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CHULA VISTA -- After winning seven straight games at home, after winning seven straight in the Pacific Division, after climbing from the last place into the thick of the playoff race, after surviving an unexpected head coaching change without blinking, the San Diego Flash was due for a night like this.
The Flash lost 2-1 in a shootout to U.S. Pro-40 Select before 1,734, the smallest home crowd of the season and about half the average.
U.S. Pro-40 Select? It's a barnstorming mish-mash of teen-agers and Major League Soccer reserves that never has a home game and entered last night in last place in the division.
"We were just dead tonight," Flash president Yan Skwara said.
The teams traded second-half goals, then were scoreless through a 15-minute overtime. As A-League rules mandate, the teams went to a Major League Soccer-style shootout, with a player going one-on-one with the goalkeeper from 35 yards.
There are five rounds, and the teams had each converted once when U.S. Pro-40 Select's Tyrone Marshall lined up for the final attempt. He dribbled toward Flash goalkeeper Joe Cannon, faked once, faked again and then chipped the ball over the prone Cannon for the clinching score.
There are probably better ways to decide a soccer game, but in this case the more deserving team probably prevailed. That's not saying U.S. Pro-40 (8-13) was that good. The Flash (11-6), after playing so well for so long, was that bad.
U.S. Pro-40 Select is an extension of Project 40, which takes promising young players (Chula Vista's Juan Sastoque among them) and offers them a chance to play pro soccer in exchange for forfeiting their college eligibility. They are assigned to different MLS teams, and in theory they practice there during the week and gather on the weekends for games in different A-League cities.
In reality, more and more of the 22 Project 40 players have been playing for their MLS clubs on weekends, leaving the A-League team scrambling for players. Last night, it used its 52nd player of the season, many of them so-called "guest players" from MLS clubs. (In college intramural sports, you'd call them ringers.)
The problems for the Flash began in the 12th minute, when sweeper Carlos Cruz -- the rock of the team -- went down holding his left knee. Cruz got up and played another six minutes, then motioned to the bench for a substitute and limped off.
Coach Costa Skouras juggled the lineup and the Flash managed to take a 1-0 lead in the 71st minute on an Eric Chaisongkram goal assisted by Nate Hetherington.
Three minutes later, it was 1-1 on a goal by Pete Marino, one of those "guest players" from the Kansas City Wizards. That ended Cannon's home shutout streak at 682 minutes.
Five minutes after that, the Flash was down to 10 men. Chaisongkram received a yellow card for a foul. He argued and got a red.
The loss stung even more because Orange County, in first place in the Pacific Division, had lost. A Flash win would have vaulted the locals into the top spot.
But the Flash gets an immediate chance for redemption. Tonight on this same field at 7:30 it faces Mexican first-division power Necaxa in an exhibition that means nothing in the A-League standings and means a lot in terms of image and marketability.
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