Sockers Start a Long Day With a Loss

A long day started for the Sockers Tuesday morning with an exhibition loss to the Los Angeles Lazers and ended with Coach Ron Newman and team president Ron Cady discussing possible roster moves.

The Sockers lost the game, which started at 9 a.m., in double overtime, 4-3. The defeat did provide more answers than the meeting, however.

And because exhibition games usually don’t mean much, you get the idea of what happened at the meeting, which ended late in the afternoon.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Newman said. “We talked, but we ran out of time.”

So, Newman and Cady will meet again today. Among the subjects they plan to discuss is the possibility of getting another defender.

Gary Etherington, obtained from the Tacoma Stars this summer, will have arthroscopic surgery on his knee Thursday and could be out for about a month.

Etherington has an arthritic knee and missed both exhibition games this week because the knee was swelling.

Newman said that Cacho, who played with the Kansas City Comets last season, agreed to a 1-year deal Tuesday.

“His agent had to go to Argentina today,” Newman said. “So, we’ll have to see what happens.”

Victor Nogueira, a member of the Cleveland Force last season, passed his physical and is ready to agree to play with the Sockers.

However, the Sockers are worried about Nogueira’s foot, which he injured last year in a game against the Sockers.

“Since he hurt his foot before he got here, we want to work something into his contract that protects us in case he injures the foot again,” Newman said.

The Sockers also might take out an insurance policy on veteran forward Steve Zungul, although Newman continued to say that Zungul would only be brought in as a replacement.

“Right now we don’t have space for him,” Newman said.

As for the game at Folsom’s Soccer Center, the Sockers blew a 2-0 lead in the fourth quarter.

Jim Gabarra scored once and Doug Neely scored twice within 2 minutes to give the Lazers a 3-2 lead. The Sockers sent the game to overtime on a goal by Alan Willey with 16 seconds left.

Six minutes into a second overtime period, however, Gabarra scored his second goal to give the Lazers the victory.