Dundee Gets Swift Kick, 3-1 : European Club Upset by Fledgling Hollywood Team
The Hollywood Kickers, the newest pro team in Los Angeles, made their home debut Saturday night against one of the oldest soccer teams in the world and came up with a surprising 3-1 victory at Birmingham High.
Dundee, a member of Scotland’s first division for the last 93 years, had more than it could handle against the Kickers, who were starting mostly local semi-pros and ex-collegians. Although the Scots outshot the Kickers 16-9, they were outhustled and out-scraped.
“I don’t know if it was jet lag or what,” said Dundee defenseman Colin Hendry. “We only arrived in this country two days ago, and we were really tired out there. But don’t take anything away from the Kickers. They’re well-organized.”
The Kickers have been playing together for only a few weeks. They opened the Western Soccer Alliance season 10 days ago by tying Portland 1-1 and beating Seattle, 1-0. The Scots, coming off a sixth-place finish in their regular season, were without their two top scorers, who didn’t make the trip, and started back-up goalie Tom Carson instead of regular Bobby Geddes.
The Kickers management said it needed to average about 4,000 fans a game to break even during the 14-game schedule, but only an estimated 3,600 showed up for the opener.
Even before some fans had settled into their seats, Dundee had its first and only goal. Ninety seconds into the game, center forward Albert Kidd took advantage of a confused Kicker defense, picked up a loose ball in front of the goal and booted it past goalie Lorenzo Caccialanza.
Albert got another chance a few minutes later when he walked in on goal, but his weak shot was smothered by Caccialanza. It would be the last good scoring opportunity for the Scots until the second half.
Fourteen minutes into the game, Paul Krumpe, a defenseman who played on UCLA’s Division I championship team last season, scored the first goal for the Kickers, stealing the ball at midfield and beating Carson from 30 yards out.
With 24 minutes gone in the first half, winger Richard Torres, the best threat for the Kickers all game, lined a corner kick across the goal mouth onto the foot of Mark Arquette, who tapped it past a sprawling Carson for the go-ahead goal.
In the second half, Caccialanza was tested in the first 90 seconds but made a diving save of a shot off the foot of Kidd.
Less than seven minutes later, Torres sliced a cross to Krumpe, who sent a pass to forward Steve Ledezzma of Simi Valley. Ledezzma punched the ball into the right corner and the Kickers, with a 3-1 lead, were content to play defense the rest of the way.
“Our game plan was to play hard defense and rely on counter attacks,” said defenseman Alberton Bru, who played at Cal State Northridge last season. “It worked perfectly.”
Was Bru surprised to beat a first division team?
“We have a good team,” he said. “We’re not going to be afraid of anybody this season.”
The Kickers’ next game is June 3 against another European team, Manchester City of England’s first division.
