News

Cosmos’ Trio Named to NASL Team of the Week

Flores, Mendes, Ledesma earn final Regular Season weekly honors
Published Nov 1, 2017

New York Cosmos defender, Carlos Mendes, and midfielders, Andrés Flores and Emmanuel Ledesma, were named to the NASL Team of the Week for Week 14 of the 2017 Fall Season.

The three Cosmos were at the center of the action on Saturday night at MCU Park, as New York defeated Puerto Rico FC 5-2 in its final home game of the Regular Season.

Flores was one of the Cosmos’ top distributors in Saturday’s game, as he recorded two assists for the second straight match. He helped open the scoring for New York by setting up Ledesma to even the score at 1-1 in the 51st minute. Late in stoppage time, he found Lucky Mkosana inside the box for the Cosmos’ fifth and final goal of the night. Overall, the El Salvadoran completed 34 of his 40 passes in the win. Flores leads the Cosmos with eight assists.

Ledesma was the offensive star on Saturday night. With the Cosmos trailing in the second half, the Argentine put the team on his back, scoring a hat trick in 16 minutes to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead. It was the Cosmos’ first hat trick of the season. In the 75th minute, he assisted on Mendes’ goal to increase New York’s lead before being subbed out to an ovation in the 90th minute. With the hat trick, Ledesma finishes the Regular Season tied for fourth in the NASL with 10 goals, leading the Cosmos.

Playing in the final home game of his career, Mendes had a flair for the dramatic against Puerto Rico. In his own end, Mendes won both of his tackles and made three total clearances. But in the second half, he put the finishing touches on the win by scoring his first goal in over two seasons off a cross from Ledesma in the 75th minute. Late in stoppage time, he was subbed out and received a standing ovation from the crowd in Brooklyn.

Flores earned his fourth Team of the Week award for the season, including two in consecutive weeks, while Ledesma received his sixth. Mendes got his fourth.  

In The Championship semifinals, the Cosmos will hit the road to play top-seeded Miami FC on Sunday, November 5 at 5:00 pm.  The game will be nationally-televised on beIN SPORTS (English), beIN SPORTS en Español (Spanish), and beIN SPORTS CONNECT (Digital).