The Run-up
The past ten days have not been kind to Ottawa Fury FC. After an optimistic 1-0 victory in the club’s home opener against Minnesota United on Apr. 18th, Marc Dos Santos’ side looked primed for a serious run at the NASL Spring Season title. Thirteen days later, their hopes are slimmer and their domestic cup run is over before it even began. Three consecutive 3-1 defeats have left many questioning Ottawa, a team that is no doubt better on paper than in 2014.
Fury FC travel to Brooklyn this weekend for a date with the heavily-favoured New York Cosmos for a match which Ottawa must win if it wants to retain any chance of capturing the NASL Spring Championship. Trailing the top-table Cosmos by four points, a loss on Saturday night would see Fury FC fall seven points back of first-place with just five matches remaining.
Dos Santos returns to the Ottawa dugout after a two-match absence. The former Montreal Impact manager missed last Saturday’s 3-1 loss against Fort Lauderdale due to personal reasons, and missed Wednesday’s 3-1 cup defeat at FC Edmonton due to suspension.
The 2015 season has been a Jekyll-and-Hyde one for Ottawa thus far, with the quality play on display against the likes of Minnesota and Carolina forgotten amidst some horrendous defending in the past two weeks.
Though it is a tall order to ask anybody to go into Cosmos territory and come back with three points, that is the task that Dos Santos’ troops will be tasked with. Anything less than three points this weekend would essentially kill off any chance Fury FC had of claiming the Spring Championship.
The Opposition
The New York Cosmos are as talented a side as you will find in the NASL, especially up front. While global superstar Raul is clearly the main attraction on the Cosmos’ roster, it has been offseason acquisitions Leo Fernandes, brought in on loan from MLS club Philadelphia, and Walter Restrepo, signed from San Antonio, that have produced the most offensively. Fernandes already has a pair of goals to his name, and Restrepo boasts the outright NASL lead for assists, with three in four matches.
2014 saw the Cosmos take all nine points off of Fury FC, winning a pair of 1-0 decisions (Jun. 8th, Jul. 20th) along with a 2-1 decision on Oct. 11th.
Cosmos goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer also picked up NASL Player-of-the-Month honours for the month of April in a somewhat surprising decision. While the Cosmos did indeed claim three clean sheets in their opening four matches, Maurer only had to make three saves in two of those clean sheets (vTBR 4/18, @ATL 4/25) combined – hardly much work. Personally, I’ve found Maurer to be pretty weak aerially and he has had a tendency to get lost in his own penalty area, being caught out of position on multiple occasions during his time in the NASL.
Defensively, the centre-back pairing of Roversio and Carlos Mendes forms one of the strongest defensive cores in the NASL.
There is no doubt this is a good, even a great Cosmos team. They play a nice, fluid game, and it will be tough for Ottawa Fury FC to get a result.
The Prediction
Everything makes me want to cover my eyes and check the boxscore after the game. Ottawa is playing its fifth game in 14 days, New York its third. Ottawa has been outscored 9-3 in its last three matches (all defeats), while New York is undefeated and has conceded one goal in four matches.
But somewhere inside of me, I think there is a little more resolve to this Ottawa side than it has shown early in 2015. They aren’t going to stun the world and beat the Cosmos on their own turf, but they will keep it close – as they did in all three meetings between the two clubs in 2014.
The key is just how effective Walter Restrepo will be. It’s impossible to deny his gamebreaker-type ability on the flank, and if he is allowed time and space to service the likes of Raul and Lucky Mkosana, it could be difficult for Ottawa’s already-questionable defence to shut down the Cosmos.
Full-time whistle: 2-1 Cosmos.
