January 15, 1999
By John Philip Wyllie
The opening of the San Diego Flash's second A-League season is still three months away, but local soccer fans received an unexpected preseason preview last week.
On Jan. 9 San Diego's defending Western Division champions took on the United States U-20 National Team at Chula Vista's U.S. Arco Olympic Training Center.
Fielding a team on short notice and of mostly reserves for the free exhibition, the Flash fell behind 1-0 on an early goal off a header by Carlos Bocanegra. Following the intermission, the U-20's knocked in two more goals when fleet-footed Jamar Beasley, an ascending star of American soccer, wreaked havoc on the Flash defense.
Shortly after the intermission, Beasley rocketed past the left side of the Flash defense and was taken down inside the penalty box by P.J. Brown. Steve Cherundolo's resulting penalty kick was slotted past A-League All-star `keeper, J.J. Wosniak for the game's second goal.
Beasley scored the coup de grace in the late going when he again blew past the Flash defense and launched a well-placed shot into the upper left corner.
The best opportunity for the Flash came on Kevin Legg's second half blast that smack-ed the crossbar.
Afterward new Flash head coach, Papo Santos was not overly concerned with the 3-0 defeat. There was no reason to be. Especially since the game was played with a quickly assembled lineup that included only four starters from last year's team.
In between now and their league opener on April 9 in Orange County, Santos will go about assembling his `99 team. It should be filled with familiar faces. Nine players from last year's team have already been signed and Public Relations Coordinator, Jon Greene expects that about a half dozen more will soon come to terms.
While the team should remain largely unchanged, the Flash's home field has moved from Southwestern College to the more centrally located Mesa College.
"The (new) field is going to be wider so the players are happy about that," Santos said. A wider field generally translates into a greater opportunity to play attacking soccer.
"We have to make the games fun for the crowd, if we are having fun on the field, I think it transfers to them. We did that somewhat last year, but we can improve it this year," Santos added.
In an effort to beef up his attack, Santos is looking at Seattle's Paul Gelveson and Chugger Adair (who played locally at Mira Mesa and Hilltop High Schools respectively) as well as Albuquer-que's leading scorer from last year, Luis Labatista.
The Flash continue their exhibition schedule with another free match at the Olympic Training Center on Saturday Jan. 16 at 3:00 p.m. This time they will take on the U.S. National U-23 Team.
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