SPLASH NOTEBOOK / MARTIN HENDERSON : Fernandez Puts Recent Troubles in Perspective

Splash Coach George Fernandez said he deserves the blame for the 6-5 overtime loss to Seattle last weekend, and though it wasn’t a step forward in the team’s race for the Southern Division title, it wasn’t nearly the step backward he feared it would be a week earlier.

Fernandez had warned that a loss to the expansion SeaDogs (after victories over San Diego and Mexico, two teams ahead of the Splash in the standings) would put the Splash “right back in the dump.”

The dump’s not nearly as wretched as feared.

“I don’t think we’re as bad as that because the other teams have hit bottom,” Fernandez said.

First-place Mexico (15-10) has cooled, losing two of its last three since winning five in a row; San Diego (14-10) continued its slide from first place to second by losing five of its last six.

Entering the season’s final two weekends, the Splash is 1 1/2 games behind Mexico and one game behind San Diego.

The Splash (13-11 with four games remaining) has the best record among six teams vying for a wild-card berth, including games with Mexico (in Mexico City) on Friday and in San Diego next Thursday. The Splash plays at fourth-place Arizona on Sept. 30. The Splash has won two of three against each.

Fernandez thinks 15 victories are needed to qualify for the playoffs: “I think the next two or three games will decide the playoff picture. . . . Obviously, we’re [1 1/2 games] up in the wild-card spot, and [the other teams] are going to be playing each other. That will give us an extra game. Who knows, by this weekend, it might be over with.”

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Despite the loss to Seattle, the Splash played as well as it had during its three-game winning streak following a players-only meeting in which it cleared the air and committed to playing team defense.

That’s why Fernandez was second-guessing himself after Seattle scored a sixth-attacker goal with 65 seconds left and then won on Jean Harbor’s goal off a free kick 5:21 into overtime.

Fernandez was upset he didn’t use a timeout so his team could regroup when the SeaDogs went to their sixth attacker; he thought his veterans could handle the situation on the field without stopping the clock. Neither did he point out that Harbor would be a prime target on the free kick--the first good scoring opportunity either team had in overtime.

“I thought the decisions I made at the end--I really felt like I let the team down,” Fernandez said. “That’s why I was hurt after the game--they worked their butts off.”

Afterward, Fernandez told his players they’ll win 95% of their games by playing the same way.

“They played their hearts out and didn’t deserve to lose,” he said. “They didn’t deserve to be embarrassed or ashamed. I just wanted to let them know that I’ll take this game on my shoulders.”

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It worked in San Diego, and Raffaele Ruotolo hopes it will work at The Pond. Ruotolo, who won three indoor titles with the Sockers, isn’t shaving a goatee he grew until the Splash wins a championship. Some of his teammates--Doug Neely, Armando Valdivia, Sean Bowers, Ruben Fernandez, Bobby Bruch--have followed suit, as the old Sockers did. However . . .

“Some of these guys,” Ruotolo said, “they give up on me.”

Said Jose Vasquez: “My dermatologist said it was bad for my skin.”