Inside The Indoor Game - Tavoy

Forward Tavoy Morgan had the first word, scoring the first goal of the Ron Newman Cup final series against the Chihuahua Savage last Sunday.

He and his San Diego Sockers teammates hope to have the last word as well, as in winning the Major Arena Soccer League championship in Mexico on Sunday night. That's when Game Two and will start at 8:05 p.m. ET, with a possible knockout match to follow in the series is tied.

Tavoy and his teammates know it certainly won't be an easy proposition as the two MASL elite squads meet for the sixth and final time this season.

The Savage is aiming for a three-peat of indoor titles while the Sockers want to spoil that party as they vie for their first league crown in three years. San Diego won the title before Chihuahua did.

The Sockers take a 1-0 lead into the confrontation on the heels of their 7-5 home triumph at the new Frontwave Arena.

"We are very hungry," Morgan said. "We know the rivalry has been back and forth in the past four years, and they're the one who has been taking away from us. We have one more game and we're just going to give everything we have."

The league could not have asked for a better match-up in its final series. Both teams finished at 20-4 and a perfect 12-0 at home during the regular season, with only two points separating the first-place Savage (58) and the Sockers (56).

"It's huge," defender Drew Ruggles said. "There's a ton of factors that people talk about going into this final. The idea of a three-peat for Chihuahua, the idea of San Diego having won two in a row, then Chihuahua winning the next two in a row. Now, it's who's going to get that third one first. There's just the idea of we beat you twice at our place. You beat us twice at your place. We beat them the third time [last Sunday] at our place. So, we'll see what happens in the sixth edition of this series.

"It's a lot of different factors that go into it; that make this such a unique and such a special championship series. With the exception of a couple of overtime wins as opposed to regulation wins, maybe a loss here and there, both teams were fantastic from start to finish."

This championship series boasts some of the biggest stars of North America's indoor soccer.

For the Savage, there's league MVP and midfielder Jorge Rios. Four teammates also earned MASL honors. Defender Roberto Escalante was named to the Elite Six. Forward Hugo Puentes was selected to the MASL first team, and defender Jaime Romero and goalkeeper Diego Reynoso were chosen to the second team.

"They are all full-time players," said Sockers defender Kristian Quintana, who played with Chihuahua on loan at the end of last season. "They're always there, every day, Monday through Sunday. They all know each other. All have good chemistry, and it just makes them very dangerous. They're used to their field, and [other] teams are not. I think that makes them really dangerous."

Rios has proven to be a handful and a half. He recorded more points (52) than any player, on the strength of league-best 33 goals, and 19 assists (tied for eighth).

"When you have somebody who's firing on all cylinders and has been a focal point for that team, you've got to do your best to limit his touches and limit his impact on the game," Ruggles said. "And there's only a few ways you can do that in indoors. I think you play him tight. You try to deny him the ball as often as you can and make other players beat you. ... At the end of the day, you don't really want another team's superstar having that joy and success. You key in on those main players, Rios, Hugo Puentes. But you also have to respect Escalante, and all the other players on our team who can hurt you as well. You try to minimize their strengths as much as you can, and force other players to beat you who might not be as prolific in front of goal."

Chihuahua has made the most of the second smallest field in the league, the Corner Sport Arena. The field measures 160 by 75.5 feet, according to the MASL website. Most fields are 200 by 80-85.

"The three lines are really close," Morgan said. "It's hard to get out. You have to be careful, kicking or passing on the ball. It's really hard. It's crowded, it's loud. You really can't hear each other."

Added Quintana: "It's so small that everything just happens even faster than a regular field. It's just very important [that] you cannot lose your man at any second, because they'll take advantage of that. So being focused and being extremely organized, I think, is a very important factor for any team to go and win down there."

For the Sockers, defender Cesar Cerda earned first-team honors, while goalkeeper Boris Pardo and midfielder Charlie Gonzalez were named to the second team. San Diego also has several former all-stars and honorees on its squad, including forwards Craig Chiles, Luis Morales and Gabriel Costa and Morgan, and Ruggles, among others.

Morgan said that if the Sockers emerged as champions, it "would mean everything to me, my teammates, friends, my family ... and playing in a new arena."

"These past years, we've been working for this championship," he added. "We're always getting close, but Chihuahua has always stopped us. So really means a lot to us. This is our year."

Each team has held serve at home. The Sockers won both their matches against Chihuahua at the new Frontwave Arena, while the Savage did the same at Conner Arena. That included a 12-2 triumph on March 14.

"We’re just going to play as safe as possible and just stick to the game plan and keep the game close and just take our chances and defend," Morgan said.

An 11-year MASL veteran, Ruggles has enjoyed a distinguished MASL career but hasn't won a championship yet. He joined the Sockers two years ago, but the team fell short twice.

Perhaps the third time will be the charm.

"That's the driving force behind the decision to come out and play for San Diego," Ruggles said. "The individual accolades in the league are all fine, something that you look back on and you're proud of. But at the end of the day, I'm here to win championships, and that's always been my goal is to fill my hands up as much as I can before I'm done playing. So, the hunger is there just as much as if I've never won one, I want it right now more than I want anything. That's been the focus this whole season, and even more so the last month leading up to it."

The Sockers need only to win once in Chihuahua, whether it’s the 60-minute match or the knockout game, if the hosts tie it up.

After helping the Savage capture their second consecutive title last year, now Quintana finds himself in a unique position, trying to stop the Mexican side from pulling off a threepeat. The Dallas Sidekicks traded Quintana to the Sockers last month.

"Yeah, it's a really interesting situation," he said. "It's a little bit strange, because at the end of the season, I had real good relationship with everyone. Ended up being friends with everyone, and always thankful for the opportunity of being there. That team, staff and fans helped me get my first championship. Now it's a little bit strange, because I have to go there and take it from them. I'm on a different team where I have a relationship with the fans, with the team, with the staff. They became my family.

"It's just pretty much business. Have to go there, do whatever it takes to win the game and come back with a championship."

Ruggles said that he was entering the final with "cautious confidence."

"I think every player in this series is going to tell you that they think their team is going to win," he added. "And I think that's the way it should be. If you have any doubt in your mind that you're going to step on that field and not be victorious, you're almost putting yourself down 1-0 to start. So, I have no doubt that we're going to go down there and get the job done. It's one game. It's the last game for us as a group. It's the last thing we have to do this season. I think everyone's mindset is leaving everything down there. If they’ve got to stretcher me back to the to the States after the game, but I got a ring on my fingers, so be it. I think everyone's mindset is whatever it takes to make sure that that we're the ones coming back with that trophy."

Chihuahua probably has a similar mindset in what promises to be a doozy of a game and perhaps a knockout match as well.

Michael Lewis can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky at @Soccerwriter.