Sockers Down Falling Stars 5-2
Boris Pardo out-dueled his counterpart Danny Waltman in a goalkeeper battle for the ages, and the aged, as the San Diego Sockers fought off the Tacoma Stars 5-2 on Saturday night at the accesso ShoWare Center outside Tacoma. Pardo registered an .857 save percentage on 12-of-14 saves, helping propel the Sockers to a six-match points streak (5-0-1) and 30 total standings points, good for a temporary three-way tie atop the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) table.
San Diego (10-4-2) won for the sixth time in nine tries on the road this season, and for the second time in Tacoma. Nick Perera led the offense with two goals, while Sebastian Mendez, Kraig Chiles, and Jesus Pacheco added one goal apiece. Tacoma (7-7-1, 20 points) lost for the seventh time in ten games since a 4-1 start, failing to rise out of seventh place and into a MASL playoff berth.
An injury to Tacoma starting goalkeeper Luis Birrueta set up a legendary matchup between two of the best indoor goalkeepers of the 21st century, as the rarely-used 44-year-old Waltman stood in between the pipes for his second start of the season against the 41-year-old Pardo, who has commanded the net for two months straight with his teammate Chris Toth with a hand injury. Toth was back on the bench as the backup on Saturday night, active for the first time since December 12th against Empire. Pardo and Waltman (12-of-16 saves, .750) were teammates at the end of last season in San Diego, and both came out determined to show there were plenty of saves left in their gloves.
The early first quarter saw both clubs find their legs with determined scoreless play, highlighted on Tacoma’s side by a three-v-two counter-attack led by Jamael Cox that led to a direct shot, and a save by Pardo. Tacoma was shown a blue card with 9:38 left in the frame for too many men on the field, giving San Diego a chance for an early power play. During the man advantage, the Sockers thought they had the opener on a back-post shot by Jesus Pacheco, which Waltman wrangled over the goal line, but the initial official’s call was no goal, and the Tacoma TV broadcast was unable to provide a convincing enough replay to overturn the call, leaving the match scoreless. Waltman made another huge kick save later to deny Luiz Morales, part of a 5-for-5 quarter for the 44-year-old backstop, who kept the match 0-0 through fifteen minutes.
The second quarter opened up with both teams pressing on the throttle, leading to a phase of wide-open play and a chance for both veteran keepers to impress some more. The Stars thought they had the opener in the 17th minute when an aerial trap and chest pass sprung Khai Brisco alone down the middle, but he was denied by Pardo on a one-v-one save. In the 19th minute, Sebastian Mendez found himself in front of the frame with a chance to shoot, and Waltman turned him aside with another huge stop.
With the tempo a little too hot for the Sockers’ liking, Nick Perera--the former Stars captain, GM, and head coach over eight years with the club--knew what to do to restore order against his old team: get the ball to his feet. In the 20th minute, a long floor pass forward to Perera on the left wing gave him only one defender on his hip and room to move to the middle. With two sole roles to his right, Nick opened up his right foot for a shot, which took a deflection on the way toward the net, settling inside the left post at 4:54 for a 1-0 San Diego lead. Less than a minute later, the Sockers resumed pressure in the zone, and Adrian Reyes was able to wrestle a ball out of the corner to Perera, who was planted on the left angle for an easy and powerful conversion at 5:44 for his 11th goal of the season, and a 2-0 Sockers lead.
The closing minutes of the second quarter gave San Diego captain Kraig Chiles an opportunity to push the lead to three, when Cesar Cerda spotted him alone on the left wing and sent a rolling pass to his potent right foot. Chiles struck first-time and seemingly had Waltman beat through the legs, but the ball deflected up to the bottom of the crossbar and then out, continuing a snake-bit season in which it has felt like Chiles has been stopped by more big saves than variance could afford, leading to a career-low .139 shooting percentage that is almost three times below his career average of .302.
Tacoma found a key moment of brilliance to draw within a single goal by halftime, as defender Khai Brisco read and reacted to a wall pass from Alessandro Canale carom chest-high to the middle of the crease, and rose into the air for a spectacular scissor-kick goal at 14:15 to make the score 2-1. One of the prettiest goals of the season served to keep the hosts within a single point despite being out-shot 9-2 in the quarter and 15-4 in the half.
The goalkeeper duel continued in the early minutes of the third quarter, as Waltman made back-to-back stops at the beginning of the 33rd minute to deny Mendez and Perera, and then Pardo stopped Yahir Romero at point-blank range with a split-second kick save. For Waltman, it was his 2,000th career MASL save, joining Toth and Pardo as the only three keepers to achieve the feat. Then, a chance to build the lead came up empty after a sharp challenge flag from San Diego head coach Phil Salvagio, who spotted too many Stars players on the field. The Sockers’ power play failed to convert on the chance and almost conceded on the opposite end as the advantage ended, but Brisco was turned aside by Pardo’s fifth save of the quarter, part of a 7-for-7 performance during the fifteen minutes.
As both sides looked for a moment of individual brilliance, Canale was sent in one-v-one against Pardo from the attacking line in, and Pardo took his straight-on shot in stride for another massive save. As the wash of play flowed to the other side, San Diego’s Jose “Bebe” Gonzalez located Sebastian Mendez in front of him at the attacking line, and the lefty weaved into the zone to his right before bouncing a shot through Waltman’s arms and into the net at 9:49 for his ninth goal of the year and a 3-1 lead. After 45 minutes, Pardo was 10-for-11 on saves and Waltman 12-for-15.
With so much on the line for both clubs, the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter saw tough defense, hard fouls, and big dispossessions, but no shots on goal. With under seven minutes to play, Canale accepted a long pass forward through a hard check from Sockers defender Drew Ruggles, and kept possession alive with a pass back to defender Chase Hanson. The longtime Star selected forward Micheal Ramos up the middle, who jogged to his right and slotted home his eighth goal of the season at 8:29, drawing Tacoma within one at 3-2.
What followed next was a series of interactions with MASL Video Review. First, the Sockers challenged that prior to the goal, Canale head-butted Drew Ruggles. The officials went to review but did not receive an angle from the broadcast which showed the two after the ball left their possession, so the challenge was rendered moot, with San Diego’s challenge flag returned. Then, after a physical tussle in the middle of the field between the Sockers’ Cerda and the Stars’ Eddie Na, a pull-down by Cerda dropped Na for a blue card penalty. Cerda yelled that he had been fouled before the play, and his dissent led to a five-minute yellow card. But, the Sockers had their challenge flag back and threw it. The review showed, indeed, a foul on Na, which negated the power play. However, the dissent card stood, effectively erasing Cerda from the roster for the rest of regulation.
San Diego rebuilt their two-goal lead when Chiles at last would find safe purchase for one of his patented rocket shots, finishing a great play by Drew Ruggles to complete a 4-2 lead at 11:29. Ruggles first intercepted a Tacoma forward pass at midfield with an athletic heel trap to his side, but then played the ball to himself off the wall before setting up the Sockers captain from left wing. Tacoma challenged, looking for a handball on Ruggles, but the play was ruled legal and good for a two-goal lead. The Stars pulled Waltman for a sixth attacker and immediately lost the ball off the restart, with Leonardo de Oliveira sliding a pass to Jesus Pacheco up the middle at 11:48 to effectively salt the result away.
The Sockers will see St. Louis and Milwaukee, the two teams tied with them in the standings, play one another on Sunday, with a chance for one or both clubs to pass them depending on how the points fall. San Diego returns home next weekend to complete their season series with the Stars, hosting Tacoma Friday at 7:35pm on Star Wars Night at Frontwave Arena. Tickets are available at frontwavearena.com or sdsockers.com.