Penalty Kick Helps Get the Salsa Past Colorado

Ooooh, here was something new. The Salsa, for the fifth time in 14 games, were minutes away from overtime.

Being that the Salsa are 4-0 in overtime this season, it didn’t figure to be a problem. But just in case, Paulinho drilled in a penalty kick at the 89-minute mark in regulation to save them the trouble and give them a victory over Colorado, 2-1.

The theatrical Paulinho acted as though he were near death after being kicked by a Colorado player a few minutes earlier, lying motionless on the field for several minutes. Just when you expected the ambulance to appear, he popped up without so much as a limp--as usual.

But despite crumbling on many collisions, and having missed two earlier penalty kicks, Paulinho managed to boot the ball into the lower-left side of the goal a minute before the overtime would have began in front of a crowd announced as 2,300. Other conservative estimates, though, placed the crowd at not much more than 1,000.

“I was a little tense on the first two kicks,” Paulinho said. “On the last one, I just relaxed my mind and kicked the ball.”

And when it nestled into the net, the Salsa (10-4) were assured of staying in third place in the APSL, one point behind second-place Colorado (10-5).

The game was scoreless at halftime, but Colorado took a 1-0 lead at the 63-minute mark when Scott Benedetti lofted a kick over onrushing Salsa goalie Ian Feuer from about 10 yards.

The Salsa tied it six minutes later when Paul Wright chipped in a pass from Thor Lee.

Then came crunch time, although the Salsa’s Phillip Gyau thought he had his team in good shape when he knocked the ball into the net at the 10-minute mark. It was disallowed because of offsides.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Gyau said. “No way was I offsides. These people (the referees) are calling it so tight, and we’re the home team.”

Gyau went on to say APSL officiating leaves something to be desired.

“We haven’t had a referee in our favor all year,” he said. “Usually at home, you get the 50/50 calls. We’re not getting them.

“There are some good referees, but there are others who want to take charge and treat you like kids. We’re all grown-ups.”

Otherwise, the Salsa are wondering when the schedule-makers will give them a break. In addition to the APSL schedule, the Salsa had an international exhibition against Pumas (of Mexico’s First Division) added two days before the Colorado game and have another against Pumas on Tuesday.

“We’ve had a lot of games,” Feuer said. “We’re working a lot. . . .

“The exhibitions are fun and a learning experience. You can’t scrap all of them, but I think we could do with maybe one less this week. But I love playing the international games. I love the work and I get some good exposure.”

Salsa Notes

The Salsa’s exhibition match against Pumas from Mexico’s first division on Tuesday is at 8 p.m. in Titan Stadium. . . . Following that, the Salsa travel to Canada for games at Montreal on Friday and Toronto on Sunday. The Salsa’s next home APSL game is Aug. 15 against Colorado at 4:05 p.m. . . . Entering Sunday’s game, the Salsa’s Paul Wright remained the APSL’s leading scorer with 21 points--eight goals and five assists. . . . The Salsa were coming off of a 2-1 victory against Pumas on Friday in Santa Barbara.