Blast Routs Sockers, Sets Up One Game to Decide MISL Title
Walking out of the Sockers’ locker room at halftime Thursday night, Steve Zungul was kidded by a fan who wanted to know who packed his suitcase.
It seems Zungul’s jersey was accidentally left in San Diego by an equipment manager. He wore makeshift No. 5 instead of the usual No. 21.
Appropriately, the Sockers used a makeshift offense in the game, having left their goals in San Diego. A 7-0 rout by the Baltimore Blast in front of 6,990 in Game 6 at the Baltimore Arena has extended this Major Indoor Soccer League championship series to the limit. It’s tied, 3-3. Game 7 will be here Saturday at 4:35.
Before then, Socker Coach Ron Newman is hoping someone locates his offense. Then again, credit the Blast for hiding it with a tireless defense that blocked 18 shots.
This was quite an achievement, well out of the ordinary. The Sockers have been shut out only one other time (at Dallas, 3-0, in December of 1987) in their indoor history.
Unbelievable? Consider this. This was the 254th game in Blast history. In the previous 253, they have no shutouts. None.
“Believe me,” Blast Coach Kenny Cooper said, “the plan wasn’t to shut them out. That was the furthest thing from my mind.”
The reality of it increased with each Baltimore goal and each missed opportunity by the Sockers. The list of Blast scorers read like the credits for a movie.
In chronological order: Rusty Troy, David Byrne, Byrne again, Freddie Thompson, Carl Valentine, Billy Ronson, Stan Koziol.
Both of Byrne’s goals came in the second quarter, the second giving Baltimore a 3-0 lead and sending the Sockers on a downhill tumble.
You figure if Victor Nogueira, MISL goalkeeper of the year, lets one through his legs, things are bad. Really bad. The Sockers had just survived two Blast power plays. Dead center in front of the Socker goal, Byrne let one fly from the red line with his left foot. Nogueira’s vision was blocked. The ball skipped between his legs and into the right corner.
“(Domenic) Mobilio jumped up out of the way,” Nogueira said. “I never saw the ball until after it went under his legs.”
After Byrne’s second goal, Baltimore didn’t score again until the fourth quarter, but the Sockers never gave any indication they would make a comeback. Byrne’s goal took something out of them.
“I think that was the turning point,” defender George Fernandez said. “I just think we weren’t ready. They were ready. They put out that extra effort, we just went through the motions.”
Effort wasn’t part of the Blast’s agenda in the first four games of this series. The players will admit as much. But this team shaped up just in time and has now outscored the Sockers, 11-1, in the past six quarters.
“I think we all realized how bad we were playing,” Ronson said. “We were playing horrendously.”
The Sockers were down by just 1-0 after the first quarter Thursday, but the Blast set the tempo. Constantly attacking, Baltimore wore Nogueira down, although he made four diving saves in the first period to keep it close.
As the minutes ticked away, the ball found its way into the net more easily. Baltimore scored four times in the fourth quarter, Thompson starting things off with his eighth goal of the playoffs.
On that goal, Thompson also should have been credited with an assist. He made a tricky little maneuver, drilling the ball off the boards with his left foot, shuffling to his right and shooting with his right foot.
Hard to believe the Sockers actually took one more shot (27) in this game than the Blast.
Zungul summed it up: “We had the shots. They had the shots. Their shots went in. Ours didn’t.” Words to live by.
Four years ago, the Sockers squashed the Blast, 14-2, here in Game 4 of the MISL championship series. It took a long time, but now Baltimore has exacted some revenge.
It’s evident this group of Sockers is different than past teams. At this time last year, the Sockers were on vacation after a tidy sweep of the Cleveland Force.
“It’s a little bit embarrassing,” Zungul said. “San Diego has never lost like that.”
Still, when pushed, this team has shown the ability to hurdle its difficulties and come back. So the players aren’t panicking.
“I think we’ll be able to put that behind us,” defender Kevin Crow said. “I think the guys tried. Nothing went right, and they made nothing go right for us.”
Besides, this is typical. The Sockers have had a make-it-exciting motto. Up one week, down the next.
“We play well for two or three games,” Fernandez said, “and all of a sudden we go boom, down for three or four games.”
All the Sockers can hope is that the Blast boom ends Saturday.
MISL PLAYOFF SHUTOUTS
Date Score Goalkeepers May 13, 1983 Sockers 6, Baltimore 0 Alan Mayer (59 min.), Kaz Deyna (1) May 15, 1983 Sockers 7, Baltimore 0 Alan Mayer (57), Kaz Deyna (3) May 14, 1985 Sockers 7, Minnesota 0 Jim Gorsek May 8, 1988 Minnesota 7, Cleveland 0 Tino Lettieri June 8, 1989 Baltimore 7, Sockers 0 Scott Manning
