November 15, 2015 is a night that fans of the New York Cosmos won't soon forget. The 'Mos won their seventh North American Soccer League title in front of a modern NASL playoff record crowd, defeating Ottawa Fury FC 3-2.
Ottawa made it tough for the home side to play the ball out of the back early on, but some great, physical play from Danny Szetela and Gaston Cellerino resulted in the opener, and forced the Fury to back off the pressure for the remainder of the first half. Gio Savarese's side looked comfortable for most of the next hour, and things looked good once Mason Trafford was sent off with just over 20 minutes to play.
At this point, the match opened up quite a bit, with Ottawa leveling despite the disadvantage, before Cellerino struck for two more of his own. Tom Heinemann made it a brace late in added time, but by that point, it was just consolation, as New York simply ran out the clock, and proceeded to celebrate a title.
There will be plenty to analyze tomorrow and this winter, but for now, I'm looking forward to sitting back and enjoying what was a very enjoyable 2015 season. Campeones!