SoccerBlogs

The indoor soccer season officially ended Saturday night with the Baltimore Blast's 8-6 win over the Missouri Comets in the second game of the Major Indoor Soccer League finals. It's Baltimore's seventh championship (including one by the original Blast in 1984), second only to San Diego's 10 among top-flight indoor leagues.

Syracuse Silver Knights president Tommy Tanner, who famously said his MISL team would "sell out every game" before it played one, is perplexed about why they haven't actually sold out every game. Or come close, even.

"We're still not where we need to be," said Tanner, who vowed there will be, at least, a third campaign for his bunch.

Here's the first look this season at attendance figures from the Major Indoor Soccer League, now in its second season under the United Soccer Leagues' umbrella.

The first thing I thought when I saw that Chicago Soul goalkeeper Jeff Richey had recorded a shutout over the Syracuse Silver Knights in a Major Indoor Soccer League game on January 4 was, "Good for Jeff." Richey is a good guy who has been toiling for various Midwestern indoor teams for a decade now, so recording a shutout a fairly rare occurrence in the high-scoring world of indoor soccer was a tremendous accomplishment for him.

(Editor's Note: This article is a follow-up to two articles written in December 2011 and this past January about St. Louis' struggles to land an MLS franchise. If you haven't read those yet, it is highly recommended. This is Part 3 of the ongoing Soccer in St. Louis series. Part One of this article appeared on the website yesterday.

Apparently I'm "soccer historian," which I'll take. Though there are others (like Colin Jose, Dave Litterer, Roger Allaway and Steve Holroyd).

Anyway, Milwaukee Wave head coach Keith Tozer won his 700th indoor game Sunday as the Wave beat Rochester 26-10.

You may member an indoor soccer team called the Phoenix Monsoon (the one that listed me as its play-by-play announcer despite not actually, you know, consummating a deal with me). This was its maiden season in the PASL, and they had big plans for it. Well, the original owner was out before Christmas and the new owners have changed the name of the team to the Arizona Storm.

Photo courtesy of Coastal Carolina University Athletics

By JOSE M. ROMERO

Pedro Ribeiro's path to college soccer stardom started in futsal five-a-side indoor soccer in his native Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and took him north to, of all places, Coastal Carolina University near Myrtle Beach, S.

Two broken toes have left the Philadelphia Union with a weakened team heading into John Hackworth's second game as head coach.

Without Sheanon Williams (right big toe), the Union back line will most likely feature rookie right back Raymon Gaddis, midfielder Amobi Okugo at center back, captain Carlos Valdes and Gabriel Farfan in front of Zac MacMath.

Wisconsin teams captured two of the three titles at the National Indoor Soccer Championships last weekend at Soccer City in Palatine, Ill.

Madison-based Chichitas won their third Women's Open championship in four years Sunday, slipping past Illinois' Schwaben AC 2-1 in a rematch of the 2011 final, while Milwaukee's HLAS thumped California's FreeKick FC 5-1 to claim the Coed Open crown a year after losing in the final.

A quartet of Wisconsin teams are headed to the National Indoor Soccer Championships this weekend at Soccer City in Palatine, Ill., led by defending Women's Open national champion Chichitas.

The Madison-based women's team has played for the national title each of the past three years, winning championships in 2009 and '11.

Once again I am a voter for the National Soccer Hall of Fame's annual player election, and, as I've always made my ballots and rationales public, there's no reason to stop now.

But instead of the usual quick comments about each nominee and my final list, I felt this year I should address the question, "What IS a Hall of Famer?

I'm bringing you the news today with a (possibly) sprained right hand and right foot. The former sustained on Wednesday enjoying the excellent Snoqualmie Pass snow, and the latter getting in on a game of indoor soccer the next day. I was dumb enough to try to slide and awkward enough to jam my foot into the darned field turf.

So my youngest had an indoor match tonight (5v5). Within 5 minutes they were up 7-0. At this point the other team can put another player on the field. Then they were up 10-0. This allows for TWO additional players to try and balance things. But the coach wouldn't do it. They lost 24-0 despite our coach begging the boys to pass to each other before shooting, but they're 7/8 they wanted to score and shot often.

While the Milwaukee Wave play indoor soccer, they have many connections to another indoor version of the sport: futsal.

Wave coach Keith Tozer has been the U.S. Futsal national team coach for the past 16 years and uses futsal as part of the Wave's training program. Most Milwaukee players have futsal experience: Joe Hammes (Cedarburg), Nick Vorberg and Nick Perera have played for the U.

The Madison 56ers will hold a second open tryout for their National Premier Soccer League team on Monday night at Union Sports Club in Oregon.

Coach Jim Launder and new general manager Cristian Brei were pleased with the team's first tryout, which drew about 20 players last month at Centinela Indoor Soccer in Madison.