Comets Remain Undefeated After Defeating the Milwaukee Wave 8-7
December 31, 2014 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL)
Kansas City Comets News Release
Milwaukee, Wi. (December 31, 2014) - What seemed like a soothing victory for the Comets turned into a nightmare in the last minutes of the fourth quarter when the Milwaukee Wave scored five times to tie the match 7-7 with 0:02 left in the match forcing a scoreless overtime followed by shootouts where goalkeeper Danny Waltman handed the reigning MISL Champions their tenth consecutive victory.
Forward Leo Gibson regained the top of the Major Arena Soccer League standings with a total of 41 points scoring the first goal of the evening and recording an assist, while Bryan Perez had a hat trick and one assist.
Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski's team only dressed 12 players as Max Touloute and Ramone Palmer missed the match due to groin and hamstring injuries respectively.
Shortly after kick off, the home team took the lead after Tony Walls notched the first goal of the game. However Gibson tied the match moments later followed by team captain's Vahid Assadpour only tally of the night before Milwaukee's Marcio Leite tied the match to end the first quarter 2-2.
Bryan Perez found the back of the net for the first time in the game, while Alain Matingou extended the lead after pushing in an Assadpour assist to take a 4-2 lead to the locker rooms.
The third quarter saw the Comets increase the lead when Perez assisted again by Assadpour tallied his second goal before Brian Harris hit a rocket, which goalkeeper Nick Vorberg was unable to save ending the quarter with a partial 6-2 score.
Down a man for five minutes due to a yellow card shown to Waltman late in the third, the Wave gained momentum and scored four straight goals, which came off of Luan Oliveira, JC Banks and Ian Bennett (twice) to tie the match.
With three and a half minutes left in the game, Perez completed his hat trick beating Vorberg with a deadly free kick to make it 7-6 forcing the Wave to take Vorberg out and add a sixth attacker, which resulted in a controversial equalizer with less than a second on the clock.
Andonovski received a red card at the end of regulation and the Comets played down a man for the first couple of overtime minutes but Milwaukee was not able to score the golden goal in addition to a pair of missed chances by the visitors.
Waltman left his goal and began an attacking play with five seconds left in the ten-minute stanza but was intercepted before Jonathan Greenfield tried luck from his own half looking to put the ball inside the empty goal but a handball from John Sosa denied his attempt. Oliveira was unable to convert the shootout.
After Gibson converted his sudden death shootout, Waltman denied Oliveira for the second time to give the Comets a final 8-7 victory.
Next up, the Comets will return to Missouri to visit cross-state rivals St. Louis Ambush this Saturday at the Family Arena with their sights set on another victory.
Major Arena Soccer League Stories from December 31, 2014
- Wave Falls Short in Exciting Overtime Game vs Defending Champion - Milwaukee Wave
- Comets Remain Undefeated After Defeating the Milwaukee Wave 8-7 - Kansas City Comets
- MASL Weekly - Week 10 - MASL
- St. Louis Ambush Host Cross-State Rival Comets this Saturday - St. Louis Ambush
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