BACK TO BACK-TO-BACK? : MISL Champion Sockers Hope to Again Play It Again

Winning a professional sports championship is one thing. Repeating is another. Ask any World Series champion over the past 10 seasons. Or any of the past eight Super Bowl winners.

But for the Sockers, the Major Indoor Soccer League champions of 1987-88, repeating is a trademark. Four times in the 1980s, the Sockers won indoor titles and then won again the next season. After failing in 1986-87 to win it all for the first time since 1982, the team bounced back and won the MISL championship again last year.

“We always seem to find a way to come up with something,” Coach Ron Newman said.

Since June 7, when the Sockers defeated the Cleveland Force, 7-4, and wrapped up a 4-game championship series sweep, finding a way--some way--has continued to be the theme of this franchise.

For openers, there were bankruptcy hearings and companies opposed to Ron Fowler’s bid to purchase the team. There were 4 MISL franchises folding and another in Tacoma that pulled everything together at the last minute to stay alive.

As each summer day passed, it seemed less likely that the Sockers or the league would survive. But, as usual, they found a way.

Last month, training camp opened. The players--some old and some new--sighed, pulled on their blue and yellow uniforms and began preparations for another season.

It seems as if much has already been accomplished. So what’s left?

“You can always find different challenges,” defender Kevin Crow said. “It is different this time because we’ve already come so far in just keeping this franchise alive. Now, in a way, it seems trying to repeat will be the easy part.”

Not really. The rubble from this summer’s turmoil is still scattered around. Scars are still visible.

Juli Veee, the Sockers’ all-time leading scorer, was not offered a contract this season. A victim of age (38) and the new collective bargaining agreement that limits each franchise’s salary cap to $898,000, Veee was not involved the 1988-89 blueprint created by Fowler and Ron Cady, the team president.

Hugo Perez, the most valuable player in the championship series, also was not affordable. Perez instead will play with the United States national team.

And when the Los Angeles Lazers visit the Sports Arena Saturday night to open the new season, Fernando Clavijo, Waad Hirmez and Jim Gorsek will all be wearing Lazers uniforms.

Clavijo is the fastest and maybe best defender in the league. Hirmez was the leading scorer in the 1988 playoffs. Gorsek was a goalkeeper on all six of the Sockers’ championship teams.

“Because of the bankruptcy, we were forced to take a big step backward,” Newman said. “We didn’t want to lose any players. But when you win a championship, you usually reward all the players. We had to ask our championship players, some of the best players in the league, to take pay cuts. It was unrealistic to think we wouldn’t lose some.”

In all, 8 players--Veee, Perez, Clavijo, Gorsek, Hirmez, Brian Schmetzer, Jacques Ladouceur and Raffaele Ruotolo--are gone off last year’s championship team, which rolled through the regular season with a 42-14 record.

But, as Newman said, this team usually finds a way to rebound. And Cady has brought in plenty of new talent to help.

“Really, looking back on it, it could have been a whole lot worse,” Crow said. “I think we did a good job of replacing the talent. Now, we just have to fit everybody in and keep this winning attitude.”

Said Newman: “I think we have as much talent as we ever had. The thing is, the rest of the league is stronger, too.”

This season’s MISL will consist of just 7 teams, down from 11 last year. The best players from the franchises that folded--Minnesota, Chicago, St. Louis and Cleveland--have been spread around.

Fortunately for the Sockers, they got some of that talent.

Forward Alan Willey and defender Gary Etherington arrived from Minnesota. Goalkeeper Victor Nogueira was picked up from Cleveland. And Poli Garcia, a 50-goal scorer last season, played last season in St. Louis.

Other newcomers include midfielders Chris Chueden from Los Angeles and Ralph Black from Tacoma. Defender Cacho was signed after he left the Kansas City Comets.

“There’s a bunch of talent among these new players,” Newman said. “Now, our challenge is to put it all together.”

Some of the pieces already are in place. Branko Segota, the second-leading goal scorer last season with 56, has returned and will be counted on to lead the Sockers’ offense. Brian Quinn, an all-star midfielder, also is back. Also returning are Crow, the 1987-88 defender of the year, and Zoltan Toth, the league’s top-rated goalkeeper.

“We never really know if we can do it,” Newman said. “Obviously, what happened this summer is going to affect us, and every team in the league is going to try and upset the San Diego Sockers’ riddle. We’ll just try to overcome them again.”

As Newman said, the talent is there. Garcia, with 50 goals last season, and Willey, who scored 45, nearly combine to make up for 101 goals scored by the players who have left.

For more scoring, the Sockers will look to Zoran Karic, who scored 21 goals in just 27 games last season.

Chueden and Black figure to adequately replace Hirmez and Ladouceur in the midfield, although Hirmez’s 30 goals may be hard to match.

On defense, the Sockers are counting on Etherington, George Fernandez and second-year player Hormoz Tabrizi to help make up for the loss of Clavijo, who figures to be hardest to replace. The Sockers also re-signed Gus Mokalis Friday.

“There’s just no replacing the speed (Clavijo) had,” Crow said. “So things we’ll be different on defense this season.”

In goal, Gorsek provided leadership, but many of the players didn’t care for his hot-headed attitude. Nogueira is a good athlete who was recognized as the league’s best sixth attacker last season before he went down with an ankle injury.

More than this, the Sockers will have to try and rekindle some of the spirit lost during this summer’s turmoil. The league is a big question in the minds of many fans, and it may take some time for all of the wounds to heal.

“It’s not going to be easy but we must restore the credibility of this team and this league,” Newman said. “From the commissioner all the way down to the lowest player on the last-place team, everybody has to chip in.”