January 2 (1991)

The St. Louis Storm, on break from their Major Soccer League schedule, win the FIFA-sponsored Zurich International New Year’s Indoor Tournament, defeating FC Zurich 4-0 in the championship game on goals from Thompson Usiyan, Dan Donigan, Claudio De Oliveira and Emil Dragicevic. GK Zoltan Toth posts the shutout. The Storm win three, lose one and tie one in the preliminaries to reach the final, beating FC Luzern, Dynamo Zagreb and Sparta Prague, losing to FC Zurich and tying FC Nurnberg. Coach Don Popovic says he would never forget the FC Nurnberg game. The Storm, playing a man short because of a red card to Usiyan, rallied from a 3-0 halftime deficit to gain a 3-3 tie. “We almost won the game,” Popovic tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We hit the goal post. Everybody was cheering for us.” Future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Preki leads the Storm’s tournament scoring with 9 points on 2 goals and 7 assists. Toth is 4-0 and gives up just 3 goals during the tournament. GK Slobo Ilijevski is 0-1-1 with a 2.50 goals-against average. Team captain Daryl Doran misses the tournament with a knee injury.