Shadow Take On ‘Worldly’ Foe Foreign Connection Invades Spokane For Soccer Playoff

It won’t matter how good the San Gabriel Valley Highlanders are, the Spokane Shadow players are going to have a far easier time Saturday night than a couple other people at Albi Stadium.

The Shadow take on the Highlanders at 7 p.m. in the USISL Premier League Western Conference playoff. The winner advances to the National Championship Tournament next weekend in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Getting to the finals will be a lot easier for the players than for radio announcer Jay Stewart and publicaddress announcer Harv Clark. There are no Americans on the Highlanders’ roster and the names are a sight to behold.

The goal leaders are Arshak Abyanli, Sarkis Banyan and Sereje Akopian. For assists it’s Vrezh Shakbandaryan, Sevak Atamyan and Roni Der Saarkissian.

Tudor Stelian Cezar and Migran Sldryan are goalkeepers.

The 26-player roster has 12 players from Armenia, nine from Iran, two from Romania and one each from Russia and Spain. That does not include Estive “Steve” Stepanian, whose home country is listed as “not USA.”

Final step

In almost any other one-game playoff, the Spokane Shadow would be an underdog.

The Shadow, despite earning the best record among the 30 Premier League teams, winning the Northwest Division by a huge margin and rallying to take the Northwest tournament, are less experienced in the postseason than four of the seven teams still alive in the playoffs.

The Highlanders are one of the few teams with less USISL experience, because the team is in its first year. The Highlanders won the Southwest Division title and then tripped the Tucson Amigos 2-1 last weekend in a one-game playoff.

The host team, the Central Coast Roadrunners, have an automatic berth in the four-team finals. The Roadrunners won the national title last year in their first year of play.

In the Central Regional playoff, the upstart Des Moines Menace meet the Mid-Michigan Bucks, a national finalist last year. In the East Regional playoff, the host Cocoa, Fla., Expos will go for their fourth straight trip to the finals. They face the Jackson, Miss., Chargers.

Wild West

While Spokane was surviving in the Northwest, San Gabriel was holding off a Tucson team that Spokane beat 2-1 earlier this year.

The Highlanders beat the Amigos three times in five meetings and split four games with Central Coast. They also took a non-league road trip to the Northwest, winning 2-0 against Bellingham and 2-1 over Cascade.

Central survivors

Des Moines was the fourth seed in the Central Division but clobbered the league champion Lincoln Brigade 4-0 and the host Omaha Flames 6-0 to advance. In the North Central, Mid-Michigan, which had the best record in the Premier League for much of the season, survived a shootout 4-3 for a 1-0 win over the Kalamazoo Kingdom. In the semifinal, Mid-Michigan beat the Grand Rapids Explosion 4-3.

Beasts of the East

Cocoa moved within a game of another national visit with 5-2 and 3-1 wins.

Jackson edged the Lexington Bluegrass 1-0 and beat the Cincinnati Riverhawks 3-0.

Host with the most

While the other teams hoping to visit California have two weekends of action, Central Coast isn’t standing idle.

Last Saturday, the San Jose Clash of the Major Soccer League visited the Roadrunners in San Luis Obispo and found themselves tied 2-2 with 15 minutes left before scoring three late goals. A crowd of 7,112 attended the game, which shows the Roadrunners should have a huge homefield advantage when they try to defend their national championship next weekend.

Finals format

The schedule for the national tournament are semifinals at 6 and 8 Friday night, the third-place game at 6 p.m. Saturday followed by the championship game at 8 p.m.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ON DECK Saturday: Spokane Shadow vs. San Gabriel Valley Highlanders, Albi Stadium, 7 p.m.