The North American Soccer League (NASL) an abortive attempt to create a huge sports organization on par with other major league sports such as the NFL and MLB. Their premier team clearly was the New York Cosmos--a very, very high-priced collection of stars from around the globe. What's surprising to me is not that they won a lot of games but that they didn't win even more considering their bankroll. This film chronicles the history of this club as well as gives insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the Cosmos.When the film begins, the Cosmos are more like a semi-pro club at best. No one attends their games, they have no stars and there just isn't any interest. The same could be said for the rest of this rag-tag league. However, with the coming of big money from Warner Brothers came new life to the team and the rest of the league. With the coming of Pelé and other top world stars came a sudden interest by the public. In fact, there was so much interest that the league even eventually got their own network contract...and soon the league just fizzled.I found the film pretty interesting when it came to personalities. While the team had HUGE stars, it also had some huge egos. And, it was rather funny how decades later, folks associated with the team STILL hate the team's most productive star, Giorgio Chinaglia--who didn't do a lot in this documentary to get the viewers to like him! Overall, the film is worth seeing--particularly if you lived through the era. It's also a great show to watch to learn how NOT to run a league--as you'll see if you watch the film. Interesting.

As someone who grew up in Northern New Jersey during the rise of the Cosmos in the late 70's/early 80's, I was looking forward to seeing this movie, and it looked so good in the trailers. While it did not play near me (or it came and went so fast I didn't notice), I was still looking forward to seeing this on DVD. However, as you can tell by my rating, I was very much disappointed. I didn't think it was possible to make this film so dull and plodding, but that's what was accomplished. Far too much time was spent on the Pre-Pele days. And their coverage of the Cosmos teams was incomplete and showed a lack of understanding. One example: They talk about the signing of Chinaglia with little hype, but talked about the signing of Beckenbauer as "the first time someone that good jumped to the NASL while still in his prime." In fact, it was Chinaglia who was the first great player to jump to the NASL, and he came over when he was 29 years old. Beckenbauer, on the other hand had been playing in World Cups since 1966, and came to the Cosmos in 1977 at the age of 32. Beckenbauer was still a great player, but like Pele, he was playing on the downside of his career. Indeed, Chinaglia became the greatest scorer in NASL history.Finally, the DVD had a "deleted scene" of the Cosmos having to play a phony Haitian team because the original team "jumped immigration." That was hysterical and something that few people knew about. This absolutely should have been in the original cut, compared to many of the other choices that Miramax made.

I was the radio broadcaster for the Rocheter Lancers of the North American Soccer league from 1975-1980 and I spent quite a bit of time at Giants Stadium seeing Cosmos games,if we weren't playing. The film brought back all kinds of memories. It was great. I never would have recognized Shep Messing who played for Rochester in 1979. Also Chinaglia (sp?) I thought looked like Tony Soprano today. The Lancers used to play the Cosmos twice a year, once in New York (rather New Jersey) and once in Rochester. Plus we played a semi final series against the Cosmos in 1977...losing both games. We didn't beat the Cosmos after 1976. Still despite our lack of success, the Cosmos were a great team to watch. Anyboy who was a US soccer fan in the 1970's should like this movie. I didn't know it existed until I saw it on ESPN2 on 9/20/06.PS-Downing Stadium on Randall's Island was my least favorite venue to broadcast from...Giants stadium was the best||| Yankee stadium was fun too in 1976.

I knew a little about the New York Cosmos before I saw this movie, and had always been intrigued as to how Pele, Beckenbauer and others came to play in a country that had seemed so apathetic to association football or soccer.The movie tells the story of exactly how this happened, beginning with the purchase of the Cosmos by Steve Ross of Warners Communication as a favour to the owners of Atlantic Records in the mid 1970's. They immediately signed the world's best known player Pele, and as media interest grew, the popularity of the club also grew. Following Pele, several established European players came over the join the clubs of the growing league, whilst the Cosmos recruited Italian Chinaglia and German legend Beckenbauer amongst others. The Cosmos ended up playing in front of 80,000 fans and winning several league championships, before imploding in the early 1980's.The film features testimony and recollections from many of the principal protagonists, although the deceased Ross is not present, and Pele declined to be involved. This makes for some good moments as several different people claim the credit for the same thing on more than one occasion. The soundtrack is fantastic and the soccer action well presented, although not using classical football broadcasting techniques, such as wide angle shots. I enjoyed the film, which unfolded the story of the Cosmos in an interesting and rather fun way. My favourite moments were recollections from the amateur American players who had the luck to play with several of the greatest players to play the game. These men seemed humble and were all amusing and engaging. They certainly looked better than the arrogant Chinaglia.My only sustained criticism of the film is that it rather rushed the ending and the slide towards oblivion of the Cosmos, dwelling a little too much on the signing of Pele. However, this is a minor flaw. Any fan of football interested in the history of the game should watch this well made documentary.