Building on tradition of success, KC Comets aim to eclipse 2020’s semifinal showing

The Major Arena Soccer League’s preseason officially started last week, but the Kansas City Comets have long been practicing in anticipation of the 2021-22 season.

The indoor-soccer Comets made it all the way to the MASL semifinals last season before falling to the Ontario Fury in a winner-take-all mini-game.

This time around, the Comets plan to go a step further and win the whole thing. That process started a month ago.

“We came to a mutual agreement that this will be beneficial to us and we all opted in on starting early and working hard a couple of months in advance,” goalkeeper Nicolau Neto told The Star. “Just to get out there and perform and deliver.”

The Comets are one of the long-time staples of soccer in Kansas City.

Before Sporting Kansas City and the Kansas City Current were on the scene, the Comets became KC’s professional indoor soccer team all the way back in 1981. The team folded in 1991 before briefly returning in the early 2000s, and then returned again in 2010.

Since then, they have been a mainstay of this town’s soccer-crazed culture.

After last year’s third-place finish in the regular season, and finishing one goal from reaching the championship game, the Comets view the 2021-22 campaign as one that’s loaded with promise.

That’s saying a lot, considering they won the Major Indoor Soccer League championship in 2014 (the league changed its name to MASL the following year).

“The past is the past, but the reality is that people and the fans and owners and even ourselves, we expect more,” said player-coach Leo Gibson. “I think it’s just a constant reminder that last year we did good, but it still wasn’t enough, and right now the goal is to do better, and that is getting to the finals — and, by God’s grace, winning it all.”

The Comets return to action in a preseason tournament Friday against the Wichita Wings before playing a second against Omaha Kings FC. Both play in the MASL2, the second tier of indoor soccer.

The real action begins on Friday, Nov. 26, when the Comets kick off the MASL regular season with a road trip to the St. Louis Ambush. The two teams will then travel to Kansas City for a game the following day at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence — the Comets’ home field. Those two games kick off a 24-game regular season.

The return game in Independence will also herald the return of a full-capacity crowd for the Comets for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“The fans are going to be a huge thing for us,” midfielder Lucas Sousa said.

Sousa won the MASL Rookie of the Year award last year, scoring nine goals and recording eight assists in an abbreviated 11-game season. The Comets averaged a little under 3,000 fans per game during the 2019-20 season, but Sousa hasn’t yet played in front of a full crowd.

“We’re excited,” he said. “We want people in there. We want people to support us.”

So what should fans expect at a Comets game? Hard work, according to Neto, from a team that’s not only trying to win games but aiming to put on a good show.

Gibson is also excited for the young group of players returning from last year’s semifinal finish. They bring a wealth of experience. The Comets lost just two guys from last year’s squad and have replaced them with a pair that Gibson assures “match their level” of talent.

The 38-year-old player-coach had specific praise for forward Lesia Thetsane, who arrives after four years at Columbia College.

“It’s his first year with us, and he’s something special,” Gibson said. “I hope that it shows and I hope that he shows up and plays to his full potential, but I think he’s going to be good at this game.”

Forwards Felipe Abreu and Rian Marques, along with Sousa and Neto, should be among the leaders for this season’s team.

“At the end of the day, you should expect us to win,” Gibson said. ”We’ve always been a winning team — we’ve been great over the years since we’ve been here. We’ve always been in the playoffs.

“So when you show up, obviously you will get to enjoy an amazing atmosphere, plus a winning team.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.