(NASL 2015 Fall) FC Edmonton 2v1 New York Cosmos

Sunday 27th September 2015
Clarke Stadium, Edmonton, Canada   Attendance -  4,240

A scratch Cosmos side were again beaten by Canadian opposition as they fell 2v1 to FC Edmonton.

Following a midweek match and a lengthy trip to Edmonton the Cosmos decided to rest several players, with Maurer, Mendes and Raul the most notable absentees.

The home side took full advantage of the weakened side, with 2 goals in 3 minutes at the end of the first half which ultimately did the damage.

But the early signs were promising from the away side as Cosmos made a bright start and Senna bent a free kick narrowly wide after 5mins.

But it wasn't long before Edmonton started to threaten and a poor pass from Freeman led to an Edmonton counter attack and ended with a shot that went wide from Lance Laing. Fordyce came even closer to giving the home side the lead as his effort from a Cruz free kick was destines for the net, only for Zobeck to produce an outstanding save to keep the score at 0v0.

Correa squandered an opportunity as he fired off target after he got on the end of a knock down. Cosmos did manage to fashion an opportunity but Mkosana could not get a shot off thanks to a timely intervention from Roberts.

But it was at the other end where the best chance were and Mulligan prevented a goal after Laing looked set to head home from a dangerous Cruz cross. But Laing would not be denied soon after as he opened the scoring for the home side.

Laing took advantage as a deflection fell conveniently in his path and made no mistake as he opened the scoring.

Cosmos had not recovered when they found themselves 2v0 down. A great ball from Cruz split the Cosmos defence apart and Fordyce made it 2v0 at half time.

Eddies continued their dominance in the early stages of the second half but good handling from Zobeck ensured there would not be any further additions to the score. There was little sign of New York getting back into the game until they were gift wrapped a goal just before the hour mark.

 Eddies gave away a needless corner and from the corner Cosmos were awarded a penalty. Van Oekel failed to deal with the corner and Szetela's shot hit the outstretched arm of Watson.

Senna stepped up to tuck the penalty away to give Cosmos a lifeline. The goal triggered the best spell of the game for New York, but even then they failed to test the Eddies keeper with anything of note.

The closest Cosmos came to equalising came via another piece of sloppy play from Edmonton as Van Oekel almost allowed a long range Senna free kick to squirm out of his arms and underneath his legs, but managed to stop the ball from trickling over the line.

Even with the gift of the penalty earlier on, Cosmos never looked like getting an equaliser, and almost conceded a third when after good work down the right wing Ritchie Jones goalbound effort was cleared off the line by Szetela.