MSL Makes a Move on Sockers
The latest conspiracy theory emanating from the San Diego Sports Arena: The Major Soccer League is out to get the Sockers.
The evidence: Over the summer the MSL increased the size of the goal 33 percent and entered a labor agreement that helped reduce the Sockers’ defense by 75 percent.
The sleuth who uncovered this plot: Erich Geyer, Sockers assistant coach.
“We’ve won in the past because we’ve been successful on offense,” Geyer said. “The other teams that don’t have our skill saw this and said, ‘Hey, let’s open the gates so we can score, too, so we can compete.’ ”
The flood gates will open all right--at least at one end of the Sports Arena. That’s because the Sockers are currently without six of the eight defenders who last season helped them to their eighth championship in nine years.
When the per-team salary cap was reduced from $770,000 to $630,000 in July, most players were made free agents, and the Sockers could not afford to match offers received by three of their top defensive players.
Goalie Zoltan Toth, who had the league’s second-best goals-against average last year at 3.48, signed with St. Louis for $62,000. Defenders George Fernandez, who led the Sockers in blocked shots with 98, took an offer from Cleveland. And Ralph Black, third on the team in blocks with 57, went to Tacoma.
In addition, it appears that fullbacks Cacho, Donald Cogsville and Arturo Velazco will not return.
Cacho was not guaranteed a spot on the final roster and so far has not reported to training camp because he has not been offered a contract. Cogsville has chronic problems with his right knee and did not take the team’s physical. And Velazco, who would have been the No. 2 defender behind Kevin Crow, is attempting to catch on with a Mexican club.
So, how worried is Coach Ron Newman?
“I would say I’m concerned at the moment,” he said. “But there are several options I’ve got, and until I use them all, I’m not going to be nervous, because in the past things have always worked out.”
Options? One is signing a 30-year-old Soviet player who in 1987 was a member of the Moscow Dynamo team that toured the United States and played seven games. That’s the extent of Alex Golovnia’s indoor experience.
After five days of training camp, Newman said Golovnia’s inexperience is showing.
“He’s unfamiliar with the game,” Newman said. “Very much so.”
Another option is to pry No. 1 draft pick Marcelo Balboa from the U.S. national team. That should be no problem since Balboa was allowed to moonlight for the outdoor San Francisco Bay Blackhawks after the World Cup.
But because the U.S. team will use this week to train for two exhibitions against an MSL select team Sept. 28 and 30, Balboa will not make it to the Sockers’ training camp until early October. That would give him roughly two weeks to make the transition to indoor.
Another possibility is David Banks, the third draft pick from Philadelphia Textile. However, the Sockers have never kept their third choice.
In fact, only once have the Sockers kept as many as two picks. In 1980, forward Jim Stamatis and goalie John Putna stuck. The Sockers finished 6-12, last in the North American Soccer League’s Southern Division, the only time they failed to make the playoffs.
Neither player was around a year later when the Sockers began their string of championships.
In Newman’s system, drafted college players have always been too green to immediately contribute. But now there’s a good chance three-and quite possibly four-will make the team.
Besides Banks and Balboa, forward Eddie Henderson, the fourth overall selection from Washington, has accepted an offer. Henderson was singled out by Newman as being most impressive in early training camp. He may be put in the defensive runner position, where Paul Wright blossomed two years ago and where Wes Wade became one of the top newcomers last year.
Because there is no experienced goalie in camp to take over for Toth, fourth-round pick Eric Yamamoto, from defending NCAA co-champion UC Santa Clara, could also find a spot.
That so many draft picks could make it is indicative of the upheaval on the Sockers’ roster. When training camp began Sept. 17, the team had only seven players from last year’s roster in the fold: goalie Victor Nogueira, defensive runner Wright, defender Crow, forward Rod Castro and midfielders Branko Segota, Waad Hirmez and Brian Quinn. Since then, they have signed two more, Wade and forward Jim Gabarra.
Although there were 21 players on the roster at the end of last season, the club is likely to come to terms with only three more: midfielders Thien Nguyen, Ben Collins and Rene Ortiz.
Two others from last season appear to be on the outside. Midfielder Jacques Ladouceur said he won’t sign unless he is offered more money, and Newman said none is forthcoming. Also, Damir Haramina was told not to bother.
San Diego is also one of three teams not to land a free agent (along with Wichita and Kansas City) during the off-season. But that’s not due to a lack of trying, Newman said.
“I talked to everybody and their mothers,” he said. “But all our big money was taken, so we were forced to look at players in the $30,000 range. We were real close on a couple, but each time, some other club came up with an extra $5,000. Plus, I heard from a lot of players that San Diego is just too expensive (a place to live).”
