Slobo Warns of Peril, Chapman Sidelined
By Arnold Irish
As posted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 3/23/84
Don't be surprised, when the Steamers play the Wichita Wings on Saturday night in Wichita, KS, if Slobo Ilijevski runs onto the Kansas Coliseum field in full battle regalia and digs a moat in front of the goal he protects.
"Every game is a 60-minute war, but games in Wichita are a different kind of war," said Ilijevski, the Major Indoor Soccer League's premier goalkeeper. "It's a big crowd in a small building, and the fans are so loud they keep the referees under constant pressure. On their small field, you see a lot of 50/50 calls go against us.".
"Their style is different from ours, too. They have a lot of very good passers, and they know how to work the ball around until they get easy shots." Ilijevski, whose 3.9 goals-against average is the MISL's best and well under the leage record of 3.5 he posted two years ago, never has any trouble getting up for games against Wichita because he suspects some of the Wings take cheap shots at him. He singles out All-Stars Andy Chapman and Omar Gomez as the culprits.
"You have to respect both for their skills, but they try to hurt you," Ilijevski said. "At the All-Star game, Chapman acted like we're friends–'Hi, how are you?' and all that–but it's different when we're on the field. He's hurt me bad twice. Once he got my knee; I was lucky I didn't need surgery for that. Another time he pushed me into the boards and dislocated my fingers. Gomaz has never hurt me, but he's tried. He's a mean person inside. Maybe the meanest in the league. This is not just something I say, but something everybody knows."
Chapman, the Wings' leading scorer (40 goals and 17 assists for 57 points) won't hurt anybody in Saturday's 7:35pm game. He'll watch in street clothes as he serves his automatic one-game suspension for drawing his 20th penalty minute. Ilijevski refuses to be intimidated, no matter who plays for Wichita and who doesn't.
"I can't stop racing anybody for the ball along the boards just because he may try to hurt me," the keeper said. "I can't let a player rope off parts of the field and keep me out. I must have the right to go anywhere, into any corner, without being afraid. And I do. If a player scores against me, I say good for him. Sometimes, though, I get burnt by unsportsmanlike players. This isn't right. Soccer is for artistic plays; for magic moments, not broken legs. If people want to see fights, they should buy tickets to a boxing match or hockey game."
The Steamers (21-17) lead the Western Division with 10 regular-season games remaining. The Kansas City Comets are in second place and Wichita (18-19) is in third. "If we win, that would put another big game between Wichita and us," Steamers coach Dave Clements said. "We've be 3 1/2 games up with only nine games left, so a win Saturday would be almost like a division title game. But then, any game between the Steamers and Wichita is like a cup final, even in regular season."
The Kansas Coliseum, inhabited by an "Orange Army" several thousand strong and sold out almost without fail, is the MISL's most notorious snakepit. "It may not be the toughest building to play in, but it's one of the toughest to bring a win out of, " Clements said. "It's always hot in there. And the noise is a factor in that the players can't hear each other even when they shout. There there's the field, which is more compact than most in width as well as length."
"Wichita will miss Chapman, but Jeff Bourne (41 goals, nine assists) and Kim Roentved (20 goals, 22 assists) are both strong goal scorers," Clements warned. "And when goalkeeper Mike Dowler get's hot, you can't put the ball past him. It should be one heck of a game."
As posted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 3/23/84
Don't be surprised, when the Steamers play the Wichita Wings on Saturday night in Wichita, KS, if Slobo Ilijevski runs onto the Kansas Coliseum field in full battle regalia and digs a moat in front of the goal he protects.
"Every game is a 60-minute war, but games in Wichita are a different kind of war," said Ilijevski, the Major Indoor Soccer League's premier goalkeeper. "It's a big crowd in a small building, and the fans are so loud they keep the referees under constant pressure. On their small field, you see a lot of 50/50 calls go against us.".
"Their style is different from ours, too. They have a lot of very good passers, and they know how to work the ball around until they get easy shots." Ilijevski, whose 3.9 goals-against average is the MISL's best and well under the leage record of 3.5 he posted two years ago, never has any trouble getting up for games against Wichita because he suspects some of the Wings take cheap shots at him. He singles out All-Stars Andy Chapman and Omar Gomez as the culprits.
"You have to respect both for their skills, but they try to hurt you," Ilijevski said. "At the All-Star game, Chapman acted like we're friends–'Hi, how are you?' and all that–but it's different when we're on the field. He's hurt me bad twice. Once he got my knee; I was lucky I didn't need surgery for that. Another time he pushed me into the boards and dislocated my fingers. Gomaz has never hurt me, but he's tried. He's a mean person inside. Maybe the meanest in the league. This is not just something I say, but something everybody knows."
Chapman, the Wings' leading scorer (40 goals and 17 assists for 57 points) won't hurt anybody in Saturday's 7:35pm game. He'll watch in street clothes as he serves his automatic one-game suspension for drawing his 20th penalty minute. Ilijevski refuses to be intimidated, no matter who plays for Wichita and who doesn't.
"I can't stop racing anybody for the ball along the boards just because he may try to hurt me," the keeper said. "I can't let a player rope off parts of the field and keep me out. I must have the right to go anywhere, into any corner, without being afraid. And I do. If a player scores against me, I say good for him. Sometimes, though, I get burnt by unsportsmanlike players. This isn't right. Soccer is for artistic plays; for magic moments, not broken legs. If people want to see fights, they should buy tickets to a boxing match or hockey game."
The Steamers (21-17) lead the Western Division with 10 regular-season games remaining. The Kansas City Comets are in second place and Wichita (18-19) is in third. "If we win, that would put another big game between Wichita and us," Steamers coach Dave Clements said. "We've be 3 1/2 games up with only nine games left, so a win Saturday would be almost like a division title game. But then, any game between the Steamers and Wichita is like a cup final, even in regular season."
The Kansas Coliseum, inhabited by an "Orange Army" several thousand strong and sold out almost without fail, is the MISL's most notorious snakepit. "It may not be the toughest building to play in, but it's one of the toughest to bring a win out of, " Clements said. "It's always hot in there. And the noise is a factor in that the players can't hear each other even when they shout. There there's the field, which is more compact than most in width as well as length."
"Wichita will miss Chapman, but Jeff Bourne (41 goals, nine assists) and Kim Roentved (20 goals, 22 assists) are both strong goal scorers," Clements warned. "And when goalkeeper Mike Dowler get's hot, you can't put the ball past him. It should be one heck of a game."
posted by TheBDS at 10:07 AM
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