[NASL: Fall Week 2] The Ottawa Fury set an NASL attendance record as it drew a crowd of 14,593 fans for its 1-0 loss to the New York Cosmos in its first match atTD Place on Sunday afternoon.  The previous attendance record was 13,151 by San Antonio Scorpions for their first game at Heroes Stadium in 2012.

A first-half goal from midfielderSebastian Guenzatti was the difference in the game. The best chance in the second half came when Hans Denissen‘s deflected off the top of the Ottawa crossbar.

The Ottawa crowd pushed the weekend average for the NASL’s four games to 10,601 fans.

Saturday …

The San Antonio Scorpions and Tampa Bay Rowdies kept pace with with spring champion MinnesotaUnited FC, winning their second straight game to open the NASL fall championship.

The Scorpions won their second game in a row with a 2-0 victory over visiting Fort Lauderdale Strikersbefore 6,958 fans. Rookie Billy Forbes struck for the opening goal of the match in only the 23rd minute. Forbes then added his NASL-leading fifth assist rightbefore halftime to double the advantage, feeding Pole Thomas Zahorski.

“We knew we had to start off on the right foot, it was a big win for us,”said Scorpions coach Alen Marcina. “That’s entertaining for the fans and that put us in first place right now so we just gotta carry the momentum and keep it going.”

Bulgarian Georgi Hristov scored his second gamewinner in as many weeks to give the Rowdies a 2-1 come-from-behind win at Indy Eleven before a sellout crowd of 10,555 fans.Brazilian Kleberson had put Indy ahead in the 38th minute, but Casey Townsend equalized five minutes later.
 
“Very, very happy with the win,” said Rowdies coach Ricky Hill. “It’s great to get three points with such a difficult place to come to. I thoughtour overall performance was very pleasing. We didn’t get the rhythm in the second half as well as we did in the first half but we always have to threat at times.”

In Eric Wynalda‘s last game in charge of the Silverbacks, Atlanta beat FC Edmonton, 1-0, on Pablo Cruz‘s  late free kickbefore 3,100 fans at Atlanta Silverbacks Park.

— Minnesota United beat English Premier League club Swansea City, 2-0, on goals by Justin Davies and Greg Jordan before 9,064 fans on Saturday night. A first-half goal from Brazilian midfielder Daniel Mendes was all Minnesota needed to extend its unbeaten streak to six games, defeating the Carolina RailHawks, 1-0, Thursday night before 7,287 fans at NSCStadium.

NASL WEEK 2, Results:
Sunday, July 20
Ottawa 0 New York 1
Saturday, July 19
Atlanta 1 FC Edmonton 0
Indy Eleven 1 Tampa Bay 2
San Antonio 2 Ft. Lauderdale 0
Thursday, July17
Minn. United 1 Carolina 0

NASL Fall Standings:
PTS TEAM W-L-T GF/GA
6 Minn. United 2-0-0 4/0
6 San Antonio 2-0-0 5/1
6 Tampa Bay 2-0-0 5/3
3Indy Eleven 1-1-0 3/3
3 Atlanta 1-1-0 3/3
3 New York 1-1-0 2/3
1 Ottawa 0-1-1 0/01
1 FC Edmonton 0-1-1 0/1
0 Carolina 0-2-0 1/3
0 Ft. Lauderdale 0-2-0 0/5

NASL WEEK 3, Schedule:
Wednesday, July 23
8:30 pm ET
San Antonio vs. Carolina
Saturday, July 26
7:30 pm ET
Atlanta vs. Minn.United
Carolina vs. Ottawa
Ft. Lauderdale vs. New York
Tampa Bay vs. San Antonio
Sunday, July 27
4 pm ET
FC Edmonton vs. Indy Eleven

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1 Comment

  1. the Rowdies need to get serious about a stadium. The reused baseball stadium is horrible. The site lines are terrible. Raymond James is too big. Right now they can’t afford to build one. They will never get the last MLS slot with where they are now. Miami might flame out so they should be looking for a stadium deal.

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