CURTAIN CALL FOR HUGO PEREZ : Midfielder Says the MISL Playoffs Are His Final Games With the Sockers

This year’s Major Indoor Soccer League playoffs have a finality about them for Hugo Perez.

The midfielder says he’s playing his last games as a Socker and, most probably, an indoor player.

“It’s pretty tough (playing now),” Perez said. “But I’ve been here almost five years, and I’m still getting paid. I have to perform. To do the best I can.”

To score two goals and assist on another in a 6-2 victory over Tacoma in the opening Western Division semifinal playoff game Thursday night. To get four goals and four assists in the final four regular-season games after he missed 29 consecutive games with a stress fracture of his left shin.

To try to win his fourth championship in five indoor seasons with the Sockers.

“That would be a good thing because probably some of us won’t be back,” Perez said.

It has been a strange and frustrating season for Perez. First, he wasn’t part of the team for almost three months because of the injury. Now he says he won’t be part of the team because of financial considerations.

“The league is in a difficult position, and for me it is very hard to take a pay cut,” Perez said. “Some others can, but I can’t. My main concern is my family ( wife Maria and sons Hugo Jr. and Gerson ) . Whatever is best for them, I’ll do.”

Perez, 24, says he won’t sign a new contract with the Sockers when his $100,000-per-year deal ends June 30. The two-year collective bargaining agreement between the MISL owners and players, reached last week, says players with guaranteed contracts must take at least a 15% cut.

“I hope he stays,” Socker Coach Ron Newman said. “But I don’t think there is anything to really talk to him about. I’m not in a position to sway his mind because I don’t know what we could sway him with.”

Instead of trying to sign a lucrative contract with another team in the MISL, Perez says he will attempt to play outdoors in Europe. Unlike most MISL players, Perez seems young and talented enough to make the transition.

“Last year when he played outdoor (with the U.S. national team), it was the best I’ve seen him play,” said Socker defender Kevin Crow, who played with Perez on the national team. “He was at a different level. He had this aura of confidence that nobody could stop him.”

But talent doesn’t always translate into a big contract in Europe.

“I think he could go over and earn a living there,” Newman said. “I think he’s a lovely talent. But there’s also a lot of competition. Remember, he’s a foreign player over there. Here, he’s an American player. The question is whether he can make as much over there. Whether he can be happy there.”

Perez played with the prestigious Ajax club of the Dutch First Division in Amsterdam last summer. He almost signed with a top team in Scotland, then with one in England, but when negotiations fell through, he returned to the Sockers. He got off to a quick start, scoring in the first eight games and totaling 11 goals and 17 assists in 19 games. But his leg was hurting him from the start of the preseason.

Finally, he had X-rays taken. No injury was discovered. Then he had a bone scan, and a stress fracture showed up. That was in early January.

“I couldn’t do much,” Perez said. “I couldn’t run. The most difficult thing was going to games and not being able to play.”

For the second season in a row, Perez was sidelined for a considerable time by injury. Last year, he missed 17 games with a sprained right knee.

“My injuries have been weird,” Perez said. “Last year was another freak injury, too. I don’t know if it’s the indoor (game) or bad luck.”

Perez says he still isn’t playing at 100%, and he didn’t feel any better when he was head-butted by Wichita midfielder Dave Hoggan in the final regular-season game Sunday night. Perez lost a tooth and underwent a root canal Wednesday.

“It’s been a really frustrating time,” Perez said. “It hasn’t been a good year for me, but I guess you have to bounce back.”

And look ahead.

In Perez’s case, that means rejoining the U.S. national team this summer. He represented the U.S. Olympic team in 1984 and was an instrumental member of a team that was so successful last fall.

The highlight for Perez occurred in front of a crowd of 45,000 screaming fans at Cuscatalan Stadium in San Salvador last October. The United States was playing El Salvador in an Olympic qualifying game.

The main attraction that day was Perez, a native son who had moved to Los Angeles when he was 14 and become a United States citizen in 1982.

“I hadn’t been in my country for 10 years,” Perez said. “I grew up there. I used to go to every game there. I never imagined I’d play against my own country. I asked to play for them about six years ago, but they said no.”

Did Perez think twice about returning to El Salvador, where he still has some family?

“I thought about it a little,” Perez said. “If I didn’t go, I would have felt bad personally. It would have meant I was scared. I’m not scared of anything.”

There was no trouble getting in, but Perez received anything but a warm welcome.

“They booed Hugo unbelievably,” said Tacoma Star midfielder Ricky Davis, also a member of the U.S. national team.

Perez responded by scoring on a 30-yard direct free kick and then redirecting a shot into the goal. He also set up the team’s first goal.

“Hugo was pretty much the focal point of the team,” Davis said. “Our tactics were to get him the ball.”

His two goals were the difference in a key 4-2 U.S. victory in front of a very hostile crowd.

“They were throwing a lot of things--bags, water, oranges,” Perez said. “They had to stop the game because people were throwing too much on the field.”

Said Crow: “Around the corners, it looked like a garbage dump by the end of the game.”

A game that Perez said produced a most “gratifying victory.”

“What a way for him to come home,” Davis said.

The victory was a key for the U.S. team, which will advance to the Olympics if El Salvador loses or ties any of its remaining matches, two against Trinidad and one against the U.S. team in Indianapolis in May.

Crow said the national team isn’t expecting help qualifying from MISL players, who might still be involved in the playoffs until June. But he and Perez hope to get a chance to appear in the Olympics.

“I’m looking forward to playing for the national team,” Perez said.

Whether it’s blasting a left-footer off the carpet at the Sports Arena or connecting on a shot at Cuscatalan Stadium, Perez has proven he can play both games. Indoor and outdoor.

“He’s outstanding in both,” Davis said. “You have to admire the guy because he is equally good at both.”

Socker Notes--Game 2 against Tacoma is at 7:35 tonight at the San Diego Sports Arena. The game will be broadcast on XTRA (AM 690) and XEXX (AM 1420). . . . Midfielder Branko Segota is listed as questionable for tonight’s game with a pulled quadricep muscle. But it’s highly unlikely Segota will play. He sat out the second half of Thursday’s game and is expected to be out 7 to 10 days, according to Socker trainer Bill Taylor.