Saturday, January 18, 2014

Comets Split Series with Wave

From the Comets

One night after giving the Milwaukee Wave their worst defeat in team history, the Missouri Comets were unable to duplicate the result. This time in Milwaukee’s U.S. Cellular Arena, the Comets fell 16-4.  Milwaukee’s Jonathan Greenfield had two goals, one from three-point distance to lead his team to the win.

The Comets are statistically the best offensive team in the Major Indoor Soccer League. They have scored first and scored often in the majority of their games. Tonight, the Milwaukee Wave set out to slow down the high-powered Missouri attack. After setting in a defensive shell for the first fourteen minutes of the opening quarter, the Wave broke out and capitalized on a Comets mistake with Luan Oliviera scoring the game’s first goal.  Milwaukee’s Jonathan Greenfield had two in the second quarter to put the Comets down 7-0 at the half.

The Comets offense could not be stifled all night however. Robert Palmer scored from the left side of the goal four minutes into the second half to get the Comets on the board. A minute later, Ramone Palmer stole the ball and dribbled up the left side of the field, drawing the Wave defense towards him before passing the ball to Stefan St. Louis for a tap-in goal. The score cut the Comets deficit to 7-4 and seemed to give the team life as they headed towards the final quarter.

Unfortunately for the Comets, the Milwaukee Wave restart was able to score two goals in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter. Nicolas Perera and Ian Bennett scored to increase the Wave lead to 11-4.

Soon after, in a bizarre series of events, Comets goalkeeper Danny Waltman was issued two blue cards and faced a shootout and penalty kick. Waltman had been playing aggressive all night, as he pressed forward his shot was blocked and the Wave had an open path to goal. Waltman reached out to block the ball at midfield and was issued his first blue card. On the ensuing shootout attempt, Waltman came out of the box and tripped Guiliano Oliviero; earning his second blue card. Now with two players in the penalty box serving time, Waltman was unable stop the penalty kick.

As the Comets put in a sixth attacker, Ian Bennett broke the Missouri attack and added a three-point empty net goal to clinch the Wave’s win.

The Comets will return home to the Independence Events Center next Friday, January 24th at 7:35p.m. CT to take on the St. Louis Ambush. The Comets will be hosting their Annual Retro Night and will be honoring players of the Comets/Attack history. The team will be wearing special jerseys and auctioning them off following the game.

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