Sockers Wasting Competitive Fire on One Another

The defensive lapses that cost the Sockers a victory in Game 2 of their MSL semifinal series with Baltimore Saturday night could be the manifestation of a deeper problem--internal bickering.

“This team has gotten very touchy with one another,” said Kevin Crow, a nine-year veteran. “It doesn’t want to listen to one another. . . . It’s not a healthy thing to have because people aren’t real confident on the field knowing (that their teammates are going to tear into them).”

The Sockers will hope for smoother relationships today at 4:05 p.m. (PDT) when they take to the Baltimore Arena for Game 3 of the semifinals with the Blast. The series is tied 1-1.

It could be easy to cast aside Crow’s warning. After all the Sockers have combined fighting and winning since they moved indoors in 1980. Players have punched teammates during games, coaches have been slapped by players, and teammates have used he media to criticize each other.

They have always fought, but they have always won.

This season, however, appears to be an aberration. A bad omen came when the team lost five of its last seven regular-season games, their worst finish since 1986-87 when they closed their schedule by losing seven of their last nine.

The Sockers proceeded to lose in the Western Division finals to Tacoma that year, marking the only interruption of nine championships in 10 seasons.

Since then the Sockers have bounded into the playoffs on high notes. They won five in a row to close the 1987-88 season, went 6-2 the following year, 5-3 in 1989-90 and 6-2 last season.

Things changed this season, not only in the won-lost department, but in the way the players deal with one another, Crow said.

“It’s more personal now,” he said of the infighting. “It used to be more professional.

“We’re not going anywhere until we can put this thing aside.”

Although a few veterans addressed the team on this point during Sunday’s practice, Crow said it might not have done any good.

“It’s one of those things that is difficult with this team now because no one is willing to listen to anybody; there’s just so much bickering going on, and people are taking it personally.”

And now that the team has lost six of its last nine (regular season and playoffs combined), the tension has increased.

“When you’re playing well you can afford this kind of stuff,” Crow said. “When you’re winning 10 or 11 in a row, as we did, you can absorb it. But when you start losing, it’s tough to pull together.”

Crow refused to divulge which teammates are quickest to criticize, but at least two players have singled themselves out.

First-year forward Mirko Castillo has been involved in at least three shoving matches during practice sessions in the past month or so, and midfielder Paul Dougherty has taken it upon himself to scold teammates during games. At times his voice has carried from the field all the way to the press box at the top of the upper deck.

Before the playoffs began, players were unconcerned with the string of losses because they came after the playoffs had been clinched and after first place assured. The locker room refrain was that it was hard to get motivated for meaningless games.

“But that was just an excuse some of the guys were making,” Crow said. “I think we haven’t been a real solid team the last month. When we went into the playoffs, we weren’t playing well. And I’m concerned from the standpoint that we’ve been this way for about a month now. Not the last two games, but the last 10 or so.”

What has been showing up on the field have been mental lapses, and Baltimore has been taking advantage of them.

They capitalized when David Banks made a short pass to goalie Victor Nogueira in Game 1. The pass never made it to Nogueira, it was intercepted by a Baltimore player and ended up in the net.

Only two minutes into Game 2, Nogueira and Banks again miscommunicated, this time Nogueira tried passing to Banks, but Banks had turned and started running up field as the pass went to the spot he vacated. Baltimore’s Billy Ronson picked it up and scored.

Later in the game, Blast forward Dominic Mobilio took a pass from Crow after it took a bad bounce off the side boards and first-timed it past Nogueira.

“We just have to stop giving away goals,” Crow concluded.