Wright Bounces Around, Then Lands With Salsa : Soccer: He brings experience of indoor and outdoor games from San Diego, Cleveland, Milwaukee and England.

The player was sitting in his coach’s office talking when the coach walked in, grinning.

“Ask him why he missed two goals against Toronto last weekend,” Salsa Coach Rildo Menezes said. “From right in front of the net.

“Ask him.”

Menezes laughed devilishly. Paul Wright, the American Professional Soccer League’s leading scorer, beamed.

The season is on, and these are the times when Wright only has to think about games and goals and joking with the coach.

For a professional soccer player in the United States, they are sweet, rare times.

Wright has starred wherever he has played, and he is leading the APSL this summer with 24 points. But for a guy with talent and youth--he is 24--his road atlas is way too dog-eared. Worrying about where next year will find him is a cliche.

“It just goes with the territory,” Wright said. “I’m so used to it. I never make major plans. I know I might not be here.

“It doesn’t even affect me anymore.”

After belonging to six teams in six years, Wright will leave the Salsa briefly after this season. The Baltimore Spirit of the indoor National Professional Soccer League, with the Salsa’s permission, is borrowing him--like a bowl of sugar or something--for the winter.

“Baltimore really wanted me,” Wright said. “For years, they’ve wanted me to play there. It’s a good opportunity personally and financially.

“It wasn’t in my best interest to sit around and do nothing all winter.”

Other professional athletes who rise to the top in their sports make millions without getting loaned out during the off-season. The most Wright’s base salary has ever been is $65,000.

That, he can deal with. The difficult thing is that professional soccer leagues close shop quicker than some towns along the Mississippi River have this summer.

Wright played for the San Diego Sockers of the Major Soccer League for four seasons, and each spring there were reports that either the league was about to fold or the Sockers would declare bankruptcy.

“There was only one year I didn’t go through that,” Wright said, shaking his head. “Every year I went through it.”

And then, sure enough, like a beat up old soccer ball, the MSL went pffft .

Now, naturally, people are wondering how long the Salsa and the APSL will last. Sure, Wright and other players will tell you it’s a good league with talented players, but the Salsa has been averaging only about 3,500 per home league game.

“I hope the league will last,” Wright said. “I think we’ve got a good thing going.

“But if it doesn’t, there will always be some sort of league to play in.”

In only four years in the MSL, Wright played with the Sockers and Cleveland and was claimed off of waivers by Baltimore long enough to get into a salary squabble that resulted in his being traded back to the Sockers.

Why waivers for a player of his caliber? Money, of course. The Sockers’ ownership had changed hands, and the new guys were worried about their payroll.

It was typical of a league lacking stability, and it was just one more incident that helped Wright prepare for his future. That’s why, although he likes the Los Angeles area, he will not let himself be crushed if the Salsa does not make it.

“I’ve gone elsewhere before,” he shrugged. “That wouldn’t make it difficult to go elsewhere again.”

After the MSL, Wright landed with Milwaukee of the National Professional Soccer League and played in England before landing with the Salsa.

Have legs, will travel.

The biggest change for Wright this summer has been the adjustment from playing indoors to outdoors. Missing those two goals in Toronto last weekend? It was outdoors on artificial turf, and Wright hadn’t played on the stuff for a while. On the field as well as off, timing is everything.

“I love the outdoor game,” Wright said. “Indoors is more like a hobby. If you grow up with soccer, you know that’s the real game. You have a love for soccer that indoor could never replace.”

Wright has played as if he had never been away from the outdoor game. The Salsa is in second place, and Wright has led the league in scoring nearly all season.

“I’m surprised,” Wright said. “I could be doing a lot better, but I’m really happy with that.”

Said Menezes: “He has very good speed and very good ball control. He has speed with the ball and speed without the ball. Some players are very fast without the ball but slow down with it.

“Paul Wright, it doesn’t matter.”

Much of Wright’s readjustment to the outdoor game has been mental. He has had to re-think strategies and tactical maneuvers he learned while growing up, moves such as placement on the field and setting up his defender.

“There’s a lot more space (outdoors),” he said. “You don’t have to rush things as much. Everything is so compact indoors--you have to react. Outdoors, you have time and space. It’s a lot harder because you get double-teamed and triple-teamed a lot more.

“It’s a lot more technical. It’s like going into a trap in basketball. You have to stay away from double-teams as much as possible.”

Wright, in fact, said he didn’t make the complete adjustment to the outdoor game until halfway through this summer. APSL statistical reports have suggested otherwise.

“Indoors, outdoors, he looks like the same player,” Menezes said. “He’s very dangerous.”

And while Wright is the kind of guy who leaves home without his ego, this is the kind of talk that excites him. Strategy, X’s, O’s. It sure beats the alternative, although he knows that one day, probably sooner than later, he will be hitting the job market again.

So Paul Wright goes on, scoring goals wherever he can, hoping that enough people will care so his teams can continue to play.

“It’s tough, but you’ve got to deal with whatever you might deal with,” Wright said. “I love the game so much that it doesn’t matter to me if people accept it. I’ll play until I’m old--it doesn’t matter.

“But if it did take off, I wouldn’t be complaining, either.”