News

40 Years Ago Today: The Birth of Cosmos Country

Published Jun 19, 2017

Forty years ago today, the Cosmos Country phenomenon kicked off when 62,394 fans turned up on a sunny Father’s Day afternoon to see the Cosmos face their archrivals, the Tampa Bay Rowdies at Giants Stadium.

The Cosmos went from four-figure to five-figure crowds in the Bronx the year prior, and crowds in excess of 30,000 in two home matches earlier in June had set new club records. But the national record-setting crowd was such a shock, it delayed the players’ arrival.

“I’ll never forget it,” says Shep Messing. “Werner [Roth] and I lived on Long Island and Franz Beckenbauer lived at the Essex House in New York City. So I was his designated driver because I would drive from Long Island and then pick up Franz in Manhattan and drive through the Lincoln Tunnel. We did that every day for training and for games. We pick up Franz in plenty of time, we go through the Lincoln Tunnel, and suddenly it’s bumper-to-bumper. It’s got to be an accident or something. We’re inching along and Franz is looking at his watch and he’s panicking, because we’re not going to get there two hours before the game.”

No one would have dreamt of starting the match without Der Kaiser, but it was none other than the King, Pelé, who rose to the occasion and gave the crowd what they craved, scoring a hattrick.

His first goal was a one-touch finish on a cross from right fullback Nelsi Morais, breaking a scoreless deadlock just before halftime. Pelé scored his second on a freekick outside the penalty area around the hour mark. The hattrick was secured in thrilling fashion. Receiving a quick penetrating pass from central defender Werner Roth, Pelé spun to his left and dished off a pass to Steve Hunt on the left wing, who one-touched a wall-pass back to the streaking Pelé, who then snapped off a deceptively slow shot with his left boot from twenty-yards out that confused Tampa keeper Paul Hammond. The ball slipped beneath Hammond’s belly roughly 9-yards from the goal. Hammond crawled, scrambling desperately to recover but the ball crossed the line before he could retrieve the ball. 

The Cosmos outshot the Rowdies 34 to 29, with Messing making 11 saves to preserve the 3-1 victory. “That was the day it just took off, on Father’s Day in ’77,” recalls Messing. “It was unreal.”

For a club that had struggled since its inception for attention in the crowded sports and entertainment metro-New York landscape, the thrilling win in front of the record crowd meant the Cosmos had finally won over the area’s sports fans, marking the arrival of Cosmos Country.