Sockers, Comets Begin Tonight, No End in Sight

The Major Indoor Soccer League hasn’t attracted a national television contract the way the National Basketball Assn. or National Hockey League have, but it has done as well as either in dragging out its season.

Scheduling difficulties could stretch the best-of-seven Western Division final series between the Sockers and Kansas City Comets to three weeks . And the new league playoff format of two games in San Diego, three in Kansas City and two in San Diego has Socker players annoyed and management spending more money than expected.

The Comets, meanwhile, are content and smiling.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Socker defender Fernando Clavijo. “In this series, we don’t even have a home-field advantage. They have the home-field advantage.”

Dave Clements, the Comet coach, said: “The schedule helps us a little. The home-field advantage doesn’t really show up until Game 7.”

Games 1 and 2 will be played at the San Diego Sports Arena at 7:35 tonight and Wednesday. No problem. And the injury-riddled Sockers were glad to have a week of rest after they defeated Tacoma last Friday.

Games 3 and 4 will be played at Kemper Arena Friday and Sunday, May 13 and 15. No problem again. Four games in nine days will keep the series going at a pace that maintains fan interest and player intensity.

But the final three games of this series, if necessary, would take two weeks to play.

Game 5 was a problem for the Sockers before scheduling difficulties arose. In the past, best-of-seven MISL playoff series began with two games in each city. If the series went beyond four games, the fifth and seventh were played at the site of the team with the home-field advantage, the sixth at the other team’s arena. Three of the first five games were played at the home of the team with the better regular-season record.

In this series, the first-place Sockers--who won 13 more regular-season games than the third-place Comets did--would play three of the first five in Kansas City.

“I don’t really like this,” said Ron Newman, the Socker coach. “When a team plays three home games before you do, you don’t really have the home-field advantage.”

For the Sockers, it gets worse.

Because San Diego could not play host to a sixth game until Wednesday, May 25--the Sports Arena is booked with a Sesame Street show and the World Figure Skating Tour from May 18-24--the Comets asked to delay Game 5 until Saturday, May 21. Attendance league-wide is considerably higher for weekend dates.

“Teams want as many advantageous home games as possible,” said Tim Bryant, Comet media relations director. “I don’t think anyone is upset with this. It’s the luck of the draw.”

The result is a six-day lag between Game 4 and Game 5, both in Kansas City. So the Sockers will return to San Diego May 16, then fly back to Kansas City May 20. Randy Bernstein, team vice president, said that is cheaper than paying the players a per diem for the week.

After five games, if the series goes that long, the Sockers will head home tired. And management, which filed for Chapter 11 protection under the bankruptcy code April 25, will have spent more money than it expected.

This after the league switched to a 2-3-2 playoff format to save travel costs.

“We’re in this together,” Bernstein said. “To save us a little money, they would have a chance of losing $30,000 by not having a weekend date. That’s very unfair.”

The Sockers won’t even get a cut of that extra gate. In the playoffs, the home team shares revenues (30%) with the visitors only in the final game of a full series. Socker President Ron Cady said that in the future, visiting teams should be compensated for special circumstances such as these.

Games 6 and 7, if necessary, would be played in San Diego Wednesday, May 25, and Saturday, May 28.

“When it’s drawn out, if you win, by the time the next game comes around, you lose the advantage,” said Brian Quinn, a Socker midfielder. “If you lose, you have too much time to think about it.”

While the Sockers are playing Kansas City, the Eastern Division finals between Cleveland and Minnesota, set to begin tonight in Minnesota, would end no later than May 21.

As for the MISL championship series . . . the Sockers had hoped to end the season no later than June 11, but it could go a week later.

By then, the Padres will have played approximately 65 games.

Socker Notes

Tonight’s game will be broadcast live at 7:25 on XTRA (AM 690) and XEXX (AM 1420) . . . Socker midfielder Branko Segota, who missed the last three playoff games against Tacoma with a pulled left quadricep, says there is a 75% chance he will play tonight. “I’ll wait until tomorrow,” Segota said Friday afternoon. “I don’t want to jeopardize things and be injured for the rest of the series.” Segota said he didn’t feel pain while practicing Friday, but he also didn’t shoot with his injured left leg. Socker Coach Ron Newman said: “He was really pushing it, and he seems to be pretty much over the hump.” Segota, the Sockers’ leading scorer during the regular season with 56 goals and 33 assists, has been a Comet-killer. He had 9 goals and 7 assists for 16 points in 7 games against them this season, and in six career playoff games against Kansas City, he has 13 goals and 6 assists for 19 points. He had five goals and an assist in the deciding fifth game of the Western Division semifinals last season, which the Sockers won, 9-5, in Kansas City. . . . Socker midfielder Hugo Perez, who missed the last two games against Tacoma with a pulled quadricep, trained all week and will play tonight, Newman said. Keder (partially torn knee ligaments) and Zoran Karic (pulled lower abdomen muscle) practiced this week and are listed as questionable for tonight’s game. “The question is, do I select them?” Newman said. “It’s dangerous to put all four players in at once. It might upset our rhythm.” . . . The Comets will play without goalkeeper Ed Gettemeier (ligament damage on the middle finger of his left hand) and defender Gino Schiraldi (pulled right hamstring). . . . Zoltan Toth is scheduled to start in goal for the Sockers, Alan Mayer for the Comets. . . . Kansas City led the league in goals scored with 294, but also in goals allowed with 290. The Sockers had the stingiest defense in the league, allowing only 189 goals. San Diego was third in the league in goals scored with 277. “The key to the series is to limit them to three, four goals a game,” said Socker defender Kevin Crow. “We’ll get a fair amount of chances to score.”