The Cosmos must defeat their old rivals, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, in the NASL Championship Semifinal at MCU Park in Brooklyn on November 7 to host The Championship Final and earn the club its seventh North American Soccer League title.  The familiar foes have played 27 times, New York dominant with a record of 21 wins, two draws and just four losses all-time against the red and gold-hooped Floridians.   

The club’s triumphant reboot in 2013 began in most dramatic fashion when Alessandro Noselli scored in the 93^rd minute in the 20^th meeting between the fabled sides. The Cosmos have a record of six wins and two draws in the eight regular season meetings between the sides since that glorious night. 

The matchup at Coney Island will be the sixth postseason meeting between the rivals.  The Cosmos have won all five against the Strikers, including Soccer Bowl ‘80. 

The first-ever playoff match between the clubs was August 14, 1977.  Despite the threat of inclement weather, the prospect of elimination meant it could be the last competitive home match in Pelé’s career, so a record-smashing crowd of 77,691 turned up at Giants Stadium.  

The atmosphere inspired the home side, which came out to a roaring start.  Pelé set up Steve Hunt to open the scoring just 90 seconds into the match.  Franz Beckenbauer proceeded to put on a clinic, dribbling through the Strikers defense like traffic cones before dishing the ball off to Giorgio Chinaglia, whose one-touch return service found Der Kaiser  in thick traffic in the penalty area.  Beckenbauer effortlessly toe-flicked the ball past legendary English goalkeeper Gordon Banks to score the Cosmos’ second goal. 

Chinaglia scored the first hat trick in NASL history, Tony Field scored once, Hunt would add another and then 19-year-old Gary Etherington scored the eighth and final goal in the 8-3 rout before a delirious crowd at the Meadowlands. 

From that point on, the rest of the NASL struggled to keep pace with the powerful Cosmos, as they won the second leg at Fort Lauderdale via shootout.  After playing to a 2-2 draw, Shep Messing was spectacular, stopping four Strikers efforts before Terry Garbett scored the winner against Banks, en route to the storybook run that earned the club a second NASL title.

The rivalry between the clubs grew quickly, with the Strikers adding superstars like Peruvian midfielder Teofilo Cubillas and Germany’s greatest goal-scorer, Gerd Müller. Fort Lauderdale’s first of three Soccer Bowl losses came when they faced the Cosmos in 1980, played that September 21 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. Much as the Cosmos were inspired through their 1977 title run with the prospect of Pelé’s impending retirement, in 1980 the Cosmos were playing to do the same for Beckenbauer (though he came out of retirement to return to the Cosmos in 1983).

A temperature of 97 degrees Fahrenheit with 75 percent humidity at kickoff meant a sweltering setting at RFK, the crowd of 50,768 including some 8,000 fans from Cosmos Country. But the Strikers, their fans and the growing contingent desperate to break up the Cosmos dynasty thought the neutral site would favor the Floridians, especially given the heat, humidity and the natural grass surface.

The oppressive conditions meant the contest would be all the more of a chess match between the managers, both highly accomplished Europeans in their first and only season coaching in the NASL, Cor van der Hart of the Netherlands leading the Strikers and Germany’s Hennes Weisweiler in charge of the Cosmos. Indeed, both coaches’ decisions factored greatly in the final result.

As with the Cosmos’ last Soccer Bowl appearance two years prior, Pelé joined the team on the bench in street clothes. The big surprise was to see his 1970 World Cup-winning captain, Carlos Alberto, joining him on the bench. The Cosmos were blessed with the two best sweepers in the world on the squad, but Beckenbauer moved into midfield when Carlos Alberto joined the side in 1977. A game-time decision by Weisweiler saw Beckenbauer drop back into the sweeper position for what he had planned to be his last competitive game for the Cosmos (though he would return in 1983).

For the Strikers, van der Hart’s decision not to start ex-Cosmos forward Francisco Marinho enraged Marinho so much that he refused to sit with the team on the bench. They would regret the lack of backup firepower as the match wore on, but the Strikers were confident they could match the Cosmos’ star-studded squad with stars of their own in Cubillas and Müller.

For the first 25 minutes of play Fort Lauderdale dominated possession, stray passes plaguing the Cosmos efforts to launch any threat. Shockingly, Müller dropped deep into midfield, perplexing Cosmos defender and Rookie of the Year Jeff Durgan. This strategy would wind up haunting the Strikers when late in the first half Müller injured his right leg clearing a ball from his own penalty area.

The Cosmos of course had their own elite finisher in Chinaglia. At 33 years old the Italian was at the peak of his powers in 1980, with 32 goals in the regular season and 16 goals in six playoff games heading into Soccer Bowl ’80. Englishman Ken Fogarty was charged with marking Chinaglia, and for much of the match, despite an ankle injury, Fogarty succeeded in denying the Italian any scoring chances.

The Strikers came out charging after intermission, with Müller’s replacement, striker Koos Waslander, missing on two chances in the 46^th minute. The first chance hit his hand as he dove towards goal but with the second chance, a cross got behind Durgan, leaving Waslander to shoot from point-blank range. Miraculously, Cosmos keeper Hubert Birkenmeier smothered his effort from six yards out. The Strikers would quickly rue these missed opportunities.

In the 48^th minute, Strikers defender Arsène Auguste fouled Chinaglia at the edge of the penalty area. On the ensuing free kick, Chinaglia’s shot deflected off the Strikers’ wall to the belly of Julio Cesar Romero, who controlled the ball and put it in the back of the net from twelve yards out to give the Cosmos a 1-0 lead.

From that point on, the Cosmos dominated play. The introduction of the fresh legs of midfielder Rick Davis for defender Andranik Eskandarian in the 57^th minute meant greater control in the midfield for the Cosmos.

Wim Rijsbergen and Davis passed the ball between themselves from out of the Cosmos defensive third, then from 35 yards out, Davis picked out Chinaglia at the edge of the penalty area, who stepped over the ball quickly to create space from Fogarty. Despite the English defender’s best efforts, “Long John” would not be denied, and he buried a left-footed shot into the far right post.

Chinaglia then continued to threaten to add to his tally and finally, in the 88^th minute, Roberto Cabañas headed a rebound from a Chinaglia shot off Strikers goalkeeper Jan van Beveren to Chinaglia, who controlled the ball with his back to goal and turned to put the game out of reach from six yards out. His 50^th goal in competitive play for the year earned Chinaglia MVP honors for Soccer Bowl ’80.

With their fourth Soccer Bowl win in 1980 the Cosmos overcame the frustration of a semifinal exit the year prior, adding to the club’s collection of silverware and furthering the Cosmos’ claim as North American soccer’s greatest dynasty.

The last time the Cosmos and Strikers faced one another in the playoffs was the 1981 semifinals, the only other time that New York would host Fort Lauderdale in a playoff match. Having won 4-3 on the road four days prior, another Chinaglia hat trick that September 16 helped the club to a 4-1 win and another Soccer Bowl berth (a 0-0 shootout loss to Chicago at Toronto in Soccer Bowl ‘81).   

The desire to send Beckenbauer back to Germany as a champion provided the Cosmos with motivation for Soccer Bowl ’80, just as they sought to send off Pelé as a champion in Soccer Bowl ’77.  Now in 2015, the Cosmos have the same motivation as Raúl and Marcos Senna look to end their careers as NASL champions.

Putting their unbeaten postseason record and unbeaten reboot era record on the line against their old rivals, the Cosmos have history on their side this Saturday at Coney Island.