and we were vulnerable because of the injuries. Everyone was injured and strapped up.”

Goals by Willrich, Ade Coker and defender Nico Rohmann and another impressive performance by Mayer led the Sockers to victory.

“It was an amazing result,” Newman said. “I’ll never forget being in the locker room after the game. Guy (Newman), Ade, Vidal (Fernandez) and Gary (Collier) were all laid out with ice packs.”

Feb. 20, 1985--What started out as a welcome home celebration for former Sockers Veee, Mayer, Gert Wieczorkowski, Martin Donnelly and Gerry O’Kane, ended up as a night when San Diego fans switched their allegiance from Veee to Steve Zungul.

After Veee head-butted Zungul in the back in the fourth quarter, the sellout crowd of 12,948 booed Veee each time he touched the ball.

“If the booing would’ve been unjust, it would’ve upset me,” Veee said. “It was just. What can I say about it? I’ve never done anything like that before. I did it out of frustration. It was really unsportsmanlike.”

Zungul and Branko Segota scored two goals apiece to lead the Sockers to a 7-5 win in an event-filled evening.

In addition to the Veee incident, San Diego surprised its fans when former Socker defender Eric Geyer came onto the field waving a towel during the pregame introductions. Geyer, who was reacquired from the Chicago Sting, started his tradition of towel waving during the championship series against Baltimore in the 1982-83 season.

“The fans went crazy when Eric came through the O that night,” Newman said. “It was a very emotional moment.”

May 14, 1985--It was a game the Sockers could not believe they were being forced to play.

“We were drinking champagne in the plane celebrating the win that sent us to the championship series,” Willrich said. “Then the plane comes down and we find out we have to play a fifth game against Minnesota.”

During the Sockers’ flight from Minnesota to San Diego May 13, MISL Commissioner Francis Dale ruled that Socker midfielder Jacques Ladouceur was an ineligible shooter during San Diego’s 4-3 shootout win May 12. Dale overturned San Diego’s victory and forced a deciding game.

“Everybody was so intense during that game,” Willrich said.

Jim Gorsek recorded the third shutout in MISL playoff history, Willrich scored two goals and Segota, Zungul, Deyna, Brian Schmetzer and Kevin Crow added one apiece to lead the Sockers to a 7-0 win that put them in the finals against Baltimore.

“That was one of our best home wins,” Willrich said.

May 28, 1985--For the second time, the Sockers clinched the title at home.

San Diego made it four straight championships with a 5-3 win against Baltimore that gave them a four-games-to-one series victory. Segota and Zungul scored two goals apiece and Brian Quinn added one.

In a nationally televised fourth game, the Sockers had destroyed and demoralized the Blast, 14-2, in Baltimore to take a 3-1 series lead. Therefore, the Sockers were extremely confident going into the fifth game at home.

“That fifth game was a very professional and methodical dispensing of the opposition,” Newman said. “We destroyed them with all our weapons.”

Jan. 3, 1986--Indoor soccer players and fans have the same respect for shutouts that baseball people have for no-hitters. They are quite special.

Wearing gloves because he had a dislocated right thumb and left middle finger, Zoltan Toth made 24 saves on 34 shots to blank the high-scoring Wichita Wings, 9-0. It was the Sockers’ first regular-season shutout. The win enabled the Sockers to overtake the Wings and move into first place in the Western Division.

“I loved hearing the fans yell my name,” Toth said after the game. “Throughout the game, I had the feeling that Wichita couldn’t get a goal.”

Feb. 5, 1986--One day after Zungul was sold by San Diego to Tacoma, he played his final game for the Sockers.

The most prolific scorer in the history of indoor soccer had tears in his eyes when the crowd of 10,665 gave him a prolonged standing ovation during the pregame introductions.

The outpouring of emotion for Zungul was expected and his goal and an assist was nothing out of the ordinary, but the outcome of the game was surprising.

Minnesota defeated San Diego, 4-3, to snap the Sockers’ team-record 13 game winning streak.

“We got so caught up in the emotion of the game that I think we pressed too hard,” Newman said. “During the game, I kept hoping we’d done the right thing by letting Steve go.”

The Sockers haven’t lost at home since.

SOCKER HOME RECORDS

Season League Regular Playoffs 1980-81 NASL 3-6 DNQ 1981-82 NASL 7-2 4-0 1982-83 MISL 19-5 6-0 1983-84 NASL 14-2 3-0 1984-85 MISL 19-5 8-0 1985-86 MISL 17-3 4 left