WHO

  vs.  

WHEN & WHERE

Wednesday, July 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET | Hofstra Soccer Stadium in Hempstead, N.Y.

WATCH & FOLLOW

• Admission is FREE
• Follow @NYCosmosB on Twitter for live updates

THE STAKES

At this point it’s simple: win and advance to the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) Northeast Region Final.

Cosmos B enters the NPSL Playoffs having earned a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed in the Northeast Region. Under first-year Head Coach Fernando Barboto, the Cosmos reserves finished their regular season as Atlantic Conference Champions for the second straight year, compiling 38 points through 12 wins, two draws and two losses. Now the quest begins to repeat as NPSL National Champions.

Their opponent will be New Jersey Copa FC, who upset Fredericksburg FC on Saturday, July 16 in a match that took nearly six hours to complete. NJ Copa fell behind twice on the road, but battled back to knot the score at 2-2 in the 68^th minute. Five minutes from full time, delays for lightning and a venue change combined to last three hours. When play resumed the match came down to a penalty shootout, in which NJ Copa prevailed 9-8.

The winner of this matchup will take on the winner of the other semifinal tilt between fourth-seeded Legacy 76 and the No. 1 seed, Clarkstown SC Eagles. The Northeast Region Final is scheduled for Saturday, July 23.

NOTES

Home field advantage: Cosmos B lost only once at Hofstra Soccer Stadium this season, a 3-2 defeat to Boston City FC back on June 8. The team rides a six-game unbeaten streak (5-1-0) into the playoffs.

Star scorers: Forward Ivan Berterame and attacking midfielder Franklin Castellanos led the Cosmos reserves in goal scoring during the regular season. Beterame scored seven times in nine appearances; Castellanos scored five times in 11 appearances.

Know your opponent: New Jersey Copa FC ended their regular season with a record of six wins, five draws and one loss, securing second place in the Keystone Conference. Striker Maximiliano Garcia leads the club in goal scoring; the 24-year-old found the net six times in seven regular season starts.

QUOTES

“When I met with Giovanni Savarese, upon taking the position, we decided that we wanted to improve our player development program and prepare our players for the first team. The coaching staff put a strong team together and developed an entertaining yet effective style of play that was also enjoyable for the squad. It has been a successful season so far; we score a lot of goals, and allowed close to the least amount of goals against. We’ve done a good job, but we are not done and will continue to work hard to further improve.

We will be now playing out of our region for the most part, and it’s quite difficult to know what to expect. We played some tough games this season and were aggressive, and it paid off because we came out on top. When you get to the knockout stages it’s important to be a little more conservative, but at the same time you need to remember that the team needs to score goals to win games. That’s something we managed to do throughout the season. We have good balance going into this game and if everything goes well, along with some luck which is always part of the game, we will be able to have notable results in our upcoming matches.”

–Cosmos B Head Coach Fernando Barboto