by The packed house at the Convocation Center erupted with excitement. It was a moment of the purest of joys for everyone in attendance and those watching on television. Hector shares that the Crunch shares that the team didn’t feel the pressure of winning a championship as much as a pressure to play well, “We knew the history of Cleveland and knew that it was a Browns town with all the suffering the Cleveland fans had to suffer through. I don’t think the team felt the pressure so much as we felt our own. After the year before and being so close losing in the fifth, and the deciding game we knew that we had to get it done that night. We felt that we were ready and we came out pumped up, even with St. Louis playing great.
We had the opportunity to win it and clinch it at home and didn’t want to lose because of that. I had been playing eleven years and it was my first championship. I was frustrated that we had been to the championship a couple of times and couldn’t get it done. I felt the pressure on myself to get it done as I was already 28 years old and won a couple of MVP’s, but not yet had won the big one. The championship ring was the big thing. It was great because my family and my fiancée were there.”
Orf also shares that the pressure of winning a championship for a city that was in dire need of one was pretty far from his mind, “It didn’t come into to play for me. We had heard about all the terrible things to happen to Cleveland sports teams in the past, but it didn’t really dawn on me at the time. It wasn’t until after we won that I was made much more aware of it. To me, it was my own personal kind of drought because I had gone my entire pro career as a starting goalkeeper without a championship. I had been on a championship winning team before, but never as the starter so I now knew what it would take. I had only been in Cleveland for four years, so I was just getting to know all the Cleveland sports personalities and stories.”
All of the players knew that it had been years since Cleveland had a championship. Zoran tells his feelings about being a championship team, “I had been in Cleveland from 1989 – 1993 without a championship, so it was more of redemption for those years we went without winning it all. In those previous years, we always made the playoffs but could never seem to close the deal. It took me five years to win it, so it was getting frustrating not winning it. Believe me, any sport you play when you win the championship, it is a special thing because it is not easy to do.”
The Crunch may have been a distant fourth when it came to notoriety behind the Browns, Cavs, and Indians, but on that night they were first in everyone’s hearts. The Crunch roster was a group of blue collar workers that used past defeats to motivate them to bring home the gold. They weren’t driven by money or ego, just an incredible thirst to compete and win at the highest level. In a day and age where million dollar athletes are sometimes more concerned with their image than wining, this group of warriors put it all on the line every night.
The fans who witnessed it live have memories that will last a life time. Patrick Goggin, a North Olmsted resident, fondly recalls being at the championship game, “I was with my dad and brother as we had already been to several games that year. We had nosebleed seats but in the Convocation center there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. The stands were packed and I believe it was even a sellout for the big game. My best memory is when the crowd went crazy as Hector Marinaro’s goal hit the back of the net to win the game.
The crowd had erupted and the feeling was awesome as everyone was giving high fives and hugs. As a 12 year old soccer player at the time, it was an unforgettable experience for me to be there. My brother and I looked up to Hector Marinaro and Zoran Karic. Clevelanders tend to forget about the Crunch winning the championship, which is a shame because it is a major championship. The team never gets the credit it deserves. People make fun of soccer, but I think the ones who make fun of soccer are the ones who can’t play it. It is such a great memory for me because not only the Crunch won the championship, but I got to see it with my brother and my dad.”
Gary Hindley went on to coach for one more year before he was replaced with Bruce Miller. Miller had been friends with Hector Marinaro in the past and had a great desire for the game of soccer. Hector explains the difference between Hindley and Miller, “They were very different people as Gary was very detail orientated in every aspect of the game. Gary was technical in every aspect of the game from substitutions to penalty kills. The practices under him were very specific as he had an exact plan to be followed. Bruce Miller was a former player in the old North American Soccer league and even played against some of the greats. His philosophy was not too ruin a great team. Al Miller gave him the keys to a really nice car and told him not to ruin it. With all that being said, it was his philosophy to keep everyone happy. We had a lot of personalities and great players, so his job was to keep everyone getting along.
“At the time he took over, he was told by general manager, Al Miller, and owner, George Hoffman, “Here are the keys to a very expensive fast car, don’t crash it.” Bruce Miller reveals tells about what brought him to Cleveland to become the coach of the Crunch, “I had known the general manager, Al Miller, from some previous interactions in the league. At the time, I was working as the Director of Sports Programming at a facility called the National Sports Center. It was a 20 million dollar sports complex built for the Olympic Sports Festival in 1990. It was also the home of the USA Cup youth tournament, which is the largest youth soccer tournament in North America and the World. When Gary Hindley left the Crunch they had several tier-one coaches lined up to interview.
These were men with highly regarded resumes with head coaching experience. When they all passed on the job, I was part of the Tier two listing. It didn’t hurt that I had a friendship and past history with Hector. It was on September 3 when I got the call for them to fly me out for the interview. They made me an offer, which was a pay cut from what I was doing, but they wanted me to try it out for six months. My girlfriend at the time encouraged me to give it try as long as we got married first. So we got married on September 14, 1995 and left for Cleveland 3 days later with our seven-month old son. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a long term deal. We got off to a hot start at 22-3 and after the early season success, they made me a three year offer so I decided to stay.” It didn’t take Miller long to justify their faith in him as he coached the Crunch to another league championship in the spring of 1996. The Crunch avenged the previous championship round loss to Kansas City 1993 beating them in six games to claim their second championship in three years.
MORE ON NEXT PAGE
