Coach’s Luck Rubs Off on Soccer Team

Bobby Sibbald, the first-year co-coach of the Los Angeles Heat, admits that he may be the man with the Midas touch.

First of all, consider that the Torrance-based Heat have jumped out to a 9-4 record and lead the Western Soccer League in scoring with 33 goals in 13 games.

Then consider some other numbers--like the $412,000 Sibbald won last May in the California Lottery’s Lotto 6/49 game and you get the feeling that Sibbald might be a good guy to keep around.

“I guess I’m lucky for the team,” said Sibbald, who hit five numbers plus the bonus number on a Quick Pick May 18. “I’m a lucky person. I must be.”

Sibbald joined the Heat this season after a three-year leave of absence from soccer. He played for seven years for the Los Angeles Aztecs of the now-defunct North American Soccer League after leaving his native England for the States. But he was happily ensconced in business, selling German-made hair products, when the opportunity came to help coach the Heat.

With Sibbald and second-year Coach John Britton at the helm, the Heat unveiled a hard-charging offense that has established itself as the best in the WSL.

Led by forwards Jeff Hooker, with seven goals, and Billy (Wee Man) Thompson (five) and U.S. national team member Jim Gabarra (four), the Heat are eight goals ahead of the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks in the WSL scoring derby. In the WSL, teams are rewarded with points in the standings for goals, so scoring is at a premium.

The Heat went on a scoring binge at about the same time their coach was winning the lottery. In a torrid streak that spanned four games in late May and early June, the Heat punched in 20 goals in shellings of Portland, California, Real Santa Barbara and Arizona.

“I can’t remember a bad goal,” Sibbald said. “There were no easy giveaway goals in that bunch. We made goals that were simply magnificent.”

The man in the center of all that offense has been Hooker, a three-year veteran of the Heat and a former UCLA player and 1984 Olympic team member. Hooker’s name was well-known in American soccer circles when he was a budding 19-year-old star, but he has been slowed with injuries the past few years, and U.S. coaches gave up on him when they began rebuilding the national team for the 1990 World Cup drive.

Now 25 and healthy, Hooker leads the team in goals and also leads in assists with five. And Hooker’s 19 points place him in the WSL lead in scoring. Arizona’s Wes Wade is second with 15 points (seven goals and one assist).

Hooker is the Heat’s “target man” up front. He plays a European-style center, with his back to the goal, redirecting crossing passes and corner kicks to the other attackers and spinning to volley any chance he gets. Hooker is also unselfish with the ball--12 players have scored goals for the Heat this season.

“He’s vital to us up front,” Sibbald said. “He takes a lot of shots but he shields the ball very well and he doesn’t give the ball up easily.”

Hooker was named WSL Player of the Week three weeks ago after scoring a pair of goals, while battling the flu, in 102-degree weather at Arizona. Hooker’s second goal, in the 80th minute of the game, came when he dove and drove a header into the back of the net to give the Heat a 4-2 victory.

In the Heat’s 2-1 victory recently over Real Santa Barbara, Hooker took the opening kickoff down the left wing, split the defense and scored 18 seconds into the game--the quickest goal in WSL history. He added his seventh goal later in the game.

The Heat aren’t a one-dimensional team, however. They play a hustling, full-field type of game, and with a defense anchored by veteran Dale Ervine, the Heat have allowed only 16 goals. Ervine, the sweeper, has scored two goals.

“Our philosophy is to allow the players the freedom to play and express themselves on the field,” Sibbald said. “When we lose the ball, the whole team becomes the defense, and when we win the ball, we all go on offense.”

The Heat lost a good deal of its offense over the off-season when Justin Fashanu, the Heat’s leading scorer last year and the team’s charismatic striker-coach, took a similar position with the Edmonton Brickmen of the Canadian Soccer League.

But the Heat, led by Hooker’s inspired play up front and bolstered by the additions of Ervine and Gabarra, have taken the departure of Fashanu and his five goals last season in stride.

If there is one element missing from the team, it is continuity. Britton and Sibbald haven’t fielded the same 11 players twice this season, mainly due to the various national team commitments of Gabarra, Thompson, midfielder Ray Fernandez and goalkeeper David Vanole.

Thompson and Fernandez just returned from playing a tournament in France with the U.S. B team, and Gabarra and Vanole missed the Heat’s game two weeks ago against Real Santa Barbara because they were in Miami with the national team for a World Cup exhibition match against Colombia. Gabarra played Sunday in the Heat’s 2-1 victory over San Francisco. The win put the Heat in first place in the WSL’s five team Southern Division.

“I think if we could play our best 11 players, we’d be unbeatable,” Sibbald said. “I don’t think even the national team could beat us then. But the good thing is no matter who we’ve put out there has done well. We don’t have any bad players.”

The Heat hope to add their best player to their roster in a couple of weeks. National team star Hugo Perez, a flamboyant, high-scoring forward, has just gotten clearance from doctors to begin training after being hobbled with a fractured tibia. Perez, the Major Indoor Soccer League’s playoff MVP in 1988, when he was with the San Diego Sockers, will join the Heat for the last four regulation games and the playoff drive.

“We’re finally doing what we’ve always wanted to do,” said Heat General Manager Michael Hogue. “We’ve put together a young team and stuck with it, and now it’s a good team and a winning team.”

Give a bit of credit to the Heat’s good luck charm on the sidelines.

Sibbald likes to point out that if he’d picked one more number right when he bought his winning ticket at a liquor store in Redondo Beach, he’d be the proud owner of $10 million. And the owner of the Heat.

“As it is, I’ll just be glad when the season’s over,” Sibbald said. “Every time we go on road trips I have to buy all the beers for all the players.”