HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – The New York Cosmos avenged their only loss of the year, defeating the Carolina RailHawks heavy handedly 4-0 in front of a crowd of 5,409, and are one win away from clinching a spot in the Soccer Bowl.
The New York Cosmos will get to celebrating Photo by: Stacy Podelski
The RailHawks are the only team to have defeated the Cosmos this season. Carolina defeated New York 3-0 back on August 17. Despite the loss early in the season Cosmos Head Coach Giovanni Savarese said that his team didn’t come into the match looking for revenge.
“I heard some people talking about revenge…and this is not us,” Savarese said. “We are just a team that is coming to play soccer and try to beat whoever we have in front. And today the guys did that to be able to get the three points.”
The Cosmos may not have been looking for revenge, but they sure played like they wanted it.
New York controlled the play for most of the first half and it only took Danny Szetela eight minutes to score the game’s opening goal. Szetela finished on a cross from Diomar Diaz to give the Cosmos a 1-0 lead.
“Once I saw the ball go wide I started running,” Szetela said. “ Diomar played a great ball across and I just took it first time and it went in the net.”
The Cosmos continued to pressure RailHawks keeper Akira Fitzgerald, which included him having to make two saves on free kicks from Marcos Senna.
The attack continued in the second half. In the 53rd minute Diaz scored, beating a RailHawks defender to the ball in front of the goal, to make it 2-0.
Carolina was able to get a shot past Cosmos keeper Kyle Reynish, but the goal was waved off due to offsides.
Marcos Senna scored in the 75th minute, on a penalty kick, to make 3-0. Senna had to shoot twice, since on his first attempt a Cosmos player went into the penalty box.
Alessandro Noselli scored in the final minute of the game to seal the 4-0 victory for the Cosmos.
The win Saturday night means that the Cosmos can secure a spot in the Soccer Bowl with a win next Sunday when FC Edmonton comes to Long Island.
“There’s a lot of hard work that’s finally coming to fruition,” Senna said after the game. “Confidence levels have obviously gone up as well and that contributes to finalizing the scoring opportunities. Now we’re a foot and a half into the championship game and that boosts the confidence level even further.”
However, Savarese isn’t trying to look too far ahead and is taking things one game at a time.
“For us I will continue saying we have a game next week and that’s what we’re focused on,” he said. “ We have to win against our next team, Edmonton, our last home game this season. We have to come out strong to give a good performance to our fans and that’s our main concern.
“And at the end if those points add up to win the championship then at that moment we’ll be happy.”