(NASL 2015 Fall) New York Cosmos 1v0 Jacksonville Armada

Wednesday 13th September 2015
Hofstra University, New York   Attendance -  5,089

Cosmos returned to winning ways to record a first ever win over Jacksonville Armada. It took until 40mins for the game to come to life after both sides struggled to create anything meaningful on goal in difficult conditions with heavy rain pouring down in New York.

But the Cosmos started to take control and after Armada were reduced to 10 men after the dismissal of Lucas Trejo it was all one way traffic. Raul made the breakthrough with 16mins left, which takes Cosmos within 3pts of Ottawa in the Fall Championship.

The Cosmos were forced into an early substitution with Adam Moffat forced off through injury, replaced by Marcos Senna. It took Cosmos over half an hour to create a chance when a Senna free kick fell to Raul, but it was awkward for the legendary striker and he could not get the effort on target.

But Jacksonville had the best chance of the half when a Nicklaw cross came through a crowd of players and to Tyler Williams, but with the goal gaping the Armada player sent it over the bar.

As the half drew to a close Cosmos suddenly kicked into gear. Restrepo almost caught out Armada keeper Sierra with a 30 yard effort which went narrowly over, and shortly after Lucky  had the home sides best chance as he was through on goal, but although his chipped effort beat Sierra, it went the wrong side of the post.

Lucky had another effort on goal as he connected with a Bover cross, but it did not have enough on the effort to provide the opener.

Early in the 2nd half Armada were reduced to 10 men after Lucas Trejo after he was shown a red card for a dangerously high challenge on Lucky. The dismissal changed the game as Cosmos went in search of a winner and Restrepo could only put an effort wide from a cross that Lucky could not quite connect with.

With 19mins left Senna had an effort that took a deflection and required Sierra to tip over and from the resulting corner Ayoze forced Sierra into another save.

With Cosmos firmly on the offensive, new signing Gaston Cellerinio was introduced to the action for his first appearance. The goal finally came shortly after some classy play from Raul. The Spanish legend controlled a hooked cross from Restrepo before dummying a shot which gave Raul the angle he needed to tuck the ball past Sierra for the breakthrough goal.

With Jacksonville in a long scoreless run and already down to 10 men, there was no coming back from that blow. Cosmos looked to make it safe with and Restrepo came close to making it 2v0, but Jacksonville managed to survive to keep their feint hopes alive.

in the games closing moments, it was the Cosmos threatening as Bover sent over a cross that almost went in and Gaston Cellerino missed an opportunity to mark his debut with a goal.

A miserable night for the Armada was completed when Scaglia was sent off after the final whistle.