THIS DATE IN COMETS HISTORY MARCH 11 1953--Jorge Espinoza was born in Santiago, Chile. Possessing one of my all-time favorite MISL nicknames, The Magic Marker was an All-Star defender in his lone season with the Comets in 1986-87, playing in 47 of the 52 regular season matches that year. 1984--The Comets tied their team record of most goals allowed in a regular season road match in falling to the Lazers 12-7 in their first loss ever at the L.A. Forum before a crowd of 3,583. Zoran Savic and Tasso Koutsoukos each had hat tricks, but so did Batata of the Lazers, who also got two goals each from erstwhile Comet Stuart Lee and Mark Lindsay. I thought Mark Lindsay was lead singer of Paul Revere & The Raiders--apparently those Kicks got a little easier to find on this night. Cle Kooiman of the Lazers also scored his first MISL career goal, as the Comets allowed a total of 20 goals in back-to-back matches. 1985--Comets owner Dr. David Schoenstadt asked the good folks in Wyandotte County on the Kansas side to build him a brand new $14 million arena. In a statement, Dr. Dave said, I am here to propose the following...That you construct a 14,000-seat arena at the Wyandotte County Fairgrounds between 94th & 98th Streets on State Avenue...That you master lease this building to the Comets or an allied organization on terms and conditions similar to the leases presently enjoyed by the (Kansas City) Chiefs and Royals...And that you assign the development rights to the remaining 110 acres in that plot to the master lease. Gee--do ya want fries with that too, Dave? He claimed that the city of KC was stalling on lease negotiations with the Comets while trying to find another NBA team to replace the soon-to-be-departed Kings. For nine months, we have no significant movement at all, he whined. I think Dr. Dave had been taking a few hits of his own anesthesia--people driving to Wyandotte County to watch professional soccer games? Yeah, like that would ever happen... 1988--The Comets lost a heartbreaker to the Minnesota Strikers, 8-7 in overtime before 6,874 in the final meeting between the two clubs and KCs final appearance ever at the Met Center in Bloomington. The Strikers struck for five goals in the 2nd quarter, but Kansas City battled back, culminating in Damir Haraminas game-tying goal with eight seconds left in regulation. Unfortunately, the man with the crimson shoes, David Byrne, won the match for Minnesota 2:48 into OT, leading coach Dave Clements to say, It was like a great boxing match. This is a point decision, so to speak. Barry Wallace scored twice and Jan Goossens had three assists against their former team, but Gino Schiraldi was suffering from the flu and was only able to play one shift. The Comets finished 8-7 all-time vs. the Strikers and 1-6 at Met Center. 1990--The Comets won their 4th in a row as Jan Goossens scored two goals and Dale Mitchell assisted twice in a 4-2 victory at Tacoma before 6,183 folks. The Stars second goal came just as time expired in the match. 1991--It took the Major (Indoor) Soccer League ten whole days to finally get around to suspending San Diegos Branko Segota one game and they fined him $1,000 for injuring goalie Jim Gorsek back on March 1st. They also made Segota write on the blackboard 1,000 times, I will not attempt to maim... Meanwhile, defender Gino Schiraldi commented on the on-going Comets ownerships struggle to find more investors: I just hope someone steps forward. If not, ten years has meant nothing. It would hurt me because everyone wants to see the game continue, especially in K.C.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 03:43:37 +0000