MAJOR INDOOR SOCCER LEAGUE : It’s a New Year and a ‘New’ League

The Major Indoor Soccer League is back. That in itself is saying a lot considering the league’s rocky financial past.

There are eight teams this year, including expansion franchises St. Louis and Cleveland and minus the Los Angeles Lazers, whose crowds last season barely outnumbered the players.

Don Popovic returns to the league as coach of the St. Louis Storm, after four years in the real estate business, and has a number of top European players who will come to join him a month into the season. Catch the Storm early, warns Socker Coach Ron Newman, before these classic outdoor players master the indoor game.

The league returns to two divisions this season, with the Sockers, Tacoma, St. Louis and Dallas in the West and Baltimore, Kansas City, Cleveland and Wichita in the East.

Four games have been added to the schedule, bringing the regular season total to 52. Newman said just a few days after the Sockers won the championship in June that it wouldn’t be long until bloody September rolled around and the teams were training again. Bloody September has come and gone. Eight months to go.

THE RACE Top contenders in the West: Sockers (27-21 in 1988-89), St. Louis (expansion).

Top contenders in the East: Baltimore (29-19), Kansas City (21-27).

Others in the West: Dallas (24-24), Tacoma (23-25).

Others in the East: Wichita (23-25), Cleveland (expansion).

THE PLAYERS The man: Tacoma’s Preki (104 points) ran away with the scoring title last season. That he will miss the first six weeks of this season with a knee injury might even up this year’s race--his closest competition last season was Wichita’s Chico Borja (87 points).

Who will fill Kai Haaskivi’s shoes? Haaskivi left Baltimore to take on more responsibilities in Cleveland, as starting midfielder and head coach. Replacing him in the Blast lineup will be Paul Dougherty, who played in 42 of 48 games for the Sockers last season. “I’ve always been a Paul Dougherty fan,” Baltimore Coach Kenny Cooper said. “I think we picked up a team player.”

Others to watch on offense: Branko Segota is probably the league’s most physically gifted player. Dallas’ Tatu may not be the threat he once was before knee troubles several years back, but his ball-control skills and shooting ability will draw a watchful eye from both defenders and fans. Look for Hector Marinaro, the Lazers’ most valuable player last season, to do his share of scoring for the Crunch.

Others to watch on defense: St. Louis’ Fernando Clavijo, a former Socker, has speed and experience. Socker Kevin Crow sets out to defend his second consecutive MISL defender of the year award. Baltimore goalie Scott Manning and Socker goalie Victor Nogueira are the best of the best. Other top MISL defenders are Tacoma’s Neil Megson and Barry Wallace, Wichita’s Mike Stankovic, who will miss at least two months with a knee injury, and Kansas City’s Kim Roentved, the only player other than Crow to win the defender of the year award twice. Crow has won it three times.

THE INTANGIBLES Team of the ‘90s: Cooper readily admits the Sockers are the team of the ‘80s. He has plans for the Blast to take the leading role in the next decade.

“We don’t feel any less a team for not beating them last season,” he said. “We’ve got to build from that. We have to look at getting a little bit closer and improving ourselves.”

Enough to keep you busy?: Haaskivi has to be a little crazy. The guy is coaching and playing for an expansion franchise and, on top of that, he’s trying to be a family man. He and his wife have a new daughter, Nina Maria.

“I inherited 18 players,” he said. “The family’s kind of increased at home and in the work place. I’ve got to mature in a hurry.”

Money isn’t everything: Let’s face it, you don’t become a coach in the MISL for the money. Don Popovic, coach of St. Louis, was making a nice living selling real estate, but he wasn’t enjoying himself. So he returned this season to his old stomping grounds.

“(Real estate) is not really what I wanted to do,” he said. “I thought I could live without soccer. I think I proved to myself I need to come back. I got bored.”

The Wright move?: Paul Wright was wrenched from the Sockers unexpectedly in last summer’s free agent draft when he was selected by Cleveland. At first he wasn’t even sure he wanted to go. But he did, and Haaskivi thinks it was a smart decision, because he should get more playing time in Cleveland than he did with the Sockers.

“We took the boy out of his environment,” Haaskivi said. “I think he’s adapted well. I think he’s finding out that he’s on his own and that he’s got to mature in a hurry.”