Restart Opportunity
by Steve De Rose
October 27, 2004 - Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2)
Chicago Storm
On Saturday, 23 October 2004, the first professional indoor soccer game was played in Chicago in over 7½ years. Quite a few people honestly felt this day would never occur.
After the sale of the Chicago Power following the 1995-96 National Professional Soccer League season, to a sports entrepreneur in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, attempts to revive Chicago indoor soccer balked, hesitated, and conked out.
The NPSL thought Chicago should try to return to its League via the Midwest Indoor Soccer League, a lower-expense, developmental circuit. Some discussions were held with the managers of the (Villa Park) Odeum, where the team would have played their home games. However, this MISL never kicked a ball. The concept of an indoor soccer developmental league has survived. First with the Eastern Indoor Soccer League, which had an NPSL affiliation, and currently with the American Indoor Soccer League, which still utilizes the multi-point scoring scheme.
In 2000, two gentlemen, Brian Bradley & Jack Wilson, made a successful presentation to the NPSL and were granted a new Chicago franchise. The team was to play in a new facility in Prospect Heights, IL., a northern suburb of Chicago. The arena was also to have an indoor lacrosse team, an exclusive spot on a national tennis tournament, and an ice skating festival.
But construction delays occurred, culminating in the village of Prospect Heights declining to make any further insurance payments on its surety bonds. The corner where the Prospect Heights Arena would be is still a hole in the ground.
It would have failed even if it had been erected. The Prospect Heights arena would have been northeastern Illinois' equivalent of the Saint Louis metropolitan area's Family Arena in Saint Charles, MO. Nobody would go there. When the NPSL was dissolved to become the (new) Major Indoor Soccer League, all extant expansion franchises lost their operational rights; including those of Prospect Heights.
Movement in Chicago was rapid. I would be guessing if I tried to pinpoint when the spark was lit, but the significant major momentum seemed to eminate from Viktor Jakovljevic. He had played in the NPSL (nee the American Indoor Soccer Association) for a handful of teams, including the Chicago Shoccers, the 1989-90 & 1990-91 (Championship) Chicago Power, the 1989-90 Hershey Impact, the 1991-92 Milwaukee Wave, and concluding with the 1992-93 Cleveland Crunch.
When the NPSL, in the summer of 2000, was reincorporated as the (new) MISL, a single-entity limited liability corporation molded after that of Major League Soccer, he contacted his high-school teammate Frank Klopas. The two had played together as professionals for only one month with the 1986-87 Chicago Stimg. Klopas had retired from active soccer, and was working for the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer in their charitable wing "FireWorks For Kids Foundation." Jakovljevic asked Klopas if he wanted to explore whether there was sufficient interest in Chicago having a new indoor soccer team. It seemed there was.
From this point, development moved swiftly, yet stealthily. When Jakovljevic & Klopas made their presentation to the MISL, one aspect of their proposal was startling: the franchise wanted to begin play in the 2004-05 season. They felt they would not need the additional year as would be the instance with Stockton, CA.; or Newark, NJ. There was a sufficient facility in Chicago which was mostly underutilized: The University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion.
The League approved the franchise. It accepted them for this season. Part of this is likely due to the marketing muscle available to the League with Chicago as a member.
It appears that Klopas used some leverage to procure off-field staff from MLS sides. Nicolino ("Nick") Di Benedetto was lured back from the Metrostars' Communications Department to be the team's Assistant General Manager and Director of Communications. In addition, the relationship between the Chicago Fire and the Storm seems to be completely unlike that of other cities where there is or was both an indoor soccer and an MLS team (Fort Lauderdale, FL.; Dallas, TX.; Kansas City, MO.; and Washington, DC./Baltimore, MD.).
The front office is in place. The team's investors have money. So we turn to the aspect of which most of you are keenly interested: Who is playing for them? It's a stew of Greeks, Serbs, Poles, Germans, Argentinians, and Americans, including Andy Guastaferro, a U.S.A. Futsal National Team player. Three of the opening night roster players are on-loan from A-League sides.
#15 F | M Chris Carrieri (Rochester RAGING RHINOS)
#24 GK Danny Waltman (Seattle SOUNDERS)
#27 F Byron Alvarez (Portland TIMBERS)
How do I discern that the team's investors have money? I look at the bill they expended for jersey lettering. The Kansas City ATTACK did not pay to letter "Marojevic"; they only popped for “Novi”. Inspect these other names completely lettered:
Chronopoulos
Kalkowski
Rosenband
Schneider
Don't forget Guastaferro.
With the Saint Louis STEAMERS bringing Randy Soderman back to the League, I await the Storm signing Kyrie Sellaidopoulos or Mark Manganello.
The way a team defeats the Milwaukee Wave is by having line after line of good offensive players regularly rotating onto the field. The mission is to wear down the Wave's defenders. If you have only one good scoring line, you will find it being matched up with the Wave's best defenders every time. If you have two good scoring lines, you might be fortunate to get the second one out there against a Milwaukee defensive shift that is filling in between their top defense and their second top. If you have a good third scoring line, you could hit the jackpot. The Wave will be unable to consistently rotate their better defenders onto the field against the line that is doing the most damage. They will not be able to put out their less proficient defenders against you. As their bench shortens, their top defenders are going to be more exhausted and less skillful.
And you need solid goalkeeping. Scott Hileman was voted the most valuable player of the 2004 MISL Finals for a reason. He made the saves. He did not allow any bad goals. Put this together and you can understand how the Baltimore Blast again defeated Milwaukee in last season's Finals.
There are not many teams which can approach this level of skillful play. Keenly, the Wave will not face this in their division. The Saint Louis Steamers nearly bit the dust. They had to be purchased by two businessmen from Philadelphia, who did not receive the rights to use the boat logo. And the Chicago Storm are a completely new expansion team, with a clutch of guys who have never played professional indoor soccer.
These are the conditions that prevail. The Storm have a higher level of skill than did the Power in 1995-96. Consider the three aspects of a soccer team: offense, defense and goalkeeping.
Offense: Frank Klopas was a forward. He understands scoring and offense. This is good. Offense is what puts people in the building.
Defense: The team's captain is a defender, Ted Chronopoulos. The guys on the roster with the most previous indoor experience are defenders. This is okay.
Goalkeeping: Uh oh. Jeff Richey and Danny Waltman. Who are these guys? The latter is on-loan from an outdoor team? Is there no one on a roster in the Metropolitan or National Soccer Leagues of Chicago that might know how to play the position of indoor soccer goalkeeper? Keith Kokinda or Adam Langley have more indoor experience than these guys, and I bet Keith or Adam would play for less money as well. As dreadful as were the 1995-96 Chicago Power, they had competent goalkeeping between Stuart Dobson who had played for the Portland PRIDE of the CISL. He is still in the League, with the Philadelphia KiXX. And they also boasted Doug Petras, now a Pennsylvania state trooper.
For this game, Chicago started Richey in goal, while the Wave went with Nick Vorberg. The growing pains for the Storm were visible from the first Wave goal at 2:58 of the first quarter. On a defensive-zone restart, the Storm wall was not properly positioned. Troy Dusosky's shot was slightly deflected by the leg of a Storm player in the wall, and it got past Richey low to his left.
Chicago leveled the score 38 seconds later when Byron Alvarez, on loan from the Portland Timbers, strutted and dribbled through two Wave defenders. He let off a shot from the edge of the penalty box on which Vorberg got his upper left arm, but not enough to keep it from going in.
Milwaukee retaliated swiftly. Nino Marcantonio got around his mark and zipped a ball into the Storm box. Richey and his closest defender got entangled, and the ball squibbed out to where Angel Rivillo had a tap-in. This was 52 seconds after Alvarez's score.
The Storm received the first penalty of the game when Leo Pernia, 'protected' by the Dallas Sidekicks if they return to the League, boarded Todd Dusosky as the ball was going further upfield. The Wave capitalized on the man-advantage, with Greg Howes finishing off a good ball from Todd D. It went to 1-4 when Milwaukee Captain Michael King first-timed a forward ball on the left wing center high to Richey's right. The goalkeeper had no chance on this one. This was the score after the first quarter.
Chicago would have its best effort on the night in the second quarter when the Wave seemed to settle back with their three-goal lead. This proved calamitous, though, when an attempted switch of the field in defense by Pat White went directly to Pernia. His second-time shot gave Vorberg no chance. The Storm intensified their offense, outshooting the Wave by 10 to 2 for the quarter, but would not sink any more goals.
They would continue the pressure at the start of the third quarter. Milwaukee was having less possession, and their formation was being compacted in their defensive zone. Chicago would close to 3-4 at 3:25 when Novica “Novi” Marojevic weaved through a pair of Wave players and let loose a shot from the top of the penalty box on which Vorberg was partially screened.
The Storm had momentum, and the Wave turned over the ball on the kickoff. Chicago had a chance to draw level again, but a pass went awry, and Vorberg was able to collect.
The Storm then went for a partial line change. Vorberg rolled the ball into space on the left wing for Lovelace Ackah, the ex-Chicago Stinger, to pace. A Storm player off the bench finally reacted to Ackah after he crossed the midfield stripe. Ackah, having no other options, ventured a shot as he crossed into the Storm defensive third.
The ball went through the legs of Richey. Twenty-seven seconds after the Storm had justifiably gotten to within one goal, the Wave were back to a two-goal lead. If there was a video dictionary of soccer, the definition of "bad goal" would be this segment.
The atmosphere in the Pavilion, and on the Storm bench, ebbed. Milwaukee resumed the mantle of dictating the play. They would make it 3-6 at 11:55 when Kevin Burk, on an odd-man break, goaled on a cross from Jonathan Greenfield.
In the first minute of the fourth quarter, with the Storm playing high-pressure in an attempt to induce a turnover, the Wave produced a sterling example of possession skills. They switched the ball from left to right, back to the defense, and back to the left. They played passing drill for forty-five seconds as Storm players chased the ball unsuccessfully. With the Chicago formation completely stretched beyond cohesion, Milwaukee culminated its exercise by finding Rivillo open at the right post. At 1:22, it was 3-7, and the game was unofficially over. A second Burk goal put the final at 3-8. Perhaps mercifully, the Wave did not try to sink enough tallies to put the goal differential divisional tie-breaker in their pocket on opening night. Or perhaps they will wait only until this Friday, when this same Storm franchise is their home opener's opponents.
The salient post-game quote from Storm head coach Klopas was: "We got momentum. We got a couple of goals to get back in the game. But at 4-3, I thought we gave up a bad goal on a defensive change, and things changed."
Klopas later uttered that he had "two good goalkeepers."
Someone who knows otherwise has Written that a team does not get to select their opponent for their home opener. I recall December 2001, when the merger between the World Indoor Soccer League and the (new) MISL was proclaimed. The Dallas Sidekicks issued a challenge. As the last champion of the WISL, they wanted their first game in the MISL to be versus the 2000-01 MISL Champions, the Philadelphia KiXX. Voila, guess who was the Sidekicks' 2001-02 home opener's opponents? Since I am wrong, I modify this to state that the League did not do the Storm franchise any favors by scheduling their first matches versus the Wave. The Storm may be contributing to their risk by opting to have their first-ever cablecast on Friday from Milwaukee's Wisconsin Center Arena.
Readers of this column may remember what occurred at about this time last season when the Kansas City Comets televised their game from Milwaukee. The Comets were using this telecast to sell tickets to their upcoming home games. Unfortunately for Kansas City, they were swiftly shredded by the Wave. The game began at 7:14 pm. By 7:30 pm, the Wave had a five to nothing lead. It went to 8-1 midway through the second quarter.
The Comets were an experienced, cohesive team. But they let the Wave completely outplay them, and they crumbled so quickly.
When you know you are on television back to your home market, you must look and play composed even if you finally lose. I submit that practically no one who was contemplating buying a ticket to a Comets game did so after watching this spectacle. This stung the Comets. They recovered on the field, and the next night they won in Philadelphia, but the damage to their attendance was incalculable.
For a first-year team striving to revive professional indoor soccer in Chicago after an eight-year absence, getting blown out by the Wave in a game being cablecast back in Chicago could be asphyxiating to the entire agency.
The fervent audience at the Arena will exhort the Wave to not ease off on the accelerator.
I will be at this match. It will be the only way I can view it. The cable company which obtained the rights to the Storm's matches, along with Chicago's other professional sports teams, has not yet come to terms with other purveyors in metropolitan Chicago, or direct broadcast satellite companies.
For the readers who were seeking some information about the Monterrey Fury situation: this is the main reason this column was so delayed. I apologize. I have been unable to ascertain just what will occur now that Mr. Alvaro Ordoñez has had his operational rights revoked by the League. I do not want to speculate. I'll let other outlets report rumors and possibilities. I would rather be tardy and correct, than be swift and wrong. I will state that, unlike the Edmonton Drillers situation back in 2000-01, the League wants to keep Monterrey, at least for this season.
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Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from October 27, 2004
- Restart Opportunity - OSC Original by Steve De Rose
- KiXX Partner with USA 3000 Airlines - Philadelphia KiXX
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
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