City Section Soccer Playoffs : Team Concept Gets Kicked Around : Monroe’s Band of Individuals Advances to Semifinals With 2-1 Victory

In contrast to the majority of his peers, Les Sasvary spends little time preaching the team concept to his players. In the Monroe High soccer coach’s scheme, the individual is paramount.

“Most people think of soccer as a team sport,” Sasvary said, “but I think that a team is made up of individuals and is only as good as the individuals.”

That philosophy is paying dividends for the man who started the Monroe soccer program in 1977 and guided the Vikings to their first Mid-Valley League title this season.

Junior midfielder Jaime Leal scored his second goal of Tuesday’s match 10 seconds into sudden death to give Monroe a 2-1 victory at Poly in the quarterfinals of the City Section soccer playoffs. The Vikings (10-2-3) advanced to the semifinals for the first time in school history and will play at home Thursday against Reseda, which defeated Garfield in the quarterfinals, 3-0.

“I’ve always said that if you can get 11 excellent individuals on the field, then you have an excellent team,” Sasvary said. “This year we have 11 excellent individuals.”

After two 10-minute overtime periods failed to resolve a 1-1 tie, Leal took a pass from teammate Greg Hartsock on the left side and drilled a 10-yard shot past goalie Jose Gutierrez.

“I told the kids after overtime, don’t be thinking about penalty kicks, just go after them,” Sasvary said.

Apparently, Leal listened.

“Greg broke to the side and centered it to me so I just took the shot,” Leal said.

Both of Leal’s goals struck at Poly’s weakness--its left-side defense. Poly’s regular left-side halfback, Monir Beria, broke an ankle last week, forcing Parrots’ Coach Frank Sandoval to juggle his lineup.

“I’ve had a couple guys hurt and I had to fill vacant spots with junior varsity players,” Sandoval said. “It was a good match, but with those guys missing it hurt. Normally, Beria would have just controlled that side.”

After a scoreless first half, Monroe took a 1-0 lead when Leal scored on a breakaway with 27 minutes remaining in regulation. Less than four minutes later, Monroe appeared to score again, but Hartsock’s goal was called back because of an offsides penalty.

Poly tied the score when Juan Veloz scored on a pass from Jesus Perez with 10:40 left in the game. Poly (14-3) could have taken control of the game at the start of the second half but missed two easy scoring opportunities.

“We’ve been flat since Christmas,” Sandoval said. “I went away on vacation and the kids could have practiced but they didn’t.”

Chatsworth 2, Belmont 1--The West Valley League champion Chancellors travel to San Pedro on Thursday for a semifinal match after the win at Belmont. San Pedro defeated Jefferson on Tuesday, 2-1.

Joey Bird scored both goals for Chatsworth (14-4-2), the first on an assist from Craig Colgan 15 minutes into the game.

Bird’s second goal, with five minutes left in the first half, broke a 1-1 tie when his shot deflected into the net off Belmont goalie Edin Paiz’s hands. Belmont had scored 15 minutes earlier on Jose Fernandez’s goal.

Chatsworth Coach Richard Doran said Belmont’s precision-passing offense had worried him before the game but that his team turned the tables.

“After they scored their first goal, I thought we were going to have a hard time containing their offense,” Doran said. “But as the game progressed they had trouble containing us. I realized that playing against a different style team works both ways.

“They were the best team we’ve seen this year. I told the team that to beat Belmont, they just had to go out and play.”

Reseda 3, Garfield 0--Reseda became the second West Valley League team to reach the final four with the victory at Garfield. After a scoreless first half in which Reseda outshot Garfield, 13-6, the Regents (10-4-2) finally found their mark.

George Konstantinopoulos scored Reseda’s first goal less than three minutes into the second half on a pass from Mario Cristales on a corner kick. Cristales later scored on a penalty kick 25:40 into the second half.

“I just told them that we were down in their territory a lot and something would have to break for us, and it did,” Reseda Coach George Hull said.

Paul Vargas scored the Regents’ final goal with 11 minutes remaining.