Comets Host Game One Of MISL Championship

The Missouri Comets shocked the Major Indoor Soccer League last weekend when they came from behind in two games to defeat the defending champion Milwaukee Wave for a chance to win this year's title. Now they are set to host the first professional league championship in any sport since the Kansas City Attack hosted the NPSL Finals in 1997 and before that, the Kansas City Royals hosted their last World Series game in 1985. The first MISL Championship series for the Comets begins at home, in the Independence Events Center, this Thursday, March 14th at 7:35pm.

Finishing third in the MISL's Regular Season, the Comets were paired up with the Milwaukee Wave for the third straight year in the MISL Semi-Finals series. After winning the MISL Championship each of the past two seasons, Milwaukee enjoyed a 16 game winning streak and a 12-1 home record this season and looked to be on a path towards a third straight championship run after they defeated the Comets in Game One of this year's Semi-Final series at the Independence Events Center in overtime 12-10.

The Comets entered Game Two at Milwaukee with the confidence that they were the only team to make the Wave suffer defeat at home and that they ended the 16 game winning streak for the Wave this season. However, after falling behind 8-5 in the fourth quarter, the outcome was looking bleak. Coach Kim Roentved kept his side calm though as they chipped away at the Milwaukee lead. Mads Falck got Missouri within one point with an unassisted goal halfway through the final quarter and with 34 seconds left in the game Leo Gibson sealed the win with his first goal of the postseason.

With the series tied at one game apiece, the two teams immediately faced off in a 15 minute "˜Mini-Game' to decide who would move on to the MISL Championships. The Comets got on board first with a three-point goal from Coady Andrews. Although only scoring four goals all season, this was Andrews' second three-point goal of the day. Milwaukee jumped back with two goals of their own for a 4-3 lead though and packed in their defense to try and preserve victory. The Comets pulled their goalkeeper, Danny Waltman, to bring on Vahid Assadpour as an extra attacker as they threw everything at the Milwaukee defense. With seven seconds remaining in the season for one of the two teams, Marcel Feenstra of Milwaukee deflected a shot up and over his goal, setting up a corner kick for the Comets. As Assadpour and Lucas Rodriguez crashed the goal, John Sosa's corner kick found Byron Alvarez sneaking into the space vacated by the two midfielders and knocked home the game winner.

Championship weekend for the MISL begins tomorrow, March 13th when the league announces the Most Valuable Player, Goalkeeper of the Year and Coach of the Year awards. Earlier today, Comets defender Leo Gibson was named 1st Team All-MISL and captain Vahid Assadpour was named 2nd Team All-MISL. The awards will be handed out at a press conference in the Independence Events Center's President's Club at 3:30pm. The Press Conference is open to the public.