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Off a steal deep in the New York end, Ryan Williams sped in and slid the ball through the legs of goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer in the 54th minute. The Cosmos tied the game in the 79th minute when a Juan Arango header beat Romuald Peiser. Less than three minutes later, Williams just missed the far post.

It was a game Fury FC should have won, even against the Cosmos, the class of the NASL – holding down first place in both the Fall and Combined standings.

“We’re in a really good place at this moment in time with our level of performance,” said Fury FC coach Paul Dalglish. “Even the last two games, when the result didn’t go our way, the level of performance has been excellent. (This is) disappointing because I almost think once we scored, we kind of protected the lead and thought the best way to win the game was to not concede. I don’t want that mentality on this team. I want the mentality to be, we need to get another one, put more daylight between us. Go for the jugular when we’re 1-nil up against a team at home, it doesn’t matter who it is.”

The coach is happy with how far his team, which was decimated by injuries, has handled itself in recent weeks.

“If the season was starting now, we’d have a really, really good chance of making the playoffs,” he said. “All the powerhouses – Minnesota, New York, Miami – we’ve played in recent weeks and I feel we’ve been equal if not better than all of them. With the cards we were dealt, it’s about finishing the season with as much momentum as possible to get people excited for next year.”

Williams’ goal was his fourth in the past five games.

“After the goal, it got a bit sloppy,” he said. “Maybe we didn’t adhere to our principles as much as we should have. That’s something we need to improve.”

The Cosmos lost Sebastian Guenzatti, who was taken off on a stretcher with a leg injury late in the first half. He was replaced by Andres Flores.