Category: Sidewinder Insider

If I told you I’m as excited about watching the Cosmos soccer team on March 14, 2026, as I was when I saw them on TV on June 15, 1975, I’d be fibbing.

For one thing, I was 14 years old in the summer of ’75, so I was pretty easily excited. Things like seeing Angie Dickinson take down the bad guys while wearing a halter top in Policewoman or listening to Physical Graffiti on my headphones got my motor running back then.

And when I witnessed Pelé ascend the steps of Downing Stadium to make his debut as a member of New York’s North American Soccer League club, it was magical. Finally, the international sport I loved was getting the ultimate publicity blitz in the country where I lived.

More than half a century later – having been there, done that and gotten the Medicare card – it takes quite a lot to push my exhilaration button.

But …

I’ve been looking forward to this day ever since the Cosmos rose from the association football grave. And when they line up against Portland Hearts of Pine this afternoon in Paterson, New Jersey, in a USL League One contest at Hinchliffe Stadium, I’ll have a feeling of both nostalgia and comfort.

Nostalgia because the Cosmos were the first soccer club I ever cheered for, and comfort because soccer has long been figurative comfort food for me.

With everything awful and the world on fire, 22 people fighting over a round ball gives me 90 minutes of peace. And though there’s a lot of distance and difference between the original Cosmos and the ones competing today (an Edson Arantes do Nascimento equivalent ain’t gonna be on the pitch), the name and the badge still resonate with me.

Back in the glory days, I sought out every bit of information I could find on the Cosmos. Living in Birmingham, Alabama, that meant just an occasional blurb in the back of the local sport pages. But soon I discovered the Soccer America and World Soccer publications, which kept me as in the loop as a Southern kid could hope to be when it came to association football.

I faithfully supported the original Cosmos, celebrating their NASL crowns like they had won them just for me. And even after “O Rei” retired, fans abandoned the league and the NASL ultimately imploded, whenever a side bearing their name resurfaced – be it in the second North American Soccer League or National Independent Soccer Association – I claimed them as “mine.”

And so, it begins anew in a low-key way.

Personally, I like the fact that they’re starting out at the Division III level. If the USL ultimately implements promotion/relegation as it plans to do, the Cosmos can earn their way to the top tier through sporting merit. That’s as it should be.

Plus, I’m over billionaires and their toys, so Paterson native Baye Adofo-Wilson’s majority ownership of the club – and focus on grassroots efforts and community engagement – is refreshing.

And as a guy who loves historic stadiums and reveres the Negro Leagues, the fact that the Cosmos play at hallowed grounds once roamed by the New York Black Yankees, New York Cubans and Newark Eagles makes me smile.

Will I ever get up to Hinchliffe to see them play in in person?

Probably not.

Then again, I was never in the stands at the Meadowlands to see the OG Cosmos play, but that didn’t make me any less of a supporter.

That being the case, today I’m rocking my well-worn white Cosmos T-shirt and bright green Cosmos dad cap (from the NASL 2 era). Instead of hero-worshipping guys like Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer, I’ll be cheering on the likes of Sebastián Guenzatti, Tristan Stephani and Christian Koffi.

It might not generate Angie Dickinson-level excitement, but it’s still a pretty big deal for this Boomer in Bama.

So, welcome back, Cosmos … I hope you decide to stick around this time.

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.