STORM RIDE THE WAVE FOR SECOND IN A ROW

By: Dan Parks

It was a game that had many odd twists and bounces, but the Storm (5-7) was able to overcome all that with scoring short handed for a dramatic 6-5 overtime victory over the defending league champion Milwaukee Wave (9-3) on Sunday night.

Gaston Pernia set up the winning goal 5:21 into the extra session. The Storm defender took the ball from the back along the left wall all the way up the field before dribbling a seemingly harmless shot across the Milwaukee penalty area. The ball then bounced off the wall and to Lazo Alavanja, who launched a rocket over Wave goalkeeper Nick Vorberg’s left shoulder and into the net for the game-winner.

“Who were those people that went to the Bears’ (playoff) game tonight?” Storm head coach Frank Klopas asked in the post game press conference. “It was unbelievable. See what they missed?”

Confusion preceded the goal as the Storm were inexplicably short handed based on a second illegal substitution offense. Milwaukee had played the ball in the air and hit the speakers suspended from the ceiling at UIC Pavilion, which are out of play. The Storm earned a free kick, but according to MISL rules, it is not legal to change players at that time as if the ball had actually gone over the boards and out of the field of play. A silly interpretation of a horribly confusing rule put Awadalla Morad in the penalty box and the Storm’s chances of winning in great doubt.

Some stellar saves from Storm goalkeeper Danny Waltman (10 saves) and solid defense allowed the team to survive during the initial flurry from Milwaukee and create the winning goal.

That goal was the capper of a game that looked to become anything but a Storm victory. Milwaukee jumped out to a 3-0 lead just six minutes into the game. Waltman lost the ball while playing it with his feet resulting in an easy goal for Alen Osmanovic just 2:10 after the kickoff.

Less than a minute later, a poor Storm clearance bounced right off of the Wave’s Todd Dusosky and bounded past an outdrawn Waltman and into the empty Storm goal. Osmanovic struck again scoring from a tough angle taking a feed from a Troy Dusosky free kick at 6:01 of the first quarter for the 3-0 lead.

“We knew they’d press Danny,” Klopas said. “They did it last game, so we worked on certain things. We made mistakes trying new things. In overtime, he made some saves to keep us in the game and made up for it.”

After a great shot from 50 feet out by Fabinho pulled the Storm to within 3-1 in the first quarter, Milwaukee reclaimed a 3-goal lead just 3:26 into the second stanza.

That’s when the Storm really started to play some quality soccer. They were able to knock off four consecutive goals. Jorge Valle hesitated on striking a great ball delivered by Byron Alvarez just a minute before slamming another nice pass, this time form Fabinho, diagonally into the opposite corner of the goal and past Vorberg (12 saves) to draw the Storm within two goals 29 seconds after Milwaukee’s score.

Gus Kartes netted his 9th of the season less than 90 seconds later on a diagonal shot of his own making it 4-3 going into the half. He was set up by Novi who slotted the pass across the field and past Alvarez as the trio barreled down the field toward the Milwaukee goal.

The Storm scored twice more in the third quarter as Morad and Anthony Maher found the net to pull ahead of Milwaukee 5-4. Morad scored off an Alavanja rebound to tie the score at 9:29 of the third quarter. Gus Kartes stole the ball from Vorberg and dribbled to the boards shooting it off the end wall to center it to Maher, who put it past a Milwaukee defender and into the net just 63 seconds before the end of the quarter.

Milwaukee always finds a way to get back into the game, and the Wave did just that. Matt Schmidt took advantage of extreme confusion on the Storm’s part to pull the Wave even at 5. Milwaukee earned a corner kick, and the Storm looked to change a line and was left with only three players defending the play. Todd Dusosky found Schmidt and the game was tied with almost ten minutes left in regulation.

“Our chemistry is much better,” Klopas said. “When we get in certain situations it’s up to the guys to execute. Anthony’s (Maher) gets better every game. The run Gaston (Pernia) made out of the back to get the ball (for the game-winning goal). Believing in the team and chemistry and mentality is the difference between winning and losing.”

Klopas’ team heads out to Baltimore looking for its first road win of the season for on Saturday evening before finishing up the home-and-home series with the Blast (6-4) on Sunday at 4 p.m. at UIC Pavilion.

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