GO Indoor

M MATTHEW STEWART: "THE idway through the San Diego 2001 Season Sockers' midfielder Matthew Stewart emerged as a star in the World Indoor Soccer League (WISL). In San Diego, Stewart is better known as "The Feisty One." Matthew arrived in San Diego via the Houston Hotshots. While playing with the Hotshots from 1999-2000, Stewart was Team Rookie of the Year in 1999 and WISL Player of the Week in 2000. These accomplishments came by the way of hard work and aggressiveness on the field. Matthew Stewart's style of play is rare. Not many times will you see a professional indoor soccer player put his body on the line for the good of the team, let alone just to win a loose ball. Stewart sums up his style of play, "Well, I just run around and try to scrounge up loose balls, win them, and finish by putting ball into the back of the net." That may be an understatement. Many fans comment on the play of "The Feisty One." Quick, aggressive and tenacious are some of the words used to describe Stewart. "I'm a fair player. I just want to do whatever it takes to give the team a victory," says Stewart. "I just try to be at the right place, at the right time." That he has. Coming into the 2001 Season, Matthew didn't expect to be doing this well. But he happily takes it. And so will the San Diego Sockers. Stewart has proved himself a tremendous all-around player, scoring, setting up goals and defending. Stewart is a major reason why the Sockers finished the 2001 Regular Season atop the WISL and expect similar results in the MISL for the 2002-2003 Season. Contact your local team for summer camp locations and schedules after the 2000 season, but I had that Sidekicks injury after ten games and I actually wanted to prove to myself that I Mainstay, Rusty could come back from it. It was big A long with Mike Powers, Sidekicks popular defender Rusty Troy has announced his retirement from professional soccer. Troy's most vivid memories are of "all the championships. My rookie year was great when I won Rookie of the Year in the old MISL -- in Baltimore [1988]. Winning Catch the newest boy band. Nino, Dino, with Las Vegas [CISL, 1994] Alto, Alex and Brian. They may look familiar to was special because it was Kansas City Comets fans. Coming soon to your town, they are just completing a Tour my first championship -- not through necessarily because we beat Dallas. The two championships that I won in Dallas [WISL] and the one I won in Radio Milwaukee [NPSL], obviously, are Home of memories that I'll never forget." Asked if his 2000 knee injury was a the MISL's factor in his retirement, the current Dallas Flower Mound (Texas) resident Sidekicks emphatically replied, "Not at all. To be honest, I probably would have retired for me that my knee was still going to be healthy enough for me to play. The rehab and everything that went into coming back was just positive. I think I could, realistically, play for another three or four years, but I think all players want to go out on a good note. This past year, with winning the WISL Championship, especially winning it in the fashion we did -- on the road in San Diego -- it was that much more special." On whether he would have kept playing had the Sidekicks not been champions, Rusty said, "You never know; that is a tough question. That is possibly true. I just look that things happen for a reason. I had said that if we won, I would retire. That is how the whole plan worked out; things were meant to be." G O A L I n d o o r • June-July 2002• 19

• Cover