San Diego Fusion

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Fusion surge into the playoff race

By Larry Knowles

June 12,  2006

San Diego--The United States team may be off to a disappointing start in World Cup 2006, but local semi-pro soccer team San Diego Fusion has come back from the dead, winning back to back thrilling matches this weekend over visiting Albuquerque and Denver clubs.

In the first match, played Friday evening before a mere handful of fans at Helix High School, Miguel “Chiky” Luna scored on a free kick one minute into injury time to give the Fusion a stunning come-from-behind victory over the Albuquerque Asylum.

The Fusion, in black, in action against Albuquerque

The emotion-filled contest, which counted as two games and six points on account of an unfinished match a month earlier, saw five players booked and the Asylum coach ejected from the match. The Asylum opened the scoring seven minutes into the match when striker Mark Laws spun around a couple of Fusion defenders on the right flank then centered the ball to Brett Stalls, who buried a shot past keeper Louis Trejo.

The match played to a draw for the next hour. The Fusion finally ended the stalemate when Scott Martin knocked in a brilliant header off a corner kick with nineteen minutes remaining in the match.

The momentum shifted back to the Asylum a minute and a half later, however, when Mark Laws scored on a breakaway to give Albuquerque a 2-1 lead.

The Fusion refused to die. With six points on the line, the team gambled and moved midfielders forward for the attack. They pressed relentlessly against an Albuquerque team that had spent great quantities of energy lambasting the referee for calls and non-calls throughout the match.

At the 83:00 mark, Luna, the Fusion’s leading scorer, blasted a free kick from 30 yards out that snuck inside the near post to give his team the equalizer.

As the match headed toward full time, the Fusion found an energy and will that had been lacking for the first 80 minutes of the match—if not the season. Refusing to ride out the remaining seven minutes and injury time, they went for the Asylum’s throat.

A minute into injury time, Luna, a sniper on set pieces, lined up to take a direct kick from 30 yards out, near where he’d struck minutes earlier. He hammered a shot, this time far post, to give San Diego a 3-2 lead. Twenty seconds later, the final whistle sounded.

“I knew the keeper was going to cheat to the near post,” Luna said of his winning strike, “so I went far post.”

Fusion coach Alex Monnar said of his team, “We came out flat in the first half, but these guys never gave up. They knew the game counted as six points, and they were up to the task.”

The Fusion followed up their effort with a 2-1 victory over Denver on the following night. The match, held San Diego’s new home at Poinsettia Park in Carlsbad, featured goals by Fusion players Ian Weinberg and Heath Creager.

Having taken nine points over the weekend, the Fusion have surged back into the playoff race. If the Yanks don’t make it out of group play, San Diegans can still check out a futbol team that’s on the upswing.