Ervine Willing to Let Offense Lapse in Favor of Strong Defense
Splash players couldn’t remember a streak when they had played better team defense than they did recently over a three-game stretch in which they gave up, on average, only 2.67 goals per game.
Going back further, the defense gave up only 4.25 goals the last four games leading up to tonight’s game against Seattle at the Pond of Anaheim.
Two of the Splash’s three losses have been to Seattle.
Player/coach Dale Ervine, as well as captain Doug Neely, said the reason for the improved defensive performance was the committed efforts of the forwards and midfielders.
“If we continue to play this way,” Neely said, “we’re going to win a lot of games.”
Maybe.
While the Splash gave up only 2.7 goals in that three-game span, the offensive output also dropped. The Splash averaged 5.75 goals in its first four games, 5.0 over the next three. But without two late goals against a sixth attacker vs. Dallas, the Splash scoring average in that span was only 4.3.
Defense, it seems, comes with a price.
“For everyone to defend, it takes an awful lot of energy,” Ervine said. “When we’re able to set up early and able to pressure their offense in their third, it creates goals for us. But when the ball gets past us, we have to run down to defend, then run back to try to score. It’s very demanding.”
And it takes its toll. In its 4-2 loss at Seattle, the common refrain of coaches and players was that the Splash outplayed the SeaDogs but simply failed to finish its many scoring opportunities.
The person who might be suffering most on offense is Ervine.
As he tries to set the standard for his players, his scoring percentage has been abysmal. He has scored on only five of 51 shots. He is currently in a three-for-46 slump (6.5%). He needs 27 more points to become the first American to break into indoor soccer’s all-time top-20 scoring list.
“I’m a firm believer in this,” Ervine said of his team’s defensive plan. “I’ve played on too many teams where there’s no system. The teams that have succeeded don’t always have the five best players in the league.”
*
The Splash is 4-3 through the first quarter of the season. Ervine is pleased his team has done so well despite:
* The loss of starting midfielder Steve Kuntz, who returned to a St. Louis marketing job two days before the season opener.
* The failure to re-sign starting midfielder Raffaele Ruotolo, the team’s best playmaker.
* The loss of midfielder Paul Agyeman through the first seven games while recovering from reconstructive knee surgery during the off-season.
* The season-ending injury to starting midfielder Kenny Hesse in the season opener with torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments.
* The loss of 1996 all-star midfielder Danny Barber for almost three full games because of a hamstring injury.
* The loss of midfielder Paul McDonnell for four games because of a sprained ankle.
Still, the Splash will have to pick up the pace to win the division, Ervine said, because “16-12 won’t win the division.”
*
The Splash is 0-3 on the road and after tonight plays its next four games on the road--in Sacramento, Monterrey, Seattle and Portland.
*
Ervine was originally announced as a Western Division starter for the July 29 all-star game in Sacramento. Then came the recount. Turned out Seattle’s John Olu Molomo had more votes from league coaches and will get the start. The recount didn’t affect Splash’s Neely’s starter status or that of forward Bernie Lilavois, a reserve.
*
Former Splash coach Ian Fulton got a quick hook in Portland, where he was coaching the Pride. Fulton was fired after six games. He said before the team’s second game, when it was 1-0, that the Pride would need eight games to jell because so many of the starters had been late to camp to learn his system.
“If we’re .500 after eight games,” Fulton said, “I should be happy.”
Portland was 1-5 when he was fired.
Ralph Black, captain of the Splash its first year in Anaheim, has become Portland’s player/coach. The problem, he said, is there wasn’t a system.
“Nobody knew exactly what was wanted on the field, other than just throwing the ball on the field,” Black said. “Ian couldn’t rely on what he learned through playing because he had never played indoors.”
*
McDonnell, who played at Cal State Fullerton, is likely to benefit from his trade to Indiana for Rich Ryerson and Terry Rowe. Indiana needed a defender, and McDonnell--a defender his first three years in the league--was being asked by the Splash to make the transition to midfield to accommodate all its injuries.
McDonnell will play in front of soccer’s highest-scoring goalkeeper, John Kluba, whose goals-against average is 5.37. He has scored two goals this season. At the time he scored, only five others on the Twisters had outscored him.