Sockers See Lead, Game Disappear

Two consecutive Socker sellouts at the San Diego Sports Arena are unlikely, but then two San Diego losses in three days to the Los Angeles Lazers are even more unlikely.

Guess what?

The Sockers lost for the second time in three days to the Lazers Saturday night before the second straight sellout at the Sports Arena.

Playing in front of a Youth Soccer Night crowd of 12,884, the Sockers watched the Lazers score twice in the final eight minutes to win, 5-4.

Los Angeles had tied the game at 4-4 when Lazer defender Gus Mokalis hit a liner from the top of the circle with 7:20 remaining.

Then, with 2:02 to play, Lazer forward Zizinho blasted a 25-foot shot into the far corner of the net for his first goal as a Lazer. Zizinho had come on the field on a line change and received a strong outlet pass from goalkeeper David Brcic, who recognized that the Sockers were also in the midst of a line change.

“Brcic saw it and Zizinho made an unbelievable shot,” said Lazer Coach Peter Wall.

It has been some three-day stretch for the undefeated Lazers. That’s right, the Lazers are 3-0 and all three wins have been by one goal.

On Thursday night at the Forum, the Lazers beat the Sockers, 4-3, in sudden-death overtime. Overall, the five-time indoor champion Sockers have a 11-5 edge and 6-2 home advantage against the Lazers.

“After the game in Los Angeles,” said Wall, “we came out and we knew we could take the game to them and score some goals.”

In Saturday night’s extremely physical game, in which 10 penalties were served, the score was 2-2 at halftime and the Sockers led, 4-3, after three quarters, having outshot the Lazers, 34-18. It seemed they were continually on the verge of breaking the game open.

But . . .

“Everything they shot went in the goal,” said Socker Coach Ron Newman. “They were scoring from miles out. Everything we hit seemed to just miss. But, at the same time, they fought like tigers. You have to give a lot of credit to them.”

Branko Segota, Juli Veee, Hugo Perez and Ade Coker scored for the Sockers, who are 2-2. Willie Molano, Poli Garcia, Erhardt Kapp, Mokalis and Zizinho scored for the Lazers, Molano getting his sixth goal.

Socker goalkeeper Jim Gorsek made six saves on 18 shots while Brcic had 14 on 34 shots.

“Brcic was brilliant,” Wall said. “You need a goalkeeper to keep you in the game.”

That’s exactly what Brcic did after the Sockers took a 3-2 lead on a goal by Perez early in the third quarter and a 4-3 lead on a tap-in by Coker with 10 seconds to play in the third quarter.

Then came numerous Socker misses and two memorable Lazer blasts.

“I don’t think they look that much better this season,” Newman said, “but the results show they are. They are certainly luckier than last year.”

Socker Notes There were some nervous moments in the Socker front office Saturday afternoon. The sold out sign was up, but a fire hydrant had been run over at the swap meet Saturday morning. Water was cut off at the Sports Arena for much of the day. With no operating rest rooms and no water in a public place, there could be no event. At approximately 4 p.m., three and a half hours before game time, the water came back on.