LEITE'S DEBUT CAMPAIGN CONCLUDES ON THE BIGGEST STAGE

When you talk about modern indoor soccer history, the name Marcio Leite comes to mind.

After all, he enjoyed a legendary 17-year playing career, mostly with the Milwaukee Wave. He was a member of four indoor championship teams while collecting 191 goals and 281 assists in 279 regular season games as a midfielder and defender.

This week, the Aracaju, Brazil native is on the verge of making some unique history as a first-year head coach. He will direct the Wave against the San Diego Sockers in the Major Arena Soccer League championship series. The teams will square off at UW-Milwaukee Arena on Wednesday, April 22 at 7:35 p.m. ET, before tussling in the second, and perhaps a third game, at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, Calif. on Friday, April 24 at 10:30 p.m. ET.

Not many head coaches can claim that they reached a league final in their debut campaigns.

"It means a lot," Leite said. "I knew it was not going to be easy. The Wave hasn't reached the finals in seven years. So, being a first-year coach, and getting to the finals, which is the goal we set up in the first preseason meeting, it's fantastic. It has been a great season. A lot of learning. A lot of growing. A lot of hours dedicated trying to create a good environment for the team. It has been a great challenge. But we're not done. We want more."

Leite, 41, had the opportunity to play his Wave career for two legendary mentors - current MASL commissioner Keith Tozer, who directed Milwaukee to a pair of Major Indoor Soccer League titles, and Giuliano Oliviero, who guided the team to the 2018-19 MASL crown.

"I'm very lucky to have two of the best coaches of all time in the league," he said. "Keith Tozer brought me to the United States as a player. I learned a ton from him; extremely organized, prepared, committed, disciplined, defensive-minded, [and] fantastic. I was lucky to be a teammate and also a player and an assistant coach with Giuliano, which I learned a ton. Very different leadership style compared to Tozer, but more offensive-minded. Playing under them definitely gave me a lot of tools. I also inherited a culture in this club is always fighting for the championship. That's something that we want to keep around forever."

The same can be said of the Sockers (16-6-2, 44 points), who captured the regular season title, ahead of the third-place Wave (15-7-2, 43).

"I had the honor of playing in a winning championship with them," Leite said, referring to when the Wave did not compete during the 2022-21 season due to the Covid-19 pandemic. "I know what the culture is like over there. It's very similar to ours. They have a coach that has been in multiple championships, and they have won. They have a tradition of winning, just like the Milwaukee Wave.

"They have a lot of talent, an organized team. They have some of the best players in the league, basically in every position. They have two or three players in every position. They are superstars. So, creating the proper matchups and trying to shut those guys down is the biggest challenge. … Tremendous players like Nick Perera, Tavoy Morgan, Leo [De Oliveira], Charlie [Gonzalez], Sebastian [Mendez], [Luiz] Morales. We're going to have to play fantastic defense throughout the two, three games, if we want to have a chance to beat them."

Then again, the Wave doesn't have many slouches themselves.

Milwaukee boasts several outstanding players. Midfielder Alex Sanchez, an Elite 6 selection, led the league with 32 goals, was second in points (49) and eighth in assists (17). Defender Mario Alvarez, the MASL defender of the year and another Elite 6 pick, recorded 21 goals and 21 assists for 42 points. Midfielder Alex Steinwascher (21-19-40) was named to the MASL second team. Forward Oscar Flores (26 goals), also chosen to the second team, was named newcomer of the year.

Leite has an intriguing mix of young players from No. 2 goalkeeper Gerardo Perez (21), who has eight goals as a sixth attacker, midfielder Tanner Hodgson (22), Sanchez (24) to battle-tested veterans such as the forwards Ian Bennett (42), Max Ferdinand (39) and Ricardo Carvalho (36).

"I have a crazy young team," Letie said. "I do have veterans … and they're great for the young ones and teach them the game. They're great role models. We have some young guys that are learning the game, but they are making a great impact already, which is fantastic. It's a funny squad because we don't have too many 28, 29, 30 years old. It's either a guy that has 15-plus years in the league or kids that are in their first, second, or third year. It's a unique roster that's working really well because the balance is really good."

The Wave, which registered a 9-3 home mark, will face pressure of trying to win the opener against the Sockers, who had an identical road record.

"Our arena is like a battle arena," Leite said. "When teams come to this arena, they're going to have to suffer and play the best game of their lives if they want to beat us. Unfortunately, our first game in the quarterfinals and semifinals series was our weaker game. We need to make sure that this first game of the [finals] is going to be our best game. Winning this first game pretty much guarantees a third game. To beat San Diego on their field twice if we lose this one is going to be extremely difficult."

Even with all of the success, this season has been a great learning experience for Leite.

"I'm consistently learning," he said. "I watch every single game in this league to really see what teams are doing, what they're good at, how can I implement some of the things to my team. One thing that I learned it has been more off the field. I had been the assistant coach for Giuliano for the last six, seven years. Being the head coach. I’m learning everything you have to deal in regards to preparation, to analyzing, to managing rosters players and training sessions and controlling the load to make sure that your players are not getting hurt. That has been a challenge being the leader."

Leite called Oliviero and told him: "Man, I give you so much more credit. This is so much work."

He said that he saw Tozer a month into the season and "telling him how much I've aged in one month."

"Every time I say that I've aged five years in the next five months because there's a lot that goes into preparing and analyzing your team," he added. "How can you make your team better after every game, after every training session? It has been extremely fun. But it's a lot of work. but I wouldn't trade it. It has been a fantastic experience."

Entering the final series, the Wave coach is cautiously confident.

"Something I learned from my team is that when we are on, we can beat anybody in the league," Leite said. "The problem is that we're not always consistent. When we're not on, we can lose to the last team in the league. When my team shows up and I can tell that they are ready in the first quarter, it makes me extremely confident. The problem is when I see in the first quarter that they're a step slow, they're not mentally ready, that's when I start to lose my confidence. ... I'm just hoping that we can have those kind of games right off the first minute because if we are at our best we can definitely beat anybody in the league."

Leite knows how difficult and rewarding winning a league championship is, having won four.

"I tell the guys that it's the best moment of your career," he said. “It makes the last six months of all the hard work and sacrifices, through practice, injuries, stress, losing, and frustration, everything that went through worth it.

"For the rest of your career, you can say, 'Hey, I'm a champion.' It's something you'll never forget when in 20 years, when you see your teammates or the people that you won this championship with. We're still going to be talking about it. Winning a championship in this league is extremely hard. On my team I have four guys who have won a championship. It's not easy. You have a lot of big-time players in the league that have never won a championship. It's something truly special. It took us seven years to get to this place again. We won in 2019, and we haven't been in this position since. They need to make the best out of it because God knows when we're going to have another opportunity like this one.

"Some of these guys might be their last opportunity to win a championship. For the young kids, we cannot guarantee that they're going to be in another championship game again. They've got to go with everything they have and try to win this one because it's an amazing feeling."

Michael Lewis, the sixth recipient of the 2025 Clay Berling Media Career of Excellence Award, can be followed on X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky at @Soccerwriter. His 10th soccer book, Around the World Cup in 40 Years: An American sportswriter's perspective, will be published this spring.