After 10 games, the Cosmos are near the bottom of the USL League One table, 16th out of 17 teams with only fellow expansion side Corpus Christie FC below them.
Two wins and one draw are the only points Cosmos head coach Davide Corti has been able to see his team earn, and they're currently on a four-match losing streak in USL League One and winless in their last five league games.
The main problem for the Cosmos: A lack of options in attack. If the Cosmos don’t score with their usual starters, they don’t score at all. The options off the bench are not producing. A defender scored his first-ever goal before new attacking signing Lamin Jawneh opened his Cosmos account.
The real frustration is that the Cosmos can hang around against the league leader in Union Omaha, but they can also completely collapse against a Sarasota Paradise team with only four wins on the season. It's those moments, where the team shows it can play but still makes lapses on defense or misses key offensive opportunities, that have caused the Cosmos to slip down the table.
Trouble in Paradise
In their most recent match in Florida last Saturday, the Cosmos stuck with the same 4-1-4-1 formation they used earlier in the week at home against Union Omaha. Sebastián Guenzatti up top, new signing Lamin Jawneh on the right, leading scorer Ajmeer Spengler right behind as the central attacking midfielder.
The opening half in Sarasota saw both sides battle for control through midfield, but it was Paradise who controlled a majority of the possession. The home side, also playing its first year in USL League One, only needed seconds after the first whistle to create one of the most dangerous chances in the game. A long shot saved by Cosmos keeper Javier Garcia was quickly tapped by Garrett McLaughlin in front of the net, forcing Garcia into a huge save.
Garcia delivered several strong saves to keep the match scoreless heading into the halftime break.
Once again, Spengler was the answer. Nick Zielonka fed the midfielder just outside the top of the box, sending a deceptively slow spinning ball into the bottom right corner. His sixth goal of the season gave New York a 1-0 lead in the 50th minute.
As has become an issue, though, New York was not able to finish out the result. Substitutions in the second half were probably a key factor in that, as Augustine Puentes and Massimo Morabito replaced Nick Zielonka and Néstor Cabrera, respectively. Two players who had been doing well were put on the bench for younger talent, and the midfield and attack each suffered.
Sarasota responded in the 68th minute through Mathew Bolduc before Anderson Rosa found the go-ahead goal in the 78th minute to swing the match back in favor of the hosts. A couple of late subs, like former NYCFC II midfielder Leo Guarino, entering with under 10 minutes to play in regulation was not going to be enough, and the game ended a 2-1 win for Sarasota.
The Paradise are now in 11th place in the USL League One table, after winning two league matches for the first time in their history.
Perched by Omaha
Saturday wasn’t the only crushing Cosmos collapse of the week. A few days prior, the Cosmos welcomed USL League One leaders Union Omaha to Hinchliffe Stadium for a Wednesday night showdown.
On a night where the crowd was an announced 2,684 (but looked to the eye to be well under 1,000 fans), it was a semi-joyous night.
Firstly, Sebastián Guenzatti earned his 100th cap with the Cosmos, having played a majority of his career with the team during the 2010s in the North American Soccer League.
Second, midfielder and the first goal scorer in this new iteration of the Cosmos, Darren Sidoel, returned to the squad after numerous weeks out due to injury, replacing Justin Milovanov at defensive midfielder.
Cosmos dictated play early, Guenzatti nearly scored in the first minutes, and overall, the first half was physical and tightly contested. Union Omaha had their first real chance in the 20th minute when an off-his-line Javier Garcia allowed a shot on goal that needed to be cleared off the line by Anderson Holt.
After the half, Justin Milovanov replaced Sidoel, who seemed to be on a minutes cap. From there, Omaha began to break things down. A corner in the 59th minute saw Cosmos nearly clear, but Nick Zielonka turned the ball over just outside the box. Omaha capitalized on the mistake, ending with Josue Gomez hitting a left-footed shot from close range into the bottom-right corner to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
The Cosmos battled back, earning a corner of their own in the 79th that would pay off. A short pass to Lamine Jawneh and a through-ball to Andersson Holt allowed the latter to hit a point-blank shot into the top-right corner. Holt’s first professional goal against his former team leveled the match. And once again, the Cosmos scored in the 80th minute or later - something the team has done in nearly every game in which it has earned points or a victory in this season.
The match appeared headed toward a draw after Omaha’s Pato Botello-Faz skied a penalty in the 85th minute. But in the end, the visitors found a breakthrough from Kemps Waldemar Tekiela, who scored a stoppage-time winner in the 94th minute to secure all three points for the visitors from Nebraska.
Now the team has to look forward to this weekend. The Cosmos host Hartford Athletic on Saturday, June 6 in Paterson, NJ, in Prinx Tires USL Cup action. A second straight win in the group stage — after defeating Westchester SC earlier in May — could help the Cosmos’ odds of advancing. But this is also against a USL Championship side, one that may be mediocre right now in league play, but one that still leads Group 5 in the Cup.
