After Putting Brakes on Skid, Heat Thinks It Is Ready to Roll : Soccer: Team enters playoffs with optimistic attitude after winning four of five games.
John Ajemian, the affable president of the Los Angeles Heat, was doing a brake job at his new Torrance gas station earlier this week when a smile crossed his face.
Standing in the lube room and gesturing with greasy hands, Ajemian spoke excitedly about the change in style and attitude that has suddenly swept over the players.
“The team is playing very well together now,” the 31-year-old part-owner said. “It’s all coming together, hopefully, at the right time.”
Opening the American Professional Soccer League West playoffs Saturday against visiting Real Santa Barbara, the Heat appears to be on a roll. In second place in the Southern Division, the team has won four of five games going into the 7:30 p.m. match-up at West Torrance High.
Better yet, for the first time this season the Heat doesn’t appear to be struggling to score. Los Angeles scored seven goals last weekend in wins over Arizona and New Mexico and was briefly in first place.
Three weeks ago, the Heat was playing in disarray and found itself in last place. But now, fullback Dale Ervine said, “we are communicating better and we are playing better.”
Coach Bobby Sibbald may not be talking to the press, but many of the players and management personnel are. And most of them agree with Ervine.
“Bobby has hit the puzzle,” said forward Brad Smith, who spent the past five seasons playing in Germany. “We have so many talented players. . . . Now we have found the picture.”
After Saturday’s game, the Heat will play third-place Santa Barbara again Monday night in Santa Barbara in the Southern Division semifinal series.
If the teams split the two games, a 30-minute mini-game will be played in Santa Barbara immediately after Monday night’s game.
If no one wins the mini-game, a penalty-kick shoot-out will decide the issue.
The winner will play a single game in Redlands on Aug. 25 against the California Emperors, who won the Southern Division regular-season title.
The winner of that game will be declared Southern Division champion and will advance to play a home-and-home series against the Northern Division champion (San Francisco, Salt Lake City or Colorado). That series will be played on consecutive weekends, Sept. 7-9 and 14-16, to determine the APSL West champion.
The APSL Championship Game, pitting the East champion against the West champion, is scheduled for Sept. 22 in Boston.
No area of the Heat offense has felt the pressure more than the front line, where Smith, Bobby Bruch, Jeff Hooker, Waldir Guerra and reserve Joe Flanagan have traded off at forward.
Fully one-third of the team’s goals this season have been scored by players not on the front line. That’s not uncommon at the higher levels of soccer, although it is the front line where American fans expect to see goals.
Until recently, Hooker, an effective striker, has seen his talents go to waste. In several mid-season games, he and Smith appeared to move to the posts at the same time, out of sync. That may have changed by now.
Said General Manager Jill Fracisco: “Jeff’s the kind of guy that if he gets another guy that he can work with, he can be deadly. . . . It’s unfortunate it took us a while to find that.”
Smith may be that guy. Although he demonstrated from the start that his experience in Germany had given him all the right moves, he was slowed by injuries and scored only five goals in 15 games. He spent much of his playing time in physical battles for the ball. Smith went nine consecutive games in mid-season without a score but began to click near the net about three games ago.
Bruch was a strong point up front early in the year, but the addition of several highly rated players and his own mid-season scoring slump pushed him to the bench. He has resurfaced of late, starting several games and appearing to be happier off the ball.
Sibbald’s most brilliant move of the season may have been to return Guerra to the front line.
The native of El Salvador, who scored 124 goals to set a national career scoring record at Bell High, started the season in the midfield but never felt comfortable there. He scored only one goal from the midfield area, though it was a dramatic one that spurred the Heat to a 3-2 penalty-kick victory over Santa Barbara in the teams’ first meeting.
Taking the ball at about midfield with the Heat trailing, 2-1, and no time showing on the scoreboard, Guerra charged down the far sideline with the ball seemingly dangling from his foot. Guerra fired from about 20 yards out and the ball found the back of the net to send the game into overtime.
Guerra’s quick footwork, typical of Latin soccer, demonstrated that he belonged up front, but he, too, was slowed by injuries. In the team’s fourth game he injured an ankle and lost his starting job in the midfield. When he resurfaced in the starting lineup, it was at center forward.
“I’ve got my confidence back,” Guerra said. “In the beginning I wasn’t sure what I was doing.”
Guerra said he found it difficult to adapt the style of soccer he learned as a youth in El Salvador to that of Sibbald, an Englishman who prefers the long ball. In fact, Guerra became so confused a month ago that he wanted to leave and play for another team.
Heat management was tipped off that Guerra had talked to the Emperors, and Guerra was reminded that he had a two-year contract.
Now that he is back at forward, Guerra has all but forgotten about quitting. Even better for the Heat, he, Smith and Hooker seem to be playing better and better together.
Said Smith: “Waldir has been working well with me up front. Hooker has an eye for the situation to set things up.”
Hooker leads the team in points. He has six goals and five assists, tops in both categories. Bruch has five goals and five assists. Smith has five goals and a pair of assists. Guerra has one of each, as does Flanagan, the career scoring leader at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
Ironically, defender Danny Pena is tied for the team scoring lead with six goals.
The timing for the team to break out of its slump couldn’t be better, Ajemian said, pointing out that the Heat defeated Santa Barbara in both of their meetings this year.
