Sockers Dominant, Fortunate : They Control Strikers but Need Karic Goal in Overtime to Win
Socker Coach Ron Newman took a long drink from his soda, stared at it for a moment, then chuckled.
“The final result was fair,” Newman said after the Sockers’ 3-2 overtime victory over the Minnesota Strikers Friday night at Met Center. “We deserved it, and, boy, would I have been disappointed had the final result been any different.”
Zoran Karic, 26, a Yugoslavian forward playing in only his third Major Indoor Soccer League game, provided the heroics by lofting a high, arcing shot from the top of the penalty box to silence the 5,194 fans. Karic’s first MISL goal meant a second consecutive victory for the Sockers.
“Throughout the game, something told me that he was going to win the game for us,” Newman said. “He was always stewing around the net causing trouble.”
Despite the limited scoring, the Sockers dominated play from the outset.
Minnesota, on the other hand, had to rely on the play of goalkeeper Tino Lettieri to keep the game close.
Entering the fourth quarter and trailing, 2-1, San Diego began picking apart the Striker defense and bombarding Lettieri.
It was then that the Strikers became acquainted with an old habit, falling back into a defensive shell. San Diego peppered Lettieri, but he held his ground until just over three minutes remained, when the Sockers tied it on a sixth-attacker goal by Paul Dougherty. Minnesota did not have a single shot on goal in the period.
“We thought we could contain them in that fourth quarter,” said Alan Merrick, the Striker coach. “We were prepared for them to come right at us. We also felt we didn’t need to go crazy on offense.”
The Sockers were the ones going crazy offensively, showing many signs of offensive brilliance.
“We hit everything in sight,” Newman said. “We hit pipes, we made splinters on the boards around the net, and we even hit our own guys. Regardless, we took command and held on.”
Trailing, 1-0, after a Fernando Clavijo first-quarter goal, Minnesota tied the game 4 1/2 minutes into the third quarter when Stan Cummins and Dwight Lodeweges combined on a beautiful goal.
Lodeweges, just inside his own red line, lofted a high pass that Cummins raced to get. As the ball began its downward flight, San Diego goalkeeper Zoltan Toth reached in vain, but Cummins snared the ball and headed it into an open net from the top of the penalty box.
“To them, it was a beautiful goal,” Newman said. “To us, it was a fluke.”
Minnesota broke the 1-1 tie in the closing moments of the third. Lodeweges, named the game’s defensive star, picked up his second assist of the quarter when he spotted Chris Dangerfield unnoticed in the San Diego penalty box. Lodeweges threaded a pass through traffic, and Dangerfield, with his back to the goal, spun and redirected the ball into the upper corner. The score held until Dougherty forced the overtime.
“I never even considered the fact that we might have lost that game,” Newman said. “It would have been truly unjust.”
Socker Notes
San Diego travels to Tacoma today to play the Stars. Game time is 7:30 p.m. . . . San Diego’s league-leading penalty-killing unit shut down a pair of Striker power-play opportunities . . . Randy Hahn, the Socker announcer on XTRA (AM 690), called his 300th MISL game Friday night.
