Recap: Cosmos Beat One of La Liga’s Best

Starters: Kyle Zobeck stands between the pipes for this one. Defender Harri Hawkins gets a call up from Cosmos B. He started alongside Jimmy Mulligan, Ochieng, and Ryan Richter. Emmanuel Ledesma starts as usual for this one. Ledesma has been in terrific form as of late. Flores, Guerra, and Eric Calvillo played in the middle of the park with Ledesma. The two attackers featured Starikov and Pablo Vranjicán.

Notable Minutes:

10’- Ledesma played a ball towards Eric Calvillo who crossed to Pablo Vranjicán. The header skimmed wide of the goal. Good play between Ledesma and Calvillo.

11’- Ochieng played Valencia striker Zaza well as the ball went out for a corner. Valencia’s corner attempt was caught by Kyle Zobeck. Notable because Ochieng hasn’t been in the best of form, but he made a nice play here.

30’- Just some good transition play from both teams for a solid twenty minutes. Valencia had some good interplay between their team with some smooth, short passes. Zaza made a nice turn on Ochieng at the 30’ but couldn’t get a clean shot off.

33’- Ledesma picked up a yellow card for tripping up a Valencia player in their half of the pitch.

39’- Starikov gets sent in and makes a nice cut on Valencia defender Aymen Abdennour. His shot hits the bar and bounces down right on top of the goal line. No goal, but it was the best chance for the Cosmos up to this point.

53’- Valencia did start off the second half with some good chances of their own. Kyle Zobeck provided some good stops for the club. At this minute, Starikov sends a beautiful ball towards Eric Calvillo at the top of the box. Calvillo collects it and rifles home the first goal of the game for New York.

64’- Zobeck had himself a really good game. A Valencia free kick gets sent in towards Abdennour who heads it towards goal, only to be tipped away by Zobeck. Spectacular save from him. Take a look:

77’- From the last notable minute all the way until this one, there was some substitutions and chances, particularly for Valencia. Did I mention Ledesma has been on fire lately? Ryan Richter picks out Starikov who was streaking towards goal. His shot gets turned away by Valencia keeper Neto, but the ball finds the feet of Ledesma who buries a shot into the bottom corner. 2-0 for the good guys.

Final: Cosmos Win 2-0

Highlights: At this moment in time, I can’t find highlights for this match. I tried to fill up the article with as much highlights from the Cosmos Twitter feed as I could. Check YouTube tomorrow, I’d imagine there will be some sort of video on the game up.

My Thoughts:

• What a game for both Ledesma and Eric Calvillo. We really have to appreciate what these guys are doing for the team at the moment. Chances from all over, good interplay between the two, and more goals from them. With Calvillo being just 19 years old, we can expect him to grow right in front of us for many years to come.
• Solid game for Kyle Zobeck. Great saves when the Cosmos needed them the most. A clean sheet against one of the top clubs in Europe is something he’ll hopefully remember for a long time.
• Kobi Moyal made his debut for the club today. He looked very strong on the ball.
• Yeah it is just a friendly and Valencia didn’t necessarily put out the best team available. A win against a team like this should mean a lot though. If the Cosmos can play at this level against some of the best Europe has to offer, they can surely play like it against NASL competition. Very impressive.

Next Match:

The Cosmos start the Fall Season at MCU Park against the Spring Season champions, Miami FC. The match will begin at 7 p.m. ET.