APPLE OF SOCCER’S EYES : RETURN OF SHEP MESSING : Flamboyant Goalkeeper Also President of Express

Goalkeeper Shep Messing used to dream that the only person who could score on him was Shep Messing.

In his book, “The Education of an American Soccer Player,” Messing wrote of a fictional season in which he had not surrendered a goal to win a $1 million bet from the club owner.

After the last game, this fictional Messing recalled: “I nod to (the owner) before I kick the ball into the net. Defiant and proud. Only Messing scores on Messing.”

Shep Messing fits a lot of descriptions. Egocentric. Confident. Cocky. Colorful. Daring.

Messing, 37, also has an unusual job description these days. He is president and goalkeeper for the New York Express, which plays the Sockers in the Nassau Coliseum tonight.

Years after his wild and successful stints with the New York Cosmos and Arrows, Messing believes this is his greatest coup.

“When the Arrows left New York, that day I decided to bring a team back,” he said. “I think what I’ve done is phenomenal. I look at a movie script of a guy who started the league, won championships, was done, then comes back with his team and he is in goal. I think it’s incredible.

“It’s No. 1 in terms of overall success. The fact that I’ve pulled it off is the ultimate satisfaction.”

This comes from a man who played alongside Pele, George Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer on the Cosmos when they won the 1977 North American Soccer League championship in front of 77,691 fans at soldout Giants Stadium.

Of course, fans in New York have come to expect the unexpected from Messing.

In his heyday with the Cosmos and Arrow from 1977 to 1982, Messing was the Joe Namath of soccer.

Messing was a centerfold for Viva magazine in 1973 when he played for the Cosmos. One time in Vancouver, a gift-wrapped girl was delivered to his hotel room. Messing had pet boa constrictors, a three-foot South American iguana named Sam and he kept a four-foot bear named Mingo in his dorm room at Harvard.

Chewing glass on occasion was not out of the question for Messing. Flying across the country to film a Sassoon commercial in Los Angeles in the morning and making 25 saves in a game the next day was almost routine.

How about the night in Baltimore when Messing played in a court jester’s suit? Or the time he wore a painted African mask while tending the nets?

“I don’t know if Tino (Lettieri) got his antics from Shep, but they seem very similar,” said Socker forward Ade Coker, who played on the 1979-80 Arrows’ championship team with Messing. “They are real crowd pleasers. If Shep saw something that would grab the public, he’d jump on it right away.”

Messing has always been a pathfinder in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He was the first player to sign with the MISL when it came into existence in 1978 and starred for the Arrow teams that won four consecutive championships from 1978 to 1982. He was also a three-time MISL All-Star goalkeeper.

Years later, Messing is back in goal for his team.

“I really feel like Sylvester Stallone,” Messing said. “He produces the pictures and he can have the starring role.”

Entering tonight’s game, the Express is 0-3. Messing, who hasn’t played regularly since the 1983-84 season with the Arrows, allowed 8 goals and made 13 saves on 30 shots in a season-opening 8-7 loss to the Los Angeles Lazers at the Forum.

After sitting out the team’s 4-3 loss in Tacoma, Messing returned to goal for the home opener against Kansas City on Nov. 21.

“You know Shep,” said friend and former Arrow teammate Steve Zungul. “He’ll choose the nice cities to play in. The nice games in New York, L.A., Chicago. He’s a media guy.”

In front of 10,577 fans at the Nassau Coliseum Nov. 21, Messing allowed three goals and made 20 saves on 31 shots in a 4-2 loss.

“I feel better playing than I have in seven years,” said Messing, who has a two-year playing contract with the Express. “I feel like I played as well against Kansas City as I’ve ever have played.

“The ultimate irony is that the only time I relax is when I play in the game. For an MISL goalkeeper to say that shows how busy my other 20 hours of the day are.”

Along with Express chairman of the board Stan Henry and chief financial officer Ralph McNamara--two businessmen on Long Island--Messing is involved in the operation of the team, which went public Nov. 10.

In addition, Messing is president and chief operating officer of Soccer Enterprises Inc., a New York-based sports management and consulting firm. And the Express practices at the Shep Messing Soccer and Party Center in Syosset, N.Y.

This is the same guy who earned $76 a week playing with the Cosmos in 1973.

“I always enjoyed business off the field,” said Messing, who said his financial investment in the Express is substantial. “I have always been an entrepreneur. In the past 10 years, I’ve done well in business.”

That will not come as a surprise to people who know Messing.

“When Shep played for the Arrows, he was a tremendous spokesman for the team,” said Don Popovic, who coached Messing in New York. “When Shep would say, ‘I’m American, I’m from Long Island and soccer is a great game, it was a big thing.’ ”

Said Zoltan Toth, a former teammate: “What he did on the field was great, but what he did off the field was even greater. He is very good with public relations. Everyone in soccer knows Shep. . . . I knew back then (when they played together) he would become an owner.”

As you might gather, Messing does things his way. With the Express, that means building a team based on “Soccer . . . American Style.”

Considering Messing’s background, that’s no surprise. Messing grew up watching Mickey Mantle and playing baseball. He said he bypassed a tryout with the Mets and passed up a college track scholarship to pursue a game that was not a big spectator sport in America in the early 1970s.

As for the future of the MISL . . .

“If I could wave a magic wand for the MISL in general,” Messing said, “the game would be played at a much faster pace and would be more physical. I can’t see why the sport can’t be played as fast as hockey with 90-second line shifts. It goes against the grain of traditional soccer purists, but I’ve never been a purist. I’ll sacrifice skills for speed and aggression. We would play at breakneck speed.

“I don’t give two thoughts to what people (soccer purists) think. When I jumped to the MISL, I remember all the people who blackballed me. Now they are involved in indoor soccer.”

Messing also remembers his friends on the Sockers, which is why he is really looking forward to tonight’s game against San Diego.

“I’m dying to play against them,” said Messing, who isn’t sure he will play because it is Hubert Birkenmeier’s turn to be in goal. “The goalkeeper in me wants to play against San Diego.”

Six of his former Arrow teammates play for the Sockers.

Juli Veee, Branko Segota, Fernando Clavijo, George Katakalidis, Toth and Coker played with Messing in New York. So did Tacoma’s Zungul, whom Messing wants to acquire for the Express.

For now, Zungul and Messing--both successful businessmen as well as soccer stars--have to be satisfied with their memories.

“Shep is my buddy and a good fellow,” Zungul said. “He had a big influence on everybody (on the Arrows).

“As a goalkeeper, Shep was the smartest. He gave you security. You didn’t really worry about goaltending. He gave us the freedom to play.”

Messing was the first indoor goalkeeper to master the boards and the ricochets that are such an integral part of the game that is part soccer and part hockey.

“Shep was No. 1 in reflexes and courage,” Popovic said. “He would sacrifice his body to save goals. And he has a tremendous winning attitude.”

When he played for the Arrows, Messing ranked partying right up there with pride.

Zungul chuckled when he recalled the time Popovic missed two games and left Messing and himself in charge of the team.

“We won 9-5 in St. Louis,” Zungul said. “After the game, we threw a beautiful party in the hotel room. We had champagne and lots of drinks.”

The two new coaches decided to give the team four days off in San Francisco before their next game.

“We played cards and went swimming,” Zungul said. “Everything that was forbidden, we did. . . . We won the game, 11-9, but Pop got nuts watching on television. He was waiting for us at the Hartford airport and he looked like Gen. Patton.”

Popovic has always been a disciplinarian, but he said he never had any problem with Messing.

“In four years I don’t think I had one single problem with Shep Messing,” Popovic said. “He was an unbelievable professional player.”

That professionalism was most evident when the Arrows obtained Toth for the 1980-81 season.

“With any other goalkeeper I might have had a problem bringing in a new goalkeeper,” Popovic said. “Zoltan was playing tremendous when he came. Shep Messing realized how good Zoltan was. He understood I had to play him. I said, ‘You two decide what games you want to play.’ I never had a problem there.”

Because he was so popular in Long Island, Messing played the majority of home games and Toth started on the road.

“I would work and work with Zoltan hoping he would become a goalkeeper I could platoon with,” Messing said. “But my interest in Zoltan goes past him as a goalkeeper. He’s very special to me.”

Messing attended Toth’s wedding and both named their sons Zachary.

“Who knows?” Toth said. “With our sons, maybe we’ll have competition again.”

Or maybe Zachary Toth will one day play for owner Shep Messing.

But when asked if he has undergone a personality change, Messing said: “I never have. My wife still can’t figure me out. But a lot of it is public perception. Now the emphasis is on what I’m doing the conventional way.”

Conventional?

That doesn’t sound like Shep Messing.