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The Missouri Comets host the St. Louis Ambush Saturday night before heading to Milwaukee to face the Wave on Sunday. The match against the Ambush will be the Comets last home game of the regular season but will play at least one more at home in the playoffs.
This will be the fifth of six matchups versus the Ambush with the Comets having won the first four meetings.
The Comets are safely in the playoffs and the Ambush was eliminated a couple weeks ago so both teams may be looking for reasons to play beyond the game itself. The Ambush of course want to salvage some pride on the season but may be looking to make some decisions on players for next season as well. For the Comets, it will be about keeping people healthy and trying out new lines and strategies for the playoffs.
Preparing for the playoffs and beyond
The Comets added three players this week in preparation for the playoffs and next season. All three moves were just before the MISL roster freeze.
Goalkeeper Brendan Allen and defender Alain Matingou have been practicing with the Comets this season and are already quite familiar with their team mates. Allen was needed in case of injury to the one keeper (Danny Waltman) the Comets had on the roster.
With the season ending injury to defender Coady Andrews, the Comets needed the extra protection of a defender on the roster as well. It sounds like the Comets had wanted to sign Matingou earlier in the year but had waited on paperwork to complete before officially adding him to the roster.
The third addition was Max "The Haitian Sensation" Touloute. The Comets acquired Touloute from the Roar for an undisclosed financial consideration. Touloute was one of the few bright spots for the Roar who are now going to be left even more shorthanded and under-skilled. Touloute was the second leading scorer for Pennsylvania despite having only played five game for the Roar.
"Max is a very young dynamic player with a lot of potential, a lot of pace," explained Comets Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski after training. "I am very happy to have him on the team because I think he is a player we can fit into our system and make our team better. He may not have an immediate impact but I can see him down the road being a very good player in this league.