The 31-year-old from Hamilton, Ontario, is in his eighth season with the Wave, as electric on the field as he is engaging with kids – especially during postgame autograph sessions – off of it. Milwaukee’s most dangerous scorer and among the MASL’s best attackers, Bennett is the team’s emotional leader, the ever-smiling fan favorite and one of the faces of the league. Milwaukee’s most important players include forwards Ian Bennett and Max Ferdinand, midfielders Marcio Leite and Daniel Mattos and defenders Drew Ruggles, Daniel Chamale and Tenzin Rampa, as well as goalie Josh Lemos. They went 8-2 at home and rode a strong finish – a seven-game winning streak in January and 10-2 overall down the stretch – into the playoffs. The Wave were second in the MASL’s Central Division standings, finishing with a record of 13-7 and two games behind the Comets.
The Brazilian won the 2015 MASL Goalkeeper of the Year award and is the backbone of Baltimore’s hard-to-breach defense.
Goalie William Vanzela led the league in goals-against-average (3.34 per game), finishing second in save percentage (.728) and third in wins (14).
The Blast scored 113 goals this season, which was the third-fewest in the league, compared to the Wave’s 135. Baltimore had the league’s stingiest defense during the regular season, allowing just 69 goals – the next-fewest was San Diego’s 90 and Milwaukee gave up 103 – but isn’t nearly as good offensively. The MASL defending-champion Blast won the Eastern Division with a record of 14-6 and then knocked out the Harrisburg Heat, 2-1, in their first-round playoff series. There were questions and complains afterward from the Wave about the officiating and some fouls that weren’t called, but ultimately, head coach Giuliano Oliviero said, "We were very disappointed because knew we blew a lead."Īssuming you’re still with us and all caught up on how we got here, here’s everything you need to know about tonight’s critical Game 2 (and potentially 3), kicking off at 6:35 p.m. In Game 1 at Baltimore, the Wave were up 6-3 midway through the third quarter, but a fierce Blast comeback eventually tied the match at 7-7 and forced overtime, when Milwaukee fell, 8-7. That sent Kansas City home and pushed Milwaukee into the conference finals against the Blast. Last year, the Wave’s season ended against the Comets in the Divisional Final round of the playoffs in 2014-15, after vanquishing Chicago in a thrilling Mini-Game 3 at the UWM Panther Arena to move past the Central Divisional Semi-Final, the Wave’s season again ended with a loss to the Comets in the Divisional Final.īut this year, Milwaukee revenged those previous defeats, recovering from a 7-6 Game 1 loss at Kansas City to beat the Comets 7-5 in Game 2 and 3-2 in the Mini-Game 3. On the line tonight is a trip to the MASL’s Ron Newman Cup Championships, an indoor league finals in which the Wave – who last won a title in 2012 in the MISL – have yet to appear. And for Milwaukee fans, whom the team is enticing with ticket deals and is hoping loudly packs the Arena, forcing a winner-take-all Mini-Game 3 is the most exciting outcome. In sports parlance, taking it one game at a time is an unsurpassed cliché but in this case, for the Wave, it’s all they can do and it’s true. If the Wave wins tonight, no matter the score, they force another Mini-Game 3 that will begin 15 minutes after the conclusion of the prior match. After losing Game 1 at Kansas City, they bounced back to beat the Comets on March 12 in Milwaukee, forcing the crucial and immediately subsequent Mini-Game 3, which the Wave won to advance to the MASL Eastern Conference Finals.įast forward to Tuesday, and the Wave are in the same undesirable but far-from-dire position: having lost Game 1 to the Blast in Baltimore, Milwaukee now hosts Game 2 at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
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The Milwaukee Wave have been in this position before, down a game in a Major Arena Soccer League playoff series and staring at a do-or-die situation on their home field.
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