New Faces, Old Ideas for Sockers
Not since 1985 have the Sockers scored eight goals in a half during a playoff game, as they did Thursday night in an 11-4 drubbing of the Storm.
The last time they did it was May 25, 1985, at the Baltimore Arena in a nationally televised championship series game. In that one, the Sockers took apart the Blast, 14-2.
While the cast of characters has changed dramatically--only five Sockers remain from that team--the philosophy has remained intact.
The philosophy? Easy. Teamwork.
“I remember that game in Baltimore,” Waad Hirmez said. “I scored the 14th goal.”
Hirmez, then a rookie, remembered because it was his only goal in the playoffs. But Hirmez also recalled one other statistic, one indicative of the Sockers’ unselfishness that day.
“Steve Zungul had only one goal and seven assists in that one,” Hirmez said. “If Steve wanted to score more goals, he could have. But he just wanted to win.”
While Zungul retired unceremoniously last year, the unselfishness he displayed that day remains.
The Sockers do not have a points leader in the playoffs and they are four games in. Instead, they have five leaders with six points each.
They are: Hirmez (three goals, three assists), Paul Dougherty (five goals, one assist), Kevin Crow (two goals, four assists), Ben Collins (four goals, two assists), and Rod Castro (three goals, three assists).
In addition, midfielder Brian Quinn has accumulated five points (four goals, one assist).
After four playoff games, it is highly unusual not to have one or two players standing out from the pack.
In that sense, after its first four playoff games, the Storm, which won a three-game set from Tacoma before entering the Western Division finals, was more typical of an MSL team.
Preki and Thompson Usiyan each had 11 points after four postseason games. The next highest point total was five.
“I hope this shows something to the rest of the league,” Castro said. “Teams can’t rely on just one or two guys. It takes an entire team. And that’s why this team has been so successful for so many years. It has never relied on one player to be the key guy. The Sockers have always been composed of players who contribute both on offense and on defense. The statistics this series show that.”
Perhaps nowhere is the sense of team work more evident than in the play of Hirmez. As Castro says, “Waad’s greatest asset to this team is his shooting ability.”
During the regular season, Hirmez exploited that ability and led the team in shots with 227. He also shared the team lead in goals (43) with Dougherty.
But during the playoffs Hirmez appears to be resting his left foot somewhat. He is being outshot by both Paul Wright (20) and Dougherty (18). In addition, Brian Quinn has aimed as many shots as has Hirmez (17), and Branko Segota, who did not play in Game 4 due to back spasms, had taken 15 shots in the first three games.
What Hirmez has been doing is passing more.
“The St. Louis defense knows Waad has a deadly shot,” Castro said. “So as Waad sees them overplay him, he just passes off to the open man.”
Said Hirmez, “Before I used to shoot all the time. I never thought twice about passing. But the more you play, the more mature you get and the more you start looking for passes. If I see a teammate and I can figure in my mind that he has a 5% better chance of scoring, then I pass.”
But the Sockers have not taken a 3-1 advantage in the series because of one man. And they did not win by seven goals Thursday because of one man.
It was more like 12 men. That’s how many Sockers chalked up points Thursday. By getting 12 players into the points column, the Sockers tied a club playoff record.
“The way this team operates,” said Brian Quinn, the Sockers’ point leader during the regular season with 74, “we don’t really have one individual who is going to lead the way every day.”
Still, Quinn wouldn’t tout Thursday’s romp as an indication the Sockers are the superior team.
“I think when you look at those kinds of games, you have to regard them as flukes,” he said of both the recent victory and the Baltimore game of six years ago.
There was one other player who was on the carpet for both games who saw no similarities between the two. His name is Brian Schmetzer. He played for the Sockers in 1985 and now performs for the Storm.
“They were two totally different games,” he said. “No. 1, Baltimore wasn’t injury depleted like we are. We’ve lost three All-Stars. When (the Sockers) played the Blast, the Blast had all their players healthy. Plus (the Sockers) were ahead 6-2 at the half, so it was a bigger blowout than this one. Thursday, the Sockers did not totally dominate until the end of the third quarter.”
There were, however, similarities. In each game, the Sockers forced their opponent to change tactics by unleasing a flurry of goals. Thursday, the Sockers scored four times in a span of two minutes and 14 seconds that began in the third quarter to make it 7-3.
“Then in desperation,” Quinn said, “They tried to salvage something by pushing up on offense. That left some holes in back and we took advantage of them.”
In the Baltimore game, the Sockers scored twice in the first 24 seconds of the second half to make it 8-2, then scored six more times as Baltimore tried to find a semblance of offense.
The Sockers are now hoping for one more similarity.
After pounding the Blast in Game 4, the Sockers went on to win the series in Game 5. Game 5 of the current series, which the Sockers lead, 3-1, is set for tonight at The Arena (5:35 PDT).
“More than anything,” Quinn said, “we’d like to win this thing (tonight) and get it over with.”
Socker Notes
The Storm on Friday signed midfielder Gino DiFlorio from the Canton Invaders of the National Professional Soccer League to help fill the void left by numerous injuries. Put on injured reserve were Claudio De Oliveira, Mike Fox and David Eise. Only Eise went down during the current series. . . . The long-awaited announcement on MSL expansion to Pittsburgh will be made Monday at a press conference in that city.