Saturday 19th April 2014
Clarke Stadium, Edmonton, Canada Attendance - 4,399
A neat Sebastian Guenzatti first half finish was enough to give Cosmos victory in Edmonton in a match of few chances. Edmonton were the only side that Cosmos failed to beat in the 2013 Fall Season, so the victory will be savored against a notoriously robust side.
The home side lined up with a 5 man midfield, and coupled with the usual high intensity pressing game of Edmonton, the game was for the most part a midfield slog and littered with stoppages.
Cosmos did control the ball the better of the 2 sides, but chances on goal were few and far between, with only a Senna free kick straight at Edmonton Keeper Smits and a half volley from Dimitrov that went well off target to show for the away sides efforts.
Edmonton should have taken the lead after good work from Nonni left Roversio and Ayoze in his wake before finding Jonke unmarked in the midfield, but the Edmonton player spurned a great chance as his header went well off target from close range.
Cosmos made the Eddies pay for the missed opportunity, when Guenzatti produced a neat improvised finish past Smits at the near post from a Stokkelien cross. The Scandinavian had hardly been in the match prior to the goal, but he was allowed to turn far too easily and delivered the low cross for Guenzatti to convert.
Diaz produced a rare piece of skill in the final third just before half time with curling effort, with Smits at full stretch to push the ball round the post, although the shot may have been going wide anyway.
Smits was needed early in the 2nd half to keep the score at 1v0, as he did well to push a shot round the post and Edmonton almost gifted Cosmos a second when they almost sliced the ball past Smits, with the ball only just going past the post.
The rest of the game saw Cosmos committed to keeping the score at 1v0, bringing on Joseph Nane to bolster the midfield, but apart from a good Maurer save on 69mins, Cosmos rarely looked like surrendering their advantage against an Eddies attack short on the guile needed to fashion an equaliser.
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