St. Louis Ambush Lose New Year's Heartbreaker
December 31, 2022 - Major Arena Soccer League (MASL)
St. Louis Ambush News Release
St. Louis Ambush's Robert Kristo and Kansas City Comets' Chase Bromstedt
(St. Louis Ambush, Credit: Scott Neer)
Saint Charles, Missouri - Despite a gallant comeback effort, the St. Louis Ambush fell 6-5 to the Kansas City Comets on New Year's Eve at The Family Arena. The loss drops the Ambush to 2-3-1 on the season, while the Comets improved to 4-2-2.
Kansas City drew first blood when St. Louis' Christian Briggs earned a blue card for holding and John Sosa scored on a restart in the third minute of the contest. The Ambush would bounce back in the last five minutes of the first period on goals from Christian Briggs and Duduca Carvalho for a 2-1 lead at the end of the opening frame.
The Comets answered in the third minute of the second quarter when a shot by Lucas Sousa deflected off an Ambush player and found the back of the net. Ali Sodal scored in the thirteenth minute of the period to give the Comets the lead, but Kevin Ellis answered for St. Louis in the final minute of the half to knot the score 3-3.
After a scoreless third quarter, James Togbah scored for the Comets in the fifth minute of the final stanza to give Kansas City a 4-3 lead. In the eighth minute of the period, Ambush goalkeeper Paulo Nascimento was blue carded for tripping, giving the Comets a penalty kick against backup keeper Mark Baker. John Sosa made good on the opportunity, giving Kansas City a 5-3 lead. With less than a minute remaining in regulation time, St. Louis mounted an impressive comeback. With the sixth attacker in play for the Ambush, Billy Stimac scored with 46.8 seconds left on the clock. It's worth noting that this is Stimac's first professional game after signing with the Ambush earlier this week. St. Louis wasn't done yet as Brian Bement nailed the equalizer with an upper ninety shot with 19 seconds remaining, sending the duel into overtime.
An intense overtime period ended with Togbah going on a breakaway, pitting him one-on-one against Paulo, with Togbah coming out on time to score the 6-5 overtime winner for the Comets.
As many games are between these cross-state rivals, this battle was hard fought and physical, with officials handing out nine blue cards, five to St. Louis and four to Kansas City.
The Ambush will next see action when they host the Milwaukee Wave, Saturday, January 7, 2023 at 7:05 p.m. at The Family Arena.All Ambush games are available for webcast at twitch.com.
Tickets for all Ambush home games are available from the Family Arena box office and ticketmaster.com. For season or group tickets, call the Ambush office at 636-477-6363. Fans can stay current on all Ambush news by visiting the team's official website, stlambush.com and on social media outlets.
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