Tonight's game is the first in the Garden State in nearly 24 years. A Cosmos Reunion match was held at Giants Stadium on July 21, 1991. 31,871 supporters turned out to watch two squads of 52 Cosmos alumni compete in a doubleheader. The Cosmos lost 5-0 to a squad of Italian masters and played to a 0-0 draw against a similarly composed Brazilian select side. http://www.funwhileitlasted.net/?s=cosmos+reunion
Back in from the match. We were poor defensively and suffered for it. Being down Ayoze alongside Roversio was too much against this level. Kudos to the supporters groups for bringing their A game, it was fun to sit in that section. At least we have the NYC FC match YouTube video to cherish... Until next year.
We did miss those two in the back, when I didn't see Robersio and Ayoze back there I knew we where gonna have a rough time controlling their attacking players. Caceres looked like he strugled the entire night against Abang, every time the ball when this way I cringed. Gorskie made a childish mistake in getting beat to a ball close to the box and the compounded the problem by fouling the guy when in fact there was another defender helping out, Gorkies worst game. What surprised me was how bad Freman was defending, both goals one and two were on him. On the first goal he didn't track his man, on the second he tracked his man but forgot to jump! Completely a bad night defensively. Maurer was the only saving grace in the back, Mendes held his own as well. In the middle hats off to Senna, he just keeps that ball, calms it down and moves it well. Setela did well he got beat a couple of times but always gave the effort and never backs down from a challenge. Restrepo made those suckers dance Cumbia a couple of times! That ball control was amazing to a fault a couple of times. I like what Restrepo brings, that attacking flair and one on one ability is not easy to come by. When he left we lost the entire surprise element. Fernandez had a bad game, specially in the beginning of the second half he had a couple of chances that could have turned it around. Flores didn't do much, but Raul didn't really change that when he came in. Lucky was the man up front he ran all the balls down and brought danger to their box time and time again. Not our best game but RB won fair and square, I just would have liked to see Roversio, Ayoze, and sorry to say no Raul, IMO Mads would have ran harder and supported Lucky better. Till next year... Or maybe we can have some sort of of season NY cup, that would be cool.
2016 LH USOC Third Round NASL teams enter in this round. Wednesday, June 1 NY Cosmos v. NY Pancyprian Freedoms/Jersey Express winner Fourth Round is June 15.