No Fanfare, No Matter : After Barely Missing for Seven Years, Cleveland Just Glad to Make Finals

Not even a dark, empty and strangely quiet San Diego Sports Arena could dampen the spirits of the Cleveland Force, who arrived here Tuesday to begin preparing for their first Major Indoor Soccer League championship series.

The MISL still has a ways to go to match the National Football League for pomp and circumstance, and San Diego isn’t quite Hollywood when it comes to glitter, but all of this was lost on Cleveland, which for the last eight years probably has been wondering what it’s been missing.

“You get to the finals, and you walk off the airplane and there’s nobody there,” forward Paul Kitson said. “And then you get to the arena and there’s nobody there. You would never think that there’s about to be a championship series going on here.”

Things, of course, figure to be a whole lot more lively at 7:05 tonight in the Sports Arena when the Sockers and Cleveland kick off Game 1 of the best-of-seven championship series.

But, for the Force anyway, this is big enough.

Whereas the Sockers have basked in whatever MISL limelight there has been during the last six seasons, winning five championships, the Force has been the team that just fell short.

Cleveland reached its first MISL semifinal series in 1983 and then again in 1984, ‘85, ’86 and ’87. However, it was eliminated in each series.

The losses in 1986 (to Minnesota) and 1987 (to Dallas) were the toughest to take, because the Force had won Eastern Division regular-season championships those years only to lose to teams with inferior records in the playoffs.

“Sometimes it seemed that we would never make the finals,” forward Kai Haaskivi said.

This was finally the year, however. Cleveland finished second behind Minnesota in the Eastern Division, but, after polishing off the defending champion Dallas in the first round, beat Minnesota, 4-1, in the Eastern finals.

That series ended May 15 and for the last 2 1/2 weeks, the Force has been looking forward to tonight.

“A lot has been made about us having to wait for 2 1/2 weeks to play the finals,” Haaskivi said. “But, when you’ve waited six years, another 2 1/2 weeks doesn’t seem to be much of a big deal to me.”

The Sockers, meanwhile, would like to wait a while longer for the final series to start. Unlike Cleveland, they come into this series hurting.

Branko Segota, who scored six goals in one game against Cleveland during the regular season, won’t be scoring any in this series. Segota, injured in Saturday’s 8-5, Game 7 victory over Kansas City, has a separated shoulder and will not be back in time for the final series.

Others hurting are defenders Gus Mokalis, Brian Schmetzer and forward Hugo Perez. Mokalis had X-rays taken of his swollen left ankle Tuesday and is questionable for tonight’s game. Schmetzer, who missed four games in the Kansas City series with a dislocated left shoulder, is nursing a sore left toe as well. Perez (sprained right ankle) has been slowed, but is expected to be able to play.

“It’s really gotten to the point where I’m almost worried more about my defense that I am about replacing Branko,” Ron Newman, Socker coach, said.

Segota probably will be replaced by either Zoran Karic, a 21-goal scorer during the regular season, or Keder, who scored 28 goals including two game-winners against Cleveland. Neither Karic or Keder has scored a point in the playoffs, however.

“We made the mistake of letting our first two playoff series go too long,” Juli Veee, Socker forward, said. “We should have destroyed Tacoma and Kansas City earlier. Now, it’s catching up to us. We’re tired and banged up and Cleveland is in perfect health.”

It’s unlikely the Force is going to feel too sorry for the Sockers.

“We can’t fall for that stuff,” Haaskivi said. “We know they can win without Branko, and usually whenever a big star is out, everybody on the other team pulls together even more. Without him in there, we’ll have to concentrate on stopping more players.

“The key is going out and just playing our best soccer. We can’t worry about any distractions.”

That was easy enough Tuesday.

SOCKERS DOMINATE SEASON SERIES

The Sockers beat the Cleveland Force the four times they played during the regular season:

Dec. 4 at Cleveland--Branko Segota tied a team record with six goals and an assist, and the Sockers scored five consecutive second-half goals to win, 7-3. Segota scored once in each of the first two periods and twice in both the third and fourth to tie the single-game scoring mark set by Juli Veee in 1982. Three of six Segota’s six goals were unassisted as the Sockers overcame a 3-2 halftime deficit in front of 10,034.

Dec. 11 at San Diego--Power-play goals by Hugo Perez and Keder in the fourth quarter rallied the Sockers to a 3-2 victory in front of 7,879. P.J. Johns was working on a 2-0 shutout three minutes into the third quarter when Waad Hirmez scored. Zoltan Toth made 10 saves and shut out Cleveland after giving up first-half goals to Craig Allen and Brian Bliss.

Feb. 21 at Cleveland--Coach Ron Newman, red-carded three minutes into the fourth quarter, wasn’t around to see Keder score on a pass from Gus Mokalis 5:58 into overtime that gave the Sockers a 6-5 victory in front of 9,160. When Kevin Crow scored 9:40 into the second period, the Sockers led, 5-0. But Cleveland rallied with two goals by Craig Allen, the second of which tied the game with 46 seconds left in regulation.

March 2 at San Diego--The Sockers completed the sweep with a 5-3 victory in front of 6,677, but there wasn’t much cause for celebration. Starting goalkeeper Victor Nogueira was injured five minutes into the game, and Cleveland was forced to use midfielder Walter Schmetzer in goal. Even so, the Force led, 3-2, late in the third quarter. The Sockers came back to win on fourth-quarter goals by Kevin Crow and Juli Veee, but Newman said, “It was embarrassing we didn’t destroy them.”