NY Cosmos prepare for new season on LI

Dylan Butler

The New York Cosmos are back where they started. 

As was the case 40 years ago, the club is set to compete in the North American Soccer League and play its home games at Hofstra University’s Shuart Stadium. 

What’s old is indeed new again. 

The team is set to embark on its second incarnation in the NASL, which is now a second tier professional league under Major League Soccer, and is set to host the Fort Lauderdale Strikers Aug. 3. 

While the team will call Hofstra home and has a practice field across the field at Mitchel Athletic Complex, there’s ambitious plans to build a $400 million, 25,000-seat stadium at Belmont Park in Elmont. 

These Cosmos embrace the rich history of the team that played in front of sellout crowds at Giants Stadium and received worldwide notoriety in the late 1970s. Legendary Pele is the honorary president, while Shep Messing and Carlos Alberto are international ambassadors. 

The team’s aggressive advertising campaign, entitled “Don’t Call It A Comeback,” can be seen on buses throughout New York City. Before playing its first match, the Cosmos already have a shirt sponsor – Emirates Airline, which also sponsors Arsenal, AC Milan, Hamburg, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid. 

There’s also a television deal with One World Sports, which will broadcast all seven of the Cosmos home games in high definition. 

Giovanni Savarese, a Venezuelan-born former MetroStars standout, is the club’s head coach and he’s assisted by former MLS veterans Carlos Llamosa and Alecko Eskandarian, whose father Andranik played for the original Cosmos from 1979-1984. 

The roster, which is still being finalized, features several former Major League Soccer players, including Mineola native Carlos Mendes, who played for the New York Red Bulls from 2005-11, defender Hunter Freeman, midfielder Joseph Nane, forwards Peri Marosevic and Stefan Dimitrov, goalkeeper Kyle Reynish and midfielder Danny Szetela, who signed with the club Monday. 

The Cosmos made waves with the signing of 36-year-old Spanish midfielder Marcos Senna, who played for Villarreal for 11 years and reportedly turned down offers from La Liga teams and an MLS side to compete for the Cosmos. 

“We are delighted to add Marcos Senna to the New York Cosmos,” Savarese said. “His reputation in the game and his achievements over his career on the field speak for themselves – he’s the type of player that makes everyone on his team better and his leadership and experience will be invaluable for us.”

Of course, the Cosmos enter what has become a crowded soccer market in New York City. The long established New York Red Bulls, who play in Harrison, N.J., will soon be joined by New York City FC, a joint venture between Manchester City and the New York Yankees, which will begin play in Major League Soccer in 2015. 

“We know we have to earn every bit of respect afforded to us in the highly-competitive sporting city of New York. I’m happy to be judged not by our words, but by our deeds,” Cosmos CEO Seamus O’Brien said at a press conference last month. “We’re at the beginning of that journey that when we do get to the top again – and we will – we will stay there long past my lifetime.”

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