The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 77

A SA1URDAY MEANS FUEL EFFICIENT CARS CLEMENT AT UFLEURi IMASALU 364-1121 MONTREAL, SATURDAY AUGUST 22, 1981 PAGES 77 TO 88 INSIDE: CLASSIFIED (Cont'd) incite BANK FINANCING ii (01 fey -v: 1 1 i 11,. im.ii By HERB ZURKOWSKY of The Gazette Hours before the Montreal Manic "All of these things helped," concluded Samson, "but in the final analysis it's still the product on the field that's most important." Ah yes, the team. The Manic is a respectable team, but far from championship calibre. Montreal only had a 14-17 record going into the Washington game and had yet to secure a playoff position. Not promising, since 15 of 21 teams make the playoffs.

The Manic could have bought a championship team by recruiting big-name stars from Europe or South America as the Cosmos did in the 1970's when they signed Pele and Franz Beckenbauer or could 1 --Tl I is to play its most important soccer game of the season against the Washington Diplomats, Tony Incol-lingo awakens. Incollingo, 25, immigrated to Montreal from Italy 12 years ago with his family. When not waiting on tables, Tony is president of Club Etoile, the Manic's fan club. And he takes his soccer sacred- iy. "It's (the coming game) the only thing I can think about," he says quickly, slurring his words together.

"I'm really excited. I need the result (of the game). Soccer is like a culture to me. I was born with it and will carry it all my life. Loves soccer "I love soccer.

I love it like you love your wife and children. I can't explain it. I just love it that's it." The season-ending match will decide which of the two teams finishes second in the Eastern Division of the North American Soccer League (NASL), thus qualifying for the playoffs. It's 6:15 p.m. In 15 minutes the doors will open at Olympic Stadium to 50,775 soccer fans the biggest crowd in Canadian soccer history and largest in the NASL this season who have come to witness the Manic-Dips game.

The numbers will increase the Manic's season attendance to 379,263 in 16 games an average of 23,700 per game second only to the 557,443 attracted by the league-champion New York Cosmos; incredible considering the Manic is in its first season, born only eight years after the NASL's Montreal Olympics disbanded through lack of fan support barely attracting 2,000 people to many games. Most of tonight's fans will proceed through the turnstiles quietly. Others, like Tony Incollingo and Club Etoile members, will not be as quiescent, choosing instead to bring drums, horns, rockets, flares, fire crackers, and sometimes, even live chickens. Michel Laplante, supervisor of levels 200 and 300 at Olympic Stadium, is meeting with his boss, Jean L'Abbe, manager of the stadium. The two discuss strategy, namely how Laplante is going to police sections 210, 212 and 214, where many of the Club EtcHe's 330 members congregate for each game.

Pig is next Laplante remembers the afternoon of July 25 against the Cosmos, when some club members threw a live chicken onto the field, had it returned, so repeated the trick later in the game. Laplante has also been told by the club their next animal will be a pig, possibly as early as Monday when the Manic host the Los Angeles Aztecs in the first game of a best-of-three preliminary-round playoff. "We gave them a lot of liberty in the beginning," Laplante said. "But they started coming with car batteries, and attached horns to them, hammers and baseball bats. That stuff is dangerous; especially if there was ever a fight, because they'd use it.

They are Italian and they have Latin blood. "I respect them and don't mind it celebrate a goal by their heroes during last week's soccer have signed a popular Italian or Greek player to attract a select group of Montrealers. Got hard workers It was not a question of money Molson's budgeted an estimated $1.5 million for players' salaries. Instead, the Manic decided to employ a gang of hard workers who would play entertaining, offensive soccer. It's worked.

There is a certain chemistry from Montrealers towards their soccer team. They love goalkeeper Bob Rigby, forwards Thompson Usiyan and Gordon Hill, as they revere Montreal Canadiens' Guy Lafleur or the Als' backup quarterback, Gerry Dattilio. "Our guys have a lot of heart and play entertaining soccer," Samson said. "The fans relate to that. If a shot is 10 feet wide (of the net) they relate to that because they're as frustrated as the players." "All the acclaim should go to the fans," said Ribgy, who has played in Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles.

"They're a reflexion on us and the way we play is a reflexion of them. There's a special feeling between each other." "The fans have pulled us through a lot of games this season," Firmani said. "The boys really want to please the fans, sometimes too much, and become too offensive." At 7:45 p.m., Jean Perreault is in his car at Sherbrooke and deLor-mier, waiting for a green light. He asks the people in the next car where they are going. The Manic game, they answer.

Sometime later, at the congested corner of Pierre-de-Coubertin and Pie IX, Perreault asks a policeman when the congestion started. He is told 7 p.m. Late for game Perreault eventually finds his seat 30 minutes into the 90-minute game. "I started getting goose bumps when I walked in and saw the crowd," Perreault relates. "It was a sensation that was difficult to describe.

It was a great feeling the greatest feeling of success I've ever had." Two hours later the game ends. Montreal has won 1-0 and is in the playoffs. Tony Incollingo and Club Etoile members spill onto the field to mob their heros. "You know," says Tony, "I'm a normal person when sitting in a chair at home or when I'm at work. But when I get into the stadium, I get up and I'm a different person.

Sometimes I don't even realize what I'm doing until later. "I don't feel foolish doing it. That's the joy of soccer. It gets everything out of you. It's like loving a woman." INSIDE "1 Carter homer paces Expos Gary Carter, returning to Expos' lineup after leg injury, cracked three-run homer In 1 1th Inning as Expos beat Atlanta Braves 4-1.

Page 78 Lafleur sidelined with back sprain Canadiens' Guy Lafleur will not be In the lineup when Team Canada meets Team USA In Quebec Monday. Lafleur will be off skates for four days with back sprain. Page 79 Montrealers shine at Canada Games Three Montrealers finished In the top five In the 50-kllometre road race at the Canada Sum- "cf names yvswraay. a 1 Paaeflo a 1 Manic fanatic followers if they have fun. I don't care about the noise.

The only thing is I worry for the safety of the people around them." "Some of them punch us and we don't do anything," added L'Abbe. "Some antagonize my men. We let them do what they want, almost to the point of setting fire to the bloody Astroturf, which costs $15 a square foot. "We have to start enforcing our position. I hate to.

They can throw all the paper in the world they want, but I don't want them jumping on the field or throwing firebombs." The Manic has yet to reach the heady leveb of their fellow tenants at Olympic Stadium. The baseball Expos have averaged 27,130 fans through 29 home dates; the football Alouettes, 31,463 for two exhibition and three league games. Mind you, they have been at this longer than the Manic. The Expos opened shop in 1969, while the Als have operated since 1946. The Manic, conversely, was born Oct.

6, 1980 when Molson's Brewery, Que. Ltd. was awarded the defunct Philadelphia Fury franchise. However, it wasn't until Nov. 26 that the Manic began developing its unbelievable following, piecing together the puzzle that, less than nine months later, would draw raves from NASL commissioner Phil Woosnam.

"On behalf of the league and marketing staffs of the NASL, I would like to offer our sincere congratulations to the staff and team week has been really encouraging." The Lions, embarrassed themselves last week 37-23 at home by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats had won their first five games with the best-balanced offence in the CFL. They remained tied for first place in the West with Edmonton at 5-1. The last time the two teams met Lions' quarterback Joe Paopao threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns and Larry Key ran for three. In contrast, Ferragamo, making a OA Gazette, Tedd Church game at Olympic Stadium. doing so, made sure such ducats were distributed to needy organizations.

Opposed to padding attendance figures via free tickets, the Manic decided instead to make its game the lowest-priced in Montreal tickets are $8, $6, and $4, with general admission $1 and established a group sales plan: a 10 per cent discount when purchasing 21-40 tickets; 15 for 51-75; 20 for 76-150; 25 for 151-250; 30 for 250-999; and half-price for 1,000 or more tickets. The Manic made its players accessible by having them appear at charity events, or shopping plazas. The team toured the province, playing exhibitions against local sides at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec and Sherbrooke. Also, the Manic brass decided honesty was the best policy. "Whether with the media, corporations or the public, we decided the best way to get support was by being ourselves," Samson said.

"We realized we needed help, but knew everyone had to be treated as professionals." "There was honesty and dedication in the front office, right down from the management, to the coach, to the players," Perreault added. Samson says playing at Olympic Stadium boosted attendance because of its accessibility to the Metro. Samson believes the Olympics might have flourished had they not been based out of the Autostade, ridiculed not only for its inaccessibility, but also because stands were too far from the field. Lions whose off-season departure last year presaged the mid-season purge. "We tried it several times in that first game," Scannella said, "and actually I think we had him beaten four times but each time there was a breakdown (three QB sacks and a dropped snap) and we got nothing out of it." Proudfoot, who says he's five pounds lighter and a tenth of a second faster this year, thinks Scannella is misguided if that's his game plan.

"They hide me very well out here," he said after yesterday's workout here. "They may beat me once or twice but if they keep it up they're going to waste a lot of time. It's too hard these days to force the safety into single coverage." As of last night, the advance sale for the interlocking game remained disappointingly below the 30,000 mark. ET ALS Randolph and Jon Sutton Were cut to make room for Zachery and Harris for the tremendous accomplishment and the over-all success In your first year of operation," Woosnam wrote in a telegram sent to the Manic last week. Although the Manic could not have attained success were it not for many people, three in particular stand out: Roger Samson, Jean Per-reault and Beau Rogers.

Rogers experienced Ironically, of the triumvirate, only Rogers, president of a Philadelphia-based sports management-consulting firm, has a sports background. Rogers, a former general manager of the Tampa Bay Rowdies, was retained by Molson's to look for a coach (Eddie Firmani, who had been coaching the Fury), players (Firmani brought 12 of the better Philadelphia players with him), and to develop marketing, business and sales plans. Rogers was vacationing and unavailable for comment. Samson was general sales manager for Molson's in Quebec. He became Manic executive vice-president and general manager.

Perreault, meanwhile, is a marketing consultant with Cossette et As-socies, who was loaned to the Manic for six months. "I think it's basically a manager's job to put together the right people who have the right chemistry amongst one another," Samson said. "Off the field we were very lucky in that sense because of our similarities." All three concurred on basic marketing principles; namely, since the Manic was a new product, heavy ad oue his Canadian debut, could do no better than 13-30 for 155 yards and had two intercepted. Since then, he's been picked off 10 more times while Paopao has had only six of 179 passes intercepted, a 60.9 completion average and 12 TD tosses. Scannella has revamped his pass defence for this game and not all of it has been by design.

Injury-plagued (shoulder and elbow) Tom Cousineau remains sidelined with no indication when he'll be able to return, and the suspended two unserved "red cards" for expulsion. Smith already had been ejected from the Aug. 16 game against the New York Cosmos at the Meadow-lands in New Jersey for fighting. He reacted to Arrowsmith's action by removing his shirt and hiUing the referee with it. Fans pluy big role.

Page 81. ties vertising was required, especially among Quebec's ethnic community, from where the nucleus of the Manic's attendance comes a community which totalled more than 400,000 according to the 1976 census and the 60,000 players throughout the province associated with the Quebec Soccer Federation. "You would have never drawn my father to a soccer game. But we want the kids out there who are playing soccer to ask their fathers to take them to the Manic games," Samson explained. The Manic already has instituted a scholarship program and signed one player, Mimmo Dell'Armi, who will have his education paid by the Manic.

In return, he becomes Manic property upon turning pro. Expalined rules However, for every Mimmo Dell'Armi, there are thousands of Quebecers who know little about soccer, namely Francophones, according to Samson and Perreault. Therefore, more than one million leaflets were printed explaining the rules of soccer and distributed at Manic games. The Manic had Molson's behind it, but the trio realized other sponsors were needed. Deals were arranged with Provigo and McDonalds, as well as a partnership between The Gazette and CJAD, the latter involving complimentary tickets.

Although it was imperative to allot free tickets in the hope fans would become attracted to soccer, the Manic never gave away more than 1,000 to any game and, when await Als will experiment with defensive lineman James Zachery in the middle. He replaces Harold Randolph. In the secondary, Don Harris has replaced the injured Woodrow Wilson (hamstring) and Shafer Suggs, like Harris a former NFL safety, takes over at right safety wiih Dave Dumars going back outside to the right corner. The Als, who could do next to nothing offensively in the Winnipeg debacle, are confident they can move the ball against the Lions. The opposition has tapped the Lions secondary for 1,846 yards but the B.C.

secondary has picked off a league high 15 interceptions. The Als have intercepted but three. In an effort to take some of the burden off Ferragamo, Scannella has indicated he'll don the headset and with help from spotter Freddie O'Connor upstairs, call more plays than he has in the past. One thing the Alouettes likely will try again is to isolate'a receiver on B.C. safety Tony Proudfoot, the long-time Alouette evamoe By DICK BACON of The Gazette If baseball can have its "Second Season" so can football.

And that's exactly the way Alouette coach Joe Scannella is looking at the situation. His "Million Dollar Babies," who crawled and stumbled their way to a 1-5 record in the "First Season," open the new season against the B.C. Lions tomorrow afternoon at Olympic Stadium. The Lions are the team that stunned the Als coming out of the box back on July 4, trouncing Vince Ferragamo 48-8 at Empire Stadium. "It's a new season now," Scannella enthused this week.

"That's the way it has to be." The Als, beaten by such staggering scores as 48-8, 43-23 and most recently, E8-2 in Winnipeg, have had two weeks to lick their wounds and regroup. "I think they really felt the shock of that loss," Scannella said of his humbied troops, "fcJtit the spirit and attention we've had in practice this Manic's Smith Montreal Manic defender Bobby Smith has been suspended without pay for the last six weeks of the season for hitting referee Gordon Ar-rowsmith with his sweater after being ejected from a game Sunday, commissioner Phil Woosnan of the North American Soccer League decreed yesterday. SmithTiad figured to miss the first two games of the playoffs because of.