After Playing in Spain, Soto Is in Slow Lane

The 1993 soccer season, through the eyes of Cal State Fullerton forward Eddie Soto:

The ball moves slowly upfield, creeping past the midfield stripe, rolling toward his side of the field. A teammate gives it a boot, and it slowly rolls his way. It takes forever to get to him.

In fact, he could probably grab a sandwich and some chips by the time the ball arrives.

After playing in Spain last summer, he knew things would be different when NCAA competition resumed. And it didn’t take him long to find out the biggest difference: The game is played in first gear over here.

“Here, you’ve got to hold onto the ball more,” said Soto, a preseason All-American and a preseason nominee for the Missouri Athletic Club Sports Foundation’s collegiate soccer player of the year honor. “In Spain, the play is more simple. They keep the ball constantly moving and everybody seems to work for each other. I’d get the ball and I always had two or three guys in front of me expecting it back.

“I remember the first week at practice, seeing the ball move. I’d be amazed, with my mouth open right there on the field, going ‘Wow,’ it was just incredible.”

Soto, a second-team All-American last fall after leading Fullerton with 32 points on 12 goals and eight assists, slowed in 1993. In 19 games, he finished with seven goals and five assists.

Although the Titans await Monday’s NCAA tournament bids--they finished 13-6 and hope to get an at-large bid--Soto is not completely dissatisfied with the season.

“Things aren’t as good as I wanted them to be from the aspect of goals,” Soto said, “but my play has been really good so far, and I’m proud of that.”

Said Fullerton Coach Al Mistri: “You just have to put everything into perspective. There is not a defender around who needs to be told twice that he is a preseason All-American. They get excited.”

Soto, 5 feet 10, 165 pounds, transferred to Fullerton at the beginning of his sophomore season from Cerritos College. He has played on two junior national teams and in the 1990 U.S. Olympic Festival.

And after making a national name for himself last season, he was invited to play for the professional ‘B’ team in Valencia, Spain. He lived at the clubhouse where the Valencia team housed some of its younger players and, from early July until late August, thought about nothing but soccer.

“At first it was a little shaky,” he said. “My first couple of weeks, I didn’t get along with anybody. Everybody was like who are you, why are you here, what are you doing trying to take my job. After a week or so, the players started accepting me.”

It also didn’t hurt that, in his first intrasquad game, he scored two goals. That’ll win respect in a hurry, and it certainly helped ease Soto’s nerves.

“The first day I walked into the clubhouse and saw all of the clothes and shoes,” Soto said. “Seeing all of the faces of all of those soccer players. It was pretty scary.” Mistri said the trip changed Soto.

“It was a tremendous trip for him,” Mistri said. “He came back in much better shape--he lost some weight. Also, he had a new perception of what is considered a high standard.”

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Eventually, Soto would like to return to Spain. Not this summer, though. Instead, he plans to attend summer school, get some work done on his degree (he is majoring in sports management) and enjoy the World Cup before returning to Fullerton for his final season next fall.

“Last year, when I heard I got All-American, I was really shocked,” Soto said. “One of my biggest goals after making second-team All-American is to be first-team All-American.

“I want to finish school and get a degree and, now that I know what it takes to be a professional soccer player, I want to go back to Spain or South America or try Europe. Maybe make a living out of it--get old and coach.”

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Whither Heather? Fullerton’s top women’s cross-country runner, Heather Killeen, was forced to sit and watch the Big West championships Saturday because her left hip was too sore.

Killeen, last year’s Big West runner-up, was unable to get another crack at the defending champion, Utah State’s Alisa Nicodemus.

“I think it would have been a really good race,” Killeen said. “I don’t get to run against her that often, and I was really looking forward to it.”

Killeen believes she strained her left hip flexor Oct. 15 in the Arizona State Invitational. She was amid a pack that had to suddenly merge and, as she moved to her right, she had to kick her left foot up quickly to avoid an orange cone. She felt something pop and, although she was able to finish that race without any pain, it started to hurt soon after.

Now her participation in the NCAA regional meet in Portland, Ore., is in jeopardy.

“Well, I’ve got two weeks to think about my approach,” said Killeen, a junior. “There are two ways I can go: I can run and risk re-injuring it or I can rest it and just keep getting in worse shape.”

Titan Notes

The Titan baseball team has received an oral commitment from Derrin Ebert, a left-handed pitcher from Hesperia High. Ebert, 5-4 with a 2.61 earned-run average as a junior last season, picked Fullerton over USC and Long Beach State. Pitching for his American Legion team this summer, Ebert went 9-3 with a 1.64 ERA, two saves and five complete games. . . . The men’s soccer team has received an oral commitment from Joe Franchino of La Verne Damien High. Franchino scored 17 goals last year as a junior. . . . The second-place finish by the men’s cross-country team in the Big West championships Saturday was the Titans’ best. It also was the first time the men placed three runners in the top 10 (Mike Tansley first, Brian Johnson sixth and Andrew Tansley eighth). . . . The women’s soccer team finished their first season at 2-14-1. . . . Construction has started to fix the drainage problem on the Titan baseball field.