San Diego Sockers Game Notes at Las Vegas Legends
November 23, 2014 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL)
San Diego Sockers News Release
San Diego Sockers (4-0) at Las Vegas Legends (1-3)
DATE: Sunday, November 23rd, 2014
PLACE: Orleans Arena, Las Vegas, NV
TIME: 3:05pm PST
0 ESPN Radio 1700-AM (radio)
PLEASE VISIT MASLSOCCER.COM FOR UP-TO-DATE STANDINGS
SOCKERS FACE ROAD TEST IN VEGAS
For the third time in the first five games of the 2014 MASL season, the San Diego Sockers and Las Vegas Legends meet, this time at the Orleans Arena in Sin City. The Sockers have taken the first two games of the four-game season series, with the two sides not set to meet again until mid-February. The Sockers are 4-1 against Las Vegas in their all-time regular season series.
LAST GAME: SOCKERS 7, LEGENDS 2
The Sockers earned their fourth straight win in the MASL with a determined 7-2 victory over Las Vegas on Thursday night at the Valley View Casino Center. Matias Kruger and Jeff Hughes each scored twice for San Diego, with Kraig Chiles, Anthony Medina and Brian Farber also netting goals. Chris Toth (3-0) made thirteen saves in goal for the win. Ivan Simentel and Franck Tayou scored for the Legends (1-3), who lost their third in a row.
PERERA NEAR MASL POINTS LEAD
Nick Perera continues to pace the Sockers offensively. The new target forward is second in the MASL in points (16 in four games, trailing Missouri's Leo Gibson-18), and on Wednesday Nick became the first Socker named to the MASL's weekly all-league team. Perera is tied for the team goals lead with Kraig Chiles (seven), but leads in assists (nine) and points (sixteen). In two games against the Legends this season, Nick has no goals but six of his nine assists.
ROBERTO MISSES ONE, BACK FOR SUNDAY?
Veteran defender Ze Roberto suffered an ankle injury against the Ontario Fury and despite warming up for the game, sat out Thursday's contest against the Las Vegas Legends. Roberto has made the trip to Vegas and is available for selection today.
SOCKERS DEFENSE BEST IN THE WEST
The Sockers are finding success so far this season through goal prevention. With just twelve goals allowed in four games, the Sockers (3.00 per game) have the second stingiest defense in the entire MASL, trailing only the Eastern Division Baltimore Blast (three goals allowed in three games).
KRUGER KRUSHING THE KOMPETITION
Pardon the word play, but Argentine rookie Matias Kruger has been developing into a force on the field week by week. In Thursday's 7-2 win over Las Vegas Kruger scored a career-high two goals, giving him four goals and two assists (six points) so far in four games. After being shut out in his first game, Kruger scored against Seattle, had a goal+two assists vs. the Fury and then two more goals against Las Vegas for an upward scoring trend.
HUGHES NETS TWICE
In his second season with San Diego, Jeff Hughes is healthy and starting to show Sockers fans the promise he brought with him from Cincinnati as a two-way talent. Hughes recorded his first multi-goal effort of the season Thursday night against Las Vegas. First he put home a centering pass in the crease after a committed run from Raymundo Reza, then later came streaking in on right wing to slot home a back-heeled pass from Perera. On the season Hughes has three goals and two assists (five points) in four games.
DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT...
After setting the pro sports team record in 2013 with a 48-game winning streak, San Diego has quietly won ten consecutive regular season games dating back to last season.
CHILES CAPTAINS SOCKERS, SCORES TOO
With eyes focused on the new scoring talent in San Diego, it's easy to overlook the three-time league MVP doing his thing. Kraig Chiles has taken over responsibility as the team's captain in 2014, but continues to score at a high rate. Finishing a pass from Nick Perera with just 0.8 seconds left on the third quarter clock Thursday night, Chiles netted his seventh goal of the year and is the only Sockers player to have scored a goal in all four games.
SHOOTOUTS BACK TO NORMAL
The MASL on Friday, November 14th announced the end to their experimental rule assigning a shootout to every field penalty earning a blue card. The league has returned to the more familiar rule whereby shootouts are only awarded on last-man defensive situations, or when a goalkeeper leaves his crease to foul a field player.
OTHER MASL RULES CHANGES
While the shootout rule has gone back to the former PASL standard, other rules have changed for the MASL season:
- Instead of six team fouls triggering a power play, a field player who accrues four personal fouls in a half will lead to his team suffering a (non-shootout) power play penalty.
- No three-line passing is allowed.
- Slide tackling is allowed in the MASL but only of the ball. Any player contact is a blue card foul.
- The goalie can only handle the ball with his hands inside the boxed-off part of the crease, not the semi-circle.
- Substitution is still allowed in the flow of play, but is NOT allowed at dead balls/free kicks unless a timeout is called. A warning and then a blue card will be issued.
- Overtime is now a 10-minute sudden death period, followed by a three-man shootout if necessary.
SOCKERS ON THE RADIO AND WEB
Saturday's game and all 20 regular season MASL Sockers games will be carried live on ESPN Radio 1700-AM in San Diego. Audio streaming is available at www.espnradio1700.com. In addition, every MASL game has video streaming live on GoLiveSportsCast.com, including all Sockers games. Aaron Susi joins Craig Elsten for all home broadcasts and is on the trip for radio commentary Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas as well.
SOCKERS/LEGENDS: THE SERIES
Thursday night's 7-2 Sockers win over Las Vegas was an aberration compared to the series overall between these two sides. In two seasons of competition the San Diego Sockers and Las Vegas Legends have made close games a habit. Their first-ever meeting, at the Orleans Arena on January 18th, 2013, saw a last-second goal by Brian Farber lead the Sockers to a 6-5 victory, their 47th consecutive win at the time. The two sides met again in the playoffs on March 10th, 2013, and this time Las Vegas scored with seven seconds left to force golden goal overtime, which Chiky Luna won for the Sockers on his famous scissor kick golden goal for another 6-5 San Diego win. In 2013-14, the one-goal games disappeared, with the Sockers beating Las Vegas 7-5 in Sin City, while Vegas knocked off San Diego 12-9 at the VVCC. The series culminated at Las Vegas Sports Park with a Legends' 11-7 playoff victory. This season, however, the two teams played OT in their first match, won by San Diego 5-4. Overall the Sockers are 4-1 against the Legends in the regular season and 1-1 in the playoffs; the Sockers have scored 47 goals to the Legends' 42 goals in the series aggregate.
LAST CHANCE TO SET THE DIVISION
For the expected Pacific Division contenders, parting will be such sweet sorrow. After this weekend the Sockers will not see the Legends or Ontario Fury until the final three games of the regular season in late February.
OPPONENT PROFILE: LAS VEGAS LEGENDS (1-3)
After a 7-6 shootout win over Turlock to open the season, the Legends have dropped three in a row and sit in fifth place in the Pacific Division table. New head coach Doug Borgel has teamed with owner Meir Cohen to create a defensive-minded side in Las Vegas this season. Missing last year's captain and PASL assists leader Enrique Tovar (now in Turlock), the Legends have instead clamped down, allowing only 21 goals in four games. Goalkeeper Zeke Sanchez (.769 save percentage, 4.99 GAA) is a passionate performer who has the ability to make the bonus save in a close game. Top striker Ivan Campos leads the team with five goals and six points in four games but was shut out against the Sockers on Thursday night. The Legends have struggled on offense with only fifteen goals total. Past top performers Eric Guzman, Felipe Gonzalez and Ricardo Sobriera are all without a goal so far this year. Gonzalez suffered an ankle injury Thursday night but is expected to play today. The team added former Turlock defender Bronil Koochoie.
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Major Arena Soccer League Stories from November 23, 2014
- Legends Upend Sockers 9-7 in Las Vegas - San Diego Sockers
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- Tulsa Revolution fall to Dallas, 14-5 - Tulsa Revolution
- Lovegrove Scores in OT to Give Sidekicks Fourth Straight Win, 3-2 - Dallas Sidekicks
- San Diego Sockers Game Notes at Las Vegas Legends - San Diego Sockers
- Tiguinho Leads Fury Back for OT Win - Ontario Fury
- Surge Fall to Express 12-3 - Sacramento Surge
- Dallas Defeats Tulsa, 14-5 - Tulsa Revolution
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