Wright In Right Spot, Wrong Time : MSL: Sockers’ top goal-scorer might just be a big fish in a small pond. Outdoor soccer might be his next move.

At 22, Paul Wright is on top of the Major Soccer League. Which is a little like saying the Beatles were the best band in Liverpool.

Indeed, the MSL might be too confining for Wright.

He now leads the league with 42 goals in 30 games, ensuring that for the third consecutive year he will eclipse his previous season’s output.

But what’s next? Does Wright continue to climb the MSL?

The peak he reaches by doing so might not be so high. Wright need only ask his friend and former teammate, Branko Segota, who, like Wright, entered the league as a teen-ager and quickly established himself as a dominant goal scorer.

Segota learned the MSL is no NFL. Sports Illustrated reporters never called. Brent Musburger never did any locker-room interviews. Segota never was raised into the public eye. Instead he found that dominant scorers tend to get knocked down by owners more concerned about the bottom line than about reaching the top.

Segota is tied with Wright for the league lead in goals this season. But at 30 he cannot ask himself about his future. He knows it will be in the MSL.

Wright might have an alternate fate.

“Right now I’m real close to getting my citizenship,” Wright said, indicating it will come through before the end of the year. “And after that I’m going to make a decision of what to do.”

Wright would not specify what he is pondering, other than say, “I have a couple options that I’m going to keep open. I’m going to sit back and take the summer to decide.”

Two options are obvious: He can stick with the MSL, or he can follow former teammate Brian Quinn to the U.S. national team.

The second option is contingent on Wright obtaining his citizenship. Wright was born in England before moving to Modesto when he was 10.

And it is this option that teases players by offering to make their daydreams reality. A spot on the national team comes with a guarantee of playing in the 1994 World Cup.

Socker Coach Ron Newman isn’t happy discussing the possibility of losing another of his premier players to an organization that now plays exhibitions, but Newman realizes national team scouts are not blind.

“I know they are looking at him,” Newman said of Wright. “They are aware of what he can do.”

And after scoring only two goals in the 1990 World Cup, the U.S. team is in dire need of goal scorers.

Until recently, Newman actively campaigned for MSL players to at least get tryouts from the national team. It was only two years ago when he challenged the national team to a series of games against an MSL select squad, the winner advancing to the 1990 World Cup.

No one listened.

Times changed. Newman no longer wants to lend MSL players to the national team. He wants the national team to lend players to the MSL.

“I’m hoping that down the line national team players will play in the MSL,” Newman said.

Right now the best of them play outdoor in Europe, thanks to exposure from the 1990 World Cup. To keep them here, and to keep Wright in the MSL, Newman realizes the league has to do something about its image.

“If our league starts to grow and gains more stature and offers players more recognition,” Newman said, “then I’m sure Paul Wright would be quite happy here.”

Besides, Newman said, Wright has concentrated on the indoor game so long, there is no guarantee he could even master a conversion back to long, grass fields.

“His weakness would be understanding the strategies of the outdoor game,” Newman said. “He can cross a ball, he can head a ball, he can dribble a ball. He has got all he tools, but its a question of relearning how to use those tools.”

Wright’s major attribute is his speed. He has proven over and over that no one can keep up with him indoors. But the explosiveness Wright displays on a covered hockey rink might not be so dramatic on a field too big for dasher boards.

“People can stay a few yards away from him outdoor,” Newman pointed out.

For his part, Wright does not want to talk about a possible transition back to the game he grew up playing.

“My main goal right now is to win another championship,” he said.

And the Sockers can thank Wright for giving them the chance to even talk about a 10th title in 11 years.

His 42 goals are 14 more than anyone else on the team. Paul Dougherty is second with 28.

But the Sockers nearly didn’t have Wright to produce all those numbers for them. When the season started, he was still property of the Baltimore Blast, who had claimed him off waivers after the Sockers’ former ownership cut him out of fear of being liable for his $60,000 contract.

Wright and the Blast immediately began squabbling over terms of the contract. So Wright never reported and Baltimore retaliated by suspending him.

A trade was arranged after the first game of the season. The Sockers had to give up draft picks, Wright had to accept a pay cut because the Sockers already were against their salary ceiling.

Wright has made a dramatic impact since.

The Sockers lead the league in goals scored with 194. What’s more, Wright leads the league with eight game-winning goals. Without him, the Sockers clearly would be buried somewhere in the middle of the standings instead of leading the league.

Wright, though, has remained rather unassuming.

“I’m sure if I didn’t make my way back there would have been someone else in here to take my place,” he said.

But that’s more rhetoric than truth. Before Wright signed, Newman openly worried about the Sockers’ chances of making the playoffs. Now there is no question.

Meanwhile, the Blast is mired two games under .500. And just as Wright refuses to take credit for the Sockers’ ascent, Blast Coach Kenny Cooper won’t acknowledge his fourth-place team would be better off with Wright.

“You just don’t know if he’s a player who would fit in until he gets here” Cooper said.

But Cooper conceded that Wright’s speed added another dimension.

“He has the type of speed that when he’s on the floor he gives his team a numerical advantage,” Cooper said. “But he feels confident in the Sockers’ system, and we play a little different than San Diego. Still, I felt that with our field (the shortest in the league), he would have been perfect for us.”

While coaches, teammates and opponents still talk about Wright’s speed, it is apparent that he has become more of a shooter than a sprinter this season.

“Everyone tends to look at his speed,” Cooper said. “But the fact is, he’s a real good striker. He knows where the back of the net is and he doesn’t need a lot of chances to hit it.”

But guess what?

“Paul can still improve tremendously,” Segota said. “He’s not there yet. When it comes to dribbling, he can learn a little more. He tends to just push the ball forward and sprint.”

Newman insists he’s already improving, and a few of Wright’s recent scores back up the coach.

On Feb. 14, Wright dribbled through several Wichita defenders as he took the ball through no-man’s land--the middle of the field--before entering the penalty area and passing to Thompson Usiyan on the right. Usiyan gave the ball right back and Wright had an empty net to fill from two yards away.

“He’s getting more crafty,” Segota said. “And he’ll improve a lot more.”

On Feb. 23, Wright slipped by a Tacoma defender with a move to his left, then scored with a left-footed shot, defying criticism that he can only move to his right.

“I’m still not comfortable going to my left,” Wright said. “But if I have to, I will.”

In the Sockers’ most recent game, Friday in Dallas, Wright, who likes to take a sweeping leg swing when striking the ball, sneaked a shot by goalie Joe Papeleo with a quick toe poke.

“And that hasn’t really been in his arsenal,” Newman said. “But it’s a lethal weapon. I used to teach it to all my players outdoors, but it has to gradually creep into your game. . . . As soon as I saw the opportunity I said, ‘toe poke, toe poke.’ Well, he couldn’t have heard me, but all of a sudden he went boof--and it went straight into the back of the net.

“Little bits and pieces like that will continue to creep into his game and make him even more awesome.”

The question is whether those “bits and pieces” will creep into his indoor game or his outdoor game.

Again, Wright was evasive about future plans that might include the national team.

“We’ll get into that another time,” he said.