Socker Dynasty May Be Spent

Long after the Sockers had emptied their final bottle of champagne Tuesday night and the Richfield Coliseum also had emptied, Cleveland Force Coach Timo Liekoski walked into the arena’s press room.

He sat and talked with a half-dozen reporters, loosening his blue-and-gold tie a bit more. Even amid the gloom of a four-game sweep at the hands of the Major Indoor Soccer League champion Sockers, he managed a smile or two.

Beneath Liekoski’s feet, however, lay the residue of his true emotions--pretzels crushed and ground into the blue carpet so quietly and slowly that Liekoski was unaware of what his feet were doing. Somebody pointed to them.

“Oh these?,” Liekoski said, surprised. “I didn’t know I was doing it. I guess that’s what comes from too much yelling and too much thinking. And too much Sockers.”

To suffer through the same events as Liekoski this past week probably would be enough to crush anyone.

“Nobody is better than those Sockers,” Liekoski concluded. “We did everything we could, and we couldn’t even win one game. It’s incredible.

“Maybe, some day, someone will be able to beat them.”

That day may be close.

The Socker team that won its sixth indoor soccer championship in the last seven years by winning 42 regular-season games, beating back challenges by Tacoma and Kansas City in the playoffs and sweeping Cleveland in the final--the team that was welcomed back to Lindbergh Field by about 1,500 fans Wednesday night--almost assuredly will never take the field together again.

“It will truly be a shame,” Sockers Coach Ron Newman said. “This year’s team set records and standards that teams will be trying to match for years to come. But now it will take an absolute miracle for us to be able to keep everybody.”

The Major Indoor Soccer League’s new $900,000 salary cap and the fact that champion players usually count on raises, not cuts, undoubtedly will be the main reason the team will be forced to unload some of its stars.

“Everybody’s going to have to take a pay cut; that’s the only thing I can see that will keep this all together,” team captain Fernando Clavijo said. “But it’s going to be very complicated. We win a championship, it’s very hard to feel you should have to take less money the next year. You feel you should be rewarded.”

But in order for some to be rewarded, some will have to go. The question is who.

Hugo Perez, the championship series’ most valuable player; Kevin Crow, the MISL defender of the year; Waad Hirmez, the leading scorer in the playoffs, and Clavijo are all free agents.

Furthermore, the guaranteed contracts of goalkeepers Zoltan Toth and Jim Gorsek, defender Brian Schmetzer, midfielder Brian Quinn and forward Branko Segota have to be renegotiated.

If the Sockers thought winning another championship was tough, wait until the off-season gets into full swing.

“I just know there’s a lot to be done,” said Ron Cady, Socker president. “Between now and June 30 (probably sooner), the coaches, (owner) Ron Fowler and myself will sit down and decide on what’s best to do.”

The Sockers’ task will be made easier once Perez, 24, decides what his future will be. Although the rest of the players have said they would like to return next year, Perez announced before the playoffs started that he will be leaving to play in Europe.

Now, however, he has said he’ll wait a couple more weeks to make up his mind for sure.

“There’s no way I can take a pay cut because I have to think of the future for my family,” Perez said. “But, maybe, if everything can work out, there’s a slight chance I could come back.”

All of the other players have stated that they would like to be back, although the chance exists that free agents such as Hirmez, Clavijo and Crow and younger players such as Zoran Karic and Keder could go elsewhere if more money were offered.

“I know that I want to stay with this team, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens,” Hirmez said. Crow and Clavijo, the league’s best two defenders, said the same thing. But it may be difficult for the Sockers to keep both.

Just as it may be hard to keep both goalkeepers, Gorsek and Toth. Gorsek took a pay cut to $30,000 this year with an assurance that the team would bump his salary back up for next season.

Now, with the cap, it may be difficult for the Sockers to keep their word.

“I was told I’d get my money next year, so I’ll just wait and see if that happens,” Gorsek said. “I think it would be a big mistake for them not to keep two experienced goalkeepers like Zollie and myself.”

Another player who would be hard to replace is forward Juli Veee, who, at 38, played brilliantly in the playoffs and for many years has been the heart and soul of this team.

Veee, who had hinted at retirement earlier this season, said he wants to return if the team will offer him a contract.

“If Juli comes back, of course, that would mean we’d lose another of our younger players,” Newman said. “But I still hope that he’ll get a contract offered. Juli is a big part of the great winning tradition of this franchise.”

Socker Notes

A championship celebration with players and coaches will be held at the Sports Arena at 5 p.m. Saturday. Fans will be admitted free . . . Renegotiating contracts and staying under the salary cap may be a big priority for the Sockers’ management this month, but there are other problems to take care of as well. This franchise filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy April 25 and as of now, no additional investors have been found to help out. “No one has surfaced yet with a definite interest,” Socker President Ron Cady said. “We’ve had several meetings with investors, but all they’ve been is tire-kicking sessions. We thought people would come out of the woodwork to jump on this bandwagon. But, right now, all we can do is sit back and wait.” So the players aren’t the only ones waiting.