Sockers Close In on Sweep, Another Title

As far as sure things go, the Sockers’ sixth indoor championship in seven years appears to rate right up there with Paul Dougherty flipping after a goal or Coach Ron Newman flipping out after a questionable call by an official.

The title that eluded the Sockers a year ago for the first time since 1981, is now only a game away after the Sockers took a 3-0 lead in the Major Indoor Soccer League championship series with a 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Force in overtime here Tuesday night.

Only a complete flip-flop of recent fortunes, it seems, could keep the Force from stopping the Sockers’ on the road to the title, which could end tonight in Game 4 at the Richfield Coliseum (5:05, Prime Ticket).

Game 5, if necessary, is scheduled for Thursday here, and if Cleveland wins both games, the series would return to San Diego.

“San Diego seems more than a million miles away right now,” Force midfielder Kai Haaskivi said after Game 3.

Newman’s mind, meanwhile, seems as if it is already on impending vacation ideas. Such as fishing, perhaps.

“We’ve got our hooks into them (Cleveland) right now, and they’re wiggling like crazy to get off,” Newman said. “We have to make sure that we keep reeling them in.”

The Sockers won the series’ first two games by outrunning Cleveland, which tried to run with them.

In Game 3, Cleveland decided it couldn’t run anymore and played a more conservative style. The Sockers won again.

“The thing is, we’re down 3-0 but we could up 2-1,” Cleveland Coach Timo Liekoski said. “If we had been luckier, it could be different.”

But because of two overtime victories and a 6-1 breeze in Game 2, the Sockers are close to reassuming their position at the top of the MISL. In the 10 years of the MISL, no team has rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a championship series.

“We still have to remember to go out and play one more time,” forward Waad Hirmez said. “And if we don’t do it in Game 4, we’ll have to go out and do it in Game 5.”

Said Force goalkeeper P.J. Johns: “All we can do it try to win this next game. In fact, all we can try to do is win this next half (the first half of Game 4). In fact, make it this next quarter.”

So far, Cleveland hasn’t won much of anything, including the respect of its opponent.

Many of the Sockers have said privately that Kansas City, the team they beat in seven games to reach the final, was more dangerous.

“The thing we need is for something to go our way,” Cleveland forward Craig Allen said. “We’ve been so close so many times. But the ball just won’t go in the net for us.”

Allen, a 41-goal scorer during the regular season, probably has been the Force’s most frustrated player. He has scored three goals in this series, but has been stopped time and again on other close-in scoring opportunities.

Gino DiFlorio, second on the team with 22 goals this year, also has been frustrated scoring only once.

Late in the third quarter of Game 3, DiFlorio was involved in the play that symbolized Cleveland’s struggle.

Andy Schmetzer took a shot from the left side that slipped behind Jim Gorsek, who was hugging the left post. The ball rolled across the goal line from left to right, to in front of DiFlorio.

DiFlorio kicked at the ball with a wide-open net in front of him, but fanned on his shot. Dougherty came in, cleared the ball and San Diego was out of danger.

Later, in overtime, Zoran Karic scored, and now the Sockers are almost free from danger of any kind.

Socker Notes

Don’t look now, but the Sockers have six straight victories, their longest winning streak in the playoffs since 1984. That streak started in 1982 when the Sockers beat Baltimore in the fifth game to win their first championship. In 1983, the Sockers won all five of their playoff games, including a three-game sweep of New York in the North American Soccer League Indoor title series. In 1984, the Sockers swept Kansas City in the first round before beating Minnesota twice. . . . Waad Hirmez has scored a point in every game during this current six-game streak. . . . Socker goalkeeper Jim Gorsek and Cleveland defender Benny Dargle, both injured during Game 3, should be available to play tonight. Gorsek, who was dizzy and had to leave the game after a collision with Craig Allen, probably won’t start, however, as Coach Ron Newman is expected to go with Zoltan Toth. Dargle, who received 10 stitches over his left eye after a run-in with Kevin Crow, is listed as probable.