San Diego Sockers Stumble 10-7 to Missouri Comets
Leo Gibson snapped a 6-6 tie with his second goal of the night and the Missouri Comets used a four-goal run in the fourth quarter to secure a 10-7 victory over the San Diego Sockers in front of 4.218 at the Independence Events Center. Kraig Chiles scored a hat trick in the losing effort for the Sockers (6-2), who will take on St. Louis Ambush on Sunday afternoon.
“It was a good game of indoor soccer all the way around and a tough result”, said Chiles, who has scored nine goals in the past two games, “Momentum was with us in the third quarter and then it seemed to shift away and we were unable to recover.”
A highly anticipated battle between last year’s defending MISL champions, the Missouri Comets (9-0), and the four-time PASL champion Sockers proved to be the type of game that Major Arena Soccer League fans have been craving. San Diego stunned the host Comets by scoring off the kickoff just fourteen seconds into the game on a Chiles back-post tap-in, and when Brazilian rookie Ney (two goals, assist) scored on Mati Kruger’s feed with 9:31 in the first, the Sockers had a 2-0 lead.
The Comets came into the night as the MASL’s top scoring team and proved their offensive ability with a quick three-goal burst to take the lead. Brian Harris scored on a corner kick before a giveaway in the defensive end turned into a Gibson goal and a 2-2 tie with 8:07 left in the first quarter. Less than three minutes later Sockers defender Eduardo Velez was called for a defensive clear and the Comets converted the top-box free kick into a goal by Missouri captain Vahid Assadpour for a 3-2 lead after one quarter.
Goals by Alain Matingue and Assadpour pushed the Comets’ advantage to 5-2 in the second quarter, but late goals by Chiles and Nick Perera helped San Diego narrow the deficit to 5-4 at the half. When Ney converted a counter-attack on a pass from Velez to start the second half the Sockers had leveled the score 5-5. Jeff Hughes then gave San Diego a 6-5 lead, scoring when he crashed the crease and then finished a back-heel pass from Perera.
A series of penalty calls helped swing the momentum of the contest midway through the third quarter. The Sockers earned a power play when Matias Kruger was boarded with 7:41 to play, but just eleven seconds later the blue card was out again, with Chiles whistled on a make-up call to end the advantage and put the teams 4-v-4. Moments later, a giveaway forced Toth to tackle Comets attacker Max Touloute outside his penalty crease, and the Comets were awarded a shootout. Gibson’s shootout attempt was blocked by San Diego keeper Chris Toth (eight saves) and the Sockers killed the penalty, but the Comets caught San Diego with their penalty killers still on the field at the end of their shifts and took advantage on Touloute’s fourteenth goal of the season for a 6-6 tie.
The score was still 6-6 to start the fourth quarter but the Sockers found themselves back on the penalty kill after a questionable penalty called on Chiky Luna, who was carded for boarding in the final second of the third frame. Gibson admitted on the field to having slipped. While the Sockers again successfully killed the penalty, fortune frowned upon the visitors when a Gibson wall pass kicked off the seam between the goal glass and the boards and took a funny backward spin, falling into the San Diego net for a 7-6 Missouri lead at 12:15.
Moments later things took a serious turn for the worse when Ney was injured on a tackle in the defensive zone, suffering a sprained right ankle. The injury was ruled a soft tissue injury instead of a break and Ney is expected to miss less than four weeks, a devastating injury to the rookie who had netted eight points in his first two MASL games.
The Comets then took control when Harris toe-poked a steal between the legs of Hughes and rifled a long shot home from the yellow line for an 8-6 lead. Matingue’s second goal of the game made it 9-6, and while the Sockers scored using a sixth attacker to complete Chiles’ hat trick, Assadpour completed a hat trick of his own with a chip from beyond midfield to complete the scoring.
San Diego (6-2) moves on to battle the St. Louis Ambush on Sunday afternoon at 4:35pm Pacific time.
Photo by Aaron Jaffe / SD Sockers
