MILWAUKEE WAVE STUNNED IN BALTIMORE; RETURN HOME SUNDAY TO DEFEND FIRST PLACE.

By Henry Amini.

BALTIMORE, MD - The 7-Time Champion Milwaukee Wave were stunned by the Baltimore Blast, kicking off their back to back weekend.

FINAL SCORE: Milwaukee Wave 6, Baltimore Blast 7.
BOXSCORE | GAMESHEET | REPLAY

The Wave traveled to Baltimore on Saturday evening to meet their historic indoor soccer counterparts, the Blast, to kickoff their back to back game weekend.

The Blast struck first, Oumar Sylla scored direct from a free kick inside the Wave’s defensive third, followed by Patrick Thompson’s strike, which put Baltimore ahead by two goals within the first seven minutes of play. Ricardo Carvalho netted the response, and scored his first goal since returning from injury. 

“We didn’t play as well as we could or should,” Head Coach Marcio Leite said. The deficit was never out of control for the Wave, it never surpassed a two goal difference but they fought from behind throughout nearly the entire game. Cam Will lead off the scoring for the Milwaukee Wave in the second quarter, netting his first goal of the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) season. The Blast reclaimed their lead and scored two unanswered goals, the second was the result of a power play following a blue card shown to Carvalho, bringing the first half to a close with the Blast leading 2-4. 

“The 3rd quarter was very good. I think we, we had more possession, we had more chances, we had more shots,” Leite said. Mario Alvarez scored less than 20 seconds into the second half. His impact on the game continued, he found the top corner of the goal to equalize the game. The Milwaukee Wave would never take the lead and Jake Schindler would stake his claim with two successive goals. 

From behind 4-6, the Wave were in an opportunistic spot to develop a comeback. Carvalho scored his second goal of the game on the power play from an impossibly narrow angle, following a blue card awarded to Mike Deasel. The Blast responded again and Jairo Guevara extended the deficit to 5-7 before the Milwaukee Wave employed Jerry Perez as an advanced goalkeeper. The game would play for nearly eight minutes without a goal before Perez scored his sixth career MASL goal. With barely more than 90 seconds left to play, the Wave could not score an equalizer and the game would finish 6-7. 

“Defensively, we need to make sure it's harder,” Leite said. The Wave took 13 more shots through the second half and many of them were high quality chances, striking the crossbar multiple times against the Blast. Their offensive firepower is most certainly worth acknowledging, having scored more goals than any team in the MASL so far this season. Momentary lapses made it difficult to ever establish control over the match on Saturday and, ultimately, proved to be an insurmountable hurdle. 

“The home games, we have to win. Those are the ones we have to win,” Leite said. The weekend is not over for the Milwaukee Wave, and they’ll head home to play once more on Sunday afternoon. Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Ambush will surely be charged as the Wave find themselves in a battle for the first place spot yet again. The Ambush will be hungry to carry their momentum less than 24 hours after a 13-0 win at home against Utica City FC. 

The following day, the Milwaukee Wave will host the St. Louis Ambush at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena in Milwaukee, Wisconsin  on Sunday, February 22 at 3:05pm CST. ###