Wittman Gears Up for Blast : Soccer: Sockers’ midfielder faces former employers in playoffs.
Sockers’ midfielder Tim Wittman can tell you about lousy first impressions, and he can talk about lousy last impressions. He’s made both within the past year.
Wittman showed up to his 11th training camp--the first with a team other than his hometown Baltimore Blast--this past October as Coach Ron Newman’s savior. He would be the antidote to a midfield hemorrhaging with the losses of Waad Hirmez (43 goals) and Rod Castro (24).
Only when he first got here, Wittman didn’t appear to be up to the task.
“I remember when I first saw him in practice,” said Oscar Ancira, the Sockers’ first-year owner. “I went up to Ron Newman and asked him, ‘This is who we paid all that money to?’ ”
It wasn’t the first time an MSL owner thought he was overpaying Wittman. Only a matter of months before, Blast owner Ed Hale decided Wittman wasn’t worth a dime and cut him.
Despite playing in more games than any Blast player (332), scoring more goals (168) and ranking second only to Stan Stamenkovic in points (250 to 329), it was Wittman’s last impression that stuck with Hale.
Wittman sealed his fate during a team meeting late last season during which Hale reportedly made mention of selfish players ruining what until that season had always been a playoff team, all the while glaring at Wittman.
After Hale repeated himself, Wittman got up, returned Hale’s stare, screamed two monosyllabic words, and left.
So much for his career with a team he began playing for at the age of 17 right out of Baltimore Calvert Hall High. So much for all those statistics. So much for making a prophet of Blast Coach Kenny Cooper, who two years earlier had said, “Tim Wittman could be the next coach of the Blast.”
All Wittman was was the next former Blast.
So he came to the Sockers intent on making a lasting impression. He scored 25 goals and set up 14 others. He also blocked 28 shots. But his real contribution was his midfield work. Newman often points to Wittman as the reason the team’s transition game didn’t fall apart when Brian Quinn left for the U.S. national team in January.
Now it’s playoff time, and Wittman gets a chance to show up his old team tonight when the Sockers open the MSL semifinals against the Blast at the Sports Arena (7:30).
But Wittman insists he already has gained his revenge.
“We took first place, and they came in fourth,” Wittman said. “In any other sport, they wouldn’t even be in the playoffs with a record like that (19-21). But there is one more thing I would like to accomplish.”
It’s that one thing the Blast has been unable to accomplish in four tries against the Sockers--win a championship (although the Blast did win the MISL title in 1984 when the Sockers were required to play indoor with the old North American Soccer League).
“If (the Sockers) wouldn’t have won anything, it would have been very disappointing,” Wittman said. “I wouldn’t have accomplished my goal of making a positive change, but now I have made a positive change.”
Wittman refused to dredge up his old feud with Blast management, indicating it was time to put it behind him.
He simply said, “When you speak out, sometimes things happen to you.”
But Wittman hasn’t always held his tongue.
Responding to a suggestion by Cooper that the parting of ways was best for both parties because Wittman didn’t know where he wanted his career to go, Wittman told the Baltimore Sun, “How can Kenny Cooper, who doesn’t know whether he’ll be in Tacoma, or Dallas, or Baltimore, or whether Ed Hale is going to fire him tomorrow, say I don’t know exactly what I want?”
Wittman didn’t only target Cooper.
“Management keeps doing what it does and the truth never comes out,” he told the Sun. “No one ever hears about the lying and the politics. I can’t say every team is like that, because I’ve only played for one, but I know how it is with the Blast.
“In this organization if you don’t say yes, sooner or later you’re gone. It’s no secret that in the last two years I’ve had a lot of trouble with owners and management.”
Sockers, Blast by the Numbers
SOCKERS REGULAR-SEASON STATISTICS
PLAYER GP G A Pts Sh Blk David Banks 40 8 8 16 41 37 Paul Wright 39 50 27 77 259 15 Paul Dougherty 39 37 26 63 156 22 Alex Golovnia 34 4 10 14 48 23 Alex Khapsalis 12 0 0 0 7 2 Jimmy McGeough 4 0 0 0 2 3 Scott Geraghty 4 0 0 0 1 Mirko Castillo 10 1 3 4 8 0 Kevin Crow 40 9 12 21 48 82 Gus Castaneda 1 0 0 0 0 0 Ben Collins 33 10 16 26 45 27 Tim Wittman 40 25 14 39 101 28 Terry Woodberry 40 21 10 31 133 35 Jacques Ladouceur 39 17 13 30 102 17 Thompson Usiyan 40 29 28 57 148 1 Wes Wade 39 14 8 22 62 27 John Kerr 39 12 7 19 52 6 Zico Doe 8 0 2 2 3 0 Totals 40 243 206 449 1289 336 Opponents 40 186 164 350 961 503
GOALKEEPER Min Sh Sv GA GAA W-L Victor Nogueira 2270 905 411 174 4.60 26-12 Curtis McAlister 103 46 25 8 4.66 0-2 Sixth attackers 21 10 3 4 3.51 0-0 Totals 2442 961 439 186 4.57 26-14 Opponents 2442 1289 543 243 5.97 14-26
BLAST REGULAR-SEASON STATISTICS
PLAYER GP G A Pts Sh Blk Ali Kazemaini 15 1 6 7 22 4 Rusty Troy 38 23 21 44 112 60 Mike Stankovic 14 7 5 12 57 11 Iain Fraser 40 14 15 29 82 80 Billy Ronson 34 14 11 25 120 20 Joe Koziol 40 18 14 32 78 18 Doug Miller 12 2 2 4 9 2 Rod Castro 36 19 27 46 99 18 David Eise 27 2 3 5 36 28 Doug Neely 40 8 22 30 73 49 Domenic Mobilio 40 45 20 65 156 13 Kris Keldermann 26 2 3 5 35 23 Mark Mettrick 39 17 13 30 77 50 Emil Dragicevic 37 11 6 17 68 10 Kevin Sloan 32 12 6 18 55 15 Jean Harbor 31 14 7 21 92 5 Totals 40 213 190 403 1194 408
GOALKEEPER Min Sh Sv GA GAA W-L Cris Vaccaro 2139 998 449 192 5.38 18-16 Steve Powers 220 114 46 25 6.83 0-4 Sixth attackers 85 31 10 13 9.16 1-1 Totals 2444 1143 505 230 5.65 19-21
KEY: GP-Games played. G-Goals. A-Assists. Pts-Point. Sh-Shots. Blk-Blocks. Min-Minutes. Sv-Saves. GA--Goals against. GAA-Goals-against average. W-L-Won-lost.
