In the revolving door of indoor soccer franchises, two things appear constant: the San Diego Sockers and the team’s official No. 1 fan, longtime Chula Vista resident Norbert Stein.
The Sockers are in their third incarnation as a team. Stein? Well, he is still getting his kicks (so to speak) at the ripe age of 103. He remains an original.
“Stein is my name and soccer is my game,” he offers unabashedly to all who will listen.
Though he now watches games from a wheelchair and needs a walker to otherwise get around, Stein made sure he was in attendance for last Saturday’s Sockers’ season opener at the Valley View Casino Center. He had a very good time meeting old friends – and watching the game.
There was plenty for Sockers’ fans to cheer.
The Sockers defeated the Turlock Express 12-1.
“These guys might be pretty good this year,” Stein, affectionately known simply as “The Captain” by his soccer friends, offered with a smile.
The Chula Vista soccer aficionado has followed the game since growing up in his native Germany. He arrived in the United States following Hitler’s rise to power and later served in the U.S. armed forces in the Pacific Theater, earning a bronze star for single-handedly capturing three Japanese soldiers.
But he arrived in a land that did not appreciate the sport he loved.
It took a lifetime — for most people — for the United States to finally embrace the world’s sport.
Certainly, the Sockers’ United States professional sports team record 48-game winning streak made many people take notice of soccer.
Obviously, Stein is loving it now.
The centenarian gave a pre-game talk to the team on opening night — something that energizes both him and the team.
“I shouted ‘Hooray, hooray!’ – you make my day!” the centenarian explained upon greeting the team’s newcomers. “Congratulations and cheer now that you are here.”
Sockers head coach Phil Salvagio has made Stein’s pre-game speeches a tradition for the team. “I’m the only man in America, my beloved land, who can talk in front of an audience — big or small — without a paper in hand,” Stein served up.
At 100, Stein hoisted the Ron Newman Cup championship trophy during the team’s 2013 Professional Arena Soccer League championship celebration on the arena floor.
An award-winning poet, Stein came up with a rhyme appropriate for the occasion. “Soccer is a challenging game to endeavor, 48 will be ours forever.”
Memory lane
It would take three decades after arriving in America before Stein rekindled his love affair with soccer. That came in 1968 with the arrival of the San Diego Toros of the North American Soccer League.
Founded as the Los Angeles Toros in 1966, the team moved south and finished first in the NASL’s Pacific Division in its only season in San Diego. The Toros defeated Kansas City in a playoff match but lost in the championship round to Atlanta.
It would take eight more years before professional soccer returned to America’s Finest City with the arrival of the San Diego Jaws, a team that had its genesis in 1974 as the Baltimore Comets.
Like the preceding Toros, the Jaws lasted just one season while playing their home games at Aztec Bowl.
But local soccer fans received a reprieve. The Jaws returned to town after one season as the Las Vegas Quicksilvers. Their new identity: the San Diego Sockers.
Though not a hit at the turnstiles as an outdoor franchise in the NASL, the team struck gold as an indoor team. The original Sockers’ franchise won 10 indoor soccer national championship titles across the NASL and later the Major Indoor Soccer League.
When the MISL folded following the 1992 season, the Sockers joined the Continental Indoor Soccer League (1993-97). The Sockers played four seasons in the modest CISL, finishing runner-up to their longtime nemesis Dallas Sidekicks in the inaugural championship game.
Stein traveled (on his own expense) with the Sockers during their MISL championship days, attending finals in Baltimore, Cleveland and Dallas.
He became the team’s biggest fan — and hammed it up, especially when it came to getting a hand on the championship trophy or in locker room championship celebrations.
“Whenever I see a camera I go to it,” he laughed.
Stein rubbed elbows with the Sockers legendary international cast, many of whom would become his friends: Kaz Deyna, Juli Veee, Jean Willrich, Steve Zungul, Branko Segota, Thompson Usyian, Brian Quinn, Jacques Ladouceur (who lived in Chula Vista) and goalkeeper Zoltan Toth, among many others.
The Sockers would not die, however. A second incarnation of the franchise sprouted up in 2001 as a member of the World Indoor Soccer League. The Sockers lost in a mini-game, 2-1, to Dallas in the league’s only championship game.
The following year, WISL merged with a second incarnation of the MISL to create a national footprint indoor soccer league. The Sockers played three seasons in the MISL II before expiring for a second time.
The current Sockers franchise was launched in 2009 under David Pike, Carl Savoia and Salvagio, a former goalkeeper for the CISL Sockers, who assumed duties as head coach.
The team drew heavily on the mystique of the original franchise and found instant success, winning four consecutive PASL-Pro championships in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
The team also won U.S. Open Arena Cup championships in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and won the FIFRA Club championship in 2012 to extend the Sockers’ championship legacy to 14 indoor soccer championships.
The PASL/MASL Sockers entered this season with a remarkable 100-20 regular season record and 14-4 playoff record.
The team’s slogan for the 2016-17 season is the “Quest for 15” — that is, adding a 15th championship banner to hang from the rafters of its home arena.
Medina is back in the fold and so must be the Sockers
Attacking midfielder Anthony Medina has earned accolades as the iron man of the San Diego Sockers. He celebrated his return to the team by scoring a pair of goals in a 12-1 Major Arena Soccer League victory against the Turlock Express on Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Valley View Casino Center.
One of the original members of the Sockers’ revival squad in 2008, the Valhalla High School alumnus is entering his eighth season with the team.
He is hoping to win his fifth championship with the team.
“I like the creativity in the game,” Medina explained in a YouTube video interview. “I think to play soccer you have to have all the abilities whereas in some sports you don’t have to have the full package. In soccer you have to have al the qualities to be a good soccer player.”
Medina played in 23 games last season, recording 11 goals and seven assists for 18 points. He was the only Sockers player to appear in all 48 games of the team’s United States professional team sports record winning streak that ended in January 2013.
Medina, now 37, entered this season with 120 games under his cleats in the MASL and its predecessor league, the Professional Arena Soccer League, with 85 goals and 55 assists (140 points) to his credit.
The Sockers won PASL championships in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Medina is now a licensed real-estate agent and YMCA youth volunteer during his spare time. He played high school soccer for the Norsemen, then at the University of San Francisco. But that was the outdoor game.
Medina has proven a more than successful convert to the indoor game.
“It’s a completely different game,” Medina explained in the YouTube interview. “It has the basics — trapping, passing, shooting. But as far as game fitness and how the game is played, it’s completely different. It takes time getting used to. The basic fundamentals of soccer are still there but you’ve got to get used to the boards, quick passing and line changes.”
The Sockers, buoyed from four new player signings during the offseason, looked like world champions against the Express in their 2016-17 MASL debut. Veteran Kraig Chiles recorded a first-half hat trick and tacked on two assists to earn Player of the Game honors.
Chiles entered the game second all-time in Sockers scoring with 281 goals. He now trails the legendary Branko Segota (298 career goals) by 14 goals entering Saturday’s game against the archrival Dallas Sidekicks.
Another Sockers’ veteran, Eddie “Vaquero” Velez, scored twice in the first half as the Sockers roared to a 9-0 halftime lead.
Medina scored the final goal in the first half and added another in the second half.
Newcomer Max Touloute scored two goals while Brazilian Luan Oliveria chipped in with one goal as did fellow returners Raymundo Reza and Erick Tovar.
Goalkeeper Chris Toth stopped 21 of 22 shots he faced to pick up the win. His cat-like moves mimicked those of his famous father Zoltan Toth, who guarded the net for the original Sockers franchise.
The younger Toth made several amazing saves that elicited gasps – and cheers — from the 3,025 in attendance.
The Sockers, wearing their snappy new blue home kit, were faster than their opponent and showed much more creativity.
Chiles said team management has put together a very well balanced team this season — “a good group of veteran players, some very talented players who are in the best form of their lives — and, younger energetic players who have something to prove.”
New horizons
The MASL continues to improve its professional image. The league features 17 teams this season spread across four geographic divisions. Each team will play 20 regular season games.
Teams are split into two conferences with nine teams in the Eastern Conference (Central and Eastern divisions) and eight in the Western Conference (Pacific and Southwest divisions). The top two teams from each division will qualify for post-season playoffs.
The Sockers compete in the Pacific Division alongside Turlock, the Ontario Fury and Tacoma Stars.
The Southwest Division is comprised of Athletico Baja, based in Tijuana and coached by Southwest High School alumnus Rene Ortiz, as well as the Sidekicks, El Paso Coyotes and Sonora Suns.
The Central Division includes the Cedar Rapids Rampage, Chicago Mustangs, Milwaukee Wave, Kansas City Comets and St. Louis Ambush.
The Eastern Division includes the Baltimore Blast, Florida Tropics SC, Harrisburg Heat and Syracuse Silver Knights.
The Blast (2015-16 Eastern Conference champion) defeated the Suns (2015-16 Western Conference champion) in last season MASL championship series.
El Paso and Florida are both expansion franchises.
The Sockers lost to Sonora in the Western Conference finals.
Teams not returning in 2016-17 include the Las Vegas Legends, Sacramento Surge, Santillo Rancho Seco, Brownsville Barracudas and Waza Flo (Detroit).
Getting their kicks
Loyal Sockers fan Evan Mundine was in attendance at the season opener. The Texas teenager, who suffers from eight rare diseases, viewed the game from a wheelchair at field level. He remains thankful to the Sockers for all what they have done for him in accommodating visits to San Diego to view games.
He admitted he’s excited for the new season. “I’ve been watching them train and they seem to have a lot of energy,” he said.
Veteran Sockers midfielder Brian Farber did not dress for the season opener but is primed to play this season. “We’re excited that we’re back for another season,” Farber explained. “We’ve lost some players but have new players come in. I think we’ll do well. We have a favorable schedule.”
Late goals by ironman Medina spark Sockers to 2-0 start
The San Diego Sockers improved their early season record to 2-0 thanks in part to the timely goalscoring of the team’s iron man, midfielder Anthony Medina. The Valhalla High School alumnus scored two fourth quarter goals to lift the Sockers to an 8-4 victory against the Dallas Sidekicks in a game played Nov. 5 at the Valley View Casino Center and, in the process, keep the team’s record unblemished on the season.
The Sockers faced a Dallas team that had averaged 12 goals in its previous two games but entered the final quarter boasting a 5-1 lead. However, the Sidekicks quickly cut the lead to 5-3 before Medina came through with his two late goals to propel the host team ahead 8-3.
Medina has now scored four goals in the Sockers’ opening two games of the 2016-17 Major Arena Soccer League season.
The Sockers dominated play early in the game, leading 4-1 at halftime. Kraig Chiles chipped in with two goals to increase his career goal total to 286 goals. He now trails Branko Segota, the Sockers’ all-time leading goal-scorer, by 12 goals.
Sockers goalkeeper Chris Toth made 20 saves in the game seen by 3,573 fans.
The Sockers now hit the road for games Friday, Nov. 11, in Lakeland, Fla. against the Florida Tropics, an expansion franchise, and Nov. 12 in Dallas. The Sockers return home to host the Tacoma Stars on Dec. 2.
The Sidekicks saw their record dip to 2-2 following a 9-8 loss to Athletico Baja in a game played Nov. 6 in Tijuana.
