Ervine Traded From Splash to Arizona : Indoor soccer: All-star game’s leading vote-getter, who was benched by Coach Fernandez, scores twice for Sandsharks.
Dale Ervine, the first bona fide star of the Splash, finally got a chance to play again--for Arizona.
Ervine, who was traded Friday, blamed Coach George Fernandez’s communication skills, jealousy and ego as reasons for Ervine’s exile.
The Splash, who plays Houston tonight in the first of six consecutive games at The Pond, received injured forward Paul Agyeman for Ervine, who was the league’s fifth-leading scorer through nine games when he was benched by Fernandez.
Less than a week later, Ervine was the leading vote-getter by coaches for the league’s all-star game and informed by Fernandez that he had played his last game with the Splash.
The Splash was 6-3 with Ervine and 3-5 without him. The team is in third place in the Continental Indoor Soccer League’s Southern Division after posting the league’s second-best record last year.
Ervine, 31, had 16 goals and 12 assists for the Splash; he had two goals and an assist Friday in Arizona’s 9-7 loss to Houston. Arizona (5-10) is in fourth place.
The most unusual aspect of the trade is the condition that, at season’s end, the Splash has the option of retaining the rights to Ervine and Arizona the rights to Agyeman; that request by Arizona was a condition of the trade.
“I’m glad something was finally done, but I’m still disappointed on how it was handled by George,” Ervine said. “To this day, I don’t know why he’s done what he’s done because I’ve done nothing detrimental to the team or the organization to warrant this type of outcome.”
Ervine said he heard from others that Fernandez’s ego and jealousy got in the way of their relationship; Ervine was the team’s assistant coach last year, but wasn’t even a team captain this season.
“I’ve never played for a coach that has let his ego and jealousy of a player get involved at this level,” Ervine said. “The way George has handled this situation shows that he lacks a great deal of communication skills; at this level, you should be able to communicate with your players.
“For some reason, he’s not giving people an explanation; we have a coach that has an ego and has let jealousy get involved, which is ridiculous. I’ve broken no rules. I gave the best effort I could for 1 1/2 years and for the life of me I don’t know what caused him to come to this conclusion.”
Fernandez refused to get into a public argument.
“He’s entitled to his opinion and I’ll keep my opinion to myself,” Fernandez said. “If that’s the way he feels, I’m sorry about it. My decision was not based on my personal feelings, but what I felt was best for the team.
“This was a business decision. It wasn’t because I disliked Dale or my ego got in the way. I’m probably one of the least guys on this planet that has an ego. I don’t know, maybe it comes across that way, I have no idea. But I’m not going to go back and forth in the paper; that’s between Dale and I. He’s voiced his opinion; I’m not going to do the same.”
Over the last three weeks, Fernandez referred to the initial benching as a “coach’s decision,” and said he would take responsibility for what transpired as a result.
In the weeks leading up to the benching of Ervine and second-year defender Paul McDonnell, Fernandez had threatened to take drastic action because some players were trying to do too much and taking away from the team concept. Finally, he benched Ervine, the all-time leading U.S.-born scorer in Major Soccer League and CISL history (360 goals). His 104 points is the best in franchise history.
Agyeman, 25, had four goals and four assists in six games before having cartilage removed from his right knee July 26. A second-year forward, he said he expects to be ready to play part-time next week and full-time by Sept. 1.
