Sockers Hoping to Ice Sidekicks : Soccer: Sockers try to break out the bubbly with MSL championship victory at home.

When it became obvious the Sockers were going to lose Games 4 and 5 of the MSL championship series to Dallas, the celebratory ice and champagne glasses were hastily carted from the Sockers’ locker room inside Reunion Arena to the media work room.

Apparently, reporters were not to be trusted with the beverages--the champagne was stashed elsewhere.

Also stashed elsewhere was the Sockers’ good fortune, which had helped them win the first three games of the best-of-seven MSL championship series. A victory in either Game 4 or 5 would have kept the champagne on ice and brought out the corkscrews. But in those games, the bounces favored the Sidekicks, who averted the embarrassment of staging a championship celebration in their own arena for some other team.

Now, as the series switches to the Sports Arena (Game 6 is Tuesday, 7:35 p.m.), the Sockers must do some averting of their own. They still hold a one-game advantage, but Dallas has the momentum.

“We went out there to win one game, and we did that,” Coach Ron Newman said. “But it would have been better for momentum to have won the last one--that way we could have come back full of ourselves.”

Still, the Sidekicks cannot bank on momentum alone. It tends to shift quite spontaneously.

“You can talk about momentum back and forth,” said assistant coach Erich Geyer. “Between these two teams, the deciding factor won’t be momentum so much as who is mentally stronger.”

That might be an astute prediction by Geyer, who watched as the Sockers outran and outperformed the Sidekicks in each of the three games in Dallas. Yet, all the Sockers could manage was one overtime victory in Game 3.

As Games 4 and 5 went to the Sidekicks, David Doyle (a combined four goals and five assists) received most of the credit. But it must be noted that the Sidekicks won with that intangible quality Geyer spoke of, mental toughness, which can best be seen in how players hustle back on defense.

It was obvious the Sidekicks were committed to that part of their game. They finished with 22 blocks in Game 4 and 21 in Game 5. Wes McLeod led the way in those two games with a combined 15 blocks, or two fewer than the entire Sockers team.

But Geyer isn’t ready to call the Sidekicks mentally stronger.

“They are a very opportunistic team,” he said. “They like to cheat a little bit, especially Tatu. You can never count them out.”

Geyer is right on that point, too. For the entire series, the Sidekicks offense has sputtered behind aging forward Jan Goossens, 35, and Tatu, 30, who is showing the effects of continuous double-teaming.

They have had trouble moving the ball into the attacking third, but the Sidekicks are methodical, and little by little they are finding loopholes in the Sockers’ defense, which finished as the league’s stingiest for a second consecutive season.

In each game of the series, the Sidekicks have managed to take more shots on goal than in the previous game, edging upward from 18 in Game 1 to 30 in Game 5.

Meanwhile, there is nothing wrong with the Sockers’ fast-breaking, counter-attacking offense. It has yet to take fewer than 29 shots in any game.

If the Sockers’ offense was suffering at all in Dallas, it was suffering from a Reunion Arena jinx. Before Game 3, the Sockers had not won there this year, having lost all three of their regular-season games in Dallas.

Call it a reverse whammy, but the Sidekicks are 0-6 at the Sports Arena this season.

“The pluses are on our side, there’s no question about that,” Geyer said. “All you have to do is look at the background of these two teams.”

In their history, the Sidekicks are 3-30 at the Sports Arena.

“I think we’re all cautiously optimistic,” Newman said. “We certainly have a better chance to win on our own field.”

Newman was careful not to say anything that might incite a Sidekicks uprising.

“They are very good in Dallas, and we are very good in San Diego,” the coach said. “But we managed to win in their home, so they’re going to be thinking they can win on our field.

“The big question is can they win two ?”

Socker Notes

Socker forward Paul Wright, held to a single goal in the past two games, denied that his production has slowed because defenders are overplaying his right, knowing Wright refuses to shoot left-footed. “It just happens to be a fact that (defenses) tighten up in the playoffs,” he said. “Only two people in this series (Richard) Chinapoo and (David) Doyle have been keeping up their production. I don’t think they’ve stopped me yet. Sooner or later I’m going to have to start working on my left foot, but right now there’s no reason to panic.” Wright has five goals in the series, but two came off shootouts. . . . Bob and Mindy Rich, who are pursuing an indoor soccer team for Buffalo, were in Dallas for Game 5. The Riches are deciding between entering the MSL or the low-budget National Professional Soccer League. “The skill level here is obviously very high,” Bob Rich said. “The NPSL is more wide open. We’re trying to evaluate both leagues, how many franchises are stable and how many are going to be around next year. You have to look not only at the strongest franchises, but also the weakest ones. We wanted to make a decision by May 1, so we’re already a little behind.”