News

Cosmos Fall to Rowdies on the Road

New York drops just its second match of the season 2-0 at Al Lang Stadium.
Published Sep 5, 2015
By Cosmos News Service

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (September 5, 2015) - The New York Cosmos were defeated by the Tampa Bay Rowdies 2-0 at Al Lang Stadium Saturday night in the latest chapter of a North American League rivalry that dates back to 1975.

Corey Hertzog and Darwin Espinal scored for the Rowdies, who snapped the Cosmos eight-match unbeaten streak. The Cosmos (5-4-2) remain four points clear of Ottawa in the NASL Combined Season Standings, and are now five points behind the Fury for the Fall Season.

"We have to keep on working and continue on the same path we've been on so far,” Cosmos head coach Giovanni Savarese said. “We have nine more matches and then the postseason.

"We didn’t have a good performance as a team in the first half. I think we committed ourselves forward in the second to try to give everything we could to tie the game. Unfortunately we were unable to accomplish what we wanted.”

Georgi Hristov ran onto a deflected ball and chipped it toward the near post, where Hertzog flew in and knocked the ball into the net to put the Rowdies (3-2-6) up 1-0 in the 40th minute.

One minute later the Cosmos had penalty shouts when Raúl went down in the box after appearing to be clipped by Tampa Bay goalkeeper Matt Pickens. But Raúl was booked for embellishment.

“We have to see it again, but from the angle that I had it was a clear clip, contact,” Savarese said. “For me it was a PK. But I have to review it and see it again to assess it better.”

The Rowdies doubled their lead in the 76th minute as Espinal came off the bench to score for a second consecutive game. Espinal ran into space before passing to Brian Shriver, who went back to Espinal and the Honduran midfielder split a pair of defenders before tapping inside the far post.

Espinal went for a brace two minutes from full time, but Cosmos goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer parried the attempt at the upper right corner out for a corner kick.

The hosts had their first scoring opportunity inside the opening 10 minutes when defender Tamika Mkandawire latched onto a Hristov near-post corner, but put his attempt off the crossbar.

Marcos Senna returned to the starting lineup for the first time in two months and played a part in the Cosmos' best scoring chance of the first 45 minutes. He hit Raúl with a cross-field pass and the Spanish legend headed into space. Sebastián Guenzatti took a touch into the box, but had his 14-yard shot deflect out for a corner kick. 

The Cosmos return to Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium next Saturday to take on Jacksonville.

“We need to assess and understand what happened tonight, look at everything and start working during the week to rebuild again and go back and play a better match next weekend,” Savarese said. “The good thing is we’re going to be home."