Late Start of Pivotal Players Left Kickers in the Blocks

To Dieter Hochheimer’s way of reckoning, his California Kickers are unbeaten.

Oh, sure, the Western Soccer Alliance officially lists his club at 3-7, but Hochheimer, the coach, has only had his team together for one game, last Sunday’s 3-1 victory over F.C. Portland. The team, that is, he had envisioned back in April when the Kickers began their third season.

Hochheimer had hoped to have the services of forward Joey Kirk, a former Cal State Northridge All-American, California Collegiate Athletic Assn. Player of the Year in 1986 and ’87 and a member of the U. S. national team; fullback Scott Murray, also a former Matador; fullback-goalie Mike Page; striker Brendan Murphy; fullback Alberto Bru; and midfielder Amir Darabi.

The problem was that all of them already were playing for other teams. Kirk, in fact, was playing for two other teams, with a third also laying claim to him. He played one game with Autobahn, a Southland team, and the rest of the local semipro season with the Foothill Flyers. The San Pedro Croat of the Greater L. A. Soccer League insisted that Kirk was obligated to play for them. The matter wound up in court and San Pedro lost. But so did the Kickers, who also failed to get him.

Not to mention Murray, Page, Murphy, Bru and Darabi, who were legally on the Croat roster. Hochheimer insists that he was operating under the assumption that the five would all leave the Croat to join the Kickers before the Valley-based club kicked off its season. The Croat management was operating under no such assumption.

“It was a total mess,” Hochheimer said. “It really hurt bad not to have those players. I hated the whole situation.”

The result was that the players drifted in as the season wore agonizingly on. Several came aboard three games into the Kickers’ season, including Murphy, who, despite his late start, has three goals and three assists to rank second among the league’s scoring leaders. Darabi arrived in mid-season. Murray, waiting until the end of the Croat season, was the last to arrive, joining the Kickers in time for last week’s victory over Portland.

Kirk never made it. Because of his ties to the other teams, he was forbidden by the California Soccer Assn. from playing for the Kickers.

“I’m going to start early next year,” Hochheimer said. “I’m going to get commitments from the players early enough for them to start the season with us. And, hopefully, that will include Joey Kirk.”

Perhaps. The 22-year-old Kirk, currently in Seoul for the President’s Cup tournament, was taken last week in the first round of the Major Indoor Soccer League draft by the Minnesota Strikers. But the Strikers have since folded.

Kirk also has received feelers to play in France, West Germany and Costa Rica.

Thor Lee, another former Matador and a current member of the Kickers, was drafted in the third round by the L. A. Lazers.

With two games remaining for the Kickers (July 10 on the road against the L.A. Heat and July 16 at Birmingham High against the Seattle Storm), Hochheimer is shaking his head, not only at who might have been on his roster, but also what might have been on the field. The Kickers have lost two games in overtime, two in the last minute and one on a penalty shot.

“We’ve been a little bit unlucky,” Hochheimer said, “but I feel we can win our last two games. That would make us 5-7. That’s not what we wanted, but with the bad start we had, it would still be some kind of a comeback.”