G: Hubert Berkenmeir D: Wim Risjbergen D: Robert Iarusci D: Marinho S: Carlos Alberto M: Franz Beckenbauer M: Vladislav Bogicevic M: Johan Neeskens M: Julio-Cesar Romero F: Roberto Cabanas F: Giorgio Chinaglia Playing our usual 4-4-2 should lead us to an easy win over the Caribou....hopefully we can take advantage of their weak mid-field play and score 3 goals to grab the maximum 9 points. Tampa Bay has an easy game -v- Memphis and are breathing down our necks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You are watching "COS-MOS" soccer"!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lineup vs. Colorado? Why are a couple of you guys disagreeing with my lineup??? Do you think David Brcic should be starting in nets?? Over Berkenmeir??? You guys are kidding right?? I can see perhaps see your argument starting Steve Moyers over Cabanas at F because of that nagging hamstring that Roberto is nursing. But I still think that at 75% Cabanas is more dangerous up front that Moyers!
right wing- dennis (the menace) tuart left wing - mark liveric ( off the bench ) goal- errol yasin also i would play satiago formoso just because of his Hair.
how about my team Messing Eskandarian C. Alberto Roth Beckenbauer Bogie Neskeens Seninho Chinaglia Pele Hunt
I'd start Eski in Marinho's place and have Denis Tueart in Cabanas' slot, otherwise I would send that line-up against anyone.
Re: Lineup vs. Colorado? Look out for the Rogues to steal a 1-0 win over the Rowdies before 6,300 at the Liberty Bowl! Paul Child scores in the 72nd minute, with an assist from Bobby Thompson. Sorry, got carried away...
Remember when the Cosmos seriously overspent on over-the-hill stars they didn't need and drove the costs of operating in the league up so high that the NASL folded? Gosh, that was great. Sarcasm aside, I am all for reviving the Cosmos name. I want to see Randy Horton's name in somebody's lineup, too.
I'm not going to get into this, except to say that stupidly rapid over-expansion was the biggest reason the NASL was brought down.
Fields on a shite rebound, indeed. Houska saving a PK. Those were the days... bukie2k, you're alright - for a ManUre fan!
Calling the Cosmos internationals over-the-hill is sheer ignorance. The vibe was unbelievable, despite the artificial surface at GS, and the play was brilliant. Riverplate is spot on when he talks of overexpansion sealing the NASL's fate. Quite frankly, if Ahmet Ertugan owned the Metros, I'd bet there would be more fans in the seats and/or a stadium of our own. I doubt he'd care for the league player pool concept, because he cared about winning. I'm grateful Lamar Hunt has stayed as involved as he is, it just isn't right to own more than one team in a league, and the Anschutz monopoly is simply bizarre an ultimately contra-competitive. Growing up as a kid in Memphis, and later in NY, the interaction with those foreign "over the hill" guys not only opened my eyes to the beautiful game, but gave me a sense of being a citizen of the world. If it wasn't for the NASL, soccer would NOT be the number one participant sport in the US right now. Ask 100 Americans to name a soccer player, you'll still get 98 responding Pelé. That being said, I'm not for the revive the Cosmos thing, at least for MLS. An international all-star team based in the metro area might be cool, but I can't see it happening, and wouldn't want it to hurt MLS or the Metros, whom I support whole-heartedly. Nonetheless, it is fun to wax nostalgic now and then.
Here's the deal: Soccer will get big in the U.S. and Anschutz and Hunt will sell off their teams one-by-one at premium prices and make a king's ransom. That's why they're keeping everything in the family and not letting anybody else in. Right now, if individual ownership came about, a club could be had for bargain-basement prices. Better to hold onto a fistful of clubs until the time comes when the purchase price will be going through the roof, and then make a killing selling them off. We'll be told some BS like "well, the time is right and we feel it's the proper thing to do." Or "the league is now stable thanks to our parenthood, but we realize it's time to let go." Everybody will be patting them on the back and admiring them for their tender loving care of the sport while they romp to the bank laughing all the way.
To follow up on what you've just posted riverplate, this monopolization of MLS by Hunt and Anschutz is most interesting when we think of the antitrust lawsuit brought forward by Caligiuri et al. a few years ago. I think you are absolutely right, this will pay off big time for them, eventually; but until then it is one massive write-off.
Not the biggest. Sure, Woosnam's serious NFL-envy driven expansion was a mistake. But that only excuses the failure of the expansion franchises. What eventually drove good, solid franchises like Seattle, Tampa Bay, Minnesota Kicks, Portland, etc. out of business? The expansion? Hardly...these teams were drawing some of their best crowds in the 1978-1981 era (indeed, 1981 was the NASL's peak year for average attendance). No, it was the ridiculous costs associated with keeping up with the Cosmos. The NASL made slow, solid gains in the post-1968 collapse. In 1973, the Philadelphia Atoms created some genuine excitement, followed by the very successful 1974 West Coast expansion. Teams were drawing in the 10,000s, and it was a real grass roots kind of thing. Then the Cosmos grabbed Pele...by itself, not a bad thing, since it brought tremendous publicity and interest in the league. If that was all that happened, Pele would have been the icing on the cake of the grass roots movement. Unfortunately, the Cosmos were compelled (by contract!) to put a team "worthy" of Pele on the field. To their credit, they initially tried to do this by upgrading from within the league, getting Tommy Ord from Rochester and Bobby Smith and Bob Rigby from the Atoms. But that wasn't enough. So then came Chinaglia. And then Beckenbauer. Even this was OK...every league needs a Yankees. But then the Cosmos felt compelled to put a star at every position. Seriously...was it necessary to go out and spend for Bogicevic, Neeskens, Teuert, Cabanas, etc. etc. Carlos Alberto? They already had Beckenbauer, for chrissake...he only invented the libero position! All it did was drive up the cost of keeping pace. The grass roots owners were gone, and marginally interested owners like Gulf & Western took their place. Teams drowned in a sea of red ink. I am not anti-Cosmos, and I'd like to see the name come back. And, of course, there were a lot of stupid management moves which helped doomed the NASL. But the Cosmos played a big part. Obviously, the popularity of the Cosmos spurred the big boom. But was the cost worth it?
Thanks for taking the trouble to deal with this seriously. I don't believe we have any disagreement. A lot of mistakes were made. I happen to see no reason why MLS at some point can't become a big-time player in the soccer world and rival the European leagues. What makes me sick and tired is that anytime one tries to discuss it the cries of "NASL" are heard, and no more is supposed to be said on the matter. NASL certainly has its lessons to teach, but let's not think it can't be done right in the future.
So here's the REAL conspiracy surrounding soccer: It's not the media refusing to cover the sport, it's Anschutz and Hunt trying to corner the market and create a soccer monopoly. Curse those robber barons forcing out all those people clamoring to invest in soccer! Damn them to hell!
It's great to have a discussion about the NASL last more than a few posts. The league was an important, albeit flawed, part of the development of the sport here in the States. It was fun while it lasted. Oh, and DoctorK, you think the Gunners can possibly scrape enough points together this week-end to put some suspense into the final week-end of the Premiership?
Re: Re: Cosmos reminiscence thread That's "Field", NOT "Fields". He was quite a winger. Played for the team during the 1976 and '77 seasons before going to the expansion Memphis Rogues. He scored a goal against the Cosmos for the Rogues in 1978 at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. It was the game's only goal. He originally came to the Cosmos during their "British Invasion" of 1976 which saw Coach Ken Furphy come over along with Field, Keith Eddy, Terry Garbett, and Dave Clements. Charlie Aitken played his last pro season that year as well.
On This Day In Cosmos History - May 2, 1976 My family and I went to Yankee Stadium on 5/2/76 to see the Cosmos take on the Chicago Sting in the home opener for the Cosmos. I was peeved because there were no game programs left and, hence, I did not know who the Chicago players (and a couple of the Cosmos players) were. Anyway, the Cosmos lost in spite of Pele scoring his 1,241st goal (they always kept track of it on the scoreboard). I remember people getting up out of their seats and leaving after full time had gone when the PA announcer said "ladies and gentlemen, we are going into overtime!". Then, Steve Peplow scored his second goal of the game and a collective hush fell over the crowd. Mervyn Cawston played well in goal for Chicago. More of my Cosmos memories will be posted here in the coming days.
One of the problems with NASL is that the league itself didn't take care of its teams. Maybe i am wrong on this, but i think the less financialy stable teams should have gotten a cut from the rich clubs, not directly but thru the league . Cosmos outspending every other team didn't do them any good now did it ? And i don't mean to share gate receipts, but everything else as in advertising revenues, TV revenues and the likes of that. MLS is a "club" in itself and some have a lot of power now that do not wish to let go of, this causes other investors to think deep and hard before they jump into it head first. If you think about it there are lots of people in the sport business with a lot of money 20 mil is nothing to them and some who realy love soccer and would love to join this league. MLS is scrambling and I don't know why this is happening, the investors should be knocking each other off their feet. My first Cosmos game was in the summer of '79 in a sold out Giants Stadium against the newly crowned World Champions Argentina, with Maradona at 18
Bring 'em on! How about Stevie Hunt taking the ball away from Tony Chursky in Soccer Bowl '77? Knucklehead Stone made reference to this on last Saturday's ESPN match except he said it was SB'78.