Sockers Are Breathing a Bit Easier : MISL playoffs: After beating St. Louis in Game 1, Sockers hope they can relax enough to regain their championship form. Game 2 is tonight at 7:30.
SAN DIEGO — Give defender Ralph Black a side-view mirror for his right arm and things in Sockerland would be just fine.
In topping St. Louis, 3-2, Saturday in Game 1 of the best-of-five Western Division semifinal, the Sockers took a step toward proving they are still capable of this championship stuff, even if their 26-27 record is still a victory shy of so-so.
Game 1 alleviated pressure entering Game 2, which is tonight at 7:35 in the San Diego Sports Arena. And sure, there was pressure. Maybe seven-time champions feel it more than expansion teams such as St. Louis. Expectations are so high.
Why else would Black play the entire game with a neck so stiff he couldn’t turn 20 degrees to his right without turning his body 19 degrees? He refused to sit on the bench just one day after he jumped too high for a header in practice and felt a pop in his neck. For the record, former Socker Chris Chueden suffered a similar injury last season, but for a less legitimate reason. His occured after he reared back and ridded himself of some excess saliva.
Anyway, the playoffs ain’t no disco. No one is more aware of that than Ron Newman, who has coached this bunch into nine in a row. After Saturday’s game, he looked like a guy who had seen flashing red lights in his mirror, pulled over and watched the CHP car go flying past.
“Glad to get that one out of the way,” he said. “I hate the first one. I think that’s when we’re most vulnerable. It just builds enormous pressure for the rest of the way if you lose.
“Once we get into the playoffs, I get used to the playoffs. But the beginning of the playoffs, it’s just a different atmosphere.”
Really, the Sockers have a score to settle with themselves and St. Louis. If anybody on this team had a size XL head at the start of the season, the Storm helped in the reduction process, winning five of eight regular-season meetings and making comments about how bad the Sockers were.
But by way of a season filled with inconsistencies, the Sockers have put themselves in a tricky situation. If they win this series, they have a struggle ahead because they are without home-field advantage the rest of the way. For a 6-20 road team, that isn’t good.
“I don’t like the theory that since we don’t have it we say ‘It doesn’t mean that much.’ ” defender Kevin Crow said. “If that was the case, we wouldn’t play the season. We’d just get right to the playoffs.”
Tonight’s game should set the tone for the remainder of the series. With a victory, the Sockers would travel to St. Louis for Tuesday’s game knowing that, if nothing else, they can lose two on the road and still have an opportunity to win at home. And with a 2-0 advantage, they might just be loose enough to put a halt to their road difficulties and sweep.
Newman will decide this morning whether to stick with goalie Zoltan Toth, who made 13 saves Saturday and looked sharp, or Victor Nogueira, who has started only once in five games. If Toth starts, Nogueira will undoubtedly be Tuesday’s starter and vice versa.
The Storm got a performance equal to Toth’s from Slobo Ilijevski, a 41-year-old wonder who isn’t aging half as quickly as the forwards who search for a way to get the ball past him. Only Branko Segota’s fourth-quarter goal was savable and Ilijevski held the Sockers scoreless until late in the third quarter.
If Saturday’s game was any indication, each game in this series might be tight. St. Louis employs a similar attack as the Sockers, running the field at a rapid pace, capably executing the give-and-go and passing off the boards.
Strategy aside, the Sockers don’t appear to be approaching this as just another ho-hum playoff series.
“A lot of people have written us off,” defender George Fernandez said. “You can’t blame them. This is probably the worst team we’ve had in a long time. But the (regular) season is over with. I think if we play the way we’re capable of playing, there’s no team in the league that can beat us.”
Socker Notes
Tonight’s game will be broadcast on XTRA (690) and XEBG (1550) starting at 7:25. Tuesday’s game in St. Louis will be telecast live on Prime Ticket starting at 5:25. . . . Tickets for home playoff games are priced at $15, $13 and $10.50 and are available at the Sports Arena Box Office and all Ticketmaster locations.
