Restart Opportunity

by Steve De Rose
Published on October 30, 2003 under Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2)

Last season, the nucleus of quality players on the Baltimore Blast roster finally produced the expected result. Despite finishing the regular season with an 18-18 record, the Blast surpassed their favored opponents, winning the MISL Championship in Milwaukee.

So what happened in the off-season? First of all, and perplexingly so, the front office could not come to terms with interim head coach Bobby McAvan (many, many franchises in many, many sports would break the bank to re-sign the coach who helms the team to the title). Secondly, championship-game-winning-goalkeeper Brett Phillips was recalled by the St. Louis Steamers.

Thirdly: Former Defender-of-the-Year Sean Bowers, citing his history in southern California, wanted to play for the San Diego Sockers. He was swapped for Carlos "Chile" Farias. Additional players David Bascome, Neil Gilbert, and GK Brian Rowland were selected in the Harrisburg Heat dispersal draft. The Blast are awaiting the issuance of a USA work permit for Rowland. 2002 Championship-Series Most Valuable Player Chris Handsor was obtained in a three-way-deal with the Steamers and the Philadelphia KiXX.

So it is not as though the Blast were stripped clean, and left on blocks somewhere on Charles Street. However, their keenest opponent, the Philadelphia KiXX, aside from the C. Handsor deal, return practically everybody. They seek redemption for last season's stunning elimination by the Blast, whom they may have underestimated.

Their opponent this early-season Friday night was the Dallas Sidekicks. The Sidekicks struggled adapting to the mode of play in the MISL in 2002-03, even though the referees were mainly from the World Indoor Soccer League pool. This is the transition season for them, i.e. the first year without Tatu on the pitch. There are eleven newcomers on the roster, with four rookies. The newcomers with prior indoor experience include Martin Dugas (Milwaukee Wave), Martin Nash (Detroit Rockers and the younger brother of Steve Nash of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks), and Mark Rowland (Wichita Wings).

Long time readers of my columns may recall that I have written that the League should shorten its regular season to avoid conflicts in the media vis-a-vis gridiron and even baseball. This may have been a substantial reason why the game, on a very pleasant evening in Baltimore, only drew 3,927 ticket-buyers.

The Blast gave Karim Moumban his first start of the season. Moumban has appeared in only seven matches in his two seasons for the Blast, with a mere nine minutes to show for all of last year. He got the start this night because Scott Hileman was hampered by a shoulder injury. A strong report has him being released to the Blast reserve squad when the work permit for Brian Rowland is received.

The game presented an intriguing contrast. Dallas was concentrating on keeping a compact defense and marauding on counter-attacks. The Blast were consistently venturing forward and taking a shot on goal, but then roaring back on defense to try to prevent many of the Sidekicks' countering shots from reaching Moumban. Baltimore would outshoot the Sidekicks by 38-15. Yet the final would be only 3-2 for the Blast, and they were trailing with twenty minutes left in regulation. For non-purists, one of the Sidekicks' goals was on a man-advantage situation.

The Sidekicks persisted in dressing only one goalkeeper for the match: Sagu. He did have to face a penalty kick in the second quarter after Michael Curtis was detected tripping in the box. He definitely moved early on the PK by Bascome, but his save was allowed to stand. The Sidekicks killed off the penalty.

The sustained pressure of the Blast wore down Dallas. A penalty on the Sidekicks' Leo Pernia (tripping) was killed off, but it advanced their fatigue. At 11:34 of the third quarter, the Blast's Denison Cabral was allowed too much space on the right wing center, and he zinged a shot over Sagu's shoulder.

Baltimore's game-winning-goal by P.J. Wakefield at 2:47 of the fourth quarter was the culmination of some nice switching between wings. The Sidekicks' defense was slack, and Sagu could not get over to the left in time to prevent the shot from entering the net.

The Sidekicks' best shot to try and level the score came from Richardinho in the tenth minute. Moumban sprawled low to his right and parried it away. A glancing header by Beau Brown, with the Sidekicks on sixth-attacker and under ten seconds to play, missed the right post by centimeters.

So how did each side look?

The Sidekicks have reason for optimism. They played cohesively as a team. It would seem to be only a timing matter for them to gel offensively. Their divisional opponents are the San Diego Sockers and the expansion Monterrey Fury.

The Blast need to get their goalkeeping situation solidified. They play in a different manner for Moumban than for Hileman. For the tandem they had last season, there was not a substantial difference between Hileman and Phillips. If the rotation of goalkeepers had played out to its ultimate, Hileman would have started Finals game #3 in Milwaukee. On the scale of goalkeepers, with Victor Nogueira being a 10, Warren Westcoat being a 7, Frank Arlasky being a 4, and Jason Burdge being a 1, Moumban is probably a 3. The Blast are in a much more competitive division, and the majority of their games are versus the Cleveland Force and the KiXX.

I thank Amy Keller of the Blast for her assistance.

* * *

Readers, do you remember when I wrote this about the San Diego Sockers?

Road trips may be exhausting, but the trade-off to this is that other teams' players have to deal with winter weather on their off-days at home. Do not underestimate the value of this "perk."

This statement has taken on a whole new meaning with the events of this past week in Southern California. Returning from a practice or game and finding your home no longer standing due to fire is not exactly a perk. We hope that no Sockers player, staff member, or affiliated person, experiences catastrophic loss. Sometimes, real life has a way of intruding upon even indoor soccer.

Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from October 30, 2003

• Restart Opportunity - OSC Original by Steve De Rose
• Sockers Open Arena For San Diego - San Diego Sockers
• MISL Injury Report - MISL 2
• Sidekicks host San Diego Sockers Saturday at 7:05 PM - Dallas Sidekicks
• Force To Battle Central Division - Cleveland Force

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.