In the beginning, there were the Cosmos

Yesterday I watched Once In A Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, a documentary about the soccer team which played in the 1970s and '80s in the North American Soccer League (NASL). The movie begins with various people involved with the Cosmos talking about why they thought soccer had never become popular in the U.S., namely because it required Americans with short attention spans to watch a game with no breaks and no time outs, though they failed to mention that soccer does have a break half way through the game.

The movie then goes on to prove this reasoning wrong. Thanks to the international star power of Pele (Brazil), Giorgio Chinaglia (Italy), Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) and the financial backing and hands-on support of Warner Communications' executive Steve Ross, the Cosmos were not only a dominant team and winner of many Soccer Bowls, but drew sellout crowds of 70,000+ to Giants Stadium. To put this in perspective, on June 14, 2008 David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy drew 39,872 on the road in San Jose and 27,000 routinely at home.

This, of course, begs the question, "What happened?" A number of reasons are given. First, the league over-expanded to 24 teams (Major League Soccer has 14) which put a drain on talent, especially domestic talent from which a big enough pool had yet to develop. Second, a lack of television presence hurt the sport. Some games did eventually make it to ABC Sports, but apparently this was either too little too late or advertisers pulled the plug due to the lack of opportunities to hawk their products. Third, Warner Communications hit on hard times financially. Lastly, the movie suggests that FIFA, soccer's international governing body, put the nail in American soccer when it awarded Mexico the 1986 World Cup despite the aggressive push made by Steve Ross. The U.S. eventually hosted the tournament in 1994, two years after Ross passed away and years after the NASL had folded.

The movie also offers the claim that the Cosmos are the reason why so many kids (18 million are registered in the U.S.) play soccer now. As a kid in New York in the late '70s and early '80s, I started playing soccer, but had no clue who the Cosmos were; neither did my folks. If anything, yes it was probably a good daycare substitute, a way of meeting other kids and learning about sports/being physical/athletic. At the end of the day, unlike hockey, football or baseball, it's cheap. All you need is a ball which may explain its global popularity.

What does this movie do for the book? It reaffirms that Americans (people in general, really) are attracted to stars and to winners no matter what the endeavor which bodes well for our protagonists. Who cares where they are from or what sport they prefer as long as they deliver the goods and do so with some pizzazz?