by Zoran gives some background on the role of soccer in his life as a child in Yugoslavia, “Back in my country, soccer was everything and it was a privilege for me to play. I started at a very early age of five years old. Every kid would try to play soccer because of its immense popularity. It is the number one sport back home.” Zoran goes on to share what brought him to American to play for the Sockers, “my agent brought me here back in 1987. It was a hard adjustment to make, because I had never played indoor soccer with the boards until then and it took me a couple of weeks to adjust.”
He would become the rookie of the year in 1988. The Crunch got away with a huge coup when they traded Paul Wright for him, pairing him up with Hector Marinaro. Zoran reveals what his first impressions of Cleveland were after he was traded to the Crunch, “My first reaction was to be disappointed, because I was traded. I was the leading goal scorer of that team at that point, so I didn’t understand why they wanted to trade me.
Where I come from when someone trades you it meant you didn’t mean much to them. I believe it was a business move because my contract was coming up and they couldn’t afford to pay me. They had several high dollar contracts already and knew they could trade me for Paul Wright and some cash. He was one of the top notch players in the league. It was tough for me but ended being one of the best moves I ever made coming to Cleveland.”
He is described by his teammates and coaches as the most competitive person they have ever played with and coached. It was his fiery spirit and will to win that separated him from most players in the league and built him into one of the greatest to ever play indoor soccer.
Zoran agrees with his teammates about his competitive nature and goes into detail how that helped him achieve so much in his career, “Absolutely, I have my own school now and I have the chance to coach kids who are looking to improve. I cannot stand people who don’t have the desire to win. You can challenge me at any game and I want to beat you. I don’t care if my opponent is 4 years old or 80 years old, I still want to win the game! That is how I approach anything and it is a huge plus. Sometimes my teammates would get upset with me because I’m so competitive and sometimes may go over the line. But the bottom line is that I’m all about winning. I love to win!”
With Marinaro, Karic, and Orf both in place, the 1992-93 NPSL Cleveland Crunch debut season was a strong one. The team advanced to the championship series, taking on the Kansas City Attack. With the help of Karic and Marinaro’s ability to find the net, combined with the shot blocking of Orf in net, the Crunch went on to take a commanding 2-1 lead in the best of 5 series. Unable to put the series away at home with a game four loss, they were forced to travel back to Kansas City for game five.
Like many times in life, it was a missed opportunity that would come back to haunt the Crunch as they played flat in game five and lost the series. The loss was heartbreaking for both the players and fans. Marinaro describes the loss as devastating; the toughest moment of his young career, “It was the most devastating loss of my career. We played game five at Kansas City and played terrible. It was rough because I had just been named MVP of the league and I had a terrible game five. I sat in the tunnels of old Kemper Arena sitting on the floor for at least the ninety minutes following the game crying. I was so disappointed in myself and that we had lost the series. It was very tough and I was down and depressed for several weeks after that. My performance in game five really bothered me, but also really fueled me for the next year.
I knew we were good enough to win it all, I feel as though we should have won it all that year but we didn’t and I think that made us hungrier for the next year knowing that we were so close. We all knew that we had the team to do it but we just didn’t get it done.” Otto also portrays how hard it was to play for and lose the championship game, “It was a championship series of the two best teams in the league, but they had the better record so they secured home field advantage in the playoffs. It was very depressing knowing that the season was over and having to wait an entire year to get back and try for redemption.”
They were so close to winning it in game four, that the letdown couldn’t be overcome in game five. The loss, however, motivated the entire team to come back better and stronger the next year. Zoran points out the feelings off the loss against Kansas City and how it did motivate the team for the following season, “We had a chance to win the series in game four at home and lost, that was really tough not being able to take advantage of that chance. Kansas City was a very good team back then. It made us realize how hard it was to win the championship. For ten years we won the most games in that time span, but that means nothing when the playoffs come. You need to win in the playoffs for that to matter.”
The next year, the Crunch were on a mission to make up for the letdown of the previous season. The 1993-94 team was proof that sometimes you have to lose before you can win, as the Crunch dominated the season and returned back to the championship round. It had been thirty years since Cleveland fans had celebrated a championship in any sport. The series against the St. Louis Ambush gave the city one more chance at ending the painful drought.
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