MSL NOTEBOOK / JOHN GEIS : Sockers Call on Collins to Bridge Their Experience Gap

The Sockers played so poorly in Sunday night’s loss to the Cleveland Crunch at the Sports Arena that on Tuesday the club fired three players, two of whom didn’t even step on the carpet during the 9-3 debacle and the other of whom played only sparingly.

Midfielder Thien Nguyen and developmental players Joe Giacalone and Martin Donnelly, Jr. “were waived to free their funds for a possible player acquisition later this week,” Sockers President Ron Cady said in a press release.

That is Sockerspeak meaning that Michael Collins, a nine-year veteran midfielder, was signed Wednesday. The three players were released to make room under the $630,000 salary cap.

Socker Coach Ron Newman said Collins signed Wednesday morning. But the release with Cady’s statement, which was faxed in the afternoon, mentioned only the cuts.

“I just took a look at things,” Newman said. “And it looks like it’s going to be a tough year, so I thought we better make a move, and Michael Collins was the best player out there who was unsigned. If we didn’t sign him, some other club would have gobbled him up.”

Before training camp began in September, the Sockers announced they had agreed to terms with Collins. The deal went awry.

That’s when Newman went about luring midfielder Paul Dougherty into the fold. Dougherty leads the team in goals (six) and points (eight).

But with the team’s horrendous start, Newman decided an infusion of experience was needed.

“It was grating on me,” Newman said, “Michael Collins was still up there in L.A. and we were 1-5.”

The St. Louis Storm will take part in a FIFA-sponsored indoor soccer tournament in Zurich, Switzerland on Jan. 1 and 2, 1991, the league announced Wednesday.

The league considers this a major announcement.

The six-team tournament will be played in accordance to MSL standards, a departure for FIFA, which in the early 1980s ignored the MSL brand of indoor soccer when it drew up rules for its own indoor game, referred to as five-a-side.

FIFA now seems to be moving away from five-a-side.

Said MSL Commissioner Earl Foreman, “I believe that this is the opening salvo of in the exportation of MSL indoor soccer worldwide.”

Six Socker away games will be televised by Channel 51, the club announced last week. What it did not announce was that at least eight home games will be televised by Channel 12, a Spanish-language Tijuana station.

The Channel 12 games have not been determined yet, but at least two of them will be shown live, according to a spokesman for the station. The other six will be tape delayed until 11 p.m.

The Channel 51 games will be live. The schedule is as follows: Dec. 22 at Baltimore (4:30), Jan. 26 at Baltimore (4:30), Feb. 10 at Wichita (12:30 p.m.), March 16 at Baltimore (11:30 a.m.), March 23 at Dallas (5:30), and April 6 at Dallas (5:30).

Early results are in, and the approximate 35% increase in goal sizes this year--coupled with a new rule requiring defenders to back off 15 feet, rather than 10, on all free kicks--has resulted in an approximate 37% increase in goals.

Last year, MSL games had an average of 8.1 goals. In 22 games this year, teams have combined for 11.09 goals, making this the first season since 1979-80 that the average has been over 11.

The average was 11.85 in 1979-80.

The new rules were expected to have an especially significant impact in Baltimore, where the Sockers play Friday, because the arena there has the shortest field in the league (182 feet compared to 200 in San Diego). In three games at the Baltimore Arena, teams have averaged 16.3 goals.

Socker Notes

Michael Collins will make the trip to Baltimore and Cleveland this weekend, Newman said. The midfield will also be boosted by the presence of Brian Quinn, who has missed the first six games because of a groin strain. Though they will play, Coach Ron Newman doesn’t expect immediate contributions from the two. “It takes time,” he said. “But when they reach the top of their games, they will be immense contributors to our success--if we have any.” . . . With the addition of Collins, the Sockers’ roster is now set, meaning that the club will not sign another goalkeeper. Chris Wilson, a developmental player, will back up Victor Nogueira. Hank Henry, who had been training with the Sockers for the past three weeks, is trying to catch on with Baltimore, Newman said.