Chicago Storm pulls out 5-3 thriller over St. Louis

Published on January 29, 2005 under Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2)
Chicago Storm News Release


Chicago, IL – The Chicago Storm picked up their third straight victory with a thrilling 5-3 win over the St. Louis Steamers (12-8) tonight at the UIC Pavilion. The Storm improved their record to 9-12 in the MISL. Chicago midfielder Lazo Alavanja scored the game-winner with 1:04 remaining in the game. The Storm will continue their home stand next Saturday night when they face off against the Kansas City Comets at the UIC Pavilion at 7:00 p.m. CT. The game can be heard live on www.chicagostorm.net in English and Univision Radio WRTO 1200 AM in Spanish.

"I thought this was a very well played game overall by both teams," said Storm Head Coach and GM Frank Klopas. "It was a good win for us and our team is continuing to improve. St. Louis is a good team and the games with them have been very close. We were fortunate to capitalize on our opportunities and were able to put them away and really complete the win. It is a good feeling after we lost two close games to them in St. Louis."

Alavanja's game-winning goal came off of a direct kick from the St. Louis yellow line after the Steamer's goalkeeper was whistled for a two-line pass. The Crown Point, Indiana native blazed the freekick past the two-man wall and into the top left corner past a lead-footed Phillips to put the Storm up 4-3.

The Storm's Mark Ughy opened the scoring at 6:32 of the first quarter when Novi Marojevic found the Hungarian forward streaking up the right wing. Ughy slipped a shot through the legs of Phillips to put the Storm up 1-0 and earning his 15th goal of the season. The Steamers came right back after forward Ibrahim Kante chipped a pass from the right corner to defender Mali Walton who was racing down the center of the box. Walton gathered the pass and fired a shot past Storm goalkeeper Danny Waltman, tying the game 1-1.

The Storm re-took the lead at the 8:01 mark of the second quarter after Ughy tallied his second goal of the game and 16th of the campaign, putting Chicago up 2-1. Off a restart kick, midfielder Nino DaSilva dished off a pass to Ughy, who turned and fired a shot into the top right corner.

St. Louis tied the game at 2-2 when Kante scored at 5:13 of the third quarter. The teams battled throughout the quarter, but the defenses held tight and did not allow a goal on either end for the remainder of the period. Chicago finally broke through at 1:45 of the fourth quarter when Byron Alvarez found Sandre Naumoski with a pass at the St. Louis yellow line. The Skopje, Macedonia native ripped a left-footed shot past Phillips to give the Storm a 3-2 lead.

The Steamers fought back again when Phillips caught the Storm on a counter attack and found D.J. Newsom running up the right wing. Newsome dribbled in on Waltman and roofed a shot to tie the game for the third time. After Alavanja scored the game-winner, Alvarez tallied his 14th goal of the season with 14 seconds left on the Steamers sixth attacker to secure the win for the Storm.

The "Yellow and Black" played great defense for the third consecutive game as Waltman only faced 11 shots and had to make eight saves. The defense also blocked 10 shots with Gaston Pernia, Leo Pernia and Fred DeGand recording two each.

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Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from January 29, 2005


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