— It was Faith and Family Night at WakeMed Soccer Park following North Carolina FC’s match against the New York Cosmos this afternoon in Cary. For much of the match, it appeared the home side relied on a wing and a prayer to find a result the Cosmos, winners of three of the last four NASL championships. That strategy yielded a sluggish first half, a second-half Cosmos goal, and the first goalless game for North Carolina FC this year as it fell to New York, 1-0.

“The Cosmos probably deserved it,” Clarke said. “They were the better team on the day, which is disappointing to say.”

In the first half, the née Hawks looked like a team playing in 90-degree heat and their third game in eight days. While the Cosmos found the better chances, NCFC mustered only four shots, none on target. New York earned eight corner kicks to only one for the home team, while the Cosmos held 56 percent possession.

The lethargy led to the seemingly inevitable Cosmos lead in the 52nd minute. After NCFC keeper Brian Sylvestre saved an Andres Flores blast, the Cosmos’ Walter Restrepo worked the ball over to an unmarked Juan Guerra mere meters from the goal line. Guerra calmly buried his short shot for the 1-0 advantage.

Down a goal with storm clouds encroaching on WakeMed Soccer Park, North Carolina FC found a sense of urgency after a couple of second-half substitutions and shifting from a 4-2-3-1 formation to a 4-4-2.

“I think the 4-4-2 caused them problems,” Clarke observed, “and we were a little bit more direct from there and got [the ball] in behind them.”

However, North Carolina couldn’t find an equalizer, leading NCFC to suffer its first shutout this NASL season.

Cosmos manager Gio Savarese acknowledged part of his team’s early strategy was to push his fullbacks wide and forward, partly to close off NCFC wingers Tiyi Shipalane and Lance Laing and partly to propel his own offense.

“We wanted to push the fullbacks wide and high,” Savarese said. “That way we could find those spaces to play out from the back. So we had the midfielders come into that space, and that way we were able to push [the fullbacks] forward … The fact that we didn’t score a second goal didn’t help us, because they were in the game. Some of our players got tired, so they were able to find more spaces to players like Laing and Shipalane. When they have space, they’re very dangerous.”

“I think it was a good game for people to watch, two teams that tried to play,” Savarese said. “I thought most the game we had the ball and were able to find space and create a lot of chances. So I feel we deserved this victory.”

Clarke said that defender Connor Tobin, who came off in the second half, suffered a hamstring injury of indeterminate severity. Clarke cited a multitude of factors that contributed to his team’s subpar performance.

“I think it was the three games in eight days, a couple of afternoon games, a midweek game in the Open Cup that was a big game emotionally and physically,” Clarke diagnosed. “But those are excuses. We didn’t start very well, and we talked long and hard all week that we needed to set the tempo. We didn’t connect enough passes early on and keep the ball and make them move and chase. We were the ones doing the chasing, and that’s hard under tough conditions. That caught up to us, and we looked tired and sluggish as a result of that.”

Today is the Cosmos’ fifth win of the last seven matches they played against the née Hawks, something obviously on the mind of NCFC team captain, Nazmi Albadawi.

“The Cosmos are a good team,” Albadawi acknowledged. “There was some talk this year that they’re not as good as they usually are, but that still doesn’t mean they’re not good. They move the ball well. We came out a bit sluggish in the first half, no fault but our own. We need to set the tempo at home, and I think we hesitated to do that because it was hot. But there are no excuses. It’s our own fault, we have to come out stronger.”

While North Carolina FC (4-2-4, 16 pts.) was wrapping up three games in eight days, New York is on the front end of their own. Indeed, North Carolina FC, which drops to fourth in the NASL table, hits the road next weekend for a rematch with the Cosmos in Brooklyn. Another away match at Indy Eleven occurs before NCFC returns to Cary on June 24.

In the meantime, NCFC hosts the Houston Dynamo of the MLS on June 14 in the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

“We have to move own quickly,” Albadawi said, “because we go to [the Cosmos] next week and we’d like to get some revenge if we could.”

BOX SCORE

LINEUPS

NCFC: Sylvestre, Miller (Shriver, 88’), Ibeagha, Tobin (Moses, 56’), Akinyode (Schuler, 61’), Marcelin, da Luz, Albadawi, Shipalane, Laing, Fondy

NYC: Holt, Richter, Mendes, Jakovic, Ayoze, Mulligan, Marquez (Szetela, 28’), Flores, Guerra, Restrepo (Menjivar, 79’), Herrera (Starikov, 67’)

GOALS

​NCFC: Guerra, 52’ (Restrepo)

NYC: ---

CAUTIONS

​NCFC: ---

NYC: Szetela, 75’; Holt, 80’; Flores, 90’

EJECTIONS

​NCFC: ---

NYC: ---

ATTENDANCE: 4,027