Cosmos miss chance to pull closer to first in draw with Indy Eleven

The New York Cosmos didn't do themselves any favors Saturday night when tying the Indy Eleven 1-1 at James M. Shuart Stadium.

The draw with Indy, along with a scoreless draw between Minnesota and Carolina, keeps the Cosmos within three points of first place, but a win would have brought them within a point.

The match started off well for the Cosmos, who were in control during the first half and quickly jumped in front in the fourth minute. A feed from Mads Stokkelien to Sebastian Guenzatti set up a powerful shot that beat Indy keeper Kristian Nicht to put New York ahead 1-0.

"I thought before the game we have to connect more," Guenzatti said about his goal. "The first ball we got we connectednd it went in."

New York finished the first half outshooting Indy Eleven 11-0 and led 4-1 in corners. But the visitor pushed back in the second half and the Cosmos strong performance began to taper off in the second half. The Cosmos allowed six shots in latter half, one of which found the back of the net.

In the 76th minute Brad Ring beat Jimmy Maurer to score his first goal of the season and tie the game at one.

"It was our fault and they had a really good fortune tonight to get a goal," Marcos Senna said through a translator about the tying goal. "To get through our goalie. It's really unfortunate bad luck for us. We gotta keep on working. We tried to the very end, but it unfortunately didn't come out how we hoped it would."

The Cosmos would not be able to find the back of the net for the remainder of the match and the contest ended in a draw.

Despite Indy having not won a game coming into Saturday's game, the Cosmos could not come away with the all important win. A poor second half performance sunk the home team and kept them from moving up in the standings.

"We just weren't connecting passes, our movement off the ball," Maurer said about his team's performance. "How well we can play we just didn't do it tonight. Starting from me to the backs, the midfielders, every level we just weren't connecting the way we can. We just have to get back to that and be better.

To make matters worse, Senna left the match in the middle of the second half. After the game he said he suffered an injury to his abductors. Senna's injury will be assessed on Sunday and his status going forward will be determined after the assessment.

The Cosmos have a quick turnaround with their next game coming on Wednesday -- their first match of the US Open Cup -- and then New York plays a second game on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale against the Strikers.