by At one playoff game, against the Chicago Sting, there were over 19,000 fans in attendance. The Force were averaging at least 11,000 people per regular season game. Wolstein claimed that the reason that he shut down the team was because he was upset that other team owners were not investing the time and money into their teams as he was with the Force.
Don and I didn’t have too long to mourn the loss of soccer in Cleveland, because in 1989 Akron businessmen, George Hoffman, created the expansion soccer team called, “The Cleveland Crunch”. Luckily, soccer was back in Cleveland not long after it had left. The first move by George Hoffman was to acquire visionary general manager, Al Miller.
The games would still be played at the Coliseum and they even brought back Force legend, Kai Haaskivi, to be the player/coach. A trade by Miller to bring in Zoran Karic from San Diego to team with star player, Hector Marinaro, cemented the team’s destiny of greatness. Karic and Marinaro quickly became known as the dynamic duo as they dominated the league with their amazing scoring abilities.
The Crunch would go on to have a solid season in 1990 – 1991 as they advanced to the MISL Finals before losing to the San Diego Sockers. The next year, they returned to the playoffs before being eliminated by the Dallas Sidekicks in the semi-finals. To the surprise of many, the MISL ceased all operations in the summer of 1992.
This left the Crunch without a major league soccer affiliation as well as looking for a new place to play. They wouldn’t have to wait long before joining the National Professional Soccer Leauge NPSL as one of three teams, including Baltimore and Wichita.
Not only where they switching leagues, but also venues and head coaches. The new home of the Crunch was the Convocation Center at Cleveland State University, or the Convo Center as most called it for short. The new coach, Gary Hindley, was allowed to keep six players as part of the expansion.
The decision to keep team leaders Hector Marinaro and Zoran Karic came as a surprise of no one. Tommy Tanner, Andy Schmetzer and George Fernadez were also chosen to be on the team. Hindley was insistent on keeping backup goalie, Otto Orf, which came as a surprise to many fans. He felt that Orf’s strong arm, combined with the smaller venue of the Convocation Center, would allow more breakouts to occur with Marinaro and Karic.
It didn’t take long for the new coach’s strategy to pay off as Orf quickly became a 25 game winner. The story of Otto Orf is a marvelous one in itself given the fact that he didn’t start playing soccer until high school. As a child, he was interested in playing baseball and hockey, even though he always wanted to play football.
He was a fan of both the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League, and the Buffalo Sabers of the National Hockey League. Growing up, soccer was never an option and it was a failed attempt at playing high school football that led to him giving soccer a try. He had a strong arm but was still short for his age and had trouble seeing downfield over the lineman.
He also had some personal adjustments from going to a Catholic school through eighth grade to attending a public high school. Starting in his sophomore year of high school, he decided to try playing soccer. The team did not have a goalkeeper and Otto figured that if he went out for that position, then he wouldn’t have to sit the bench.
Otto portrays what the most challenging part of playing goalie, ”In the beginning, the coaches kept it simple by telling me to focus on just stopping the ball and booting it down the field. As time went on and competition improved, I began to learn how to hold onto and position the ball better. As I got older and played more, the focus was on learning how to use your feet properly. Learning how to use your feet as you play goalie is very important.
It is kind of a funny story, but I actually got most improved player two years in a row, which shows just how much I had to learn and grow. By the time I was a senior in high school, the coaching and faith in me paid off as I was able to obtain several shut outs.”
His early coaches made it simple for him by saying, “just stop the ball” and “boot it down the field.” As he got older and played more, he learned how to use his feet and continued to improve his game. He showed his incredible desire to win, improve and compete at the highest level and because of that won the Most Improved Player Award by his high school two years in a row. Those are qualities found in every champion in and out of the sports world.
After a great senior year with several shutouts, Orf went to college at Buffalo University. It didn’t take Otto long to prove he was worthy of a spot on any team as he walked onto both the soccer and baseball teams. After eighteen months of playing college soccer, he decided to leave school for a spot on the Buffalo Storm of the United Soccer League.
The Storm had to send their regular goalkeeper back to Poland because they were going broke and couldn’t afford to pay him. They were looking for a local, low-salaried player to back up the new starter, and that is where Otto, now five inches taller fit in. Otto, who was planning on making money painting houses for the summer, decided to take the Storm up on their offer.
Being the son of blue collar worker, Orf had a tremendous work ethic that impressed his teammates. Because of his work ethic, he was allowed to follow his teammates after the Storm folded. After the Storm, he played for the Portuguese League in Boston and the Croatian League in Toronto, giving him the opportunity to play all over the world. In 1984, he was cut by the Canton Invaders and went back home to work in a machine shop. But, his love for the sport led Orf back to playing for the Columbus Capitals, Fort Wayne Flames, and the Toronto Italia in the Canadian League.
MORE ON THE NEXT PAGE
