The shooting gallery arrived in full force at Cable Dahmer Arena Friday night with a multitude of scoring, physical battles and cards flying. As Kansas City outshot the Tacoma Stars 40-16, the goals were unprecedented with efforts by many players on the Comet’s deep roster. In the house and making his return to KC was beloved veteran GK Danny Waltman, a critical piece to the Missouri Comet’s 2015 MISL Championship run with then head coach Vlatko Andonovski. Although his efforts were dubious, the fury of Comet attacks eventually prevailed over the visiting Tacoma Stars defense.
Barely one minute into the match’s first whistle, Thetsane opened up the wave of scoring for KC following Christian Anderaos’ steal (1:08 Q1). The intensity increased with tactical fouls, yellow card on Francis for dissent and Vandegriffe mistimed slide tackle. The Comet’s defense provided numerous blocks and wreaked havoc, stunting any potential attack from the visiting squad and killing the blue card penalty. As the quarter came to an end, an opportunistic 2nd goal by Reget was challenged by Tacoma, which resulted in the play being recalled due to an accidental kicking foul on Marques. With the scoring window about to open, Waltman got his first taste of the match, as Star’s starting GK Birrueta received an ankle injury and taking him off periodically to end the first quarter. The former Comet GK made some impressive saves, keeping the deficit to a mere 1 goal heading into the second.
Birrueta returned in net for the visitors to start the second quarter. Efficiently executed wallascora action ensued for Comet’s faithful, with the connecting pass from Marques finishing into the side netting by the crafty Lenis (2:02 Q2). #24 Brisco for Tacoma received a blue card penalty for tactical foul during a breakaway, sending the Comet’s powerplay offense into hunger mode. One major highlight moment of the evening ensued, with team captain Flores finishing a backheel goal past the unorganized Star defense, one that he’ll remember from his lofty career in KC uniform (10:10 Q2).
Halfway into the 3rd quarter, Tacoma’s Correa directly impacts the counterattack, sending Reget to the yellow line for a Comet’s dribble up penalty kick. This attempt was saved by GK Birrueta, followed by 2:00 blue card implications for the visiting squad. The Comet’s captain wasn’t finished on his scoring efforts, smashing home into the upper corner his second tally of the match, assisted by the elusive Marques (9:36 Q3). Bringing the score into a 5-0 fruition just 10 seconds prior to the end of the third, Acosta capitalized emphatically of the goal welding in his efforts off the steal by midfielder Berry, celebrating iconically with the other 4 Comet players while sitting down and playing invisible video games.
In another effort for the visitors to relinquish their deficit and support the injured Birrueta, Waltman started in goal for Tacoma to kick off the final quarter of play. At the ripe and wise age of 44, MASL players and fans have known the likes of Danny for many seasons around the league, the staple of devout goalkeepers from a time of longstanding excellence surrounded the North American arena soccer culture.
Just over 2 minutes into the fourth, Lenis bags his second point on the night, finishing off another high soccer IQ Marques assist (2:09 Q4). The Comet’s defensive stronghold held tightly through a prevailing 54 minutes of the competition, with the elusive shutout in sight. Tacoma’s Mendoza finally marked their first tally of the match, finding the back of the net off a Comet’s accidental defensive turnover (9:54 Q4). Yet, the home team wasn’t done in their scoring frenzy, as streaking Vandegriffe finds an opposing Berry for his strike past Waltman (10:08 Q4). Seemingly, the Comet’s piled on more of the fireworks with Anderaos’ bulldog-style efforts persistent in nutmegging the Tacoma GK, for his first goal of the night (10:51 Q4).
One of the greatest moments cherished by any player is their first goal in the uniform representing their new team. The New York native, Ali Alomari, found his time to shine in front of the home crowd, as his breakaway effort resulted in nutmegging the Tacoma GK, once again sealing the fate for the visiting Stars. What a moment to celebrate and make known that these MASL rookie class has the potential to play with the best players, at the highest level of arena soccer in the world. Alomari gave all of his credit to the teammates and supportive culture surrounding the Comet’s organization, making it easy to grow and be successful in his development.
A late blue card arose, due to Berry’s tripping penalty on Tacoma’s Brisco. This blue card provided the visiting team one last goal before the final whistle sounded, not to under shadow the passionate and organized defense the Comet’s presented during the match. An ‘atta boy’ effort goes out to GK Phillip Ejimadu and the entire Comet roster in their strong-willed efforts striving to obtain the highly regarded shutout. As Reget stated in the postgame interview, “when everyone is scoring goals, it’s going to open everything up,” making the end results more favorable for successful longevity throughout the remainder of this 25/26 season.
Final Score: Kansas City Comets 9 – Tacoma Stars 2; CDA Attendance: 4,256
The next Kansas City Comet competition returns to Wisconsin in a rematch with rivals, the Milwaukee Wave, on Sunday January 18th; Kickoff @ 2:05pm CST inside UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. Preview the game here.
To find more Comet’s next home game action in person, get ready for ‘Star Wars’ themed night inside Cable Dahmer Arena on Friday 1/30/2026 @ 7:05pm CST; Tickets can be located here.
Additional information on the MASL teams, schedules and rosters can be found here.