The days of the Ottawa Fury being perceived by the rest of the NASL as a newcomer from Canada that everyone assumed was overreaching are over. On Tuesday night on Long Island, the Fury broke down the front door and took the three points they so desired with the Cosmos left scratching their heads in the face of their first home loss since August 2nd, 2014.
It was a match that seemed at times dominated by a Cosmos team that was confident in possession, knocking the ball around from side to side like a perfectly-tuned metronome. The strategy was clear: make the team that’s been on the road for 5 days run around chasing the ball and tire them out, then pounce once the legs go. The Fury were having none of that.
The first wrinkle in that plan came in the 31st minute when, against the run of play, Mauro Eustaquio was brought down on a counter just past the halfway line. Richie Ryan floated the ensuing free kick to the left of the Cosmos goal, where it was knocked back to the top of the 18-yard box by Colin Falvey, straight into the path of an onrushing Paulo Jr., who made no mistake in burying the shot first-time.
The Fury took the lead into halftime where Fury head coach Marc Dos Santos made the comment that should his players hang on for the first 15 minutes of the second half, gaps would open up that they could exploit. His words would turn prophetic, but not before Andrés Flores tied the match in the 47th minute followed by Paulo Jr.’s second of the night nine minutes later to make the score 2-1. That’s when things got a little crazy at James M. Shuart Stadium.
The Cosmos came with the full-court press, and the Fury were bailed out no less than four times by outstanding saves from Golden Glove leader and possible league MVP Romuald Peiser. The French keeper kept his team in the match with incredible reflex saves – you could physically see the Cosmos players’ shoulders slump more and more after each stop. The open space that Dos Santos envisioned in his halftime comments then came to fruition, as the Fury looked to punish the pressing Cosmos on the counter.
Two counter-strikes one minute apart knocked the Cosmos to the mat, blows from which they would not recover. The first was an own-goal by Carlos Mendes, the result of a shot from Tom Heinemann that got deflected past helpless Cosmos keeper Jim Maurer. The second was once more off the foot of Heinemann as he scored his fifth of the season to seal the 4-1 win for the Fury.
The win serves as a shot across the bow of the good ship NASL. The three points put the Fury one point behind the Cosmos in the Combined table and atop the Fall season table by five points with six matches left to play. The Fury also broke a modern NASL record with their eighth consecutive road match without losing, and have lost only once in their last 19 matches. They have won the first two matches of their 10-day, three-match road trip; no matter what happens in Carolina on Saturday, the road trip will be deemed a success. The Fury players won’t be seeing it that way, however, as they will look to go nine points out of nine and practically lock up a spot in The Championship, the NASL’s four-team postseason.
Man of the Match: Romuald Peiser. Paulo Jr. could also have won this tonight, but it was Peiser’s acrobatics in goal that bought the Fury the necessary breathing room to blow a very tight affair wide open. Forget the Golden Gloves Award; the man from Phalsbourg, France is now firmly in the conversation for league MVP.
Next Match: The Fury travel to Carolina to take on the Railhawks Saturday night. The Cosmos will have to quickly massage their pride before travelling cross-continent to take on FC Edmonton on Sunday.
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