San Diego Sockers Defeat Soles de Sonora in Hard Battle
Soccer News: The San Diego Sockers are known as winners. This is a team of talented professional soccer players who have brought championship victory to San Diego over and over again and as the new 2015/16 Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) season kicks off – players, coaches and fans alike all look forward to another championship ring — another national victory.
The road to bring back home the trophy kicked off with the San Diego Sockers Major Arena Soccer League 2015/16 season opener. Two was the special number for the San Diego Sockers as they defeated Mexico’s Soles de Sonora 7-5 in the season opener in front of 4,033 fans at the Valley View Casino Center. The arena was packed with fans and the USA v Mexico rivalry was intense with back and forth scoring action which kept fans on the edge of their seats. San Diego, California beat Hermosillo, Mexico after several tense moments.
Kraig Chiles and Jeff Hughes each had two goals and the Sockers went 2-2 on the Power-Play while killing both of Soles de Sonora’s man-advantage situations.
Fan favorite Chiles thrills soccer lovers with goals. The well known San Diego Sockers striker is now just two goals away from reaching the 250 mark for his career.
The soccer match began as a disaster for the Sockers, the Soles de Sonora scored their first ever goal in franchise history just eight seconds into the match. David Parente came flying down the right and sent a screamer to the far post, just under the angle of post and bar. The Sockers — a team that used to win by double digit goals — took a little time to recover their momentum and then pulled off the win.
Evan McNeley would bring the Sockers level on the power play as he smashed home a pass from Chiles with 4:31 left to go in the first quarter.
The sides traded goals until new signing Erick Reveles gave the Sockers their first lead of the match at 4-3 with 3:53 remaining in the half.
Frank Tayou brought the sides level again less than three minutes into the third quarter, but the Sockers retook the lead through Anthony Medina less than a minute later and never looked back.
Chiles and Hughes would each get their second of the match as San Diego would not let Sonora get back within touching distance.
“There’s a lot of pressure on us and we know it,” Chiles said after the game. “There’s a lot of big timers on this team and if you go 0-3 [on special teams] you might not be there next week.”
“We’ve worked on it,” Chiles continued talking about the teams success on the power play and penalty kill. “We worked on it and we did reps and we worked on it over and over again and it paid off.”
Former San Diego Sockers Captain Aaron Susi has traded his team jersey for a suit and is not out of the arena and wearing a suit as he watches from the sidelines with the team. This was his first official season match as a member of the brass and not as a player.
The San Diego Sockers were without some of their key players for this opener. Veteran midfielder Brian Farber is still on the mend from a knee injury last season and dynamite forward Nick Perera was also missing.
Under the leadership of longtime coach and founder of the San Diego Sockers Phil Salvagio and John Kantera, V.P. of Operations/General Manager, this year promises to continue the winning ways of the most successful indoor soccer teams in the sport’s history.
Next Up: A similar effort will be required in two weeks time when the squads face off again in Mexico on November 7.
