Sockers Finally Celebrate : Despite Injuries, Team Defeats Steamers, 4-3
“Great win! What a beauty!” yelled Socker Coach Ron Newman as he congratulated his players in the locker room after Wednesday night’s game.
You would have thought the Sockers had won their sixth straight Major Indoor Soccer League championship. Or that they had beaten Tacoma or Baltimore in a thriller.
Actually, San Diego just held on for an ugly 4-3 victory against the fifth-place St. Louis Steamers.
But the Sockers won without five regulars, including their top three scorers, who are out with injuries.
“Now we’re the underdog when we go out on the field,” Socker defender Kevin Crow said. “I don’t think people in Las Vegas are putting money on us like they were before.”
San Diego was playing without Branko Segota (strained right thigh); Brian Quinn, Hugo Perez and Juli Veee (sprained right knees), and defender George Katakalidis (sprained left toe).
“This is the chance for other teams to get back at the poor old Sockers,” Newman said. “It’s payback time. Remember how we used to win, 14-3? . . .
“We’re the underdog now. For a long time, we’ve been the expected winners. But tonight, we couldn’t afford to lose three in a row at home. That would have meant they didn’t have any fight left in them.”
The Sockers were faced with the prospect of losing three in a row at home for the first time since the start of the 1982-83 season.
Using a lineup that Newman calls “Newman’s Nippers,” the Sockers scratched, clawed and hustled their way to a victory before 8,426 fans in the Sports Arena.
“The only way we are going to win is like this,” said Socker defender Brian Schmetzer, who scored a goal that gave San Diego a 3-2 lead early in the final quarter.
It was Schmetzer’s third goal of the season. Veteran Kaz Deyna scored his first regular-season goal since last March 29. Tim Bartro got his fourth goal of the season. Jean Willrich closed out the Socker scoring with an empty-net goal with 3:46 remaining in the game to give the Sockers a 4-2 lead.
Rookie Paul Dougherty, playing in his second MISL game, got an assist for his first MISL point. Njego Pesa, playing in his third game with the Sockers since being acquired as a free agent, got an assist for his first point as a Socker.
“We’re not going to score a lot of goals,” Crow said. “The goalies are going to have to lift their games a notch.”
Socker goalkeeper Zoltan Toth made 11 saves on 25 shots to raise his record to 13-8. The scorers for the Steamers (13-26) were Redmond Lane (Pesa actually put the ball in the net for St. Louis), Poli Garcia and former Socker Ade Coker, who scored on a diving header in the third quarter.
Coker--just the type of goal scorer the Sockers are now in desperate need of--was sold to the Steamers Feb. 24. In eight games with St. Louis, Coker has 4 goals and 2 assists.
When Coker played on the five indoor championship teams with the Sockers, a victory over a St. Louis was hardly cause for celebration. But times have changed.
Socker Notes
Socker midfielder Branko Segota, the team’s leading scorer with 29 goals and 35 assists, has missed two of the last three games with a strained right thigh. He hopes to join the team in Dallas in time for Sunday night’s game. “I’m a little better,” Segota said. “I’m getting more power, but I can’t shoot yet. I can’t sprint yet.” Segota was injured while playing in the rain in an exhibition match against the Socker reserve team March 5 at the Sorrento Valley soccer center. . . . The Sockers placed Brian Quinn, Hugo Perez and Juli Veee (out with sprained right knees) on the MISL injured list. They cannot be reactivated for the team’s next five games. With the MISL roster freeze date at 12:01 a.m. (PST) Saturday, the Sockers signed former New York Express forwards Keder and Victor Quni, and midfielder Carlos Basso and forward Fahmi El-Shami of the reserve team. Keder, 23, had two goals and four assists in 11 games with the Express before they folded Feb. 17. Keder agreed to terms through the 1987-88 season. Quni, 19, was scoreless in three games with the Express before joining the Socker reserve team. He signed a 10-day contract. Basso and El-Shami, both 22, were signed to amateur contracts. . . . The crowd of 8,426 Wednesday night was the Sockers’ smallest regular-season crowd of the season.
