(NPSL 2018) Hartford City1v2 New York Cosmos B








Saturday 30th June 2018
Central CT State University, Connecticut   Attendance - 

A Danny Szetela goal was enough to send Cosmos to victory against a tricky Hartford City side. Cosmos were the best team throughout, but could never quite impose their superiority enough to make the game comfortable. The opening goal came after a defensive mistake from the home side. A poor clearance was intercepted by Bardic and the ball was quickly laid off to Espinal, whose shot crept past the Hartford keeper in the 19th minute.
The home side almost fashioned a quick equaliser when a chipped free-kick found an unmarked player in the Cosmos area, but the header went wide. But Cosmos thought they had doubled the lead after Bartley tapped in from close range following a short corner, only for the offside flag to rule the effort out. Cosmos went close again soon after when Espinal exchanged passes with a team mate before firing narrowly wide.
But the Cosmos defence was showing signs of fragility and it was exploited on the stroke of half time when Simms scored from the near post from a corner kick.
Cosmos continued to the look the stronger of the 2 sides in the 2nd half, but Hartford squandered a golden opportunity to take the lead after a rare attack on the Cosmos goal.
A low cross fell to the feet of a Hartford player right in front of goal, but he somehow failed to convert and Cosmos scrambled the ball away.
It fell to Cosmos captain Danny Szetela to gain the 3 points after a well taken goal halfway through the 1st half, His well timed run into the area was found with a pass and as the ball bobbled up after his first touch he looped the ball over the Hartford keeper. Cosmos managed to control the game enough to see out the rest of the game without too many concerns.
Cosmos should have added a 3rd goal at the death as a Cosmos substitute wasted a glorious chance right in front of goal as Hartford were caught short at the back.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(NPSL 2019) Boston City 1v3 New York Cosmos B

Image
Saturday 15th June 2019 Hormel Stadium, Boston   Attendance -  A brace from Bocanegra helped Cosmos to extend their 100% record in the NPSL with a 3v1 win in Boston against the Lions of Boston City. Boston had only recorded 1 win in 10 games so far, but had made some new additions to the squad, 3 of which made the starting line up. Added to the fact that Cosmos faced another match 24hrs later forcing Cosmos into making several changes to the line up meant that the match was closer than may have been expected. Cosmos lost Al Hassan early on to injury, but with Cosmos still temporarily down to 10 men they took the lead with less than 15mins on the clock when a Bocanegra effort deflected off Boston's Tomasso D'Agostino and into the net. The goal came from a long throw-in into the Boston area which the Lions failed to deal with. The lead did not last long however as Boston equalised with their first dangerous attack when a long ball caught the Cosmos defence flat-fo...
Read more

(NPSL 2016) Kingston Stockade 2v4 New York Cosmos B

Image
Saturday 18th June 2016 Amesbury Sports Park, Massachusetts   Attendance - Cosmos B consolidated their lead in the Atlantic Conference following a 4v2 victory over Kingston Stockade. It looked like plain sailing for Cosmos after they dominated their opponents in the first 45mins, going in 2v0 at half time. But a crazy start to the second half which saw 3 goals in 4mins, 2 for the home side, made the game more difficult than it should have been, before a late goal sealed the win. Cosmos had to make a substitutions seconds into the game after Trey Williams left the pitch due to illness, with Frankie Castellanos replacing the player. But despite the early change Cosmos had the first chance when a dangerous Castellanos free kick was whipped into the area, but the header from close range was well off target. The home side were struggling to cope with the superior technique and quick passing from the Cosmos and there were a few efforts on the Stockade goal in the ea...
Read more