(All pictures courtesy Aaron Jaffe)
DEL MAR—On “Alumni Night”, the Sockers played both against their bitter rivals to the North and for the greatest coach and some of the greatest players in the history of indoor soccer.
Kraig Chiles scored five goals and Eric Wunderle had a hat trick and two assists as the San Diego Sockers raced out to a 9-1 lead before coasting home to a 13-6 victory in front of 2,334 at the Del Mar Arena. Eduardo Velez added two goals and two assists for the Sockers (6-0), who outscored Anaheim 5-0 in the second quarter to establish a 7-1 halftime lead.
“We wanted to put on a show for Ron Newman and all of them,” said team captain Aaron Susi,”We wanted to show them what kind of team we have now in the new era of the Sockers.”
The Sockers honored legendary former head coach Ron Newman at halftime, re-naming the PASL championship trophy the “Ron Newman Cup”. Newman was joined by a number of Sockers legends from the past including Juli Veee, Brian Quinn and Zoltan Toth on “Alumni Night”, re-uniting to witness San Diego’s best performance so far in the PASL season. The 78-year-old Newman is widely considered the greatest indoor soccer coach in history, leading the Sockers to ten championships in eleven seasons on the bench.
It was no coincidence that the Sockers elevated their game with so many of the franchise’s former players in the house. Head coach Phil Salvagio took to the whip in training throughout the week according to multiple players, drilling home 3-v-2 and 2-v-1 chances to try and shake San Diego out of their early season offensive funk.
“We think about (how the past players view us) all the time,” said Chiles, “This was a very big game for the team and the organization and we all took it very seriously. We had a great week of training and went through a lot of work with Phil. I know I was thinking about this game for a few days and we were ready to take it to Anaheim.”
Aaron Susi had a season-best three assists for the Sockers (Photo: Aaron Jaffe)
Unquestionably, this was the most artistic and dominant first half the Sockers have played all year. In addition to shutting down Anaheim veteran stars Paul Wright and Enrique Tovar, San Diego took advantage of the Bolts’ sloppy track-back defense by making creative and quick passes. The Sockers scored within the first two minutes on Diego Rovira’s first goal of the year, a long shot which was one of his trademarks on the way to 20 goals last season. Rovira missed most of the Sockers’ early games with a stress fracture in his foot. Two minutes later, Aaron Susi received a ball in the corner and fed Eric Wunderle, who crashed the penalty area to slot home his fourth goal of the year for a 2-0 lead.
“Susi gave me a great ball back door,” said Wunderle, who erupted for his biggest night of the season with five points.
While the Bolts answered back on a Miguel Sanchez power play goal late in the first quarter, the second frame was dominated by San Diego 5-0. Anaheim’s defense failed to help one another, allowing the talented Sockers plenty of space to work their magic. Dan Antoniuk walked out from the wall unmarked to the middle of the penalty area and blasted home his third goal of the season unassisted for a 3-1 lead just 81 seconds into the quarter.
Kraig Chiles leaps to accept a pass with his chest (Photo: Aaron Jaffe)
Then, the Sockers started getting fancy, raising their game with each goal. Scott Martin lofted a precise pass across two lines to the chest of Wunderle, who knocked it down and beat Molina with a one-touch side volley. Moments later, it was Chiles using a sharp angle from the left corner to beat Molina into the upper side netting. As the Sockers celebrated, the Bolts began a slow simmer which built throughout the game.
“They obviously weren’t prepared for us,” said Susi, “It didn’t look like they were playing as much of a team game as they should. They were a bunch of individuals out there and when you play like that you’re not going to win many games.”
Anaheim is led by head coach/owner Bernie Lilavois, who was red carded after the Sockers’ first game in Anaheim and yellow carded in their second. On Saturday prior to the main game, Lilavois was red carded and tossed out of the PASL Premier game, in which the Sockers Reserves beat the Bolts Reserves 11-4. He achieved the rare red-yellow daily double by the second quarter, when Bernie went jaw-to-jaw with Salvagio during a timeout and both coaches earned the misconduct booking.
“They didn’t hold their composure that well,” said Wunderle, “Bernie isn’t a good leader in that aspect and when the coach is losing his top the players see that they can do the same thing and it’s not surprising when it happens.”
The Sockers took advantage, as Farber and Chiles exchanged a series of pretty passes, with Kraig roofing the finish for a 6-1 lead. The second quarter was capped by the goal of the year so far in San Diego, as Susi headed a half-field pass from goalkeeper Riley Swift (6-0) across the crease on one hop to Eduardo Velez, who fired a leaping one-touch strike past Molina for a 7-1 halftime advantage.
Chiles scored three goals after intermission to improve his league-leading total to 19 in six games. By the time the Sockers took a 10-2 lead with 3:22 remaining in the third, Lilavois turned to a six attackers strategy, pulling Molina for Paul Wright any time Anaheim had the ball. In addition, the Bolts turned up the ferocity of their fouls, leading to an unfortunate fracas.
The start of the Bolts-Sockers brawl. Note goalkeeper Jesus Molina at left who is about to jump the wall and leave the bench, supposed to be an automatic red-card (Photo: Aaron Jaffe)
With 3:23 left in the fourth and the Sockers ahead 12-5, Chiles made a hard run in front of the Anaheim bench and got double-teamed.
“I remember having Brennan (Tennelle, a former Sockers Reserves defender who signed with Anaheim after the first month of the season) on my back and another player was coming to close me down. I was hit from behind and as I fell I grabbed the player next to me (Tennelle). The next thing I knew there were three of us on the floor and things started getting out of hand.”
A number of Bolts players leaped off the bench, which is supposed to be an automatic red card according to PASL rule 12-9.1. The third man into an altercation and the first man off the bench is supposed to be automatically red carded. In this case the unfortunate third man in was the Sockers’ Velez, who tried to pull players out of the scrum and ended up catching a fist in the face as well as a red card booking. Velez left the field and went into the stands, where he signed autographs for the remainder of the fourth quarter.
A second shot of the Bolts-Sockers brawl. In this pic Molina is leaping over the wall, a Bolts staffer is on the field grabbing at Eduardo Velez, and midfielder Patrick Ruiz has left the bench as well (Photo: Aaron Jaffe)
“That’s what teams do when they get desperate, they kick and play dirty and get scrappy,” said Susi.
Tennelle was ejected for fighting, and Bolts forward Sam Allen started his own battle with the fans in the nearby boxes, squirting his water bottle at them, shouting and pointing. Allen seemingly needed to be restrained by fellow Bolts from making a Ron Artest-style dive into the stands.
After order was restored, the Sockers went into a defensive crouch and stopped trying to score even though the Bolts were still in six attackers. Anaheim crept closer as Tovar netted a second-half hat trick and Rafael Gaytan added a pair of goals. Eric Wunderle gave the raucous fans at the Del Mar Arena one more goal to celebrate before the final horn, knocking home a rebound of a long shot by Brian Farber to complete his own hat trick. Eric had a good look at scoring earlier in the quarter but had his shot swatted aside by Paul Wright in goal.
Despite the ugliness at game’s end, the net result for the night was the best performance of the season for the Sockers, and a good show for the legends of the indoor game who were watching. San Diego has won 20 straight matches dating back to their last defeat on December 27th, 2010. They are now 29-0 all-time at the Del Mar Arena.
Kraig Chiles' six-point performance vaulted him into the league lead for both goals and points (Photo: Aaron Jaffe)
“We wear the Sockers jersey and it’s important to recognize that’s an honor,” said Chiles, “It’s very important for us to play well, play our hardest and win every time we step out on the field.”
The physical nature of the game took its toll on the Sockers, and several veterans will not be in the lineup for Sunday’s matinee in Phoenix. Team captain Aaron Susi (ankle), goalkeeper Riley Swift (thumb) both were kept home for the game, while midfielder Majell Aterado (hamstring) travelled but will be a game-time decision. The Sockers (6-0) play the Phoenix Monsoon (1-7) at 3:30pm Pacific time in a game which will count both as a PASL regular season game and as the second round of the U.S. Open Cup. 619Sports.Net will have exclusive live (audio-only) coverage beginning at 3:30.
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