Tests of frustration

Saturday, May 13, 2006 | 7:09 a.m.

Las Vegas Strikers forward Levi Parker admitted that, on average, the typical real estate transaction is more challenging than trying to weave through a defense to score a goal.

"It is so out of your control," he said of the buying and selling of property, his chosen profession. "You just have to trust that others are doing their jobs to get your job done. Breaking down a defense is more in your hands."

Both test frustration levels, as Parker and his teammates have discovered this season. The semiprofessional Strikers went winless in their first eight games. They're 0-5-3 and play today in Denver.

For the 29-year-old Parker, though, there is comfort in just playing the game again.

He steered Chaparral High to a state championship as a junior, in 1994. But he hasn't been the same since tearing the same ligament in his right knee twice within two years at the University of San Diego.

Stints for an A-League team in San Diego and the Los Angeles Galaxy reserve squad didn't pan out, so he retired from the sport four years ago. He moved to Las Vegas, got his real estate license and married his girlfriend, Isabelle.

But he missed soccer dearly. Regular workouts at the gym didn't compare to competition on the pitch, so he followed the advice of some Strikers he knew and tried out for the National Premier Soccer League team last season.

He made it, then earned NPSL Western Division All-Star honors.

"I appreciated it, but I'm not out there to get recognition," he said. "I do it for fun."

A boy and his boots

Isabelle Parker is four months pregnant with the couple's first child, and they found out last week that it's a boy. Levi laughed about a weekend shopping trip with his wife.

"I was tempted to buy a little pair of adidas boots," he said. "We held back. I'm sure he'll have plenty of those real soon."

Especially since Parker's extended local family, thanks to nine aunts and uncles, nearly reaches 50.

After plucking his own dusty boots off a closet shelf last year, Parker said it was difficult getting back into the flow of soccer.

Then again, it has been a different game for him since those two knee injuries, he said. Before, he played with instinct. It all came natural. Since then, he thinks too much.

"I wonder if I'm in the right place or making the right turn or wondering if this guy would come in and tackle me," Parker said. "That seems to be the biggest battle."

Sparse crowds for Strikers home matches at the Bettye Wilson Sports Complex add to the battle.

Frederic Apcar and Steve Lazarus started the franchise four years ago, and Parker wonders about soccer's place in the city's sporting landscape.

"I wish it meant more" to the city, Parker said. "It reminds me of some of the other semipro sports that have come and gone. They don't seem to have the support base here in Las Vegas, for whatever reason."

The Strikers might not get much fan support and they might not be winning, but at least one player is relishing every second he gets to wear the team's jersey.

"I'm enjoying every opportunity to be out there playing," Parker said.

English invasion

Liverpool, England, native and former Everton reserve player Mikey Fisher dropped into the Crown & Anchor pub two weeks ago to raise money to continue a journey to Argentina to meet the legendary Maradona.

Get here, Maradona wrote to Fisher, and I'll get you a tryout for Boca Juniors.

Fisher needed $100 to complete the purchase of an airplane ticket from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, and he walked out of the pub with $106.

At halftime of the second leg of the Champions League semifinal between FC Barcelona and AC Milan, Fisher went to work. He had beaten 16,000 others in a trick competition sponsored by MTV in the United Kingdom, and he showed why.

He kicked his ball and rolled it and balanced it, putting on a five-minute show. The crowd showed its appreciation by tossing dollar bills into Fisher's white bucket.

He traveled with a two-man camera crew, filming his journey for a documentary, "In Search of Diego," to be released in England in October.

Fisher left Liverpool on April 2. From London, he went to New York (he made $300 outside Madison Square Garden); Washington, D.C.; Memphis, Tenn. (he saw Graceland); Dallas; and Mexico City. For $100, he rode a bus for 36 hours from Dallas to Mexico City.

Then the gutsy 20-year-old came to Las Vegas via Los Angeles.

"Me mum said, 'The world's your oyster, Mikey,' " Fisher said. "She's proud of me. She's also scared."

Corner kicks

Hollywood takes some liberties with the movie. Still, for many reasons, the first part of a supposed trilogy is a winner. UNLV men's coach Mario Sanchez and assistant Chad Brown give it thumbs up, too.