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Is Silence Golden? Pecher Wants To Try and Find Out

by Arnold Irish St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Starting with tonight's Major Indoor Soccer League game against the Memphis Americans, Steve Pecher is going to be on his best behavior. The 7:35 game in the Checkerdome will be the season debut for the Steamers' captain. He missed the opener because he was serving a one-game suspension for his part in a disturbance during a MISL playoff game against the New York Arrows last spring. Pecher led the league in penalty minutes last season with 56, a MISL record. He also acquired a bad-guy reputation that is largely misleading. No shrinking violet, Pecher, 6 feet and 200 pounds, is a formidable force around the Steamers' goal. When he goes into a tackle, opposing players scatter like tenpins. Although he has a reputation for being destructive, Pecher is not among the MISL's cheap-shot artists. Steamers Coach Al Trost said, "He likes to play aggressively, but he draws the line at cheap shots. In fact, it's seeing stuff like that by guys on other teams that gets him uptight." Trost and Pecher agree, however, that the Veteran defender could help the team by reducing his infractions - especially because more than half his penalty minutes came for his protests to the referees. Trost noted that 30 of Pecher's penalty minutes last season were for misconduct. "The result of his reputation," Trost said. "I've seen some pretty inconsistent calls, too. Makes you wonder what constitutes misconduct." Pecher believes that referees have one set of criteria for him and another for other players. "I think I'm a marked man, and maybe deservedly so," said Pecher, who agrees that he has protested calls too loudly and too long. "There are players who are marked men just as there are players who are protected. "In my case, I think it's mostly the image thing. Referees look at the statistics and see my name at the top in penalty minutes. I'm no more physical than the average player, but I'm a lot more intensive. I'm also very vocal, and that leads to many of my penalties." Pecher said he was taking steps to reduce his misconduct penalties. "In preseason games, I experimented on the bench with not watching the game so I don't get all riled up," said Pecher. "I've been getting my breath back sitting down. And since all the other guys stand up, they block my view of what's happening out there." Pecher's violent image in the MISL is a mystery to friends, who know him as an easy-going sort. It also is an enigma to his wife, Kathy. "I can't get an argument out of him at home," she said, noting how he dotes on their two young daughters. In his spare time, Pecher coaches the third-grade soccer team at his church. When he calls penalties at scrimmages, does he get arguments? "They know better," he said, grinning. Pecher's one-game suspension and $1,000 fine had nothing to do with anything he said. The Arrows' Omar Gomez (now with the Wichita Wings) kicked Steamers goalkeeper Slobo Ilijevski several times, then Pecher arrived at the scene and pinned Gomez against the boards. "I'd do it again tomorrow," Pecher said of coming to Ilijevski's aid. "Nobody would stand there and watch a teammate get kicked. Nobody on our team would, anyway."