New York Cosmos home game win 3-0 win over Jacksonville Armada FC
New York Cosmos, win 3-0 over Jacksonville Armada FC Wednesday night at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium.
After goad road Cosmos remain on the top at the North American Soccer League Fall Season Standings, the only team in the league with maximum points after three games. New York has also won all seven of its home matches this year, scoring 14 goals and allowing just 2. “It’s one of the best performances the team has had so far because it was complete,” Cosmos Head Coach Giovanni Savarese said. “We can still improve upon that, but we felt always in control of the match.”
In his first start of the Fall Season, Cosmos goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer nearly scored in the 10th minute when his long goal kick bounced in front of Jacksonville goalkeeper Sean Lewis, who raced back to swat the ball from the goal line following the second bounce with Diosa racing in. Flores put the Cosmos in front just before the half-hour mark on his first goal of the year. Juan Arango played to Lucky Mkosana, who toe-poked the ball to Flores and the Salvadorian international struck a low shot from 16 yards out inside the far post. Maurer wasn’t tested often, but did come up with a tremendous lunging save in the 34th minute, parrying over a Kevan George header from eight yards out.
Flores then played provider in the 36th minute when he took a pass from Arango, settled the ball and played a perfect cross to the edge of the six-yard box. Diosa tapped in to give the Cosmos a commanding 2-0 halftime advantage.
“That’s been a key for us in the past. We’ve lost a couple of good results
because we haven’t managed the game the way we had to,” Flores said. “We’ve been working on that a lot. Mentally we knew when we scored the first goal we had to go for the second one. Now it’s getting better, but we have to keep improving, keep working.” Moffat put the finishing touches on a comprehensive win with a blast from 24 yards out in the 79th minute for his fourth goal of the year. “It felt great coming off my foot and then right in the back of the net,” Moffat said. “It’s always good to score and it was an important goal as well, the third goal. They were still in the game. All it takes is one goal and they’re right back in it.” Maurer added another point-blank save in second-half stoppage time to rob Junior Sandoval and preserve the clean sheet.
The Cosmos will next travel to Oklahoma, taking on Rayo OKC this Saturday, July 16 at 9 p.m. ET.
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