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St. Louis Ambush vs Kansas City Comets
When: Sunday, December 15th, 2019 at 3:05 PM CT
Where: The Family Arena, St. Charles, Missouri
How to Watch/Stream: Masl.tv/YouTube
The 1-1 Kansas City Comets make their first trip down I-70 to renew their rivalry with the St. Louis Ambush.
Coming from a week off, the Comets will return to the road for their third game of the season. The first meeting between these two sides came two weeks ago, when the Comets handed St. Louis their second loss in Kansas City’s home opener at Silverstein Eyes Centers Arena.
The Comets will still have several missing players, starting with goalkeeper Mark Saxby, who will spend his third and final game of his suspension playing with the Wichita Wings in their inaugural M2 game Saturday night at the Austin Power. Ramone Palmer, Lucas Sousa, and Nicolau Neto still await their visa approval. The Comets also confirmed that veteran defender Robert Palmer will be available to play on Sunday in St. Louis following complications with the approval of his visa earlier in the season.
St. Louis is led by head coach Hewerton Moreira, who leads his team coming off a 6-1 loss to the Milwaukee Wave last Sunday after the Wave scored all six goals in the second half for their second consecutive come-from-behind win in St. Louis.
The Ambush enter Sunday’s game still looking for their first win, after losing twice to the defending champions Milwaukee Wave and once to the Comets. The Ambush will be missing two key players due to injury, Axel Duarte and Lucas Almeida. Former Comet forward Stefan St. Louis is listed as probable along with Ross McGregor and Duduca Carvalho.
The Ambush also announced the signing of Fresno FC forward Qudus Lawal, who will be available to play Sunday.
Sunday’s game will be the second of six games between these two teams, as Leo Gibson looks to keep the momentum going from two weeks ago. The Comets should be playing with extra motivation considering the Ambush dominated last season’s season series with a 4-2 record against the Comets in 2018-19.
“They are in need of a win and this game is going to be different because they are rested,” defender John Sosa explained. “Last time they came from playing a game the day before against Milwaukee but we are ready and we are not taking them lightly.”
Midfielder Lucas Rodiguez agreed, “Playing against St Louis is always fun, and their team has gotten better and better every year. They have a good coach, good players so you can’t underestimate the potential the team has.”
With the Wichita Wings playing their inaugural game Saturday night, the organization announced that former Comet captain and current head coach for Wichita FC, Bryan Perez, has come out of a short-lived retirement and has joined Wichita Wings’ roster for their opening game in Austin, Texas.
Comets coming off a break a positive?
The Comets last played on November 30th, against the Ambush, so have not played for a full two weeks. St. Louis played last Sunday when they lost 6-1 to the Milwaukee Wave.
“It’s a bit of a double-edge sword, sometimes it helps rest wise and getting the players more integrated within the team but at the same time the other team has been playing,” Rodriguez stated. “We’ve been working hard, we’ve been doing a lot of work and hopefully it pays off on Sunday.”
For Sosa, he sees the break in a good light. “I think it’s been a positive to have a little break because we were able to bring a couple guys into the mix. We need more training time to keep getting better but we are excited to get out there this weekend.”