Sockers Feeling Hangover : MISL: The All-Star game was a great party, but now everybody’s head is pounding with the same question: How can a bad season be saved?
The music was finished, the cameras gone. There was no confetti in the air, no fans cheering in the stands and no kids begging for autographs.
The party was over.
When the Sockers arrived at the San Diego Sports Arena for practice Thursday morning, fewer than 12 hours after the conclusion of the MISL All-Star game, they were greeted only by reality. Their record is still 14-18. They are still 5 1/2 games out of first in the Western Division, only 1 1/2 games ahead of last-place Tacoma.
And they are still in trouble.
The rewards, awards and festivities of an all-star game couldn’t erase that.
“Last night is last night,” said George Fernandez, the game’s MVP. “You’ve got to put things in perspective. The season is still going.”
It has been said that the Sockers are dead, that the dynasty is done and it’s time to crown a new champion. That doesn’t sit well with the old champions.
“I think the guys are tired of people saying we can’t do it,” Fernandez said. “That’s what eats me. I just get tired of being called mediocre.”
But that’s exactly what the Sockers have been. Coach Ron Newman has tinkered with the lineup in an effort to find the right chemistry, but his job has been made difficult by injuries. Midfielder Ben Collins missed the first 10 games. Captain Brian Quinn missed eight during November and December. Defender Ralph Black missed seven at the end of November and the beginning of December. Branko Segota missed five in January and early February.
Individual performances have been inconsistent. Good one game, shaky the next. Even Kevin Crow, the defender of the year the past two seasons, hasn’t been his usual self. He had 16 goals at this point last season. He has seven this season and hasn’t been as steady defensively.
Midfielder Waad Hirmez leads the team with five game-winning goals but has made a variety of defensive mistakes. Rookie forward Rod Castro started hot but cooled off. Forward Jim Gabarra started cool and has only recently begun to warm.
Forward Zoran Karic, one of the team’s two most potent weapons along with Segota, rarely drops back and plays defense, and many of the offensive players have had the same deficiency at one time or another. Veteran forward Steve Zungul, bothered by arthritic hips, has created more friction in his verbal jousts with Newman than he has on the field, where he has three goals in 14 games. Forward Damir Haramina, acquired in a preseason trade, has played in just nine games, collecting two goals and two assists.
Goal-keeping has been good, but not as good as usual. Zoltan Toth, out most of last season with a foot injury, was the goalie of the year two seasons ago with a 2.94 goals-against average. His current GAA is 3.61. Victor Nogueira, last season’s goalie of the year, has gone from 2.86 to 3.81.
All of it adds up to something less than a champion. The Sockers have won three in a row only once, in November.
Newman has even been left wondering about his own ability to judge talent. Can you imagine? A coach who has won seven championships in eight seasons is reluctant to say which direction he thinks his team is going to take.
“I’m a bit hesitant, because I felt so confident at the beginning of the year,” Newman said. “I can’t change my mind. What I saw is what it was, and that was a very fine squad. I was expecting real good things.”
And now?
“I think we should be able to take it to them, we should be able to do it,” he said. “But it didn’t work before.”
So there has been talk of trades. Owner Ron Fowler said Wednesday that he and Socker President Ron Cady are negotiating with another team for a trade involving three or four Sockers.
“If it happened,” Fowler said, “it would be a blockbuster.”
Fowler doesn’t expect a trade before next week. That affords Newman an opportunity to evaluate the team in tonight’s game against Baltimore and Saturday’s against St. Louis.
“I can’t say (a trade) is not necessary,” Newman said. “If we have a nice winning streak, then of course it wouldn’t be necessary.”
The spirit of the players hasn’t deteriorated. The all-star game helped.
“I think the timing was perfect for that game,” said Donald Cogsville, a rookie defender. “Not only for guys on our team like Branko, all the way from the top to the bottom. I was totally excited. I feel like it was a tremendous boost for us for the rest of the season. It was like a breath of fresh air.”
A dash of confidence remains.
“This team can explode,” defender Ralph Black said. “I don’t care what anybody says, this team is going to be there at the end.”
