MILWAUKEE - Art Kramer spends an awful lot of time watching and thinking about soccer - not surprising, since that's his job as coach of the Milwaukee Wave United.
But Kramer is also a big sports fan. He's never at a loss to discuss the goings-on of leagues and competitions well beyond the one he is intimately involved in.
So perhaps it was after one of his long days trying to put together his team's roster for this A-League season during a late-night surf through the cable channels that led Kramer to one of the newer additions to sports television programming: the World Poker Tour.
Now he knows the game quite well - he can name some of the players - and he used the competition to help describe his attitude as the Wave United heads into its second season opener Friday night against the Edmonton Aviators at home at Uihlein Soccer Park.
"I feel like I'm the guy sitting at the table right now that doesn't have many chips. I've only had a couple days to practice, I'm not a big player just yet," Kramer said during the team's media day Wednesday at Uihlein.
"But I'm looking at my cards and I'm saying, 'Whoa fellas, I've got a lot of cards here, and we'll have to see how I play my cards, but if I play my cards right, this pile of chips is going to start growing.' "
Kramer's team finished with plenty of chips last season, going 18-10 and winning the A-League regular-season title with 54 points before falling to Minnesota 2-1 on aggregate in overtime in the first round of the playoffs.
But he has had only a few practices with his full team this spring because 16 of the 24 players on Wave United's roster didn't complete their indoor seasons with the Milwaukee Wave of the Major Indoor Soccer League until May 1 - the Wave lost to Baltimore in the MISL finals for the second straight year.
The A-League has been accommodating to the Wave United - the only organization in North America to field both indoor and outdoor pro teams - as all 15 other teams in the league have already opened (six teams have played four games or more).
Still, it didn't leave much conditioning time for field players used to 45-second shifts of sprinting to get used to 45-minute halves, or for goalkeepers to get back into the swing of gauging crosses coming into the box.
Therefore, Kramer has seen his team's biggest offseason signing, forward Johnny Torres, play only once outdoors this spring -- the former Minnesota Thunder standout and MLS player had three goals in a scrimmage earlier this week.
And Wave United midfielder Greg Howes, who finished fourth in the A-League scoring race last season and was the MISL MVP and leading scorer over the winter, likely will have just a handful of outdoor practices under his belt before Friday's opener.
The team's late start also means that Milwaukee's schedule is more compact than those of most other A-League teams - which are pretty tight to begin with. To help offset that, Kramer says he will play his biggest card: depth.
"There's going to be competition everywhere," he said. "But the fact that the schedule is what it is … three times we play three games in four days, so we're going to have to use our players.
"The word 'team' is going to have to be emphasized over and over … They're going to have to buy in to the fact that they're going to have to sacrifice some minutes for the betterment of the team."
Wave United's roster includes 13 returnees from last season and 11 newcomers, and features 11 players with three years or fewer of professional experience. Here's a look at the opening-night roster, broken down by position:
Goalkeepers (3)
0 Nick Vorberg
1 Jim Larkin (10-9, 1.26 goals-against average, seven shutouts in 2003)
28 Jeff Richey (8-1, 0.94, three shutouts)
The skinny: Larkin, in his seventh A-League season, starts the season as the clear No. 1 and the team's captain. Richey was solid in his opportunities last year. Kramer said he thinks Vorberg, who played for the Wave this season, will provide good competition.
Defenders (8)
3 Lovelace Ackah
7 Steve Lawrence (22 games)
10 Pat White (2 games)
16 Chris Morman (2 assists in 8 games)
19 Troy Dusosky (2 assists in 24 games)
22 Joe Hammes (1 assists in 21 games)
23 Chad Dombrowski (5 goals, 3 assists, 13 points)
The skinny: This was the team's weak spot early last season with four rookies in the lineup, but developed into a strength. Dombrowski frequently pushes up the right flank to join the offensive attack. Lawrence's top asset is his speed, Hammes is good in the air and both are vocal leaders. Ackah is an indoor veteran who played for Milwaukee's previous A-League team, the Rampage, in 1999 and 2000.
Midfielders (6)
4 Sean Reti
5 Nick Walls (7 goals, 1 assist, 15 points)
8 Matt Schmidt (5 goals, 5 assists, 15 points)
9 Greg Howes (11 goals, 12 assists, 34 points)
13 Neil Krause (rookie)
14 Semir Mesanovic (4 goals, 3 assists, 11 points for Indiana)
20 Marcelo Fontana
21 Giuliano Oliviero
The skinny: Kramer said he wants his team to play in the style of the U.S. national team, with Howes playing the role of Landon Donovan. Walls and Reti will be counted on to provide speed on the wings, and any of the three - along with indoor veterans Oliviero and Mesanovic - can also move up to forward. Reti had nine assists for the Rampage in 2002, then signed with the Wave but left the organization to pursue other opportunities before returning last winter for the indoor season. Schmidt also can drop back to defense.
Forwards (7)
2 Matthew Stewart
6 Nino Marcantonio (rookie)
11 Johnny Torres (7 goals, 7 assists, 21 points for Minnesota)
12 Digital Takawira (6 goals, 4 assists, 16 points)
15 Kevin Burk
17 Todd Dusosky (11 goals, 7 assists, 29 points)
The skinny: The combination of Torres and Takawira gives the Wave United one of the top striker pairings in the league. Torres has 19 goals and 12 assists for 50 points in two A-League seasons after posting totals of 8-15-31 in his MLS career. Takawira, a two-time MLS All-Star, had totals of 28-19-75 in that league and shows 34-23-91 in his four-year A-League career - and was the league's MVP for the Rampage in 2000. "We've got so many options," Kramer said of the possible midfield-forward pairings.
There are still two open spots on the 26-man roster. Kramer said the team hopes to sign outside midfielder Sam Sloma within the next few weeks. Sloma, who is currently back home in his native London, was second on the team with three goals in the preseason.
