When the New York Cosmos Ruled the World, Part II

NOBODY LIKES TO LOSE, especially not a team of global superstars.

The New York Cosmos' failure to advance to the North American Soccer League's Soccer Bowl '79, because of a shootout time clock violation would reverberate up and down the organization. Changes would need to be made.

But first an excursion.

Two days after being capped in that conference finale by the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Cosmos embarked on a 13-game Asian/Pacific tour, playing friendlies in Hong Kong; Pusan and Seoul, South Korea; Djakarta; Singapore; Osaka; Tokyo; Kuala Lumpur; Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide, Australia, recording six wins, three losses and four ties.

Chinaglia and the exchange of flags with Sporting Lisbon, from the 1981 yearbook.

Two year earlier, they'd visited Europe, Asia and South America, staging matches in Venezuela, Switzerland, China, India, Brazil and Bermuda, building their global brand while leaving virtual calling cards for those who may want to come to the NASL, if not to the Cosmos.

And come they did.

Teófillo Cubillas, hailed as the greatest Peruvian soccer star, joined the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, teaming with der Bomber, German forward Gerd Mueller. Already there, fading Northern Ireland star George Best, who'd been lured years earlier by the Los Angeles Aztecs as a West Coast counterpart to the Cosmos' Pelé.

L.A. replaced Best with Dutch master Johan Cruyff, who later decamped to the Washington Diplomats. The Portland Timbers inked Dutch forward Rob Resenbrink while another Hollander, Johan Neeskens, signed with New York.

The Cosmos had their obligatory annual imports too: Brazilian defender Jose Oscar Bernardi, Paraguayan midfielder Julio Cesar Romero, and Belgian forward François Van der Elst.

The Return

They were just part of the retooling. Midway through the '79 season, Coach Eddie Firmani had been sacked in favor of his top aide, Ray Klivecka. Now he was out, at least temporarily in favor of the man they called the professor, Pelé pal Julio Mazzei, and then by the German Hennes Weisweiler. 

One thing the Cosmos didn't do was partake in the NASL's first full season of indoor soccer, joining 13 other clubs in sitting out the league's embrace of the soccer-hockey hybrid prompted by the emergence of the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Their 1980 season started slowly with a shoot-out win, a loss, another shoot-out win, a regulation win and another loss. Then, on April 29, they took off, winning seven straight before a 1-1 tie, then reeled off four more wins before a loss on June 14.

The 1981 yearbook center spread.

On the year they went 24-8, pacing the league with 87 goals -- 32 by ex-Lazio star Giorgio Chinaglia -- while allowing just 41. Aided by the Aztec's elimination of the second-best regular season team, the Seattle Sounders, the Cosmos marched through the playoffs, trampling the Tulsa Roughnecks, Dallas Tornado and the Aztecs before trouncing the Strikers, 3-0, at Washington's RFK Stadium in Soccer Bowl '80.

After a one-year hiatus, they were champions again.

Darkening Skies

They'd led the league with an average attendance of 42,754. The Tampa Bay Rowdies, Sounders and White Caps were the only others to exceed 20,000. Ten of the 24 franchises didn't draw more than 11,000. The Atlanta Chiefs and Philadelphia Fury didn't crack 5,000.

That offseason, the Houston Hurricane and Rochester Lancers folded. The Diplomats did too, but were immediately reincarnated as the relocated Detroit Express. The Memphis Rogues became the Calgary Boomers, the New England Tea Men moved to Jacksonville, Fla., and the Fury were reborn as the Montreal Manic. The net loss of three trimmed the NASL to 21 teams.

The 1981 Cosmos were slightly dominant, winning just 23 matches, while losing nine. Weisweiler clashed with Carlos Alberto, prompting the Brazilian midfielder to quit. 

The upswing years, 1977-79

Chinaglia again led the NASL in goals with 29 and was the league's MVP. And again they made the playoffs, drawing a first-round bye as top seed in the reconfigured tourney, then dispatching the Rowdies and Strikers in pair of best-of-threes, winning four matches while dropping just one.

Then they met their match in Soccer Bowl '81, the Chicago Sting. Led by German star Karl-Heinz Granitza, they'd scored more goals than New York during the season while allowing only one extra. They'd finished 23-9, beating the Cosmos twice.

In a game shown only on tape delay after years of live telecasts, the teams battled to a 0-0 tie through regulation and overtime at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium before Chicago won in a shootout. 

Stung.

The Descent

For the only time in their history, the Cosmos made the big game and lost. And the league itself was now in trouble.

The off-season dawned with the folding of five franchises -- the Atlanta Chiefs, Calgary Boomers, California Surf, Dallas and Washington -- with the Aztecs and Minnesota Kicks giving up two months later. 

In just two years the league had fallen from 24 teams to 14, weakened by poor attendance and attendant financial pressures exacerbated by the need to keep up with the Cosmos and the rise of the MISL. The era of signing big international stars was largely over.

Adjusting to the new reality, the NASL mandated that each team must have four North Americans on the field at all times, up from a two-year-old requirement of three. Easy-peasy for the perennially-advantaged Cosmos who already featured US-born stars Ricky Davis and 1980 Rookie of the Year Jeff Durgan.

At the same time, Best, Cruyff, Muller and others began an exodus the other way.

For the Cosmos' 1982 season, Weisweiller was out and the man in charge again was Mazzei. The team got out of the gate quickly, winning eight of 10 en route to a 23-9 record and their customary first place finish.

Eight of the 14 teams made the playoffs, with the Cosmos needing just five games to dispose of the Roughnecks and San Diego Sockers before beating the Sounders, 1-0 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, winning the Soccer Bowl for their last time.

The End

The Cosmos had again led the NASL in attendance, but now their average crowd was only 28,743. Only Montreal breached the 20,000 mark. Six teams, including the defending champion Sting, didn't even hit 10,000.

The Timbers, Tea Men and Edmonton Drillers wouldn't be back in '83. Bringing membership up to an even dozen would be a DC-based US National Team project called Team America that included Durgan and ex-Cosmo Chico Borja. 

Underscoring the sorry state of soccer in America, they finished last, winning just 10 of 30 matches and scoring a league-low 33 goals.

New York finished first again, but were quickly knocked out by the Manic, who were summarily eliminated by the eventual champion Tulsa Roughnecks. Cabañas was league MVP. But it didn't matter. The end was near.

Seattle, Montreal and Team America would all fold. The Strikers moved to Minnesota. Down to just nine franchises, the 1984 season would be the NASL's last, the Sting its final champions. 

On top of the world, 1980-82.

New York, led by Firmani who'd coached them at their peak of popularity, finished third and missed the playoffs altogether. Their average attendance drooped to 12,187. Vancouver led the league at 15,208.

There were plans for a 40-game indoor league, but the Sting, Sounders, Strikers and Cosmos elected to bolt for the MISL instead. Even that was a bridge to far for New York, which quit both leagues in February. 

When only the Strikers and Sockers expressed interest in playing an outdoor season in 1985, the league was finished.

The Legacy

The NASL's 17-season existence had put big time soccer on the map in the US for the very first time, inspiring a generation of kids who grew up with youth leagues across America.

From the '78 yearbook,
the inimitable Pelé

From those humble beginnings emerged the talent that allowed the US to field a credible World Cup team in 1994, in a tournament hosted by the US and won by Brazil at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

Major League Soccer was formed in 1993 and played its first full season in 1996. Having avoid the missteps and excesses that doomed its star-studded predecessor, 30 years later it's still here. And the US is a World Cup host nation again.

The Cosmos exist too, the brand having been revived for a since-failed Tier Two iteration the NASL. Today they're a Tier Three USL League One franchise playing in Paterson, New Jersey. 

But playing nonetheless.

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