Sidekicks Never Say Die - MISL 1987 - Part 8/9
Sidekicks Never Say Die - MISL 1987 - Part 8/9
The Sidekicks take Zungul and the Stars to Game 7.
“Sudden death? No way. This was sudden life – Dallas 5, Tacoma 4, in front of 16,824 shrieking, nail-biting midwives,” wrote Star-Telegram columnist Gil LaBreton, “If your TV screen went fuzzy about 10:45 last night, that was the new kid in town, indoor soccer. If the teacups vibrated off the pantry, that was Reunion Arena, quaking up Mavericks-sized tremors.”
Mark Karpun had trouble imagining his elation would ever be matched again in his career, what with all his fans and friends in attendance. And he hadn’t even played Game 7 yet.
“Reunion Arena was a fantastic arena to play in. They were motivated and supported. They always kept it close,” Dowler said.
With the longest game in playoff history over and the series tied 3-3, both teams had to muster the energy and focus for a final contest.
“I honestly think there were fans, as into the game as they were, I don’t think they realized the reaction of each player on both teams, on what they were going through; the pressure they were under to maintain a tremendously high level of performance, physically and more important, mentally. They couldn’t afford to make an individual mistake,” Gordon Jago said.
For Victor Moreland, from the moment Karpun scored the winning goal, all he could think about was leaving for Tacoma the following morning. But Jago had a premonition.
“In all honesty, at that moment of the joy of the victory, I knew we were going to win the championship,” Gordon Jago said.
For Doc Lawson, the heavens themselves were sending signs.
“I have to mention something unusual that happened after Game 6. I was driving home with my wife and I had my moonroof open and I looked up into the sky and saw a falling star. I reached over to my wife and said, ‘Listen, a miracle is going to happen in Tacoma for Game 7. I don’t know what it is. But I got the message. There’s going to be a miracle,’” Lawson said.
In Game 5, the Tacoma-Seattle metro area filled the Tacoma Dome to capacity: 20,284 fans. But demand for Game 7 tickets exceeded that. So the Stars added over 1,000 standing-room-only “seats” for Game 7. At 21,728, it was the largest crowd ever to see a professional indoor soccer game in the United States.
The MISL’s national cable TV broadcaster, ESPN, was committed to airing the America’s Cup and the debut of a thing called Arena Football. So, Home Sports Entertainment aired the game in Dallas, with Prime Ticket sharing the production load for the Tacoma broadcast.
The bad news for Dallas: precedent dictated that Tacoma would win. After all, in the league’s nine seasons, the team with the home advantage had won every series.
“We fought for the home-field advantage all during the season and finally got it. It’s helped us before in these playoffs and we had better use it again,” Alan Hinton said.
Despite Tacoma’s impressive season, their Division Semifinal and Division Final triumphs over Wichita and San Diego, respectively, had been won in the final game of both series. They had a taste for drama, apparently. Both of those final games were won with Mike Dowler in goal. But in Game 7 of the Finals, based on their strategy of alternating goalies, they went with Joe Papaleo.
“It’s been a grueling, all-out series. Both teams have given unbelievable effort. I don’t know where we’ll get the strength to play Game 7. But I have a funny feeling we’ll play a pretty good game. We’ve come too far to let it slip away now,” Tatu said.
On Saturday, June 20, 1987, the Dallas Sidekicks and the Tacoma Stars played the final game of the MISL season. Alan Balthrop remembers the 1st Quarter as a battle of who was going to make a mistake first. It turned out to be Dallas. Tacoma’s Gary Heale scored in the last half-second of the quarter. Four-and-a-half minutes later, Doc Lawson evened it up with a power play goal in the 2nd Quarter.
“Then some controversy occurred when the ball bounced off Wes McLeod’s hand in the penalty box. The referees called a penalty shot for intentional handball. It all depends on whether you are from Dallas or Tacoma whether it was intentional or not,” Balthrop said.
Žungul , of course, finishes, making it a 2-1 Tacoma lead at halftime.
In the 3rd Quarter, Gary Heale scored again to make it a 3-1 lead for Tacoma. That’s where the score stood until late into the 4th Quarter. With a little over 3:00 left in the game, the Sidekicks attempted to pull Sobieski and put in a sixth attacker.
“We had passed it over midfield back to him, because the goalie was the only player who could call timeout back then. [Sobieski] picks up the ball, calls timeout, puts the ball down and is ready to go to a sixth attacker and the referee says, ‘Oh no you don’t.’ Illegal procedure,” Balthrop said.
The 1986-87 season marked the first year the MISL instituted the rule change on intentionally passing the ball back to your own goalie. It was now a penalty for him to pick up the ball. The clock stands at 2:48 left in the game.
“Sobieski knows it’s over. He has his head down and is walking toward the bench. One of the players said, ‘Don’t worry Sobi, we’ll tie this thing,’” Balthrop said.
Yeah, fat chance.
“I almost rehearsed my losing speech,” said Dallas coach Gordon Jago.
Over the loudspeaker, it’s announced that when the final buzzer sounds, Tacoma fans should stay in their seats for the presentation of the championship trophy. Some fans report sighting a fat lady walking into the arena, preparing to sing a few notes.
“Trailing 3-1 with less than three minutes left in the seventh and deciding game of the MISL championship series, the Dallas Sidekicks seemed as dead as the franchise itself did just a year ago. You could almost hear the sound of champagne corks popping in the Tacoma locker room as the Stars and their home crowd began celebrating what seemed a sure victory,” Morin Bishop wrote in Sports Illustrated.
With that, the Stars kicked the ball around for a couple minutes until the buzzer sounded. Tatu retired and opened Tatu’s Tattoo Parlor two blocks from Reunion Arena. Or was it Tattoo’s Tatu Parlor?
THE END
What an anticlimactic ending that would have been. No, in fact, things ended a bit differently.
Next Week: The thrilling conclusion to “Sidekicks Never Say Die”