For fans who’ve been waiting years to see the New York Cosmos retake the field, a distant 2026 season can’t come soon enough. But for the men charged with building a competitive professional team from scratch, the next few months are going to fly by. The USL League One campaign typically kicks off in early March, leaving Head of Soccer Giuseppe Rossi and his staff with scant time to spare as they set out to scout, identify, recruit and sign a full complement of players.

“There’s time, but there’s no time. It’s strange,” Cosmos Head Coach Davide Corti said.

Fortunately, there are elements in place that make an imposing task more manageable. The first is Rossi’s vision for the club. The mission provides some definition. The Cosmos are committed to youth, to a fair and functioning player pathway, and to tapping the abundant reservoir of talent in North Jersey and the Tri-State area. Rossi’s vast network has been critical, as has that of Cosmos Scout and Manager of Youth Partnerships Jose Angulo, who also hails from North Jersey.

Angulo, the 2013 USL Pro MVP, was hired in July. He’s been attending matches in person—from high school to pro—and evaluating prospective players via video ever since. Rossi and Angulo then were joined by Corti in early September. Corti arrived from Italy with more than a dozen years of high-level player development experience at AC Milan (among other credentials). Few have an eye for pro potential like the Cosmos’ manager.

While Rossi, Angulo and Corti search for quality across a fertile region, they’re also attracting it. The allure of the Cosmos’ name and history, not to mention the chance to play at a refurbished, historic venue like Paterson’s Hinchliffe Stadium, has prompted several promising prospects to reach out. So while some candidates will have to be assessed from afar, there are plenty within reach as well.

In early August at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, the Cosmos flickered to life, staging the club’s first live soccer activity in nearly five years. It was the first invitation-only tryout for some of the players identified by Rossi and Angulo. With Corti in attendance (he viewed a recording of the first one), the Cosmos then hosted a second invitation-only tryout on the first weekend of September at Hudson Sports Complex in Warwick, NY—the facility owned by former Austrian international Christian Fuchs.

Across the two tryouts, the Cosmos were able to look at nearly 80 players. Over the final weekend of September, back at William Paterson, the best of that group will reconvene for a second crack at impressing the Cosmos’ technical staff and, perhaps, putting themselves in position to earn a contract.

“We’ve narrowed it down to close to 30 players that we want to see at the end of the month,” Angulo said. “We’ll likely make some decisions after that.”

Following the Warwick tryout, Corti and Angulo took the time to answer a few questions about the process and their impressions of the player pool as the Cosmos finally begin to take shape.

Why are the Cosmos hosting these tryouts as part of the roster-building process?

CORTI: It’s not just about performing properly in an 11 v. 11 situation. We also need to understand how coachable they are, and that they can learn constantly every day. When you play a video, it’s hard to tell [everything] because you need to see what they are lacking as well, and if those gray areas or [gaps] can be filled up somehow. You can see the talent they express and even if they’re lacking some things, if they’re coachable, that there’s space for their improvement.

How did you identify and select the players who were invited?

ANGULO: There’s no one way. All these guys have been seen in person, or they’ve been recommended by a trusted person, or they’ve been vetted a little bit on video. We were able to identify certain profiles through video. We don’t rely on video, but there’s certain things that are telling on video. Thats how we’ve been filtering them. We see their profile, the area where they played, and you can kind of create a picture of a guy.

Then you imagine this guy in a [pro] environment. Imagine this guy training with pros every day. Imagine him being part of a team and actually playing big games on the weekend. Can you see that they might have the tools?

How did you set up the tryouts? What happens on the field?

CORTI: For the first tryout, they just warmed up and played a scrimmage, 11 v. 11. For the second one, we had a different set-up and it was more of a real session where you could identify the skills of the players in small-sided games and technical exercises. And then we played for 45 minutes, giving everybody enough space to perform and show who they really are.

In the [late September] tryout, I’ll be on the field so I’ll have the chance to know them better and to control and lead the session as well. That will be about narrowing down the number of players and being closer to the players.

ANGULO: In a small-sided environment, you get to see more actions. You see more repetitions: a striker on a center back, goalie repetitions. We saw a different element of the players that you don’t see in 11 v. 11. So some reduced-space drills—not long—led into small-sided, so we could see all these elements. And then from that, we were able to see enough that we were able to pick out that we wanted to see his guy here, this guy there. And then we incorporated that into 11 v. 11.

What were you looking for during the tryouts?

CORTI: If you see players live, it’s the best thing because you can understand their character. I know it’s for a very short time. But you can see from the way they look at you how much they’re engaged in what you’re demanding, and that’s the reason why we didn’t just put them on the field and play 11 v. 11 [in the second tryout]. It was a sort of realistic session.

So you start asking the players to keep possession in a very tight space—to do something to gain some points—and through those kinds of exercises you understand how much they will try to accomplish something that might be tougher. At the end of the day, you’re looking for players who can solve problems on their own. You can understand how much these players can be engaged, how hard they’ll try to do something that might be new to them. The more they commit to try to solve the problem, the more we believe that those guys can be coachable.

ANGULO: A good player is going to show you something at some point. Can you expand on that if you work with him? Can more be added to what he is? I think a player who naturally plays in a certain system we may be looking at is also very interesting, and I think having a good attitude and a good personality as a player also goes a long way. When you meet them, are they willing to be a team guy, or are they difficult in the locker room? You get hints.

Any of the staff could be around you at some point. That’s the interview: how you respond. Are you greeting everyone respectfully? All these things are seen, and there’s experience with all of us that picks those things up. [Rossi and Corti] have been in locker rooms all over the world. They understand the etiquette. They understand football. They see all these things.

A tryout creates a challenging situation for a player, who likely (and understandably) cares more about standing out than performing within a team context. How do you account for that during your planning or evaluation?

CORTI: Everybody wants to get a spot and find a job, and because of that sometimes players that attend a tryout try to show their best skills. So if you’re very good at dribbling 1 v. 1, but I see you taking on an opponent in a 1 v. 1 situation when it would potentially be better for you to pass the ball and play easy, that’s one of the things we’re looking for. If we ask the players to play easy, we’ll see the choices they make. So don’t stress yourself out to show how good you are, because we see all the things you could potentially do.

It’s not just about you having the ball, which might be disorienting for some them because they all want to have the ball. But we pay attention to the space that you fill up—where you want to go to get the ball and how you want to receive the ball. Asking them to play easy will push them to be more relaxed and trust that we can see what they potentially have within each of them.

How would you assess the overall level of play you’ve seen so far?

CORTI: Of course we need to understand that [USL League One] is in the third division. The third division might be good for the level of players that we saw in the tryouts. Then we’re going to be looking as well for players that can be game changers with their own quality. But we found some really interesting players, so I’m actually happy about what we found up til now and we probably need to be more concentrated on [specific] positional players in the future.

ANGULO: The general consensus was we were impressed by the level of guys we were able to bring in that aren’t under contract anywhere. To see those guys and the level kind of opened our eyes a bit: “Wow, there are some guys out there.”

But we haven’t seen the full spectrum, which is crazy, because we’ve already seen almost 80 players. But we haven’t seen a full spectrum of what we could see before the end of the year. So far though, we have seen a lot of good stuff.

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As the roster finally starts to come together, so will the Cosmos community. Just a few days after that third tryout, the club will mark another milestone as it welcomes fans to Hinchliffe Stadium for the first time.

On October. 4, 2-6 p.m., Hinchliffe will open its doors for the club’s Fan Fest and Select-a-Seat event. Admission is free, although registration is required. Fans will have an opportunity to walk the stands and pick their ideal view, see the stadium’s extensive refurbishment, play pick-up soccer, and visit the Charles J. Muth Museum. The Cosmos’ trophy collection will be on display, while food vendors, music, youth clinics, merchandise sales and more round out a fun and historic afternoon.

Registration for the Oct. 4 event is available here.

What was it like developing as a player during one of the most successful eras at one of soccer’s great institutions—which also happened to be your hometown club?

DC: When you grow up in an environment like that and you get to the first team, you don’t realize how many great players you’ve been surrounded by. For me, it was a natural step. I had been breathing these things since I was very young. We were ball boys, and then all of a sudden you’re sitting on the bench from time to time. Then I played in the Coppa Italia. You train every day with Marco van Basten, with Ruud Gullit and Frankie Rijkaard, and other amazing players that were very close to young players like me. They were trying to give me insights about the way I should live and develop.

But it wasn’t easy. That was one of the most successful teams in the world. As a young player, I didn’t find enough space. Usually clubs like AC Milan send you on a loan to live your own experience and then see if you’re ready to come back eventually. That’s what happened to me.

Apart from your Coppa Italia appearance, what’s a favorite memory of your days as part of that Milan squad?

DC: In 1991, I was part of the tour that AC Milan took to the United States. We flew to the United States and one of our games was in Chicago against the United States national team. I was part of the team that kind of started what everyone is doing now [with foreign tours], but actually we did it at the end of our season. Now, most of the teams are flying over to get ready with preseason friendly games.

That was my first time in America. We were in Chicago, and I was astonished by the skyscrapers because we didn’t have those high buildings in Europe. And then we had the chance to go to Niagara Falls. That was another amazing day. And of course, when you go with a team like that, there’s a lot of journalists and people connected with the media. I had Lotto as a sponsor. So I was sitting at the table with other players during a press conference, presenting some new shoes. It was really interesting.

Following your retirement in 2005, you spent 12 years with AC Milan as a scout, youth coach and technical director. How did all those years in the Milan system, both as a young player and then a coach, shape your philosophy?

DC: I always consider myself lucky having some of the coaches that I had when I was very young, because those people were only focused on making each one of us better and developing. They were not focused on winning with the team. They were trying to develop each one of us as a human being and as a professional player the best way that they could. So the details of soccer that I’ve learned with those coaches are still within me, and I always tried to teach those details.

When your knowledge of soccer, your technique, is fully developed, and you play against 11 players and [alongside] the 10 players on your own team, you need to pay attention to a lot of things that happen very quickly. If you can control your technique the best that you can, and if you master these techniques, you can make any kind of decision you want to make during the game. You’re not afraid of losing the ball, or of controlling the ball with the thigh or the chest or with the outside of the foot. But you need to know those small details. So I’m a kind of coach that really likes the details, and hopefully those small details are going to make the difference in the way that we can build the team.

In 2017, you moved to New Jersey and spent four years working with Cedar Stars and New Jersey Rush, not far from where you’ll be managing the Cosmos in Paterson. Why did you make that move, and what were your impressions of American youth soccer while you were here?

DC: My main focus in moving to United States was about trying to create an environment like you would find at a European club, because European clubs usually work with one methodology across all age groups. So what I was trying to do with Cedar Stars was implant some of the knowledge that each coach needs to have if they want to work with the kids—at every age. So I was coaching the coaches [of players] from eight years old to 19 years old, trying to explain to them the steps they need to take throughout all the age groups because the brain develops year after year.

So, don’t fill up the brain of the players with information because you want to play 11 v. 11, because that’s what most of the coaches want to do—show how good they are through their players. I have a different thought. I want to help the players to show how good they are, trying to bring out their own talent. It’s about them. It’s not about me. It’s about helping them to bring out their talent.

My impression has always been good. It’s a big country, and there’s a lot of different cultures in coaching as well. So you need to be lucky sometimes to have a coach that helps you and sacrifices himself. Because for each one of the players, if you skip any step in your own education, when you become a pro, you’ll limp a little bit.

What did you observe about American soccer at higher levels?

DC: At the 2022 World Cup that recently happened, I think that supporters and soccer people saw that there is a different speed to the game. When I was in the United States, the game had just one speed—back and forth, back and forth. It’s like the quarterback that is throwing the ball, and we all go to the [end zone] and then we try to score. And if we don’t score, then we all come back.

If the American players learn, I would say the tactical moments of the game—where to save your energy and when to hold the ball without being too stressed about scoring goals—the time will come to score. Because if you move the ball, you move the defenders and you move the team. This is what you need to do: keeping the ball, not just chasing the ball. If you chase, you waste your energy. If you hold the ball and you move the player out of their own position, you find the space to go. They just need to be a little bit more patient.

You returned to Italy in 2021 to work in women’s soccer, coaching Milan’s U-19s and then the Serie A teams at Milan and Sampdoria. How did the experience of managing women at the professional level impact your coaching?

DC: The women gave me the chance to be a better coach and a better person, in that I focused on some of those details that mattered more to them. You need to be more sensitive about everything you say. You need to weigh the words that you say, to be positive. And don’t get me wrong, there were times when I went really hard on some of the players—but in a way that it is not taken personally. So I guess that I became more sensitive, much more focused on the details, on the explanation.

Players—women and men—once they understand that you work for them, they start embracing everything that you bring onto the field, everything that will help them to develop something that they don’t already know. And these are some of the details that I will carry with me, whether I’m coaching men or women in the future. Players can be impacted by the words that you say to them.

What appealed to you about the Cosmos opportunity?

DC: The Cosmos were the first American club that we started talking about in Europe. This club has a history of promoting soccer, and it was amazing that some of the best players went there to play and promote the game and help it reach the level that it’s at now

But it’s not just about the name. I believe the people who are part of this project are really going to make the difference. I see the passion they already putting into it, making arrangements to start from the ashes, because the Cosmos have been out of competition for a few years. It’s a big challenge, and I like challenges. Second, I really like the people. And then the name ‘Cosmos’ is something that really excites me. I would like to bring my effort and personal experience to this project so we can bring the Cosmos back to the level they deserve.

When I spoke with some of my colleagues [in Italy], and they heard that I’d been hired to be the head coach of Cosmos, they were like, “Really, is that the Cosmos? The New York Cosmos? The real team?” And I said, “Yes! Pelé is not around anymore unfortunately but yes, that’s the Cosmos.”

So everybody knew about the Cosmos because of the popularity of that team back in the days, and we really loved the players that moved from Europe and came to play for the Cosmos. Like [Franz] Beckenbauer—when you fall in love with a player because of the way that he plays, you follow him. You want to know what he’s doing, where he plays, and what he does in his life.

When speaking with Head of Soccer Giuseppe Rossi, what sense did you get about his plans for the club?

DC: My sense was that he wants to establish something that lasts. He wants to start from the foundation. So the wider the foundation, the higher you can actually go. It’s funny, because this is what we believe when we work with players: the broader your knowledge, the higher you can go and the more you develop. So his target, his goal, is to create something that feels like a family—to create an environment where people feel like they’re part of something. And a place where there is the sort of soccer education that really fits his way of seeing the game.

Signing and relying on young players can require patience, and it’s not uncommon to hear about coaches trying to balance long-term development with the pressure to win now. How will you and Giuseppe handle this?

DC: I’m going to make a decision about the formation and the lineup because it’s my responsibility, but having somebody beside me that can help with some hints, some insights or feedback—of course it’s going to be very helpful and it’s something that is not very common at most clubs. Of course, it’s going be important to be successful and get some results. When development is connected to results, it works in a better way.

Sometimes the way that I coach takes a little bit longer to seed and blossom. But then it stays longer, so I know for sure that the club doesn’t want to chase results that aren’t attached to full development. You can win, or you can be lucky, but if you don’t develop at the same time, those results are going to fail eventually.

Ever since I was involved during those four years in the development of players in New Jersey, I always believed that there’s a lot of talent. There’s a lot of talent. If you work with more patience and with love of teaching what each one of them needs, instead of sacrificing them for your own career and your own results, the United States has an opportunity to be successful in the World Cup, probably soon. But there’s a lot of talent. There’s a lot of great players.

Do you have a style of play or an approach you think will be effective in USL League One? Or are you looking for players first, with the belief that the style will follow?

DC: The idea is to find very good technical players, and Giuseppe and I have been on the same page on that since we met. We both feel that technique is the communication that happens on the field. If you have good technique, you can communicate whether I pass to you between your feet—that has a meaning—or I whether pass the ball ahead of you. There’s another meaning. So technique, I think would be the first thing that we look at with players that we’re going to bring into the team.

I don’t believe in one system of play. I believe that the system of play is made by players that are running and who can play in different positions on the field. So multi-functional players will be probably a focus—to look at players in a sense that if I’m a right back and I find myself positioned as a winger, I need to know exactly what a winger needs to do. On the field, sometimes there’s going to be specific position play, and sometimes there will be non-specific position play.

It makes perfect sense that a couple of Jersey guys, Giuseppe Rossi and Jose Angulo, are at the forefront of the return of the New York Cosmos as a Paterson, NJ-based, community-driven club that will begin play in USL League One in 2026.

“Knowing the Cosmos ’history in New Jersey and being from [Clifton], it’s about bringing back a historic name—building the team, the brand—the way we want to and get it back to where we should be,” Rossi said.

“I’m part of a phenomenal team,” he continued. “To do this now, being the Vice Chairman and Head of Soccer, knowing players that came before me, what they represent and what they did for the game of soccer in this country—it’s a big responsibility and I’m happy to have it. The pressure is on. I know the pressure. It’s what my life is about. It’s nothing new to me, which is making it easier to go about this work.”

Rossi, 38, played high school soccer in Clifton where his father, Fernando, was the long-time coach. The Rossis moved to Parma, Italy, when Giuseppe was 12 years old to be part of Parma AC’s youth program. He went on to spend time in England (Manchester United and Newcastle United), before playing the lion’s share of his career in Spain with Villarreal (136 appearances, 54 goals) and in Italy with Fiorentina (34 games, 16 goals). He also played internationally for Italy at nearly every age level, including in the 2008 Summer Olympics, and earned 30 senior caps with the Azzurri.

Rossi’s vision, which is shared by Angulo, the club’s Scout and Manager of Youth Partnerships, is to build a squad from the ground up between now, the start of training in January and the inaugural League One season at historic Hinchliffe Stadium, hard by the Great Falls in Paterson.

“I want to build a team that’s young, [so] that we’re able to help develop these young kids and just give them this platform they so desperately want,” Rossi said. “I don’t want to sacrifice development of players in the first years. It’s very important to create a competitive atmosphere and a winning culture. It’s something I will be adamant about. It’s not only about you the player—it’s about the club, the teammates. I’ve been down this road. I know what it takes. It’s nothing new to me and it’s important to share my knowledge of the game and hopefully we’re able to develop a platform here.”

Angulo, 37, is a Paterson native who grew up playing for a club (Colso) founded by his late father José, in Pennington Park along with other immigrants from Colombia. He went on to play in high school at St. Benedict’s Prep and had a long professional career with many stops along the way—none more interesting than the time he spent playing for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the USL Championship. That club, for which Angulo played 47 games and scored 23 goals, recently announced a plan to expand its riverfront Highmark Stadium.

“I scored the first goal in Highmark,” Angulo said about the 5,000 seater that opened in 2013. “It was a team and a place that took me in after my first stop with the Red Bulls [in 2012]. They gave me an opportunity to show my skill. In my first game, I came on as a sub in the second half and on my first touch I scored my first goal there.”

Now as the Cosmos lead scout, Angulo said that he’s compiled a database of New Jersey-based players that includes “hundreds” of names.

“I came on the team officially at the end of July,” Angulo said. “But my process mentally started when I had my first contact with the Cosmos. I already had some players I had seen and tracked. I started preparing six months ago.

“I have a bit of an obsession,” he added. “I watch games, wanting to know what players are out there and I wanted to be ready. I knew at some point my work could be put to use. I’ve always been prepared … where the game is, the league, how the structure is going to change [with promotion and relegation coming to the USL]. So I started to prepare, watching games all over New Jersey in the UPSL, NPSL, USL Two, MLS Next, USL One, USL Championship and NISA. I’ve gone to some other states to check out some games. That’s the process.

“The job that never stops. You always need a database of players you can plug into, being ready with players year round. It’s a process that takes a long time, understanding the identity of the club and the type of players Giuseppe wants. There’s so many players in North Jersey, New York and surrounding states in a 50-mile radius. So many players, so many to look at—guys who may have fallen through the cracks. There are good players in this area.”

The work has already begun, with a series of local tryouts designed to put together a group of young men who may know the Cosmos only from historybooks and old, grainy videos, but who are proud to wear the Cosmos’ name on their custom Capelli jerseys.