Sockers Trample Tired Sidekicks : Nogueira’s Shutout Provides Newman With 500th Victory

SAN DIEGO —  Since the Major Indoor Soccer League’s seven teams are all playing in one division this season, this month’s All-Star game will not feature the usual East-West matchup. Instead, a team of all-stars from six teams will play the Sidekicks in Dallas.

If Wednesday night is any indication, it isn’t going to be much of a game. Playing against the Sockers, who hardly field an all all-star lineup, the Sidekicks provided no sparkle at all and were polished off, 4-0, in front of 6,486 fans at the Sports Arena.

The victory provided Ron Newman with his 500th victory as a professional soccer coach, and all-star goalkeeper Victor Nogueira--who made 13 saves--with his first shutout in the MISL this season.

But other than that, Wednesday’s game was not one to be promoting any mid-winter classic around.

Having played in Wichita Tuesday night, the Sidekicks woke up at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday to catch a flight to San Diego. And the Sockers (14-12) swept past lifeless Dallas (14-13) into second place.

“We had to leave so early in the morning from Wichita and then fly all day, I don’t really see how we could have performed much better,” Dallas Coach Gordon Jago said. “We knew we were going to be tired and we played that way.”

Newman, meanwhile, was getting tired of being stuck on 499 victories, a number the Sockers hadn’t been able to improve upon during a three-game losing streak.

“With a team like this, it was obvious that I would eventually win another game and get 500,” Newman said. “But since we had lost three straight, it started to become important that (Wednesday night) be the night I get it.”

Neither team put anything together in the first quarter or for most of the second, and the game was scoreless four minutes before halftime.

Then, as sometimes happens when offenses are struggling, the denial of an almost-certain score turned the game around.

Dallas had the opportunity on this occasion, and Nogueira came up with three big saves in a row, an effort that turned out to be the cornerstone of his first shutout since 1985.

Michael King, running in alone on the left side, took the first shot, and the ball banked off the boards and hit Nogueira on the back of the head.

“For a moment, I didn’t know where the ball was,” Nogueira said.

He soon found out. King had it back, in fact, at the left of the goal, and he fired again. Nogueira, sitting on his knees in front of the goal, stuck his right elbow up to block it.

The rebound, though, deflected in front to Richard Chinapoo, who was only a few feet out and had but a prone Nogueira between himself and a wide-open goal.

Nogueira, however, managed to maneuver his stomach in front of Chinapoo’s shot and keep the game scoreless.

After, everybody called this the game’s turning point, and it was hard to argue. Zoran Karic scored 1 1/2 minutes later on a re-start pass from Gus Mokalis to give the Sockers a 1-0 lead at halftime.

Then, early in the third quarter, Karic scored again. This time Nogueira fired an outlet pass and Karic beat Chinapoo to the ball after it took a bad bounce off the boards. Karic beat Krys Sobieski from in front and Nogueira received an assist.

The two goals gave Karic a team-high 23 for the season and helped him vent some of the frustration he felt after he was not selected to the all-star team.

Certainly, after Wednesday, it appeared Karic could at least take the place of some of the Dallas players who will be playing.

Socker Notes

Defender Kevin Crow played in his 249th game as a Socker Wednesday night and has now played in more games as a Sockers than any other player. Crow shared the record of 248 games with Jean Willrich. . . . Zoran Karic returned to action Wednesday after missing two games with either a sore knee or a bruised foot. Coach Ron Newman said Karic had been complaining about his left knee, but the official word from trainer Bill Taylor was that Karic had a bruised foot. Whatever the case, Karic did play with a wrap on his knee Wednesday. . . . By assisting on Ralph Black’s goal in the fourth quarter Wednesday, Branko Segota snapped a two-game scoreless streak. . . . The Sockers play host to the first-place Baltimore Blast Friday night at 7:35. Baltimore has beaten the Sockers twice this season and leads second-place San Diego by three games.