Sockers Scare Themselves Into Defeating Minnesota

SAN DIEGO —  On Saturday nights, horror movies commonly play at theaters around town, but the Sockers had a private screening of a horror film all their own Saturday morning.

It was the replay of Thursday night’s 6-3 loss to Baltimore, and nobody liked what they watched.

“We saw a lot of embarrassing moments,” defender George Katakalidas said. “There were some mistakes that were like high school and college mistakes. We weren’t doing anything.”

So Saturday night in the Sports Arena, the Sockers decided to do something about it. They snapped their two-game, home losing streak by beating Minnesota, 5-2, in front of 9,010 fans.

It was a game that brought out cliches from the Socker players. The talk was of team effort and everybody playing for everybody else--instead of everybody for himself, as it had been recently.

“We weren’t hot dogging it tonight like we had been,” said Katakalidas, who was celebrating his 23rd birthday. “In the other games, we thought teams would roll over and die. We had gotten lazy. We have so much skill on this team. Nobody should blow us out unless they are a good team and we play terrible.”

Such was the case against Eastern Division leading Baltimore Thursday night, but it was a different story against Minnesota.

Of course, Minnesota (9-12) is not nearly the team that Baltimore is, but the Sockers must take whatever they can get these days. In the game before Baltimore, the Sockers were beaten, 7-6, by a sub-.500 Tacoma team.

The Sockers (15-6) took possession of first place in the Western Division by one game over the Los Angeles Lazers Saturday. Los Angeles lost at St. Louis, 6-4.

After beating Minnesota, there was a changed atmosphere in the Socker locker room. Players were congratulating each other, which was quite a contrast from when Steve Zungul had blasted his teammates for not getting him the ball enough against Baltimore.

“In two games, we had given up 13 goals,” Zungul said. “I started an argument after the Baltimore game. I said we should play more disciplined on defense, have more organization and use me more. Tonight, nobody was keeping the ball for so long. We played quick, simple soccer.”

Zungul broke a seven-period scoreless streak with one of the easiest goals imaginable at 3:14 of the fourth period. He kicked in the rebound of a Jean Willrich shot that was lying on the ground just in front of an empty net.

After the goal, Minnesota goalkeeper Tino Lettieri joked with Zungul about how lucky he was. Zungul told Lettieri that Lettieri was lucky after making a save on him later in the period.

All evening, Lettieri had been taunting the crowd in a fashion that might have made a villainous professional wrestler jealous. Among other things, Lettieri motioned that the crowd was talking too much, and he even blew the crowd a kiss at one point.

Lettieri is known for his hot-dogging style. One of his rituals is to place his “lucky” stuffed parrot, Ozzie, into the goal before each period. It didn’t bring him enough luck against the Sockers, but at least he thought he gained respect from the crowd.

“They were fantastic,” Lettieri said. “I love to play against a crowd like this any day of the week. Their booing is like cheering me on. When I look back and smile at them, they look at me as if to say ‘you’re great.’ ”

At the outset, things did not go so well for the Sockers. Minnesota scored 1:56 into the game on Thompson Usiyan’s goal.

However, Branko Segota tied the game at 7:54 with a goal from in front off a Cha Cha Namdar pass. The Sockers took a 2-1 lead at 1:35 of the second period when Willrich scored after a free kick pass from Kaz Deyna.

Hugo Perez made it 3-1 at 5:41 of the third period, scoring off Zungul’s assist. The “lucky” goal by Zungul gave the Sockers a 4-1 lead at 3:14 of the fourth period.

Jan Goossens of Minnesota made it a two-goal game by beating goalkeeper Jim Gorsek, who had 12 saves, at 4:15 of the fourth period. Zungul scored into an open net with 53 seconds to play.

“It was like a playoff game,” said Coach Ron Newman, who was celebrating his 51st birthday. “When they had the ball, everybody was battling everywhere. If we could’ve been that intense the last two games, I think the results would’ve been different.”