(NASL 2017 Fall) Puerto Rico 1v4 New York Cosmos

Wednesday 18th October 2017
Central Broward Regional Park, Lauderhill, Florida   Attendance -  

Cosmos racked up another win over Puerto Rico to move 2 points ahead of Jacksonville in the race for the final spot in the NASL playoffs. It was the 5th win over the Islanders in the 2017 campaign, a remarkable statistic considering Cosmos have only managed 9 wins in the league in total.

With Puerto Rico still recovering from Hurricane damage the match was played at the former home of Fort Lauderdale Strikers, with the Cosmos fielding a few surprises in the line up which saw Richter, Ledesma and Marquez dropped to the bench.

New York created a couple of openings early on with a Starikov effort at the near post and Ayoze heading narrowly over from a Calvillo cross. Mulligan was given a start over Richter and he came close to opening the scoring midway through the half as his shot from the edge of the box was tipped onto the bar.

Cosmos took control of the match with 2 goals in a 6 minute spell at the end of the first half. The first came from the left foot of Ayoze as he delivered a trademark curling free-kick over the wall and into the net. Starikov had come close to adding a second but did not have to wait long for his goal as he made it 2v0 in spectacular fashion with an improvised bicycle kick. Guerra had shown great skill down the right wing to fashion a crossing opportunity and as the ball bobbled up in a crowded box Starikov went airborne to put Cosmos 2 up.

Puerto Rico came out strong in the early stages of the 2nd half but Cosmos were still threatening and Guerra came close to poking the ball in after a scramble in the area in the just before the hour mark. Jimmy Maurer came to his sides rescue soon after as Puerto Rico went through with the Cosmos defence appealing for offside.

The latter part of the game saw heavy rain come down but the Cosmos did not seem affected and made the game safe. Winning the ball in the opposition half the ball Starikov played the ball to former PR player Bardic who evaded a sliding challenge and slotted the ball past the keeper to make it 3v0.

Starikov was having a productive game and he outpaced the Puerto Rico defence late on to go through on goal, only to be upended in the box with Ayoze stepping up to score the penalty.

The 'home' side did manage a late consolation as Rivera rose well at the far post to crash home a header, but it was a night for Cosmos to celebrate, with the added bonus of Jacksonville dropping points in the race for the playoffs.