THROWBACK THURSDAY | Cosmos Championships
The New York Cosmos of 2016 once again were the team lifting silverware as the club defeated Indy Eleven in a penalty-kick shootout to win back-to-back league titles.
The Cosmos of 1977 and 1978 were truly among the giants of soccer in that slice in time of NASL history. The Cosmos of 2015 and 2016 are the first club in the league’s Modern Era to hoist the Soccer Bowl Trophy in consecutive years. One year after the club saw off the Spanish stars Raul and Marcos Senna, coach Giovanni Savarese and the organization built a deep and quality squad that finished first in the Fall Season and Combined Standings.
What follows is a look back at each of the Cosmos’ eight NASL titles:
1972 | Cosmos 2, St. Louis Stars 1
In front of 6,102 fans at Hofstra Stadium in Hempstead, N.Y., on Aug. 26, Josef Jelinek, who played for Czechoslovakia in the 1962 World Cup in Chile, buried a penalty kick in the 86th minute to give New York its first NASL title.
The Stars had advanced to the final after a 2-0 victory over the 1970 champion Rochester Lancers. The Cosmos, who had the highest point total in the league, got to host the title match after a 1-0 win against the defending champion Dallas Tornado.
On the rain-soaked field, the Cosmos took a 1-0 lead in typically international fashion – Roby Young, an Israeli, passed to Randy Horton, a native of Bermuda – for a goal in the 5th minute. St. Louis tied the game minutes later on a goal by Casey Frankiewicz that was first ruled offside before referee Roger Schott changed the call.
Jelinek buried the penalty kick after John Kerr was taken down in the area. When the Cosmos’ Werner Roth was ejected late in the game, the Stars put on the pressure. Willy Roy (who later coached the Chicago Sting) scored the apparent equalizer, only for it to be waived off by Schott for offside. This time the call stood and the Cosmos had their first NASL title.
1977 | Cosmos 2, Seattle Sounders 1
With the league composed of 18 teams, an even dozen made the playoffs. The Cosmos had to dispatch Tampa Bay, Fort Lauderdale, and Rochester; while Seattle ousted Vancouver, Minnesota, and Los Angeles before the two teams met on Aug. 28 before 35,548 at what was then called Civic Stadium in Portland, Ore.
Besides adding their second piece of silverware, Soccer Bowl ’77 was also the league’s farewell to Pelé, who had joined the Cosmos in 1975. For the Cosmos, Gordon Bradley had been replaced as the team’s coach by Eddie Firmani midway through the season.
The Cosmos took a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute when the club’s nippy English winger Steve Hunt stole the ball from Sounders goalkeeper Tony Chursky. Chursky had put the ball on the turf, which was allowed at the time under FIFA rules, but Hunt swooped in before Chursky could pick it up again. Seattle’s Tommy Ord equalized five minutes later, but Giorgio Chinaglia headed home a cross from Hunt in the 78th minute for the decisive, championship-winning goal. For his goal and assist, Hunt was named the man of the match.
1978 | Cosmos 3, Tampa Bay Rowdies 1
A record crowd for a final in the league’s Golden Era – 74,091 – packed Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Aug. 27, when the Cosmos hosted their second league title match, Soccer Bowl ’78. They did not send their fans home disappointed.
An infected shin sustained in the semifinals kept Rodney Marsh, the game’s clown prince, out of the final. He was the team’s leading scorer that year with 18 goals. The Cosmos road to being the only NASL team, up to that point, to host the final (actually two of them) was a bit rockier than the Rowdies. New York lost a playoff opener at Minnesota, 9-2, but returned home to win, 4-0, to force a decisive shootout. In the next round, the Cosmos brushed aside Portland with two shutout wins to advance.
Against Tampa Bay, the Cosmos led by 2-0 at the interval thanks to first-half goals by Dennis Tueart and Giorgio Chinaglia, his eye-popping 39th goal of the year. Mirandinha got the Rowdies back in the game with a goal in the 75th minute, but Tueart – a star at Manchester City – sealed the game’s Most Valuable Player award when he scored his second of the game to seal the title for New York.
1980 | Cosmos 3, Fort Lauderdale Strikers 0
Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in the nation’s capital was packed with 50,098 fans on a hot and steamy Sept. 21 for a classic final with international stars on both sides. For New York, there was Chinaglia, of course; the Belgian Francois van der Elst; the Dutchman Wim Rijsbergen; der Kaiser, Franz Beckenbauer; and the young Paraguayans Roberto Cabañas and Julio César Romero. For the Strikers, there was der Bomber, Gerd Müller; Dutch goalkeeper Jan van Beveren; Peru’s Teo Cubillas; and England’s Ray Hudson and Ken Fogarty. 
The Cosmos came away with their third championship in four years on goals by Romero and two from Chinaglia in a pulsating match in which the final score was no indication of how tight and competitive the game was.
The Cosmos season was also notable for the hiring of Hennes Weisweiler, a veteran German coach who had taken Borussia Mönchengladbach to three Bundesliga titles and UEFA Cup titles in 1975 and 1978. Weisweiler plucked a young rookie, Jeff Durgan, from the bench and installed him as the team’s rugged center back. Durgan won the league’s Rookie of the Year award while Weisweiler also integrated Romero and Cabañas into a powerful lineup.
1982 | Cosmos 1, Seattle Sounders 0
After losing in a shootout to Chicago in Toronto in Soccer Bowl ’81 – the only time New York has come out on the short end in an NASL final – the Cosmos were in their third NASL final in a row (and fourth in six years), facing archrival Seattle before 22,634 at San Diego Stadium on Sept. 18 in a rematch of the 1977 championship match.
Gone from the Cosmos lineup were Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer, while defender Carlos Alberto was playing in his final match for the club. In addition, Steve Moyers, Johan Neeskens, and Wim Rijsbergen all missed the game because of injuries.
After a defensive first 30 minutes, the Cosmos scored the game’s only goal, in the 31st minute. Carlos Alberto found Julio Cesar Romero with a pass. Romero then played it forward to Giorgio Chinaglia at the edge of the penalty area. Chinaglia created a sliver of space by shielding off his marker, Benny Dargle, and then made the most of his slim chance with a right-footed shot to the far post. An arm on the ball by the diving Seattle goalkeeper Paul Hammond could not keep Chinaglia’s shot from hitting the back of the net. The shutout was the third straight in a Soccer Bowl for Cosmos goalkeeper Hubert Birkenmeier (the loss to Chicago ended 0-0, with the Sting getting a 1-0 win by virtue of the penalty-kick shootout).
2013 | Cosmos 1, Atlanta Silverbacks 0
New York’s reboot year ended in triumph in Atlanta on Nov. 1 and it was perhaps fitting that the final score mirrored the final 31 years before in San Diego.
For the first time, the NASL played a split season, with the Cosmos rejoining for only the Fall Season in 2013, finishing first and earning a trip to the title match, which was hosted by the Silverbacks. One of the keys to the Cosmos was goalkeeper Kyle Reynish, who had six shutouts, including the title game, and won the league’s Golden Glove award.
After a scoreless first half before 7,211 at Silverbacks Park, it was the Cosmos’ first marquee signing of the Modern Era – Spanish star Marcos Senna – who gave head coach Giovanni Savarese his first NASL title in his rookie season as the team’s coach. In the 50th minute, Senna slammed home a half volley from a blocked free kick to cap the Cosmos’ successful return to the field and to the NASL.
2015 | Cosmos 3, Ottawa Fury FC 2
New York was back where it won its first NASL title in 1972. This time the Cosmos set a Modern Era attendance record for a league final, 10,166,
By coincidence, there was something of note attached to the game around the No. 7: The Cosmos were playing for an unprecedented seventh NASL title after having won their semifinal match against Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 7. But more importantly, The Championship Final was the professional swan song for the guy wearing the club’s No. 7 jersey – Raúl. The Cosmos early on nailed down a postseason berth after going unbeaten in the NASL’s Spring Season; while Ottawa prevailed in the Fall Season. New York grabbed the No. 1 overall seed on the last weekend of the season by virtue of the second tiebreaker – most goals scored.
A tight and well played match that the Cosmos led, 1-0, on a 8th-minute goal by Gastón Cellerino turned frenetic in the game’s final 22 minutes. After a red card to Ottawa defender Mason Trafford, Fury FC incongruously got the equalizer by Tom Heinemann. Cellerino scored again in the 72nd and 85th minutes and the Cosmos seemed assured of winning the championship. But there was Heinemann again, making it a one-goal game two minutes into second-half injury time.
But that is the way it ended and the Cosmos were again champions of the NASL
2016: Cosmos 0, Indy Eleven 0 (New York wins, 4-2, on penalty kicks)
After eight months, 32 games, and then two semifinal contests, The Championship Final came down to the best two teams over the course of the year – the No. 1 seeded Cosmos and No. 2 Indy Eleven. It was a fitting conclusion to have the winner of the Spring Season (Indy) face off against the winner of the Fall Season (New York).
After 120 minutes of tense, exhilarating, chance-filled, but an ultimately scoreless game against visiting Indy Eleven, the Final progressed to soccer’s ultimate lottery – the penalty-kick shootout. After Indy’s Nicki Paterson and the Cosmos’ Jairo Arrieta converted, Indy’s Eamon Zayed, who scored 15 goals in 2016 and is the club’s designated penalty taker, saw his shot hit the near post, take a deflection off the far post, but never cross the goal line. Adam Moffat took the second kick for the Cosmos and put it right down the middle as Indy goalkeeper Jon Busch dove the other way, giving New York a 2-1 advantage.
In a surprise, Indy coach Tim Hankinson had Busch take the third kick, which he put high and wide. Ayoze gave the Cosmos a 3-1 lead, curling a patented left-footed shot past Busch.
The Eleven was on teetering on the brink as Nemanja Vukovic kept Indy alive by planting a hard shot in the near, upper corner. Then Ryan Richter had a chance to close out the game and the championship for New York. He did not fail, hitting a shot low and inside the far post to give the Cosmos the victory. It was a fitting ending for Richter, who last year played for Ottawa in the loss in the Final to New York and only joined the Cosmos in September.
That is the way it ended, and the Cosmos were again champions of the NASL.
