By FRANCO PANIZO
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The New York Cosmos earned a season-opening win on Saturday night, but not everything went according to plan for the Cosmos.
Spanish legend Raul made his NASL debut in the Cosmos’ 1-0 victory against the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, but the former Real Madrid legend was largely ineffective at Lockhart Stadium on Saturday night. Raul failed to get into a rhythm in his league debut and contributed little to a Cosmos attack that only found the winner after he, somewhat surprisingly, came off early in the second half.
Raul was replaced by Sebastian Guenzatti in the 53rd minute of a match played in front of a record crowd of 11,691. After the match, it was revealed that Raul came off with a minor injury, though there were conflicting accounts of just what the injury was.
The 37-year-old striker said he felt some discomfort in his hamstring while head coach Giovanni Savarese said the pain was in Raul’s Achilles’ heel. On Sunday, sources confirmed to SBI that Raul had suffered a mild hamstring strain, not an Achilles injury.
“As soon as he felt it, he said, ‘Precautionary, better to come out,'” said Savarese. “We want to have him the whole year. He’s been training very well, he’s looking very healthy, so we wanted to make sure that we save him a little bit and then he’d be ready for next week.”
The injury slowed Raul, who was given some freedom to roam in the match, and did not allow him to make much of an impact in his NASL debut. The former Real Madrid striker struggled to find teammates in dangerous positions – on one occasion late in the first half he misjudged the weight of a simple, short-range pass to a teammate feet from him, resulting in it being picked off – and he didn’t do a good job of putting himself in scoring positions.
Drifting far from the penalty area, Raul did not see much of the ball. He scrapped and tried to get involved, but just never got into a groove with his new teammates. He was seen mostly walking and not following up plays in the minutes leading up to his exit.
Still, Savarese hailed his star forward’s performance in the midst of questions about the lackluster showing.
“It was excellent, because you can see his touches are different, he’s very smart, he finds spaces, he’s able to connect going forward,” said Savarese, “and he’s able to maintain the ball with us and make good decisions that give us the possibilities to be able to keep pushing forward the lines and be able to play in that half of the field.”
Raul held off from making any grand proclamations about the league and its style of play, saying he needed more than just one game to really assess it all. He did, however, note that the level of play was “demanding, physical and competitive”.
Raul was disappointed to have to come off early into the second half because of his mild injury, but he’s still keen on making an impact this season with the Cosmos. In fact, he reiterated his desire to win and help grow the sport after the match.
“I’ve been playing soccer for 20 years, but I want to keep playing and to leave my stamp on the Cosmos, to help the team as well as the academy,” said Raul. “Soccer here has lots of potential here, lots of kids are playing it, and being able to help with all my experience is what I want to accomplish.”
To do that, he will need to continue to acclimate to the Cosmos and NASL. He’ll also need to stay healthy, and perform much better than he did on Saturday.
“Always, every game, every week there’s going to be improvements,” said Savarese. “But it was a very good start.”
Don’t really agree with the writer here, Raul played pretty well the first half, nearly connecting on a far post run/cross for a goal and showing great possession and passing when on the ball. I don’t think anyone is fooling themselves into thinking we are going to see the 2002 version on Raul out there; but to claim he was a “contributed little” sounds more like pushing an agenda that reporting fact.
The Empire of Soccer article says the same thing and the writer of that article (Dave Martinez) is a Cosmos season ticket holder. He has an agenda too I suppose?
I HATE THE COSMOS
I HATE THE NASL
I HATE HOFSTRA
I HATE ALL THINGS NOT MLS
BUT MOSTLY I HATE MYSELF
Errr … I am not a season ticket holder for ANY NY area team.
But … thanks?
IT DOESN’T MATTER!
MY SELF-LOATHING KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES!!!!
You sound like the one with the agenda hoss.
YES, I DO!
I HAVE AN ANTI-NASL AGENDA!
I LONG TO BE HELD CLOSE BY DON GARBER!
HE IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR!
“I’ve been playing soccer for 20 years, but I want to keep playing and to leave my stamp on the Cosmos, to help the team as well as the academy,” said Raul. “Soccer here has lots of potential here, lots of kids are playing it, and being able to help with all my experience is what I want to accomplish.”
That’s quite the statement to make after your first match of a long season. Sounds more like the beginning of a retirement speech.
Agree. This is what we heard years ago from Pele and then Beckham. It may have rung true in the 70s or 80s or in MLS 1.0, but statements like this from European stars at the tail end of their careers sound anachronistic now, and a little condescending — as if one guy playing a couple of years here will do something dramatic for the US soccer scene. I appreciate the intent, I guess, but I would prefer something along the lines of “I’ve had a long career but I still have a lot left in the tank and i want to win championships.”
Get better soon Raul!
I can’t believe Raul got injured. He’s only 37 and a half.
I know, right? Who saw that one coming?
I think the story tells the lol
Hahaha cosmos lololol NASL.
why?
Here’s the link http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/leeds-united-set-60million-red-5455134
This comment makes no connection to Raul, so excuse my comment but it does connect to cosmos, if they want to join MLS.
So if red bull buy Leeds united, would that mean New York might be up for sale.
According to the mirror, they wouldn’t sale New York but Austria or Germany yes.
To me it doesn’t make sense, why would they sell the German team or Austrian when they both can play in champions or Europa league.
But at the same time, having a marketing team in the New York area is big for their company,and I don’t see them selling New York.
Another big factor, can they owe more than 3 teams in the world. Don’t they have 4, including Brazil and New York. Will they also rebrand Leeds united, which I highly doubt since Leeds fans will protest, not like red bull New York fans.
If I was a red bull fan, I would not attend their games until they rebrand or sell. Imagine Leeds keeping their name and just adding the red bull as a jersey and stadium sponsor. That would be like backstabbing a nyrb fan.