Sockers Boot One to Dallas : Soccer: Sidekicks take advantage of mistakes, inexperience to win, 7-2, spoiling the season opener for the Sockers.

By winning nine championships in the past 10 years, the Sockers created an illusion that another always awaited at the end of the next season.

But those titles never seemed more distant than they did in the Sockers’ 1991-92 season opener against the Dallas Sidekicks in Reunion Arena.

The Sidekicks (2-0) looked relaxed and refined as they rolled to a 7-2 victory in front of an announced crowd of 4,100.

The Sockers (0-1) looked like the Sidekicks did last year when they lost seven games to the Sockers and finished 20-32.

There was a reason for that. Nearly half of the Sockers’ field players--five of 12--are new to the team.

Two of the five--John Kerr and Zico Doe--were playing their first indoor game, and a third, Terry Woodberry, never had practiced with the Sockers.

It showed.

Meanwhile, two Sockers from last year’s championship team were in San Diego watching their former teammates on TV.

The two, Paul Wright, who is scheduled to report Saturday to the Baltimore Blast after losing his bid for free-agency, and Brian Quinn, still trying to arrange a deal to moonlight with the Sockers since signing with the U.S. national team, had nothing bad to say about their old team.

“It’s going to take a while to adjust with all the youth on the team,” Wright said. “But I didn’t think they looked that bad. It’s nothing Ron Newman can’t fix.”

Said Quinn, “I just think we gave up a couple goals at crucial times, but we actually played pretty good.”

Both Wright and Quinn reaffirmed their desire to rejoin the Sockers, but Newman is growing frustrated.

“We haven’t given up yet on trying to trade for Paul,” Newman said. “But I think Baltimore is is trying to delay as long as possible hoping we lose a few games and become desperate.”

Both Newman and Quinn said they were perplexed as to why something had not been worked out “four weeks ago.”

But as of Thursday night, Quinn said, “We still aren’t any further along than we were at the beginning of the week.”

Newman agreed with the assessment of Wright and Quinn and said he was pleased with the performance of his patchwork team, except for several crucial mistakes and a couple bad bounces.

Dallas took the initial lead less than a minute into the game after Sockers midfielder Paul Dougherty tried to play the ball back to goalie Victor Nogueira. Dougherty’s pass missed Nogueira and Sidekick forward David Doyle got to the loose ball and booted it into the net.

Less than a minute later it was 2-0 when Wes McLeod fired from the perimeter and Nogueira, screened on the play, moved away from the ball in an attempt to find its path.

After Jim Gabarra made it 2-1, the Sidekicks went back up by two when a Troy Snyder shot, initially heading wide of the goal, deflected off the right heal of Kevin Crow and into the net.

It was the first of two Dallas goals to be deflected in by a Socker. Woodberry unintentionally redirected Jan Goossens’ shot in the third quarter. That made it 5-1.

“I thought we did better in several ways than what I anticipated,” Newman said. “With Paul Dougherty just arriving from England, Ben Collins not playing (because of an injury) and having signed Terry Woodberry at the last minute, I thought, ‘If we can just stay in the game,’ but right at the start of the game, Paul Dougherty makes a horrendous mistake, then Victor moves away from a ball when if he had just stood there it would have hit him in the chest.

“We’re supposed to make it hard for them to score, but we were giving them goals. But beside those mistakes, I thought we were outplaying Dallas. We were winning tackles, had good touch on our passes and were moving the ball up field.”

The Sockers outshot Dallas, 44-26.

Sockers Notes

Despite the loss, the game presented Coach Ron Newman with a milestone of sorts. He was coaching his 1,000th game and it was in the city in which he began his coaching career in the late 1960s with the Dallas Tornado of the North American Soccer League. Newman also registered his 500th coaching victory in a game at Dallas and Thursday he was going for No. 600. . . . Newman will have a second try at 600 when the Sockers play their home opener at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against the St. Louis Storm. Tickets are available.