GAME OF THE WEEK: COSMOS B HEAD INTO PLAYOFFS ON STRONG NOTE
The defending NPSL champions look primed to repeat in 2016.
With two goals each from Franklin Castellanos and Daniel Bedoya, New York Cosmos B concluded their regular season slate with a 6-0 win over Kingston Stockade FC Sunday afternoon at Hofstra Soccer Stadium in Long Island.
Right from the opening whistle Cosmos B came out attacking their guests looking to go down the left side through the play of midfielder Matias Ruiz. However, a switch of play to the right resulted in New York taking the lead in the ninth minute.
After strong overlapping run, right back Kyle McTurk found himself with the ball and decision to make. McTurk correctly spotted the onrushing Castellanos, cutting the ball back perfectly into the midfielder’s path who easily slotted home to put the hosts up 1-0 early.
That was merely the beginning of the Cosmos B onslaught as New York took a 2-0 lead in the 18th minute through Daniel Bedoya. A seemingly harmless long ball found the Cosmos B midfielder charging down the center of the field unmarked leaving Bedoya alone for an easy one-on-one with Stockade FC goalkeeper David Giddings.
A mere two minutes later the Castellanos and Bedoya show would continue as New York’s leading men connected to give Cosmos B the 3-0 lead. Bedoya would take the role of playmaker and his inch-perfect through ball found the feet of Castellanos who made no mistake in notching his second of the day.
In the 24th minute it was Bedoya’s turn to complete his brace as New York closed out the first half scoring. After winning the ball in midfield, Bedoya charged down the field on a brilliant solo run that ended with Cosmos B sporting a 4-0 lead.
“Those two guys are pretty fun to watch,” said Cosmos B head coach Fernando Barboto. “They’re very entertaining, they play with that flair that so many of us like. I love watching them play and as a coach, sometimes I forget that I’m coaching when I’m watching those two guys play.”
With such a wide margin in the scoreline, both teams made wholesale lineups changes to start the second half.
Those changes benefited Stockade FC the most at first as the visitors saw their best run of play in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
However, the Cosmos B subs would put the game even further out of reach in the 54th minute as Julian Stahler would find a wide open Per Eik Forgaard who covered to put New York up 5-0.
Stahler would conclude New York’s goal-scoring barrage in the 65th minute as Alejandro Mitrano, another substitute, assisted for the sixth and final goal of day.
Having already clinched the No. 2 seed in the NPSL Northeast Regional Playoffs, Barboto was pleased with how his team closed out the regular season.
“We said that we wanted to finish what we started. We started with a win, we wanted to finish the season with a win and we did that. It could’ve been easy for our guys to have a letdown. We talked about it all week, imposing ourselves on our opponent, scoring goals so we can have some positive energy and momentum going into the playoffs.”
As they await their playoff opponent, Barboto knows that his men are ready to defend that 2015 NPSL title.
“This is a brand new group; there’s only one returning player from last year’s team so this group is hungry,” Barboto said. “Let’s get after it.”
