Nogueira, Sockers Take the Kick Out of Dallas

Force fields on Star Trek don’t work this well. Socker goalie Victor Nogueira shut out the inept Dallas Sidekicks Saturday night at the Sports Arena as San Diego glided to perhaps its easiest victory this season, 7-0.

Nogueira made 12 saves and Socker defenders came up with 13 blocks.

It was Nogueira’s seventh career shutout, the most by a Major Soccer League goalie. Nogueira moved by St. Louis’ Slobo Ilijevski, who has six career shutouts.

“I did?” Nogueira asked when told of the record. “Oh, that’s beautiful. That’s great because they used to get shutouts left and right in St. Louis.”

One more thing: It also was the first shutout in the league this year while using the new nets, which are 33% larger than in past seasons.

Nogueira was supported by the return of Branko Segota, who sat out the Sockers’ past three games after missing four practices two weeks ago to take a vacation in his native Yugoslavia--without the knowledge of the team.

Segota, who has incurred the wrath of coaches, teammates and fans, responded with three goals. Fans who booed Segota upon his introduction, were throwing hats onto the field following his third goal.

The victory keeps the Sockers (15-10) a half-game ahead of St. Louis (15-11) and in first place in the Western Division of the Major Soccer League. St. Louis beat the Wings, 7-6, Saturday night in Wichita.

For the Sidekicks (10-15), the loss buries them deeper into last place in the West. They are now five games back.

The problem with the Sidekicks is Tatu. He’s the only guy on the team who can put the ball in the back of the net. Opponents know it, and so too, it seems, does Tatu.

As the Sockers were busy constructing a 4-0 first-quarter lead in front of 8,717 fans, Tatu was busy trying to match the Sockers’ productivity.

All by himself.

See Tatu try to dribble around two defenders--and succeed. See Tatu try to dribble around a third defender and lose the ball.

See Tatu take a free kick 20 feet from the goal. See him kick it on goal despite the presence of a four-man wall which blocked his shot without having to react.

Why does Tatu try to do it alone?

Maybe because what happened on a third-quarter break-away has happened all too often this season.

Tatu, dribbling right-to-left across the Sockers’ red line, drew three defenders before passing to Terry Wooderry along the left boards. Woodberry turned toward the goal and either mis-dribbled or mis-shot the ball. Either way, it rolled slowly to Socker goalie Victor Nogueira.

End of threat.

But there never really was a threat in this one as the Sockers won their eighth in a row at home, sixth in a row overall, 10th of 11 and 12th of 15.

Nogueira said there is nothing coincidental about the fact that four of his shutouts have come against Dallas.

“It’s just that Dallas consists of Tatu,” Nogueira said. “If he doesn’t score, then the team has a hard time scoring.”

Nogueira’s right. It was the first time this year that Tatu has been held pointless. The team followed suit.

Thanks to the contrast provided by Tatu and Dallas, it became abundantly clear why the Sockers have become seemingly invincible.

While Dallas was unable to string together passes, the Sockers were more than able to.

But no one was doing it more often than Brian Quinn, who passed for four assists on the night and now has 30 on the season. That matches the all-time season high Quinn had in 42 games during the 1985-86 season.

What’s remarkable about the 30 he has this season is that they have come in only 19 games, less than half the season.

“It’s just that things are going well for me,” Quinn said. “I’m glad, but tonight’s game was 7-0 which is reflective of the way we’ve played the last 10 games--everybody is involved. Look at Branko Segota. He plays in his first game in a couple weeks and scores three goals.”

But as Quinn said, there were plenty of Sockers involved. Four others beside Segota scored: Defender Alex Golovnia, defender Ben Collins, midfielder Paul Dougherty and Quinn.

But Quinn appears to derive more pleasure out of getting the assist than he does from scoring the goal.

He got assists on two of the Sockers’ first three goals. The first came when he sent the ball into what players refer to as the mixer, the area immediately in front of the goal. Dallas defender Doc Lawson tried to head the ball away, but didn’t get any ooomph on it. It traveled just outside the penalty area where Golovnia waited for it to come down. His volley sent the ball into the lower-left corner.

Dougherty and Collins hooked up for the next goal, Dougherty sending a pass over to the left boards where Collins hit it with his left foot and by goalie Joe Papaleo.

It was then Dougherty’s turn to do the scoring as Quinn took a free kick and poked it to him above the right corner of the penalty area. Dougherty’s swift kick made it 3-0.

With the Sockers passing so well, Quinn decided to do something different on the next free kick. It came from some 35 feet out along the right boards. Quinn put it on goal. It banked in off the far post.

That was all the scoring until the third quarter when Segota picked up the first of his goals off--yep--a pass from Quinn. Segota scored twice more in the final quarter.

It was with 30 seconds remaining in the final quarter when Nogueira nearly lost his shutout--while the Sockers were on a power-play no less.

That’s when Mike Powers broke free and took a shot that “actually got behind me,” Nogueira said. “But it hit my heal and went wide.”