|
|
12/11/2000
From Staff Reports
Goalie Raul Salas stopped a shot by Giampaulo Pedroso in a shootout to give Monterrey La Raza a 6-5 win over the Sidekicks in the 2000 World Indoor Soccer League Championship in Monterrey, Mexico, on Sunday.
Monterrey finished 21-4, while the Sidekicks concluded their season 18-8.
La Raza won its first WISL Championshipas a sellout crowd watched one of the most exciting games in WISL history between two of the winningest franchises in indoor soccer.
Dallas was making its third consecutive trip to the WISL championship game and got off to a good start as Patrick Shamu scored to give the Sidekicks an early lead.
Monterrey came right back, scoring on a beautiful pass from Genoni Martinez, which David Barbosa one-timed past Dallas goalkeeper Sagu to tie the score at 1-1.
Three minutes later, Shamu once again put Dallas ahead with his second goal of the game and fifth of the playoffs.
In the second period, Monterrey came back with two goals by Marco Coria and WISL MVP Mariano Bollella to take a 3-2 lead into the half.
Monterrey had a chance to put the game away in the third period, but gave up an own goal, which was credited to Ted Eck and again the score was tied.
Coria, playing with a separated shoulder, once again put Monterrey ahead, 4-3, as both teams went into the fourth quarter with the WISL crown on the line.
At 5:19 into the fourth quarter, Dallas forward David Doyle scored on a power-play goal, which tied the score, 4-4. Twenty four seconds later, Shamu intercepted a Monterrey pass and one-timed a perfect ball to Giampaulo Pedroso, who sent a rocket past La Raza keeper Raul Salas. The Sidekicks went ahead, 5-4 for the first time since the first quarter.
With the game winding down Bollella, beat two Dallas defenders and lofted a beautiful soft ball over the Dallas defense, which Sergio Gonzalez kicked under a diving Sagu to tie the score.
With the fans on their feet, singing and yelling both teams stepped up their level of play, which saw Monterrey and Dallas almost scoring in the last few minutes of the fourth quarter.
With the score tied 5-5, the game went to overtime, which saw more close calls by both teams.