(NASL 2014 Fall) New York Cosmos 1v1 Minnesota United

Saturday 23rd August 2014
Hofstra University, New York   Attendance -  3,928

Cosmos failed to register a home win at the 4th attempt, but it was a very positive performance from the home side, who dominated the Spring Champions who also top the Fall Season, having played virtually the whole game with 10 men.

The games major incident occurred just 5 mins into the game as Minnesota won a penalty after Maurer brought down Minnesota's Daniel Mendes. Guenzatti had given the ball way sloppily in a dangerous area and Ramirez played in Mendes who when taking the ball round Maurer was fouled by the Keeper. In addition to gaining the spot kick, Minnesota gained a numerical advantage after Maurer was shown the red card.

Ramirez beat substitute keeper Kyle Zobeck to give the Spring Champions the lead.

The sending off affected the game as a spectacle as Minnesota could dictate the tempo of the game and enjoy most of the possession, although rarely threatened. Cosmos sat deep and attempted the occasional counter attack, with little success. The only other chance of note in the half came from the home side, with Flores having a sight of goal, but his effort was saved by Van Oekel.

Cosmos almost had  disastrous start to the 2nd half as Roversio put Zobeck under pressure with a poor back pass, but the Keeper managed to clear the danger, under pressure from a Minnesota United player. That early mistake aside, Cosmos dominated the 2nd half and should have equalised early on when Chirishian weaved his way to a clear opportunity, but spurned the opportunity as Van Oekel produced  good stop.

Just prior to the hour mark Dimitrov had a chance to level the scores, taking down a long pass from Freeman, but his effort lacked power and allowed Van Oekel to make another save. It would be the strikers final contribution of the game as he was replaced with Mads Stokkelien, who had been dropped from the starting line up after some disappointing performances.

It was the Cosmos who looked like they had the man advantage as they continued to press for an equaliser and were inches away from a goal as a Mads Stokkelien cross was just too high for Freeman who could not direct his header on target at the far post. 

Minnesota had not created anything of note since the early penalty, but came close to making it 2v0 as a Ramires effort went just past the post. Cosmos got the equaliser they deserved on 74mins with 2 of the home substitutes linking up to good effect. Jemal Johnson provided a low cross which Stokkelien guided in at the near post to level the scores.

Cosmos were not happy with just the point and Flores burst through moments later, only to be brought down by a tackle, although the Referee adjudged the tackle to be a fair one, much to the Cosmos' anger. The home side were rampant now and Freeman struck the post with a great effort after Van Oekel was way out of his goal, having had his clearance charged down seconds earlier.

Stokkelien threatened a later winner but his audacious effort landed on the roof of the net with the Minnesota Keeper stranded. Both sides had chances late on, but no-one could provide a late winner.