just a trip down memory lane. december 22, 1995 was a monday, but here were the games in what was then the only winter-time indoor soccer league (the cisl played that summer prior and the one after): without otto orf (back) and tommy tanner (hamstring) and with hector marinaro (knee) and zoran karic (ankle) playing little, the cleveland crunch beat the canton invaders 17-10 in front of 1,594 at the canton civic center. doug miller and andy schmetzer had three two pointers apiece in the crunch's win. elsewhere in ohio, the cincinnati silverbacks fell to the harrisburg heat 8-7 at 2,013 looked on. the late domenic mobilio scored the game-winner. another intimate gathering (1,608) at the bayfront center in st. petersburg watched the expansion tampa bay terror get its first home win, beating the buffalo blizzard 15-9. in one of the npsl's neutral site games (which were really just a chance to keep chicago from playing at home as much as possible), the chicago power got one of their six wins on the season, beating the detroit rockers 18-9 in front of 2,058 at new haven, connecticut. eloy salgado, acquired the week prior in a trade with milwaukee, scored three two-point goals for the power, who were not long for this world. and lest ye think it was all rockford vs. massachusetts, the st. louis ambush beat the wichita wings 19-11 as a crowd of 12,389 saw kevin hundelt score three two-point goals for the home team. hope you enjoyed this look back. happy holidays, everybody.
That Eloy Salgado was a weird looking fella, eh? I saw Hundeldt's son play my hometown high school team this year. It made me feel old. I really thought the Terror would make it. That was before the league had a website, if I'm not mistaken. Or, maybe it was before I had a computer, because I used to get their newsletters in the mail. Good times.
I was at a Chicago Power-Kansas City Attack game at the UIC Pavilipn that season and Selgado had five goals, but the Attack won in the end. I was sitting right near a couple of Attack team officials, probably the owner and GM. The owner asked what Selgado's salary was and the GM said "around $25,000." The owner said, "You're kidding, let's get him." They had him within a week.
right you are. mostly. salgado went for the cycle in that 19-17 loss to kansas city on 1/28/06. however, it was early march before the trade happened. the power dumped a bunch of talent at the trade deadline 'for cash and future considerations' (as if the power had any future): salgado to kanasas city, tony bono to milwaukee, joey kirk to st. louis and dave hoggan to wichita. there were only seven games left in the season/their existence when they dumped those guys, and, oddly enough, they managed to win two of the seven.
I was offered a job with the Power around this time, IIRC. They brought in a new GM from Philly who knew of me and knew I lived in Chicago. I turned down the job because I wasn't sure how much longer indoor soccer was gonna survive in Chicago, plus it was less money than the meager salary I was making at the time. But I offered to help out on game days as a nice guy. My first experience meeting Pudgy...I could tell within 30 seconds that he wished I was on the other side of the planet. The feeling? Mutual.