KC Comets beat Sidekicks in Major Arena Soccer League playoff opener; game 2 is Tuesday

With another victory Tuesday night, this time on home turf at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, the Kansas City Comets can close out their first-round MASL playoff series against the Dallas Sidekicks and advance to the Ron Newman Cup semifinals.

The Comets beat the Sidekicks 7-3 in their postseason opener at Dallas on Saturday. Nacho Flores, John Sosa, and Lesia Thetsane each had multi-point games, and KC keeper Nicolau Neto stopped 11 of 14 shots.

“It was really nice that everyone was able to step up and contribute,” Comets player/coach Leo Gibson said. “Not just the goals, but defensively, as well, to hold them to just three goals.”

The action was end-to-end during Saturday’s first half. The Comets outshot the Sidekicks 18-8, but the score was knotted 1-1 at halftime. Julio Varela scored for the hosts and Flores put one home for the Comets.

“During the halftime,” Gibson said, “we talked about being a little bit more composed and focusing on our execution, creating more opportunities and better ones than we had in the first half. And that really helped us.”

After intermission, the Comets scored in bunches to put away the match. Second-half goals — on just 12 shots — came courtesy of Flores, Thetsane (twice), Sosa, Benji Monreal and James Togbah.

“When we play a game like that where we have everybody contributing ...” Gibson said, “it makes us a complete team.”

And now comes Tuesday’s opportunity to advance to the semifinals.

“It is not going to be an easy ride,” Gibson said. “Dallas has nothing to lose. They are going to come here and throw everything at us and flop on the ground and dive everywhere, but we will try to keep our heads and try to play the game while not letting anything be a distraction.”

This story was originally published April 9, 2022 at 10:46 PM.