COMETS HEAD NORTH OF THE BORDER FOR FIRST OF THREE WEEKEND MATCHES

by Jeff Husted

KANSAS CITY (Dec. 13, 2018) - In their second match of the season, the Kansas City Comets look for their first win in the Toronto, Ontario suburb of Mississauga.

Comets vs MetroStars Dec 12 - GAME NOTES

The Mississauga MetroStars are in their first season in the Major Arena Soccer League. The first MASL team north of the US border began their 2018-2019 campaign against the defending champion Baltimore Blast.Their introduction to the league was not sweet, as they were defeated 11-3. The first game played at their home, the Paramount Fine Foods Centre, was much better. In front of a packed house, they blanked the Florida Tropics 10-0.

The MetroStars are led on the field by former MLS and Toronto FC superstars Mo Babouli and Dwayne De Rosario. Babouli has 4 goals and 2 assists while De Rosario has 3 goals and 3 assists.

Kansas City has only one game under its belt so far this season, playing on December 1 on the road, the Comets fell to the Milwaukee Wave 10-6. Alain Matingou, in his first game back with Kansas City scored the opening goal of the season five minutes into the match, but three quick Wave goals right after put the Comets into a deficit they could not recover from.

Although they did not receive a positive result, there were a lot of positives to take out of the game. New goalkeeper Brett Petricek made several saves and showed why he was the team’s first free agent signing of the offseason.

Thursday’s match is the first of three for Kansas City this weekend. Following thismatch, the team opens its home schedule on Saturday against the Wave, then travels down I-70 on Sunday to face cross-state rivals, the St Louis Ambush.

NOTES:
The Comets promoted two players to the full squad today, Robert Kelly and Ray Lee.

Robert Kelly comes from a long-line of succesful local soccer stars. His family includes MASL veteran Pat Kelly and professional women's soccer players Katie Kelly (FC Kansas City) and Maegan Kelly (FC Kansas City, Utah Royals, Canadian National Team). 

Ray Lee grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and played for the Sporting KC Academy. Lee starred four years for the St Louis university Billikens before being drafted in the MLS SuperDraft by the Philadelphia Union. Lee will be making his inaugural arena soccer debut, but he has plenty of experience with the USL sides Tulsa Roughnecks, Rochester Rhinos and Pittsburgh Riverhounds.