Will MSL Be Great Outdoors? : Soccer: Franchises are the same, but other changes are in store for the league.
Tonight, for the first time, the Major Soccer League begins its season with the same teams it fielded the previous year. But that doesn’t mean the league isn’t strapped with an identity crisis.
Sure, the stability of the MSL’s franchises has helped its image. But now the league doesn’t know whether it wants to play indoors or outdoors--or both.
Three days before the start of its 13th season, the MSL announced that its commissioner will chair the first meeting of a committee searching for a viable way to operate an outdoor league.
The commissioner, Earl Foreman, says it is the MSL’s responsibility to lead this country toward professional outdoor soccer. After all, his is the preeminent soccer league in the country.
Which is ironic, considering the league has had 17 teams fold since its inception in 1978.
Exactly when an outdoor season will materialize is only one of several questions hanging over the MSL this year.
Here are nine others:
1. How will the other seven teams try to match the Sockers this year?
Easy, they’ll continue to shoot off target, which will be OK since the goals have been enlarged two feet in width and one foot in height.
“The reason they wanted to change things,” said Erich Geyer, Sockers assistant coach, “is because of the offensive style of the most successful teams. We’re winning because we’re successful on offense. 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.’ ”
2. How else has the league “opened the gates?”
Well, it now requires defenders to stand 15 feet in front of the ball on all free kicks, rather than 10 as in the past. This gives the player taking the kick more net to shoot at on direct kicks and allows more freedom of movement for the other offensive players on indirect kicks, which means there will be more lanes to the goal.
3. If the MSL wants to attract more fans, why doesn’t it look the other way at goon tactics the way the NHL does?
Maybe Foreman should get together with John Ziegler, his NHL counterpart, because Foreman’s league recently instituted an anti-goon rule. Now, any player who accumulates four fouls in a half will have to sit for two minutes, his team forced to play a man short.
4. Why didn’t the St. Louis Storm fold, what with Don Popovic coaching the team?
True, Popovic has coached four other MSL teams and all have folded under his direction. The Storm nearly became the fifth over the summer. At least owner Milan Mandaric made that threat, but reconsidered when St. Louis investors stepped forward to lend the team some corporates support and the city made some concessions in his arena lease.
5. With all that doubt hanging over the club, it couldn’t be too prepared for the season, could it?
Yes it could, and it is. Popovic, as has been his custom, opened his owner’s wallet and spent freely in the free-agent market. Some MSL insiders say he spent too freely and wondered how he remained under the salary cap. He came away with the two biggest coups, signing forward Preki, generally regarded as the top young player in the league, from Tacoma; and goalie Zoltan Toth, the all-time league leader in winning percentage and goals-against average, from the Sockers. He was also able to return the Storm’s top players from last year.
6. How will Tacoma compensate for the loss of Preki?
By replacing quality with quantity. Coach Keith Weller bought six free agents: forwards Steve Kinsey (16 goals, 11 assists) and Willie Molano (9, 9) from Dallas and Gary Heale (13, 16) from St. Louis; midfielders Mark Karpun (13, 9 and 51 blocked shots) from Dallas, Greg Ion (20, 21 and 57) from Kansas City and defender Ralph Black (9, 13, 57) from the Sockers.
7. Who lost most through free agency?
That’s a toss-up. Dallas lost four free agents (Molano, Karpun, Kinsey and Richard Chinapoo) who played in the shadow of Tatu and thus could not be considered a big part of the offense. The Sockers lost half of their defense with Toth and fullbacks Black and George Fernandez (Cleveland) going elsewhere. Dallas and the Sockers chose to replace their defectors with youth.
8. What about Baltimore--will the Blast finally be able to beat the Sockers in a championship series provided both teams get that far?
Four times the Blast and Sockers have met in the championship series and four times the Blast has fallen, including twice in the past two years in Game 7, in Baltimore.
Last year, the Blast had the league’s best record at 32-20. Recognizing a strong nucleus and the advantages of consistency, Coach Kenny Cooper decided to add only two free agents, Mike Stankovic, a defender from Wichita, and midfielder Chinapoo. Both have previously played in Baltimore.
He also traded for Dale Mitchell (sending Carl Valentine to Kansas City). Cooper hopes Mitchell, who shoots with accuracy from anywhere in the offensive zone, can use the small field in the Baltimore Arena and this year’s bigger goals to pad his statistics. Last year Mitchell was third in the league with 47 goals.
Baltimore should be able to beat the Sockers, but that has been said before, too.
9. Will MSL games be on TV this year?
Yes and no. Fifteen games will be broadcast live on the SportsChannel America cable network, including nine regular-season games that will be carried at 1 p.m. on Sundays beginning in January on a game-of-the-week basis. But no cable outlets in the San Diego area offer the station.
