Segota May Lend a Leg for Game 3 : Sockers Hoping He Can Play Some Against the Blast

Branko Segota was home with his sore hamstring Monday and Tuesday night watching the Sockers on television. His teammates made sure he didn’t switch channels.

“I lost a few pounds from nervousness,” Segota said. “Everything seemed to be going so well and then . . . “

And then? Well, the Sockers blew two-goal leads late in the fourth quarters of the first two Major Indoor Soccer League championship games.

The Baltimore Blast burgled the first game, 4-3, in overtime after scoring the tying goal with seven seconds remaining. Socker forward Steve Zungul summed up the feeling: “It’s like someone hit you in the head with a hammer.”

Twenty-four hours later, again in overtime, the Blast became the nail. The Sockers won, 5-4, Zungul defying the laws of physics with a strange game-winner to even the series.

Game 3 is tonight at 7:35 in the San Diego Sports Arena. Nobody is saying for sure, but chances are good Segota will be in uniform, available for limited duty. If it seems unfair that the man largely responsible for the Sockers’ arrival in this series has been reduced to a spectator’s role, consider history. This isn’t unusual.

Injuries sink their teeth into Segota at this time of the season. It was only a year ago that he was forced to miss the entire championship series against Cleveland after tearing ligaments in his collarbone.

This season, he hurt his hamstring early in November, again midway through the season and once again late. Before this year, Segota had injured his hamstring only once. It bothered him for two or three weeks and went away. Now he keeps getting a knot in his leg, and it won’t go away.

“I’ve never had it this bad,” he said. “I’m going to have to spend a lot of time this summer working on it to get all that scar tissue out of there.”

Segota will have a light workout today and then decide with Socker Coach Ron Newman whether he will play tonight. Newman said he would like to work Segota into at least a few shifts to help get the rhythm back.

“I’m going to try to convince him to play,” Newman said. “We don’t want him to miss too many games.”

There’s not much time left.

“There’s always a tomorrow in the regular season,” Newman said. “In the playoffs, it’s like an hour glass . . . the sand is running out. He wants to play.”

Segota admits as much.

“I’m always ready to play,” he said. “I can tolerate a certain amount of pain. I practiced (Thursday), and I was shooting and moving pretty well. The knot’s gone, and most of the pain is gone.”

If Segota can’t play, Newman might even be able to make a case for his contention that the Sockers are underdogs. They finished second behind the Blast in the regular season, but Baltimore Coach Kenny Cooper isn’t buying the underdog bit. Deep down, Newman probably isn’t either. Cooper brought it up during his speech at a MISL luncheon Thursday. Newman winked to the audience. Twice.

Actually, some of the Sockers are hinting there is a possibility of wrapping the series here with a three-game sweep. That’s unlikely, though maybe less so than people think.

“If we can continue with the intensity that we played with in the first two games, we can wrap it up here,” midfielder Waad Hirmez said. “I think we have played a lot better (against Baltimore) than we did against Dallas.”

Socker Notes

Socker Kevin Crow was named MISL defender of the year for the second consecutive season.