AROUND THE LEAGUE: ALL STL

by Joseph Reina

We’re in the home stretch, and a new team has earned its spot atop the standings. Welcome back to Around The League, your home for numbers and nuance from the past week of action in the Major Arena Soccer League. Baltimore jumped out to an early lead in the hunt for the playoffs over Empire and Tacoma, while Kansas City battled back to get a crucial win, but for this week, we’ll focus entirely on the league-leading St. Louis Ambush.

Welcome to the top, St. Louis

            In this tumultuous, unpredictable MASL season, we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s not one of the league’s blue-bloods running the show. 68 games into the year, the St. Louis Ambush are in sole possession of 1st place, after a statement, six-point weekend. A shutout win over Utica preceded a dramatic comeback victory on the road against Milwaukee, sending the Ambush to the top of the MASL table for the first time in their history.

To put the team’s rapid ascension into context, this franchise has experienced just one winning season in its entirety, during the shortened 2021 campaign. The Ambush has qualified for the playoffs only three times, including 2021, and this season’s 33-point haul is tied for the best return in franchise history. 


All this is to say that the path to the top has been long and difficult, but crucially, the Ambush has taken the right path. From their front office to their roster, there’s a clear understanding that people are more important than any results that come and go, but it's sure fun to win.

At the start of the season, I had the pleasure of riding along with the team on their bus as they headed west to face the Comets. It may come as a surprise to many fans, but the team was extremely upbeat. They had just lost to Kansas City at home the night before, and braved a treacherous blizzard and equally treacherous 5 a.m. wakeup call to meet at the bus the next morning.

As it was, they all showed up, ready for the drive, with the air of a U13 travel team, joking and goofing around as if the next three hours were the reason for their travel. Midfielder Larsen Rodgers led lively games of Mafia that grew with every round, and I’ve heard they brought ukuleles on their trips to Baltimore and Utica to sing songs and pass the time. These guys genuinely like each other, and they have a deep, tangible connection that extends beyond the bus and onto the turf.

During their game in Milwaukee this weekend, St. Louis fell behind early, but found an equalizer thanks to a full-field sprint and heavy pressure from newcomer Ozzy Santana. Milwaukee turned the ball over as a result of this continued press, gifting Daniel Torrealba and the Ambush with a simple finish. 

Veteran forward William Eskay came back to the bench with his team and reminded them where that goal came from. “That was all Ozzy,” he yelled, urging his teammates to keep doing the dirty work for each other. That collective mentality proved vital as the game went on.

The Wave maintained a one-to-two goal advantage for most of the contest until the fourth quarter rolled around. Key to this was Milwaukee’s goalkeeper, Gerardo Perez, who played as a midfielder for practically the whole game. He bagged a brace, for his sixth and seventh goals of the season, making him the Wave’s joint-fifth top goalscorer, alongside Andre Hayne. His advanced positioning pushed the Ambush to abandon their formidable transition game, as they recycled possession to bring on subs.

At the end of the third quarter, an injury forced Perez to leave the field, putting the Wave in a difficult position. This change played into the visitors’ hands as the Ambush immediately began pressing, forcing Milwaukee into costly turnovers. Torrealba played the role of judge, jury, and executioner, scoring twice before finding Christian Briggs for the winning goal on a late power play. 

Through it all, the Ambush never panicked; they stuck to their gameplan, kept the game close enough, and found the moments to push forward. Their pressure was unrelenting in 5v5 play, coercing the Wave to cough up the ball in compromising situations. St. Louis capitalized expertly throughout the game and showed exactly how to beat another immensely talented team.

 Defensively, they did very well to keep the Wave to just six goals, especially given that they were playing against six players for most of the game. Keeping the Wave scoreless in the 4th quarter, however, deserves extra recognition. The Ambush leads the league with the lowest defensive Goals Per Shot (GPS), with just 18.3% of their opponent’s shots leading to goals, so it’d be easy to say this was another good defensive showing, but I won’t.

I want to make this clear: St. Louis played 6v5 without regular substitutions for nearly the entire game and earned a comeback win on the road against the league leaders to go top of the table. That is genuinely astonishing, and these players deserve every ounce of praise they receive. 


After the final whistle sounded, the Ambush players rushed the field and embraced one another before continuing the celebrations in the locker room. A rowdy rendition of “Pollo’s On Fire” rang out as the team enjoyed the fruits of their labor.

“The boys have been putting in a lot of hard work,” said Ambush head coach Jeff Locker, “and it feels good for the organization, especially given where we’ve been in the past. Hopefully, we stay here for a while.”

The road to a Ron Newman Cup is long and hard, but this team feels uniquely set up to challenge for just that. Through injuries, road trips, rivalries, they’ve gotten better as the season goes on. Winning begets winning, and when you know you can lean on your teammates for support in the rough moments, the good ones feel that much better with them by your side. 


They’re not out of the woods yet; still seven games left, including a tasty showdown against the Sockers in San Diego on Mar. 22, but right now, they’re at the top, and they’ve earned the right to look down and be proud of their journey.

 “We’ve got a lot of hard games coming up,” said Locker, “so hopefully, if we continue to put in the work, we’ll get the results.”

Fans will get the chance to see their first-placed Ambush face the Baltimore Blast on Friday, Feb. 27, at 8:05 p.m. EST, before a second meeting on Sunday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. EST.