Sockers Express Concern About Lack of Experience

Before the Sockers began their Western Division final series against the Kansas City Comets, captain Fernando Clavijo made a prediction and expressed some concern.

Prediction: It would be one of the best playoff series ever.

Concern: Would the lack of playoff experience among the younger Sockers, who excelled during the regular season, haunt the team in postseason pressure situations?

After three games of this best-of-seven series, with the Comets leading 2-1 going into today’s match at Kemper Arena (4 p.m., PDT), Clavijo’s prediction has proven accurate and his concern warranted.

It has been a thrilling series, with all three games decided by one goal, including the Comets’ come-from-behind, 7-6 overtime win here Friday night.

Kansas City trailed, 6-2, early in the fourth quarter but scored four goals within a span of 7 minutes 2 seconds and won on Dale Mitchell’s right-footer at 13:57 of sudden-death overtime.

Friday, in Game 1 at home with a four-goal lead, the Sockers blew a 4-2 third-quarter lead for a 5-4 loss.

Also, the Sockers blew a 3-1 fourth-quarter lead at home in Game 2 of the Western Division semifinals against Tacoma, giving up the tying goal with just 21 seconds remaining in regulation and losing, 4-3, in overtime.

Blown leads are not characteristic of the team that set Major Indoor Soccer League regular-season records with 42 victories, 23 home victories, 19 road victories and 10 overtime victories.

But the playoffs have been a different story.

That’s one of the topics Clavijo said he would discuss at a team meeting for players Saturday night.

“The lack of experience is showing,” he said. “In the regular season, everyone can play. The playoffs is different. We have a lot of guys who aren’t used to this kind of pressure. Sometimes it gets to you.”

It got to them in the fourth quarter of Friday’s game, when the Sockers collapsed under the Comet attack.

“Kansas City is good, but we made them look a lot better than they are,” Clavijo said. “We made so many mistakes and allowed them to score goals. In the first half, we’re moving the ball. In the second half, people look for themselves and become selfish. The second half was a disaster.”

Clavijo, saying it would do no good to point fingers at specific players, said he believes that certain players “didn’t work in the second half like they did in the first half,” and that some players didn’t want the ball during the pressurized final minutes.

Socker Coach Ron Newman said players were “disappearing.”

“They won’t take responsibility,” Newman said. “They are beginning to hide.”

And Newman said the intensity isn’t there.

“When it’s them and us and we knock the ball around, there’s no pressure. It’s no big deal to win when you have such a big lead.”

The Sockers won the Western Division by 11 games over Los Angeles and finished with 13 more regular-season victories than the third-place Comets.

“One of the problems going into the playoffs was we weren’t in must-win situations,” Newman said. “We had no exercise of being in pressure games. Could these players handle it? We have some players who don’t have that composure. It’s beginning to show up.”

So who are these young and inexperienced Sockers? Defender George Fernandez (taking key shifts the past two games since Brian Schmetzer dislocated his shoulder early in Game 2), forward Zoran Karic and midfielders Raffaele Ruotolo and Paul Dougherty.

Dougherty is one player whose game has noticeably suffered in the playoffs. In his first full MISL season, the 5-foot 2-inch Dougherty scored 40 goals and had 24 assists for 64 points, placing him second on the team in scoring.

In seven playoff games, Dougherty has just 2 goals and has managed to take only 13 shots.

The Sockers have some young players who aren’t used to the pressure of the playoffs, but the truth is, the Comets are fielding a considerably younger and less-experienced team.

The Comets have third-year defenders Dave Boncek and Jim Schwab, second-year defender Iain Fraser, rookie forward David Doyle and second-year forward Kia.

Veteran defender Kim Roentved, the Comets’ most experienced playoff performer, missed Friday’s game with a sprained big toe on his left foot.

And when it comes to championship experience, Alan Mayer is the only member of the Comets to win an MISL championship, with the Sockers in 1983. On the other side, the Sockers have players whose fingers are covered with rings: Branko Segota, Juli Veee, Kevin Crow, Brian Quinn, Hugo Perez, Zoltan Toth, Jim Gorsek and Clavijo.

Maybe the Comets are hungrier.

“They wanted the game (Friday) more than us,” Clavijo said. “At that stage of the game, it’s pride more than anything else.”

That’s another thing Clavijo planned to discuss at Saturday night’s meeting.

Socker Notes

Socker Coach Ron Newman said forward Keder (sidelined with torn knee ligaments since March 17) and rookie defender Hormoz Tabrizi will fly to Kansas City this morning for today’s game.