Splash Falls From First
Splash Coach George Fernandez was not in a rage--and anyone who watched his team’s performance Saturday might wonder why--but he was clearly not a happy man.
After watching the Splash drop an 8-6 Continental Indoor Soccer League game to the expansion Seattle SeaDogs, his words were even-tempered.
“Maybe we should have 28 road games--we’re definitely not playing our best at home. I feel sorry for the fans,” he said. “It’s going to come to a stop.”
He was asked if that was a threat.
“Take it any way you want it.”
It was a threat. For the first time since the team began play in Anaheim, the Splash (3-2) is not in first place. It’s in third, behind San Diego (4-1) and Mexico (4-2) in the newly-formed Southern Division.
It lost Saturday to a Seattle team (2-3) that was without its starting goalkeeper, three other starters, had a three-game losing streak and the worst offense and defense in the league.
“We’re the Western Division champs,” Fernandez said. “You cannot have an expansion team [like Seattle] come into your house and spank the . . . out of you, and that’s what happened.”
The Splash has now lost twice this season at The Pond--this time in front of an announced crowd of 7,402--after losing only twice at home last year in 14 regular-season games.
The Splash looked as if it was going to make a rout of it Saturday. It took a 4-1 lead on Dale Ervine’s goal 7 minutes 33 seconds into the second quarter. That was the Splash’s 13th shot of the game.
The Splash’s next score came 31 minutes later off the foot of Denis Hamlett; his was was the team’s 19th shot. During that span, the SeaDogs scored six times and the Splash effort was little more than a ripple.
“The worst thing you can do on a team is quit, and we quit,” Fernandez said. “We quit hustling. We gave up. Our work rate was pathetic.”
Fernandez also blamed his team for again trying to play as individuals after getting the three-goal lead.
Said defender Sean Bowers, a former CISL defensive player of the year who made his Splash debut: “I think too many people wanted to score goals.”
Whatever, the Splash was averaging 34.5 shots per game and finished with only 23, getting a pair of late goals from Hamlett and Bowers.
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Splash Notes
John O’Brien scored the first goal of his career, and Francisco Jaime made it 2-0 in the first quarter; the Splash had scored only two first-quarter goals in its first four games. . . . Starting midfielder Doug Neely, serving a one-game suspension, sat out; Rod Castro missed the game because of a personal commitment, and Shane Hickson was rested in favor of O’Brien because of a sprained ankle.
