Sockers Win, But Now Life Begins Anew : Soccer: Coach Ron Newman’s system gets its biggest test now that Brian Quinn is gone.

While the Sockers strengthened their hold on first place in the MSL with a 6-3 victory over the Baltimore Blast, their grip also became more precarious.

The Sockers (13-6) now lead second-place Wichita by a full game, but they must play their remaining 21 games without midfielder Brian Quinn.

What does that mean?

“I don’t know,” said goalie Victor Nogueira. “But this will be one of the biggest tests for Ron Newman’s system. For the first time, Newman will be able to see if it’s his system winning all these championships, or if it’s his players.”

While Newman has blunted early criticism of his coaching style by continuing a string of championships that has reached nine, players--both past and current--still point out that a core of veterans have been able to lead the younger players each season.

Quinn, however, was the last link to the early championships and it is generally believed that if the Sockers are to win No. 10, they will have to do so with a new style.

“No other team in the league has had the luxury this team has,” Nogueira said. “No other team can afford to train like we train; to be as relaxed as we are . . . We can afford to have players like Wes Wade and let him go out there and play and not worry about it.”

Wade is a defensive runner on the only team in the Major Soccer League that employs such a strategy. His emotional and tireless style has paid off in the past and it did so again Sunday with two late goals. That kind of offense--quick counter attacks resulting from steals--will become all the more crucial now that Quinn, the team’s top playmaker, is departing to join the U.S. national team.

Wade, like Nogueira, is wary of what happens now.

“There’s no way of telling,” he said. “We can either fill in the space, or we can screw around.”

Rod Castro, who won championships the past two years with the Sockers, but who now is suffering through a mediocre season with the Blast (10-12), said there is no doubt Quinn’s departure will affect the Sockers.

“They’ll be affected,” he said, “especially in the playoffs, because he always stepped up his game there. He was the one who kept everything going. They’re going to miss him.”

Quinn leaves with 17 assists and five goals in 15 games. He did not score against the Blast, but Quinn never took satisfaction in personal statistics. The one barometer he pointed to was winning, and that’s how he wanted to leave.

“If we come out and lose the game, it wouldn’t mean as much,” he said about his finale.

The Sockers had to shake off a seven-hour, one-stopover flight from Wichita that roused them out of bed at 4 a.m. (PST) to send off their teammate on a positive note and stretch their winning streak to five games.

Newman was worried the travel might affect his team’s performance.

“This morning everybody was like zombies holding onto the plane,” he said.

Come game time, they were anything but.

Thompson Usiyan opened the scoring three minutes 40 seconds in, taking a pass from Paul Dougherty and putting it behind goalie Cris Vaccaro.

For Usiyan, it was the first of two goals on the night and one of four he scored in the weekend’s two games.

After a goal on a wicked half-volley from defender Alex Golovnia, and two Blast goals (from Castro and Iain Fraser), the half ended 2-2.

It was in the third quarter that the Sockers’ experience and the Blasts’ relative youth began to show.

The Sockers went on to score four consecutive goals.

“Notice the game was very close, 2-2, in the first half,” Castro said. “At that point, a team with a lot of experience steps it up, but we tend to panic a little bit.”

Socker Notes

Not only did midfielder Brian Quinn play his last game with the Sockers (at least for this season) on Sunday, but he and his wife Sharon celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary. The stripper who serenaded Quinn in the postgame locker room was to commemorate the former, not the latter. Sharon was consulted before the players went through with the gag. Quinn leaves today to begin training for the U.S. national team. He was the last player announced during pregame introductions and when he stepped on to the field, his teammates fell to their knees and bowed to him. . . . Also on Sunday, Coach Ron Newman celebrated his 58th birthday. . . . Baltimore forward Rod Castro, who played with the Sockers the past two seasons, received his 1990-91 championship ring from Newman at halftime. . . . Socker forward Paul Wright extended his point streak to nine games with the rarest of indoor goals--off a header--in the fourth quarter. Ben Collins played in his 300th MSL game.