AROUND THE LEAGUE: Week 4

by Joseph Reina

Happy Holidays indoor soccer fans! While it’s slightly taboo to share what you wished for, it seems my wish for a competitive and thrilling 2025/26 season came early! Welcome back to Around The League, your home for numbers and nuance from the past week of action in the Major Arena Soccer League. Just four games graced our screens this past weekend and we’ll begin our breakdown with a classic indoor soccer showdown in Milwaukee, WI.

Baltimore’s road streak continues in Milwaukee

The Baltimore Blast are enduring a treacherous three game skid after dismantling the Kansas City Comets at home on opening night. Since then, they’ve lost both games on the road against Tacoma and most recently fell victim to Milwaukee, in a dramatic comeback during the Wave’s home opener.

This Blast team is verifiably potent and cohesive structurally in various phases of the game; both the eye test and data support this. Why, then, have they earned just one point from their last three games?Against the Wave, we saw what was arguably the Blast’s most complete performance since defeating the Comets. Baltimore was consistent throughout the first three quarters, but struggled to close the game out.

            The Blast took six shots in each of the first three periods, scoring all of their six goals in the second and third quarters. As they shifted into the final phase of play with a 6-4 lead, the Blast made a conscious effort to retain their lead, rather than increase it. They passed on several opportunities to attack, preferring to hold the ball and make Milwaukee chase. What they didn’t account for, however, was Milwaukee’s press and counter attack to be as honed as it was. 

      The Wave turned late giveaways into goals not once, but twice, and through the ensuing overtime period, they controlled possession and found space in behind constantly. Alex Sanchez found the walk-off goal, his fourth of the night, thanks to textbook, target-forward, hold-up play from Oscar Flores, who’s shot was saved right into Sanchez’s path to the backpost.

            Had Baltimore insisted on extending it’s lead at any point during the final three minutes, there’s a good chance they take all three points from this game rather than a commiseratory one. It’s a trend seen in both soccer and hockey; when you’re ahead, the chances you create tend to be of higher quality based on the game state. In this instance, we actually saw a perfect example in the moment that gave the Blast that fateful powerplay.

Milwaukee pushed numbers forward in the hopes of equalizing, and on a dangerous counter attack ,Baltimore found themselves with two attackers against a retreating and defenseless Geraldo Perez in Milwaukee’s goal. Mario Alvarez, fresh off ringing the crossbar with a shot that would have tied the game just seconds before, made a reckless sliding challenge, earning himself a trip to the penalty box. 

The only reason Alvarez was able to make that challenge in the first place was because the Blast took the ball to the corner boards instead of charging for goal with, again, two attackers and no defenders in their way. That chance was extremely dangerous and had it happened in the second quarter, it no doubt would have resulted in at least a shot. Instead Baltimore passed, didn’t take a shot during the ensuing power play either, and fell victim to a counter attack as Alvarez found the equalizer he almost had just three minutes earlier.

It’s important to not be overly risk averse, especially in indoor soccer, and even more so when the league is as competitive as it’s been so far this season. Every point truly does matter and that decision to not attack could likley have cost the Blast two points unnecessarily. Baltimore’s head coach David Bascome knows his team is capable of challenging the upper echelon in this league, and that these moments are the difference between the teams that win championships and the teams that could have.

The Blast will hope to get back in the win column with a rematch against the Wave, this time at home as Milwaukee travels to Baltimore today at 4:00 PM EST.

A Historic Start For St. Louis

            The St. Louis Ambush are off and flying with their best five-game start to a season since 2021/22. With six points from their first five games, head coach Jeff Locker’s team is playing an attractive, gritty brand of indoor soccer that has paid dividends with wins over Milwaukee at home and as of this weekend, Empire on the road.

            Against the Wave, the Ambush created a lot of dangerous goal scoring opportunities, and capitalized on them with stunning efficiency. 33.3% of their shots found the net, significantly higher than the league average Goals Per Shot (GPS) of 22.3%. Against the Strykers, that figure remained impressively high at 31.3%. Small sample sizes to be sure, but interesting as we attempt to understand how the Ambush operate. 

            To get that offensive threat against Empire, the Ambush needed help from their defensive lines, namely Jeff Michaud and Robert Williamson. Both found the net twice in the game as the Ambush continuously employed a transition game that thwarted the hosts. In the moment, that forced the Ambush’s typically reserved defenders to attack, taking advantage of the open space as Empire retreated.

            Despite their strong start, the Strykers are struggling as of late, with three straight losses on the bounce. Their second game of the weekend came on the road against Tacoma as the Stars continued their perfect season, winning 3-2 for a second time in three games. Keeping this Empire team to just two goals, especially after doing the same to Baltimore last weekend is a feat that deserves some flowers. 


They currently lead the league with the lowest defensive GPS (0.169 or 16.9%) but with just three games played, all at home, its still too early to ascribe meaningful analysis from the data just yet. Perhaps after traveling to San Diego this weekend, we’ll have a better idea of what this Tacoma team is capable of. They’ll visit former Stars Nick Perera and Chris Toth this Tuesday, Dec. 30 at 10:00 PM EST.

For Empire, the offensive phase needs to improve and soon. They’re conceding the second fewest shots per game with 22.5, and they’re holding opponents to a GPS of just 20%, but the quality of their attacking chances is what’s dooming them. Crucially, they don’t take a tremendous amount of shots, and their GPS so far is just 15.6%, the second worst behind only the Ambush.

It’s easy to say they need to score more often, but it’s more a question of chance creation. Rather than just possessing and being risk averse, they need to be willing to make the incisive pass, even it it means they may lose the ball in the attacking area more often, knowing that it will help them generate more shots and likely won’t hurt them as much as they’re afraid it will.

Let’s get back to the Ambush and add some much needed context to that league-worst GPS figure we mentioned. During the second-half of last season, the Ambush boasted a GPS of 30.8%, over 10% better than their record during the first half of the campaign, and 8.5% better than the league average. That unparalleled efficiency spurred them on to a dramatic playoff berth with one of the league’s best records during that span. However, their weakness this season seems to be glaringly apparent. 

In their three contest against the Comets this season, they’ve converted just 7.9% of their shots into goals, a stark discrepancy compared to their games against Milwaukee and Empire (32.4%). Based on the consistency of Kansas City’s defensive GPS in this regard, I’m inclined to put this down to the Comets’ impressive defensive setup, but the fact remains, the Ambush need to find a way to break this duck against their regional rival.

They’re about to play three straight games against the Comets, with the I-70 Series on the line, and one more loss would send the trophy to the other side of Missouri yet again. They’re making headway and have impressive momentum going in their favor, especially after taking this weekend’s contest to a shootout, but a win or two over the Comets would be massive for their confidence.

Tonight, they’ll travel to Cable Dahmer Arena to take on Kansas City with kickoff slated for 7:05 PM EST.