Kickers, Brick Men Shoot Nothing but Blanks in a Scoreless Tie

For a professional sports team, the kind whose fan attraction and gate receipts depend largely on performance, a scoreless tie is a nightmare.

The Hollywood Kickers of the Western Soccer Alliance might have wished they were sleeping Saturday night and that their match against the Edmonton Brick Men was just a brutal dream that a well-placed pinch or a bucket of ice water could have cured.

The Kickers weren’t so lucky, however, and, although they shutout the Brick Men at Birmingham High, they failed to score a point. Not a single score in the entire match. None. Zilch. Zero. Zippo.

And to the crowd of about 500, the game announcer’s desperate plea near the end of the match--”Come on, people. Go Kickers, Go!”--came out more as a warning that the Kickers were headed toward only their second scoreless game of the season than as a rallying cry.

Although the Kickers outshot the Brick Men--13-1 in the first half alone--Hollywood must have thought the Edmonton net was covered with some form of ball repellent.

Not scoring goals shouldn’t come as any surprise to the Brick Men, who have scored but one in three games--which accounts for their last-place standing in the WSA. By tying Hollywood, Edmonton at least picked up its first point of the season. A victory in the WSA is worth three points, a tie worth one.

With the tie, the Kickers’ first-place standing is in jeopardy. Going into Saturday’s game, the Kickers (2-2-2) had seven points, three more than second-place San Diego. Edmonton is 0-2-1.