The New York Cosmos stumbled out of the gate in the 2015 fall season, but on Tuesday, they had an opportunity to pull within just two points of the table-topping Ottawa Fury. Unfortunately for the boys in green, they struggled to stop the Fury from taking advantage on the counter, and fell at home by a 4-1 score.
Head coach Gio Savarese tried to find positives when speaking to the press after the match, though noting that the club put themselves in a difficult position when trying to come from behind:
"It was our game. We were controlling, creating chances, having a good tempo, doing excellent. I think that second goal was very difficult for us to bounce back from. We worked hard to get the first goal and tie. The second goal from them just put us in a difficult situation. We went forward and they caught us on two chances with the counterattack."
Forward Lucky Mkosana echoed Savarese's thoughts, pointing out that the Cosmos needed to do a better job of preventing Ottawa from scoring:
"Definitely the second goal kind of killed our momentum. We were doing pretty well when we were tied, but I feel like after that second goal they had the momentum over us. When you get an equalizer like that, you have to keep working hard so they don’t score another goal."
New York will next play on Sunday, when they travel to Edmonton to take on the Eddies. They'll do so with just a three point lead in the combined table, and having played their game in hand.