NOT OUT, BUT DOWN : Sockers in Need of an Attitude Adjustment Going Into Must-Win Match Against Comets
The Sockers are undefeated in five do-or-die matches since their championship streak began five years ago, but their attitude going into tonight’s “must” game against the Kansas City Comets is different from the past.
Their attitude has been negative before, but this time, there appears to be a sense of doom.
Trailing two games to one in the best-of-five opening-round playoff series and coming off a 9-7 loss at home Tuesday night, the Sockers are down.
“I don’t think we enjoyed playing this year,” Socker midfielder Branko Segota said. “There was no togetherness. No team spirit from the beginning. There were those curfews and little fines, and we started to resent that. Guess it was reflected on the field.”
There is a feeling of negativism, said some of the players after another lackluster practice Saturday.
In the past, the Sockers used arguments and team dissension to motivate themselves. This season, there is an air of resignation that the end is near.
“Maybe some of the veterans feel five championships is enough, but that shouldn’t be,” Socker midfielder Cha Cha Namdar said.
Last season, when the Sockers trailed Minnesota, three games to one, in the best-of-seven Major Indoor Soccer League championship series, they were discouraged, but they still sounded like champions.
“Last year, we were more confident,” Segota said. “We believed more that we could do it.”
And they did it. The Sockers easily won Games 5 and 7 at home and pulled out Game 6 at the Met Center.
“Last year, we felt that a little more commitment here or there and a bounce of the ball here or there could turn the game around,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said.
Even when they faced elimination, the Sockers “always felt confident,” said Comet defender Gary Collier, who played on four Socker championship teams before being sold to Kansas City in the middle of this season.
“They always thought they’d win,” Collier said. “They’ve never panicked or put pressure on themselves. They figured if they played well, they’d win. It had nothing to do with the other team.”
This year’s Comet team is very hungry and very strong offensively and has a positive statistic in its favor. In each of the MISL’s eight years of existence, the team that has led the league in scoring during the regular season went on to win the championship. The Comets led the league in scoring with 271 goals this season.
The Comets were very loose at practice Saturday, but they have enough veterans to keep the young guys from getting too cocky.
What happened in last year’s championship series has led Comet forwards Jan Goossens and Tasso Koutsoukos--both of whom played with the Strikers last season--to warn their teammates about being too up or too taken in by the Sockers’ negative outlook.
“I keep telling them you have to be careful,” Goossens said. “They are not dead yet.
“Last year, when we were up three to one and coming here, we felt it would be hard to win here. In the back of our minds, we felt that if we lost the game, we could win it at home. That’s dangerous. It’s better to kill them off. Get it over with. They never give in. I hope in the back of our minds, our players realize this is the most important game.”
Said Koutsoukos: “We have to put them away. We have to finish it here. Forget about Wednesday (a possible Game 5). We have to think that way. I don’t they’re the same team as last year, but they’re still a good team.”
And the Sockers are still 28-2 in home playoff games. However, this season the Sockers were only 16-10 at home during the regular season, and they lost their home playoff game Tuesday night. This is not like the Socker teams that went undefeated in their first 26 home playoff games.
“The team was more settled in those days,” Newman said. “You knew what you had then. There is more of an unknown quantity this year.”
With the expected return of defender Brian Schmetzer tonight (out with a pulled right hamstring since April 10), the Sockers will have their entire team available for the first time since Feb. 20.
“Injuries are injuries, but that’s not an excuse,” said Segota, who missed nine straight games with a fractured cheekbone before scoring two goals and getting two assists in his return Tuesday. “We have to play through them (injuries). That’s why we have 20 players.”
However, after five exhibition games, 52 regular-season games (27-25 record) and three playoff games, Newman said: “We haven’t seemed to manage to find the blend yet, but this is not the time to experiment.” Newman plans to go primarily with his veterans, some of whom are coming off injuries, aren’t totally fit and are still trying to blend into the flow of the game.
One veteran really under the gun tonight is starting goalkeeper Zoltan Toth, who is 9-1 lifetime against the Comets but is coming off his only loss to them, by 5-1 last Sunday.
“A hot goalkeeper can make the difference,” said Newman, who watched Tuesday as his team blew a three-goal third-quarter lead and allowed six goals in an 11-minute span. “Several of those goals were savable. Both our goalkeepers have saved more difficult shots in the past.”
After watching most of Tuesday’s match from the bench and then having two goals scored against him during his brief stint in the fourth quarter, Toth is justifiably wary going into tonight’s game.
“We played crazy,” Toth said. “Wide open. They pick up more speed than we do and we can’t keep it up.”
What can the Sockers do to change that?
“Nothing can change,” Toth said.
If the Sockers are eliminated tonight, that will be a very big change.
Socker Notes Socker Coach Ron Newman said he is very close to signing a five-year contract with the Sockers. It will be worth approximately $100,000 per year, which is close to what he is earning now. “At my age, I look for security,” said Newman, 53, who is in the final year of his contract. “My main concern was security. It’s a very good contract. The club was quite generous. I probably could have gotten more money for a shorter term or if I had gone somewhere else, but I’ve never been a gypsy.”
