Sports stats



MISL finals on ESPN2 Saturday night

May 13, 2005 - Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2)
Kansas City Comets News Release


The first game of the two-game Major Indoor Soccer League Championship Series Finals will be played this Saturday, May 14 at U.S. Cellular Arena. The Milwaukee Wave hosts the Cleveland Force for a 8 p.m. CST kickoff. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN2. Be sure to tune in!

Locally, ESPN2 is available on Channel 34 for Time Warner Cable customers, on Channel 33 for Cox Cable customers and on Channel 29 for Comcast Cable customers.

The broadcast team consists of ESPN's Bill Clement and Holly Rowe and the Cleveland Force's Al Powlowski.

The Wave finished the regular season with a 24-15 record and earned its sixth consecutive trip to the Finals with two one-goal wins over the St. Louis Steamers in the MISL Semifinal Series. The Wave is led offensively by Greg Howes, who was recently presented with the MISL MVP award during a press conference at U.S. Cellular Arena. To read that story, click here.

The Wave won its first title in this league during the 1997-98 season and went on to back-to-back titles in 1999-2000 and 2000-01. The Wave will be trying to break a recent streak of heartbreak; the franchise hasn't earned an MISL Championship Title in its last three trips to the finals.

WAVE PLAYERS TO WATCH:

Todd Dusosky is leading all players in scoring in post-season action. He has tallied three goals and three assists for six points. His teammate Greg Howes trails by just one point after scoring five points, all goals, in the Semifinals.

Chris Morman and Matt Schmidt have fortified the Wave's defense, blocking seven shots and five shots, respectively. Goalkeeper Nick Vorberg has continued to play strong in the post-season by turning away 29 shots out of 37 shots faced for a 0.784 save percentage.

The Cleveland Force is the no. 2 seed in the Finals. Cleveland advanced to the Finals with wins of 6-3 and 10-6 over the Philadelphia KiXX. Cleveland has a long history of success in indoor soccer, having won championships in this league in 1993-94, 1995-96 and 1998-99. Cleveland hopes to get revenge on the Wave after Milwaukee defeated the team in its last trip to the Finals in 2000. In a tightly contested series, the Wave won the title three games to two.

FORCE PLAYERS TO WATCH:

Offensively, Cleveland boasted a balanced attack in the Semis with three players (Allen Eller, Adauto Neto and Antonio Sutton) recording four points each. John Ball led the team in scoring during the regular season with 61 points but was relatively quiet in the semifinals after assisting on a lone goal.

Defensively, veteran Genoni Martinez has led the team with four blocks. ‘Keeper Jim Larkin helped the team go undefeated in the Semifinal Series with 37 saves out of 46 shots faced and a 0.804 save percentage.

The second and final game of the Championship Series will be played at 6 p.m. CST on Saturday, May 21, at St. Louis' Savvis Center. It will also be broadcast live on ESPN2. Should the teams tie in two games, the winner will be determined with a golden-goal overtime. Visit www.MISL.net for more information.

• Discuss this story on the Major Indoor Soccer League 2 message board...

Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from May 13, 2005


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Kansas City Comets Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central