Category: Sidewinder Insider

Six years ago, I wrote a column titled Where the Cosmos go, I’ll follow. Well, it looks like I’m following them to Paterson, New Jersey, and the United Soccer League.

The latest iteration of the brand has been revived in USL League One, which occupies the third tier of the American soccer pyramid (along with MLS Next Pro). The announcement came on Thursday at historic Hinchliffe Stadium, with new majority owner Baye Adofo-Wilson on hand. (He replaces Rocco B. Commisso, although Commisso will retain a minority stake).

The Cosmos men will begin play in 2026, and a women’s side will be added in 2027.

“Since acquiring the New York Cosmos in 2017, our primary goal has always been to preserve the rich history of America’s most iconic soccer club,” Thomas Larsen, the Cosmos’ outgoing general manager, said. “It is extremely gratifying to know that new generations of fans will be able to experience the excitement of Cosmos soccer at a revitalized venue overlooking the New York City skyline and within a league structure that rewards on-the-field success through promotion and relegation.” 

As I’ve said many times, the link between the Cosmos of Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia, Franz Anton Beckenbauer, etc. – and all revivals of the club since – is really a link in name only. It’s kinda like if you go to a Quiet Riot concert in 2025. Yeah, you’ll hear Cum On Feel the Noize and you might even turn your cell phone’s flashlight on when you do, but it won’t performed by any of its original members.

That said, I simply don’t care.

The Cosmos dazzled me 50 years ago in the original North American Soccer League, and I’ve cheered on clubs repping that name and symbol in the second NASL, National Premier Soccer League and National Independent Soccer Association.

And with apologies to no one, I’ll proudly do it again. “Cosmos” is the trigger that takes me back to my early days as a soccer fan, and the three blades on the shield still resonate more than half a century later.

It’s even more exciting for me because I was starting to believe they were gone for good. The NISA Cosmos “paused operations” in 2021, and I got the feeling that pause might be permanent.

Commisso, in 2018, proposed a $500 million investment in the United States Soccer Federation that would revive the NASL and introduce promotion/relegation. But U.S. soccer officials are joined at the hip with Major League Soccer and weren’t interested. So, Commisso helped fund the NASL’s antitrust lawsuit against the USSF and MLS in 2017, purchased Serie A side ACF Fiorentina in 2019, and the Cosmos seemed to be forgotten.

Erik Stover, however, disagrees with criticism aimed at Commisso.

“I want to really thank Rocco Commisso for this moment,” said Stover, who is the CEO of the League One Cosmos and held that same role with the previous club from 2012 to 2021. “This wouldn’t be happening if Rocco didn’t come to us and say, ‘We want to have the Cosmos on the field again.’ There’s been a lot of criticism of Rocco in recent years, but he showed a lot of courage and spent a lot of money to stand up and fight for what he believed in.

“I think very strongly we wouldn’t be talking about the possibility of promotion and relegation in the USL if he didn’t put up that fight.”

Ah yes … pro/rel. It’s the clarion call of many an association football aficionado, and it’s coming to USL. And that means while the Cosmos will debut in League One, they have the opportunity to climb the ladder. Although the USL Championship is currently the top level in the organization (and second tier on the pyramid), a Division One league is planned and could begin play as early as 2027.

Thus, sporting merit can eventually lift the Cosmos to the top rung of the USL. If and when that happens, they’ll be “major league” for the first time since 1984.

But, first things first. They have to build a team, and that team will be stocked with up-and-comers instead of world-renowned superstars. That’s the responsibility of Head of Soccer Giuseppe Rossi, a native of New Jersey who had a long international career with the likes of Villarreal, Fiorentina and the Italian national team.

“Our focus is to win, but also not to forget about the development of these young players and give them a platform to develop their talents,” Rossi said. “We’re going to field winning teams with local talent, and we’re going to do it at an incredible stadium that I think is going to become an iconic American soccer venue.” 

I’m not gonna lie – domestic soccer has largely been an afterthought for me in the last few years. Aside from following Chattanooga FC (I became an “owner” in 2019), I’m far more interested in what’s happing across the pond.

I’m gonna watch Celtic FC every time I can, and some of my biggest viewing decisions are choosing between a Bundesliga or Premier League match. Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United have my loyalty in those respective circuits.

But with the Cosmos back – and with the USL opting to go big and bold with pro/rel – I’m gonna start paying much closer attention.

I might not be seeing Pelé, Chinaglia or Beckenbauer, but I’ll be seeing players wearing the badge that made me first fall in love with an American soccer club.

And that’s reason enough to turn on my cell phone’s flashlight.

Soccer is often called “The Beautiful Game.” If that’s the case, the sport of OmegaBall is best described as its cute and quirky sidekick.

Three goals, three five-a-side teams, one ball, a circular field – and no offsides rule – set the stage for a frenzied, frantic competition.

There are no throw-ins, only corner kicks, and players can take shots on goal at any goal other than their own. Divided into three, 13-minute periods, it’s never short on action.

The first time I saw it, I was hooked.

“The game is so intense and unpacked, that the goalkeepers are even involved in it,” OmegaBall founder  Anthony Dittmann told me during a recent telephone interview. “You know, sometimes you go an entire half of traditional soccer without even a shot on goal, let alone a goal scored. And listen – we want to embrace the soccer ecosystem … we want to be a part of it. We’re not trying to cannibalize it. But there are definitely some things that are intriguing about OmegaBall which we’re actually looking to take advantage of and leverage, things like more touches on the ball and less running.

“Hopefully, we’re getting kids off the couch that may be intimidated by traditional soccer.”

Aside from Dittmann, the OmegaBall brain trust consists of co-founders Jeff Kretchmar (CEO), Jamie Hemann (head of business), Adam Cozens (head of media and marketing), and Bob Funk Jr. (owner of Prodigal, a sports management and consulting firm).

Ricky Lopez-Espin, Paul Caligiuri and Lauren Sesselmann serve as advisors, bringing plenty of soccer experience to the fold.

Dittmann, Hemann and Funk had been colleagues at ESPN, and a casual conversation they had ultimately led to the creation of OmegaBall.

“I was talking with Jamie, and he was investigating starting an American football league,” Dittmann explains. “So, I went to (Funk), who has a very successful family business in Oklahoma City, and said, ‘Hey, remember Jamie from our old ESPN days? He’s trying to start a league. Would you be interested in investing in it because I thought you might have the horsepower to do so.’ And he said, ‘Anthony, I like Jamie. I obviously love football, but I think soccer is a better investment vehicle than American football.’”

Dittmann got off the phone and thought about it.

“Overall, I like soccer, but I’m not fanatical about it,” he said. “So, I started saying, like, why am I not fanatical about it like I am college football? I think there are a couple of obvious answers, one of them being offsides – offsides was really the one (rule) that irks me about soccer. I recognize there’s some need for it, but it’s such a low scoring game to begin with. Why? Why take a goal off the board for being one centimeter ahead of another player? So, I just continued to think about it. I wondered if the field was round, would that change the complexion of the game?”

Dittmann started scribbling and came up with a circular field, putting goals at the top and bottom. But when he examined the drawing, he realized it still wouldn’t significantly change the flow of the game.

“As I continued to look at the circle edge on the page,” Dittmann continued, “I thought, if you added a third team, would that create that circular play that I was trying to achieve? You can’t do that in baseball, you can’t do that in American football, but you could definitely do that in soccer.”

Dittmann continued to tweak his concept, and two weeks after their original conversation, he got in touch with Funk again.

“I had an idea, and Bob kind of thought I was a little crazy,” Dittmann remembers. “But the reason why I went to Bob originally to invest in Jamie’s league was I knew he was in the sports space, and I knew he owned a minor league hockey team. What I didn’t realize was he owned Oklahoma City Energy FC at the time, which was the (United Soccer League) team there. So, of course, he’s invested in soccer.”

All this took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Dittmann and Funk continued to hammer out details, both in person and remotely. Ultimately, Dittmann came up with a blueprint for OmegaBall, and several Energy FC players agreed to participate in a test game played in July, 2020, in Oklahoma City.

“These guys aren’t bartenders at night, they’re professional soccer players full-time, and they loved it,” Dittmann said. “It was the first testament to us being onto something. They had a lot of fun with it. The first period we had eight players on each team, and that was pretty crowded. So then in the second period we had seven players on each team, but it was still a little congested on the field. Then it was down to six and we finally settled on five, including the goalkeeper. And we embraced the circle concept.”

Dittmann especially likes the fact that keepers are sometimes on the attack.

“You’re sweating as a goalie, too,” Dittmann said. “Like it is, it’s a lot of work, and you’re constantly scanning the field for what’s coming at you next. ‘What am I planning for defensively, but what also, what can I do to help out the offense?’ Because we’ve seen goalies score, we’ve seen goalie get assists – we’ve seen goalies assist on a one-timer goal, which is just so fun to see. Every time we play, the response has been very, very positive.”

The official OmegaBall field has a diameter of 175 feet with the goals extended slightly beyond the perimeter. Ideally, the area footprint around the pitch should be 200 x 200.

“Our game is meant to be quick and intense, so the clock counts down from 13 minutes to zero, each period,” Dittmann said. “One change we made is the clock does stop any time the ball isn’t in play the last two minutes of the third period (to defend against the team in the lead wasting time by kicking it out of bounds, for example). Another change is if a penalty occurs by Team B in front Team C’s goal, the penalty kick moves to Team B’s area, since they were the offender.”

OmegaBall finally evolved from test matches to sanctioned competitions in 2022, and since then there have been several events featuring players with pro and college experience.

Aside from the 39 minutes of chaos, there’s plenty of room for ruthlessness when the game gets down to cases.

“It’s really cool when Team A is trying to score on Team B, but Team C cherry-picks off of Team A from the back side and scores like that,” Dittmann says. “But something that we didn’t contemplate was vulture defenses, where if Team A is in the lead, Team B is one goal behind Team A, and they’re about to score on Team C’s goal, Team A will defend Team C’s goal. It’s just part of the dynamics of the game, which is really fun.”

The next scheduled event is the 2025 World OmegaBall Invitational, set for Aug. 1 at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando. It’ll be yet another showcase for a sport that I hope develops professional leagues for men and women.

That’s probably still a few years down the road, but it seems like a logical step.

Personally, I’d love to see it take a cue from the early years of the Premiere Lacrosse League and start off with a touring model. It’d be cool to have OmegaBall teams come to various cities and spend a weekend putting on a show.

As for finding talent, there’s plenty out there. The Big3 is stocked with former NBA players. I’m guessing athletes who are done with MLS, USL, NWSL, etc., would be interested.

However they can make it happen, I’ll gladly jump on the bandwagon.

“We’ve been actively shopping to get investment,” Dittmann said. “We’ve been self-funded so far, and we’ve done all of this without a full-time employee. All we really need is, like, $5 million … and then a patch of grass. So, we’re excited from that perspective, and our ability to execute quickly and ultimately create a lot of traction within the sport once we get there.

“From youth recreational memberships to competitive youth memberships, all the way up to media rights and franchising for professional leagues and really everything in between, there’s lots of opportunity there.”

For more information, including the official rules, go to omegaball.com.

Sports fans – especially those my age – often look back fondly at defining moments of our fandom.

I can still remember Joe Namath wagging his right index finger after the New York Jets upset the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, 16-7, on January 12, 1969.

Nearly 11 months later, on December 6, 1969, I watched Texas rally to beat Arkansas, 15-14, in what was dubbed the “Game of the Century.” It was the first time I recall watching an entire college football game on TV.

And on September 19, 1970, my dad, brother and I were among 53,958 people who were in the stands when Alabama walloped Virginia Tech, 51-18, at Legion Field. I had never witnessed a live football game before that sweltering night in Birmingham.

Yet, while tackle football memories occupy much of my brain, 50 years ago today association football made an indelible mark. That’s when Pelé – born Edson Arantes do Nascimento – made his debut with the New York Cosmos.

Now, before I get to that, it’s important to note that soccer had actually entered my radar five years earlier. After getting bored watching the Dallas Cowboys-Detroit Lions playoff game on December 26, 1970 (Dallas won a snoozer, 5-0), I changed channels to ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

The program was showcasing the 1970 World Cup Final between Brazil and Italy. Led by Pelé, Brazil won in dominating fashion, 4-1.

I was mesmerized by the spectacle. Aside from the movement and the motion of the game itself – and  a magnificent performance by Pelé, who opened scoring in the 18^th minute  – the size of the crowd at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City (107,412) and the sounds were fascinating. It wasn’t long after that when I started reading everything I could about “The Beautiful Game.”

Other than occasional blips in the newspaper, however, soccer news was hard to come by for a kid in Alabama. And a match on TV? It was easier to spot a unicorn.

Pelé changed all that.

On June 15, 1975 – at 2:30 p.m., Central Standard Time – the Dallas Tornado squared off with the Cosmos at Downing Stadium in New York. It was broadcast as a “CBS Sports Special,” and I had been looking forward to it all week.

The New York Times reported on June 11 that Pelé had finalized a three-year, $4.7 million contract with Warner Communications, owners of the Cosmos franchise, on June 10. It was a personal services pact, and it made the 34-year-old the highest paid athlete in the world. He already had three World Cup crowns on his resume and tallied 1,091 goals while leading Santos to a staggering 21 Brazilian championships.

“You can say now to the world that soccer has finally arrived in the United States,” Pelé said after making the deal official at New York City’s 21 Club.

The North American Soccer League had been around since 1968, but not until Pelé signed with the Cosmos did it start to take off.

Although the match with the Tornado was merely a midseason friendly, that was just a minor detail to me. A player hailed by many as the greatest of all-time was suited up for a club repping the Big Apple, and the NASL had its grand ambassador.

Just seeing him play was a big deal – it didn’t matter to me how well he performed. It had been eight months since he’d been in a competitive match, and there was bound to be some rust.

And maybe there was, but he knocked it off long enough to score the game’s final goal – a beautiful header – in the Cosmos’ 2-2 draw played before an overflow crowd of 21,278.

It officially turned me into a Cosmos supporter, but more importantly, it laid the groundwork for soccer becoming my favorite sport. (A side note … it was also the first time I had seen Dallas’ standout Kyle Rote Jr. play. It was rare then for a U.S.-born athlete to excel at the game, so I became a big fan of his, too).

Anyway, I anxiously awaited the game’s account in Monday’s Birmingham News. While it didn’t make the front page of the sports section, the Associated Press story led page 2 – and even had a picture of Pelé.

“I had only planned to play 45 minutes,” Pelé said. “But I felt so good I decided to play the whole game.”

It was later revealed that 10 million people tuned in to the live broadcast, which was a record American TV audience for soccer.

“When we play a few more games together, we’ll get better,” Pelé told a United Press International reporter. “We did not make the ball do the work for us today. Most of the young players tried to pass to me too much, instead of going through and having a shot on goal.

“The standard of play is quite high and there is a lot of potential in this league.”

In three years with the Cosmos, Pelé scored 37 goals and registered 30 assists, helping New York’s NASL team become a box office juggernaut. During that time my room was adorned with his and Rote’s poster (courtesy of Sports Illustrated), and I became a subscriber to both Soccer America and later, Soccer Digest.

Of course, the NASL is no more, and the Cosmos franchise sits in limbo. But 50 years ago, one player, one club and one league had my undivided attention.

I’ll never forget it.