Sockers Sweep Comets

KANSAS CITY —  Sockers’ Coach Ron Newman spent much of the weekend trying to explain that he wasn’t what a sign implied he was at Kemper Arena on Sunday afternoon.

The sign had Newman’s name, the rear end of a horse, the time--59:57--and the date--4-26-85. It told Newman what Kansas City fans thought of him for calling a timeout with three seconds left on Friday night when the Sockers had a four-goal lead.

Even before going to Kemper Arena, Newman again defended his strategy to reporters. He said the Sockers had practiced a set play with three seconds left Friday just in case they might need it in the future.

With 4:46 remaining in Sunday’s game, the Sockers used one of their set plays. Jean Willrich passed to Branko Segota on a free kick, and Segota scored to give the Sockers a 3-2 win over Kansas City, completing a three-game sweep of the Major Indoor Soccer League quarter-final series.

“Their coach (Rick Benben) still can’t bring himself to accept what I did Friday,” Newman said. “He has to know that I wasn’t interested in running up the score. We won today’s game on a free kick. That should be the end of the story.”

But it wasn’t. After Sunday’s game, Benben had to be restrained by Socker Steve Zungul from going after Newman.

Benben made his move toward Newman several seconds after they had shaken hands.

“Ron and I must have a cultural problem,” Benben said. “After we shook hands, he said something about how I’ll understand what he did (Friday) when I learn the game in a few years. I wondered what kind of crap he was talking about. Saying that was worse than calling timeout with three seconds left.”

Newman called timeout Sunday with seven seconds left when Sockers goalkeeper Jim Gorsek had a free kick. Benben said he would have done the same, but Gorsek was upset and screamed at Newman as he went to the bench.

“I wanted to save the timeout in case I didn’t get the kick off in (the permitted) five seconds,” Gorsek said. “Once Ron called timeout, I didn’t have one to use when we went back. Luckily, we got the kick off.”

Newman said he called timeout because his players appeared tired and he did not want them to make a mistake.

Before the game, signs throughout the arena made no mistake of what Kansas City fans thought of Newman.

“I thought there would have been even more signs,” Kansas City’s Steve Pecher said. “I thought they would have had him hanging. The guy’s a joke.”

Said Newman: “Did you see Pecher after the game? His teammates were out there congratulating us, but he wasn’t. He couldn’t handle it.”

Kansas City ultimately lost Game 3 because of its inability to handle Segota, who had scored four goals in Friday’s 11 -7 win.

Willrich was tripped just before Sunday’s winning goal. He was going to kick the ball straight on the free kick, but when Kansas City lined up three men in front of him, he decided to pass the ball left to Segota.

“Jean laid off a perfect ball,” Segota said. “My shot hit a defender in front of the net. You never know what would have happened if the ball didn’t deflect.”

At the game’s outset, it was predictable what a fired-up Kansas City team would do. The Comets came out kicking either the ball or Socker players, whichever happened to be nearest. The Comets were whistled for 11 fouls in the first quarter, resulting in automatic two-minute penalties for both the sixth and ninth fouls. Pecher also drew a two-minute penalty for tripping Brian Quinn.

Kansas City twice was at a two-man disadvantage. Kaz Deyna scored off a Quinn pass on the first two-man power play at 7:54, giving the Sockers a 2-1 lead. Hugo Perez had scored for the Sockers at 3:55, and then Kansas City’s Carlos Salguero scored at 7:20.

The second quarter was scoreless but not without incident. Brian Schmetzer was head-butted by Kansas City’s Greg Makowski at 9:18 after they had argued. Both men drew two-minute misconduct penalties.

At the end of the half, Perez and Kansas City’s Gino Schiraldi had an argument. Pecher joined the argument before heading to the locker room.

“Everything was cool,” Pecher said. “I think everybody was madder at the referees than at each other.”

The teams concentrated on soccer during the second half. However, a lack of concentration by San Diego resulted in a bench penalty that led to Kansas City’s tying goal on a third-period power play.

The bench penalty was called when the Sockers had too many players on the field. They had a similar penalty in the fourth quarter but were able to withstand the power play.

Newman said the first penalty was caused when Perez mistakenly went on the field too soon for Zungul, who was held scoreless for the second time in three games.

MISL PLAYOFFS

AT A GLANCE

SOCKERS VS. COMETS

QUARTERFINALS

(BEST-OF-FIVE SERIES)

Game 1 Sockers 4, Comets 3 (OT) Game 2 Sockers 11, Comets 7 Game 3 Sockers 3, Comets 2 OTHER SERIES

SUNDAY’S GAMES

Cleveland 5, Chicago 4 (OT) (Cleveland wins series, 3-1)

Baltimore 5, L.A. 4 (Baltimore wins series, 3-0)

Minnesota 3, Las Vegas 2 (Minnesota leads, 2-1)