Dallas Takes Steam Out of Socker Express : Soccer: Sidekicks win second in a row, 4-2, to send MSL championship series back to San Diego for Game 6.

No Richter scale recorded the shift, but it was felt like a temblor in the Sockers’ locker room at Reunion Arena: The Dallas Sidekicks came from two goals down, scored four in a row and stunned the Sockers with a 4-2 victory in Game 5 of the MSL championship series.

The Sockers, who only 26 hours earlier held a commanding three-games-to-none lead, found their grasp on a 10th indoor title in 11 years that much more precarious. The series now stands 3-2.

Game 6 will be Tuesday at the Sports Arena--if the Sockers get there on time.

Obviously miffed with his team, Sockers managing general partner Oscar Ancira told a reporter, “These guys are walking home.”

The momentum shift can be traced to an old sports truism: In the playoffs, experience beats youth.

Simply put, the Sockers are not getting the production they need from their leading goal-scorer, Paul Wright, who is also the team’s youngest player. And the Blast are getting much more than expected from 13-year veteran goalie Scott Manning, an involuntary retiree at the beginning of the season when the Baltimore Blast cast him aside.

Wright, 22, led the Sockers with 50 goals during the season but has not been a factor in the championship series. He aimed six shots Saturday but could not squeak anything by Manning, who shut out the Sockers over the final 54 minutes.

Manning is 35 but played like 25, making 12 saves, several after flinging himself through the air to cover the other side of the net.

“Maybe Ponce de Leon went to the wrong place,” Manning said. “He should have come to Texas.”

Manning also got a lot of help from his defenders, who came through with 21 blocks (to the Sockers’ 12).

For Manning, it is something of a rebirth. After his 13-year MSL career appeared over, he filled in at Wichita while regular Cris Peat was injured in the middle of the year and went 1-5. When Dallas regular Joe Papaleo went down with a knee injury in the last weekend of the series, Manning was signed as an insurance policy should something happen to second-stringer Hank Henry.

Henry went down in Game 2 with a strained left hip, and Manning has started the past three games.

“The way he is playing,” Henry said, “I don’t see me playing again in the series. He has stepped up and played great.”

Wright refused to talk after the game. But Sidekicks defender Jeff Agoos said it is obvious that Wright cannot shoot with both feet, and that has given defenders the opportunity to over-play his strong side and take away his once-lethal right foot.

“Everybody figured out his weakness is to his left side,” Agoos said. “But I think he’s still a threat.”

At least half a threat.

Four minutes into the final quarter with the Sidekicks clinging to a 3-2 lead, Wright, in what is becoming an increasingly rare occurrence, broke free of the defense for an open shot from 35 feet out.

It appeared to be heading into the upper-right side of the net, but Manning reacted quickly, leaped and reached to that side to deflect it over the glass.

A minute later, Agoos ran onto a pass from David Doyle just inside the red line and sneaked one by Sockers’ goalie Victor Nogueira to give the Sidekicks their winning margin of victory.

Doyle is representative of what the Sockers have lacked the past two games. He was the Sidekicks’ leading scorer during the year, and he has risen to the occasion in the championship series. After scoring three goals and setting up three others in Game 4, Doyle came through with a goal and two assists in Game 5. He was the only player on either team to finish with multiple points.

All of which has given the Sidekicks some new-found confidence.

“There will be a lot of partying once we win this thing in San Diego,” Agoos said. “We’ll get to the seventh game and everybody is confident we can beat this team if we play as well as we can.”

Even the Sockers appear somewhat apprehensive.

“The momentum has shifted to their side,” Newman said. “But we’ve got two chances to win with the home-field advantage. If we can’t do that, we don’t deserve it.”

The Sockers nearly had Game 5 before the Sidekicks defense solidified around Manning. Paul Dougherty and Jacques Ladouceur gave the Sockers a two-goal lead six minutes into the game and quieted a rambunctious crowd of 8,171.

But the Sidekicks tied it with two second-quarter goals. First, Doyle slipped a crossing pass between Nogueira and the end boards that Mike Uremovic tapped in at the far post. With two minutes left in the half, Tatu fooled the Sockers with a quick restart that he slipped to Beto at the top of the arc. With his second touch, Beto put it behind Nogueira.

“That was a biggie,” Tatu said. “They didn’t want to go into the locker room without a lead. After all their hard work, and all they got was a tie? That had to be a blow--they came out of the gates so strong.”

Added Manning, “Now it comes down to Game 6, so let’s go to San Diego and see what happens because in Game 7, goofy things can happen.”