Sluggish Sockers Fall to the Sidekicks, 7-6

It was the Dallas Sidekicks who had a red-eye flight from Tacoma to Dallas early Saturday morning, getting little sleep after arriving from the Northwest at 6:30 a.m., 13 hours before their home opener Saturday.

But it was the San Diego Sockers who appeared sleepy, and who did some napping on defense.

All night, the Sidekicks ran past the Sockers’ defenders--when they were around--as Dallas easily defeated the defending Major Soccer League champions, 7-6, in front of 8,437 at Reunion Arena.

Despite the close score, Dallas (1-1) never was in danger. A sixth-attacker goal with one second remaining made the score look close. Before that, the Sidekicks had held at least a two-goal margin for almost 28 minutes.

“We were pretty raw back there, with only one returning from our top four defenders,” said Sockers Coach Ron Newman, whose team was 6-20 on the road last year. “One silly error causes a walk-in goal. We can’t allow them to have those easy shots.”

Kevin Crow is the only returning defensive regular.

Dallas’ Doc Lawson beat San Diego defender Ben Collins to open the scoring. Lawson pushed the ball around Collins, then had enough room to unleash a 40-foot shot that beat Sockers’ goalie Victor Nogueira to the upper left corner of the net.

Collins also gave Dallas its second goal, allowing Dali to steal the ball just outside his penalty area.

“Every week we’ll get a little bit better,” said Nogueira, who was in goal Friday as the Sockers (0-2) lost to Kansas City, 4-1.

Newman said he was happier with his team’s effort against the Sidekicks.

“We played much harder than we did last night,” Newman said. “Last night, 4-1 was flattery to us.”

Tatu, the league’s scoring champ and most valuable player last year, scored his first goal of the season after a defensive blunder by Saeed Bakhtiari.

With his back to Bakhtiari, Tatu turned toward the inside, leaving the Socker defender standing, and leaving himself a clear shot at Nogueira.

“We were making elementary mistakes out there,” Nogueira said. “But the good thing is, every time we let in a goal, we learn. We’re not doing that bad back there right now. We’re not giving up eight, nine goals like some teams.”

Rod Castro scored the first of his two goals at the 9:59 mark of the third quarter. He stole the ball from Wes McLeod, the MSL’s defender of the year last season. As McLeod lay on the turf, Castro beat Dallas goalie Joe Papaleo one on one with a shot high and to the left.

Waad Hirmez scored 2:16 later, on an assist from Branko Segota, who played only a few shifts while continuing to nurse an ankle sprain.

But Pedro DeBrito’s second goal of the night nipped the comeback. The Sockers’ last real chance expired with their first and only power play, 1:30 into the fourth quarter.

“They (the Sockers) had a lot of new players back there in defense,” Sidekicks Coach Billy Phillips said. “This is becoming a Sockers tradition. The first 10 or 15 games, they play a lot of young players. That’s the quickest way for a young player to learn, to throw them to the lions. But it won’t be that easy every time we play the Sockers.”