At The Heart Of A New York Soccer Story: Cardiac Cosmos

With so much firepower and experience it somehow seems counterintuitive that the New York Cosmos have found themselves chasing games, perhaps too many games.

Late rallies and late goals, however, have become an uncomfortable trademark for Coach Gio Savarese and his club, to the point that they have perhaps grudgingly accepted the nickname the Cardiac Cosmos.

“We did it in quite a few games my first year,” defender Hunter Freeman said. “It’s just something about this team, part of it is a belief on the part of a lot of guys on the team. We keep working hard and pushing until the end. We try not to panic.”

That was never more evident in the fourth-round Lamar Hunt US Open Cup match against NYC FC of MLS on June 17. The Cosmos, who won the NASL’s 2015 Spring Season title going undefeated over 10 games, could have easily packed it in -- twice, against the expansion team from the Bronx that has added another dimension to the three-team competition for the hearts and minds (and wallets) of New York metropolitan area soccer fans.

NYC FC built a two-goal lead on goals by Kwadwo Poku that was erased when Lucky Mkosana scored in the 90th to tie the match. Then goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer turned aside a penalty in extra time by Pablo Álvarez. Want more? In the subsequent penalty-kick shootout, the Cosmos fell behind by two goals. Again Maurer came up big and Hunter Gorskie came up bigger when he buried the Cosmos’ fifth penalty to seal the impressive victory.

Now, it is on to the fifth round of the Open Cup with a short trip from Long Island to Harrison, NJ, to face the New York Red Bulls, the MLS club the Cosmos dispatched from the Open Cup last year in a 3-0 whitewashing.

The Red Bulls enter Wednesday night’s match at Red Bull Arena on an up note after drubbing NYC FC, 3-1, at Yankee Stadium on Sunday evening. While the Red Bulls have played four games since June 16 (in all competitions), the Cosmos have not faced competition with the NASL in its break between seasons, other than the Open Cup comeback against NYC FC. The winner of Wednesday’s game will advance to the sixth round to face the winner of the game between DC United and the Philadelphia Union. The Cosmos are the last remaining NASL club in the competition.

“I think this year, the way they’re doing it with regional brackets, I think it’s good and has created a little more interest,” said Freeman, who played for the Red Bulls in 2007-8. “Now here in New York with three teams it becomes even more interesting. I’ve been on both sides -- on an MLS team playing an NASL team and I know how they look at it and now I know the other side. For us it’s huge, it’s a way, the only way to get into CONCACAF. For them they have like three ways to get into CONCACAF so I think for us there’s more emphasis. I do think with our results last year any time a team in NASL plays us it’s their biggest game and when we do play an MLS team they always put out their best, or close to it, because they don’t want to lose to us.”

Freeman added: “I do think the break for us has had plusses and minuses. For sure it allows some guys who are banged up [Marcos Senna and Rovérsio] to heal and gain fitness. There is something to be said for having one game a week. You have a routine. Game sharpness. We had a game against our B team, but sometimes those games are harder than game’s on the weekend. We’re trying to make up for the gap.”

The Open Cup champion gains an automatic berth in the CONCACAF Champions League, the regional club championship. MLS teams have other routes: The MLS Cup winners and losers advance while the winner of the Supporters Shield also qualifies.

Like the Cosmos’ route to the fifth-round of the Open Cup, the team’s path to an undefeated Spring Season title required two late comebacks in a couple of games, and a nail biter of a stress test in the final spring game to clinch the title.

On May 16 in Cary, NC, the Cosmos spotted the Carolina RailHawks a pair of goals. Then an own goal in the 90th minute by the RailHawks’ Futty Danso gave the Cosmos a second life. Andrés Flores put an exclamation point on the night when his blast from the top of the penalty area found the back of the net as the Cosmos left WakeMed Park with a crucial point on the road.

Two weeks later, after relatively relaxing wins by identical 3-0 scores against San Antonio in league play and then the Jersey Express in the Open Cup, the Cosmos traveled to Minnesota and turned in another heart-stopping performance. Trailing by 1-0 since the game’s 8th minute and with time running out, Flores sent a long ball into the United FC penalty area that found Raúl. The Spanish star chested the ball to the turf and calmly put it past goalkeeper Sammy Ndjock for the tying score.

Next came the Cosmos’ historic trip to Cuba, where the club notched an easy victory against the Caribbean nation’s national team while also amassing an untold amount of international goodwill as the first soccer team from the United States to visit the communist nation in more than 30 years.

But there was more work to do with a game to go in the Spring Season.

Needing only a point in the finale against Jacksonville, the Cosmos were forced to hang on for a 3-3 draw -- a back-and-forth affair that was not settled until Joseph Toby’s tying goal in the 90th minute.

Cardiac Cosmos indeed, but also Spring Season champions, which means the Cosmos are headed for The Championship -- the NASL’s four-team postseason tournament -- regardless of what happens in the 20-game Fall Season, or against the Red Bulls.

While the players and fans are well aware of the Cosmos’ late-game heroics, to Savarese a win is a win is a win. Period. End of Story.

What is important is the perception that the Cosmos are a serious, quality soccer team in a town that now has three vying for public and media attention, but more importantly for trophies.

The Open Cup has taken on heightened importance because “teams like the Cosmos are taking it seriously,” Savarese said. “We have the possibility to qualify for CONCACAF. For us it is very important to represent the US overseas and this is the only way that we can do it. For us it is very, very important. Last year [with the win over the Red Bulls] was a key moment in the turnaround for the Open Cup. And we had a lot to do with it.”