Frank Klopas believes in playing the game the right way, with skill. As such, he will bring in the players necessary to field a representative team. I'm not sure if it's mere coincidence or not, but Slavic players tend to do well indoors. Maybe because of their close control. Frank has an eclectic mix on this team-Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Romanians, Greeks, Poles, Argentinians, Mexicans, etc...... It seems not only that this team will play entertaining soccer, but that it will also appeal to the sizeable ethnic community here in the Windy City-if attendance at the exhibition tournament can be a barometer. It sure beats the monotonous nonsense I saw from Milwaukee and St. Louis.
I read this from this Kansas City Attack website from 1997-98 about Novica Marojevic. http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/3410/nroster.html#nm I apologies if I misquoted word for word what it said. He was voted Montenegro's best Junior soccer player in 1989-90. And it is Sutjeska.
Which means he was 24 when he came to the states. Do you think Partizxan or Sutjeska would let that type of talent go in its prime? Something doesn't add up here. u
From Chicago Storm website: http://www.chicagostorm.net/news/?cat=15&id=359 Lazo is back playing in the pros. Good for him.
Media Day Today is the team's medial day. They are going to introduce the players and uniform. Below is the link for more info. http://www.chicagostorm.net/news/?cat=15&id=362
No Samurai? Ryan Futagaki is not listed on the Storm roster and yet when I went to the Storm's preseason party last night (if you missed it shame on you, it was really fun) there was Ryan looking for all the world like a member of the team. Hey, Kenn, it was great to finally meet you in person. Can you clarify Ryan's status? Thanks! See you all on Saturday night.
Re: No Samurai? I believe Ryan is one of a few guys who are "around" but who aren't on the roster at the moment. Practice guys. Oh, now I know who you are, you sly devil you.
Re: No Samurai? Thanks! I lost my "real name" handle in one of the BigSoccer crashes and figured that "ratdog" was a better name than "Grandpa Sparky" (for those who remember the half-time mascot soccer game in Naperville). Oh, I do get channel 37 so I'm looking forward to your PBP. Good luck with the gig!
Re: No Samurai? I would watch #20 Awadallah Morad. Smallish looking but strong on the ball. Here is video of him in our league last year. #1 & #5 goals of the year. http://www.nslchicago.org/NSL Video Highlights.htm
Re: No Samurai? Team practiced at the Pavilion tonight. A look: If you're not in Chicago, listen tomorrow night at 7pm CT at www.chicagostorm.net or if for some reason you can't find the link there, it'll also be at www.kenn.com and www.broadcastmonsters.com.
Random thoughts after attending the first match: 1. Marojevic is just a notch above in ability. What a brilliant goal in the upper right hand corner. 2. Losing Chronopoulos hurt big time. 3. Frank may need to start looking for a keeper.
So, what happened??? I figured we'd have seen a bunch of posts about the game. Fill us in who can't make the games. Thanks!!!!!
Lost 8-3. They were down 4-1 in the first ten minutes, then held them scoreless the rest of the half (4-2 at the break). Got within 4-3 in the third, but that was that. Milwaukee pulled away. Your boy Decu played a lot. Alavanja seemed like he never left the field. They've got some work to do, but they played hard. You'd figure Chicagoans will like a team that plays hard.
Ken, With all due respect, Chicagoans like a team that plays well, not just hard. If I wanted to root for a team that just plays hard, I would have been cheering the Wave. Mutiny girl, as hard is this may seem to believe (with a 8-3 scoreline), the Storm is a more talented team. But, when your keeper gives up at least 3 soft goals (if not more), you don't stand much of a chance. Combine that with the fact that the Storm seemed a bit disorganized in defending the counterattack and set pieces, and voila!!!!, you have the final score. Up until it was 4-3, the Storm had much more of the play and were asserting their technical superiority. Novi scored a fantastic goal to make it 4-3 and then shortly after the keeper lets one in between his legs. Took the wind right out of their sails. The Storm will get better, though. You can't expect an expansion team to come out of the gate flying. They have some talent. Marojevic was the best player on the field, Decu and Naumoski are not bad either, and Chronopoulos and Alavanja are stellar in the back. The keeper though...................that's another story.
Hello again. I will have more about the game and the opening night for the STORM in my column on OurSportsCentral.com. I am scribing it now. But I also should have something in it about the Monterrey FURY snafu. A lot of on-line fora suggest that something will be reconciled on Monday. So I will likely not have it finished before Tuesday. I faxed in my credential request to the League on 15 September. I still have not yet received it. I did err in not submitting a formal request to cover the game to the STORM's Nicolino Di Benedetto. I didn't know he was the person to whom I should direct my query until Wednesday. When I logoff the Internet tonight, I have a letter ready to fax to him. The game's players' introductions were very weird. I mentioned in a column on OSC last season that the Baltimore BLAST did not go onto the field at the Wisconsin Center Arena until the end of the roll call of names (which led to the WAVE's P.A. announcer halting after naming three players in game #2). But the STORM did not even bother to identify the Milwaukee WAVE. A note to flag-waving patriots: The U.S. Flag hanging over one of the goals at the U.I.C. Pavilion has the star field in the wrong corner. (Flag etiquette mandates it go in the upper left corner when displayed vertically.) The team ostensibly has money. Notice the amount of cash they're spending on jersey lettering. The ATTACK didn't put "Marojevic" on the jersey - they opted for "Novi". Look at these names: Chronopoulos Guastaferro Kalkowski Schneider Rosenband I submit that they have some good sponsors. They didn't go for the quick-money corporations that forget about you the day after you deposit their check. I concur there were not 3,189 people in attendance. I wound up in what was designated the auxiliary media area. Officially, it is Section 303 at the Pavilion. Over to my right was Bill Quiqley from the Fire Alarm {This W-WW site never works in Mozilla for me. It keeps retreating back to the main page before it completely downloads.}. We felt that the announced attendance would be around 2,000. (Some humorous remarks were offered if the actual number would turn out to be 1,991 or 1,998.) Peter Wilt was present; but Major Indoor Soccer League Commissioner Steve Ryan was absent; thus nullifying an old P. Wilt quote as a potential excuse, "The League Commissioner in your building means an extra thousand people in the stands." As for the game: It is seldom a good idea to bring in a League powerhouse {oops} as your franchise's first visiting opponent. If the WAVE had gotten to double-digits versus the STORM, it might have completely soured a prospective Chicago indoor soccer fan. (In multi-point, the final score would have been WAVE 15, STORM 6.) Games against Milwaukee will become the top-drawing matches for the team. They will not need to be bolstered by having them as the opening night guest. The STORM should have scheduled Cleveland, Saint Louis, or Kansas City. The game versus Cleveland on Wednesday, 3 November should be more compelling, and I like the chances of the STORM to defeat the FORCE that night. Unfortunately for FIRE fans, Justin Evans of the FORCE was red-carded in last night's match, and thus will not be present this night. (They will have to settle for John Ball.) Truthfully; the item which most scares me about the team on the field is their goalkeeping. For as horrible as were the 1995-96 POWER, we had cohesive goalkeeping between Stuart Dobson (still active in the League) & Doug Petras (now a Pennsylvania State Trooper ). Jeff Richey & Danny Waltman? They signed a clutch of guys from the National and Metropolitan Soccer Leagues; I would think one of the teams in those leagues would have a guy who knows how to play indoor soccer goalkeeper. And even Frankie himself said it in post-game: "We got to 4-3. We had momentum, and then they got a goal, a bad goal, and things changed." I give J. Richey credit, though. After he allowed the bad fifth goal, he didn't linger upon it. Some off-the-field notes: If you want to park in one of the Pavilion's lots, it will cost you ten dollars! {I hope the STORM are getting some of the revenue from this.} I recommend riding transit. The Blue Line “L” has a stop at Racine. Even if the CTA adopts the "gridlock budget", this line will remain in service and with four-car trains. If you insist on motoring, but want to try and find a free parking place, concentrate on the area north of the Eisenhower. It seems that most post-game parties will be at Jak's Tap on W. Jackson Blvd., which is a tavern I can endorse [I'm even on its E-Mail list.], so you might try parking near it.
I may be wrong, but I have been led to believe that the Storm didn't schedule the Wave. This isn't college football homecoming. From what I understood, the league scheduled the game, not the Storm.
Not sure what that means, but I guess you're implying the Storm didn't play well. Defensively, no, especially after Chronopoulos exited. But in terms of possession and skill, I would rate the edge to the Storm. Kind of hard to stay in the game when EVERY shot on goal is turned into a legit scoring opportunity by your own keeper. At least 3 of the goals were his fault, and that's being conservative. The Wave did what they do best-stay compact, defend as a unit, and counter quickly. Effective, but not my cup of tea. IMO, Marojevic stood out head and shoulders above everyone else on the field. Nice close control and an absolutely killer goal. I'd be hard pressed to tell you anybody from Milwaukee impressed me at all. I saw the pre-season tournament in Darien also, and IMO, Chicago had the most talent, although I didn't see KC. I picked out several players from Cleveland that I liked. But as for Milwaukee and St. Louis, nothing special. Maybe I just need to pay closer attention.
No, I wasn't saying they didn't play well. I'm saying that I've heard for years that if a team in whatever sport plays hard, with the so-called blue-collar work ethic, that Chicagoans respond to that. And that if it's not about playing hard, but playing well, that Chicagoans respond to, then they must get disappointed a lot because you'd be hard-pressed to come up with too many Chicago-based teams in all sports that have played well for more than a year at a time recently. I think the Storm did play hard. And in places, they played very well last night. They just didn't do it for 60 minutes. But I didn't expect that. It's hard to throw a team together and expect them to play well together against one of the best teams in the league. I agree, though, that Novi is a different class.
I was at the game also last night. I was a little dissappointed at the turnout. I thought there would be a semi-full stadium for an inaugaral game. Anyway, I thought they looked a little disorganized at first, but they started playing better later into the first half. When Novica scored that goal in the second half, I thought they may have a chance, and then they let a goal in soon after. The goalie looked good when they played in Darien a couple of weeks ago, but last night he looked terrible. A couple of goals looked like miscues with his defenders. Novi scored a good goal but he tends to be a little too "cutsie" with the ball and lost it a couple of times. It seems like Lazo played the most minutes, but I don't remember many, if any goals were scored while he was in there on defense. Most of the goals were scored when he was on the bench. I thought he played solid. I think they have a lot of guys who are outdoor players and don't have indoor experience. I think they'll get better as they learn the indoor game better. The goalie, I don't know yet.
Heaven help us if that's the best we have!!! We need a few more of those "cutsie" players. Never can have too much skill. But then again, look at Milwaukee. I've seen more talent in the local amateur leagues, and yet they keep on winning. I thought Lazo did a good job also, although I'd like to see him mark a little "tighter". That being said, he's very good at initiating the attack from the back. I think he may need some "divine intervention".
"With all due respect, Chicagoans like a team that plays well, not just hard. If I wanted to root for a team that just plays hard, I would have been cheering the Wave." How does that explain the White Sox and the Bears?
Kenn, a team may not be able to play every opponent at home when they desire; but I was somewhat certain that the team's home opener is the one time when they get to do so. But maybe that is one substantial difference between the (new) M.I.S.L. and the N.P.S.L. For example, when the Dallas SIDEKICKS entered the M.I.S.L., as the final W.I.S.L. champion, they announced that they wanted their first home game to be versus whoever was the N.P.S.L. Champion. They got that [Philadelphia KIXX]. In a 12-team League, the 1995-96 Chicago POWER were three teams' home openers. This was more than any other team. (We nearly beat the defending Champion St. Louis AMBUSH the night they raised their Championship banner to the roof, and shot off the cannon twenty times.) I see many similarities between the STORM and the Cleveland FORCE. Both are a combination of some players with previous indoor soccer experience and some players from the A-League and P.S.L. Both teams may take a while to congeal and cohere. I've scribed columns appearing on OSC where I opine that it is really senseless to play indoor soccer at this time of year. Outdoor soccer is entering its playoffs; b**eball is having its so-called world series; and gridiron absolutely swamps everything, including any potential media attention. The opening date of the League was pulled this far backward in a concession to get the W.I.S.L. teams to merge, but one old W.I.S.L. team is not participating this season, another two had to get new owners, and the fourth team proved that its owner was only interested in filling dates, parking cars, and selling concessions at his arena when his basketball team was on break. {Here was an actual instance when Steve M. Paxos told the truth.} You don't draw any good crowds in December. (Another Peter Wilt witticism.) So why bother? Kick off the League season on 7th January. Play fewer matches. (From the STORM's Official Team Yearbook {2004-2005 / INNAUGURAL SEASON} | the article by David Mulvihill: A quote from Lee B. Stern: "The NASL was playing a limited number of games indoor; it was only an 18 game season. Nine home games is a special event. It is easier to draw crowds to a special event. The {old} MISL schedule had too many games. It was no longer a special event; it was a 48 game season!") [Lee B. is being forgetful. By 1987-88, it was a 56 game season! ] And for something a little closer to home, Kenn: There was some reparteé between Bill Quigley and myself about how Comcast is not negotiating in good faith with both other metropolitan Chicago cable operators and direct broadcast satellite purveyors. Is it better to be a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond? Fox Sports Chicago could really use some original programming, and WJYS (which is on everyone's cable system) would probably love to have something to show besides infomercials.