Lazer Goalie Works Overtime : Tim Harris Gives Minnesota a Rematch Tonight at Forum
Sometime after his favorite red jersey had been shrunk in the hotel laundry early in the day on Jan. 22 and before he went to bed at 2:30 the next morning, Tim Harris of the Lazers found himself.
The experience, which included getting on the bad side of fans at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minn.; becoming self-conscious about wearing a bright yellow jersey; becoming the winning goaltender in the longest game in Major Indoor Soccer League history; having some choice parting words for the fans behind him afterward; sitting near exhaustion in front of his locker for 20 minutes; drinking 15 glasses of water, and winning 10 bucks from his teammates in poker.
He doesn’t know how or why it happened. All he knows is that since that Jan. 22 marathon road game against the Strikers and two subsequent starts at the Forum, all three of which went into overtime, he has never been more comfortable or confident in his two years in the league.
His goals-against average has dropped to 3.93, seventh best in the MISL; he won the first two games and lost the third against Pittsburgh last Sunday only after leading by two in the fourth quarter, and most recently was named MISL defensive player of the week.
Not coincidentally, the Lazers have won five of eight games in January and have a 10-15 record heading into tonight’s rematch with Minnesota (15-12) at the Forum at 7:30.
“I’m still really new to the game,” Harris said after a practice this week. “And I’m still trying to figure out exactly what my style of play is. But in the last three games it has all seemed to come together. That’s not to say it will be that way for the rest of the season, but it’s a start.”
It’s also an improvement over the Tim Harris who arrived as an overweight, slow goalie better suited for the outdoor game he played at UCLA, the one who was 0-1 with a 5.56 goals-against average through 25 games of the 1984-85 season as Mike Mahoney’s backup. Even Harris the rookie, who finished 4-5 in 17 games games, figured once or twice that he had about as much future in the faster indoor game as grass.
“At this point last year, if Mahoney had gotten hurt in the first quarter, (Coach) Peter Wall probably would have flipped a coin to decide if he should put me in or go with the extra attacker for the rest of the game,” Harris said. “I was bad, and I don’t mind admitting it.”
Neither do Wall or Mahoney, to a degree.
“There were times, and I’m sure Tim thought so himself, that he would never be able to adjust to the indoor game.” Wall said. “It was a slow process for the first six or seven weeks, just working on some of the basic things like him standing up all the time. We couldn’t get him to stay up and wait for the players to take the shots. He was so used to going down to stop the shot, but with the indoor game things are happening so much faster that when he went down, the shot would be by him.”
Added Mahoney, the 35-year-old veteran who played 10 seasons in his native England and later with the California Surf of the North American Soccer League before joining the Lazers: “When he first arrived with the club, he was obviously a big lad. He was slow, and it really didn’t look like he was going to work out. But to the lad’s credit, he buckled down and worked hard and asked question after question after question.”
Dropping 10 pounds to get down to his current playing weight of 190 certainly helped, but the answers to the questions have made the most difference.
Mahoney is the tutor, Harris the 24-year-old pupil. One is nearing the end of his career, the other is just beginning. One carries the European flavor of soccer, the other is pure South Bay, having attended South Torrance High School and now living a couple of hundred yards from the ocean in Hermosa Beach.
They are best of friends, though, and roommates on the road.
With Harris’ emergence, the Lazers have gone with a two-goalie system for the most part this system, and Wall says it will stay that way. Tonight’s game with Minnesota will be the fourth consecutive start for Harris, but he played only sparingly in the three games before that, so whether they have a No. 1 and a No. 2 all depends on how you look at it.
Besides, Mahoney is on the field with Harris even when he actually is on the bench.
“I can’t say enough about what Mick has done for me in this game,” Harris said. “And he doesn’t wave the white flag when he is telling me all those tips and say, ‘Here, I’m giving up.’ He’s fighting tooth and nail all the time and he’s frustrated when he is not playing, as I am. But the guy has been there every day for me.”
Said Wall: “Mahoney is coming to the twilight of his career, and he knows that. So seeing Harris do so well gives him a lot of satisfaction. . . . Although I’m sure Mahoney would love to be in front of Timmy, I think deep down he feels good about this. Harris is out there with so much of what Mahoney taught him.
“Harris is definitely our starting goalkeeper of the future. In the last three games, he has proved that he belongs there longer this season. But as long as the season is, I don’t think you can go with one goalie, and I think Tim would be the first to say that.”
Harris began proving himself in the three-overtime game at Minnesota, when the Strikers had 52 shots on goal before the Lazers won, 5-4, on a goal by Willie Molano 100 minutes and 27 seconds after it had begun.
Two nights later at the Forum, Harris went into overtime tied with Kansas City, 2-2, when Beto ended the game with a goal 8 minutes 19 seconds into the extra period.
After another one-day rest before another overtime game, this time before a season-low crowd of 3,226 on Super Bowl Sunday, Harris made several tough saves in the first half and then let the game slip away.
Pittsburgh scored with 10 seconds left in the third quarter to close it to 3-1, then got two more goals in the final 71 seconds of regulation time to tie it. In overtime, Paul Child cut in front of Harris and scored, giving the Spirit a 4-3 victory.
“Now we can all say that we are glad the club stuck with him,” Mahoney said. “And you can tell that he’s paying them back.”
