Cosmos steal stoppage time win in Miami

The Island Now

Cosmos striker, Lucky Mkosana, struck for a brace, including a stoppage time winner, to help lift the New York Cosmos to a 3-2 win over Miami FC at FIU Stadium Saturday night.

“It was important for us to win a game like this, to show the spirit and to go back to being the team that can win games in the last moment,” Cosmos Head Coach Giovanni Savarese said. “It was important to get these three points to maintain us at the top of the table.”

Mkosana opened the scoring in the 39th minute with his second goal in as many games. David Diosa played a spectacular low cross through traffic where he found Mkosana in stride and the forward from Zimbabwe beat his defender to the far post and knocked past goalkeeper Mario Daniel Vega.

Kwadwo Poku opened his account for Miami FC, equalizing in the 73rd minute after the former New York City FC midfielder won a footrace to latch onto a long pass from Cvitanich and deposited a shot inside the far post from 16 yards out.  

Yohandry Orozco gave the Cosmos a 2-1 lead in the 81st minute after he finished a nice give-and-go from second-half substitute Andrés Flores and tapped past Miami goalkeeper Vega with the outside of his right foot from close range.

“Orozco was looking to do that play one or two times before in the match and was able to combine with Flores to find the space to score an important goal,” Savarese said. “He had a very good game as well and I thought it was a fantastic goal.”

However, Darío Cvitanich equalized on a well-struck penalty to the right of goalkeeper Brian Holt three minutes from full time, after Hunter Freeman was ruled to have barged over Jaime Chávez in the box.

Three minutes past full time, Hunter Freeman took one last corner kick and found Mkosana right after the ball bounced off the first post, and without hesitating the striker pushed the ball gently to the bottom of the net to claim the victory for the Cosmos.

“For me, it was a great ball, great service right there. The ball was coming inside and at the end Lucky was great to put his body there,” Savarese said. “They marked us zonally and there was open space there and Lucky was smart to run into that space.”

Mkosana’s second goal of the night capped a wild final 10 minutes that saw three combined goals as the Cosmos improve to 2-0-0 in the NASL Fall Season.

The Cosmos have a quick turnaround for their next NASL Fall Season match, hosting Jacksonville Armada FC Wednesday night at Hofstra’s Shuart Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

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