Once in a Lifetime: The Incredible Story of the New York Cosmos

by Gavin Newsham

Details the history of the New York Cosmos, the team, with the help of the great Pele, that helped to popularize soccer in the United States.

Genres: Soccer, Football, Sports, Nonfiction, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Christopher Sedelmaier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the inner workings of the NASL's flagship franchise and the egos involved. In retrospect, it's kind of incredible that the league survived for as long as it did. Still, it was Chinaglia and company who turned me into a soccer fan as a kid.

[Steven Poore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating, and entertaining, ride through the brief life of the USA's first big football franchise (I'm not calling it soccer, because that other game really isn't football).

There are easy parallels to be drawn with the modern Premier League era, most particularly in the way that the main player in this story isn't Pele, Chinaglia, Beckenbauer, Steve Ross, or even the Cosmos itself: the main player is the money, and quite simply that's the one thing football in the US did not have.

There's also some trenchantly humourous moments when Gavin Newsham pokes fun at the sport, at America, and at people taking everything far too seriously. When speaking about the decline of audiences in the early 80s, Newsham points out that "young Americans had much better ways to spend their time as well as their money. By the end of the year, some twenty million people across the States had caught genital herpes."

It's a book about a time, a feeling, more than a team. Readers looking for player stats, team formations, won't find them here, but they will get a slice of history that isn't all that far removed from the modern sport as you might believe.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s been a long drift. It’s time to declare this effort as over. The book is okay, but nothing about the first third of the book has gotten me into gear. I’ve tried to hit the forward button several times, then paused soon after as something more attractive grabbed my attention. Perhaps, sometime … but for now. Done

[Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a perfunctory retelling of a very curious time in New York sports. For four or five years, America, or at least the Americans that also call themselves New Yorkers, paid attention to soccer. We (New Yorker and sports fan that I am) had a big time team that ran around, sliding and kicking, with a few famous names of the world's game.

"Spoiler alert," this book was made in concert with a documentary of the same title. I plan on seeing the movie, and I image that is all I really need to see, as this book sometimes reads as a transcript of interviews for the documentary. Newsham does a pretty underwhelming job of describing the famous players and oversized personalities that enter his story. If you know who these guys are, maybe you don't need Johan Cryuff or Franz Beckenbauer explained to you, but if you are young (under 40) or uneducated (an American) you don't really quake as soon as their names run across on the page. The explanation of the time, place, and people in this book are thumbnails when they need to be portraits.

The book makes a curious companion for Fools Rush In, which is a much better book about another Warner Brothers mistake.

[Randy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd prefer to give this book 2.5 stars because it is somewhere between "it was ok" and "liked it". The author gives a very detailed perspective of the rise and fall of the New York Cosmos as well as the NASL. After reading this book, it comes as no surprise why the NASL failed. (No leadership, no defined salary rules, rapid expansion, expansion into soccer ignorant cities, etc.)
Rather than following a progressive timeline, I thought that too many times the author jumped around from year to year. Doing this made it confusing at times. Some of the additional insight into the inner workings of Warner and Atari (even though some of the lesser known info on Atari was appreciated) wasn't needed. Also, some of the background detail about the players wasn't completely relevant to the story of the Cosmos. At times this felt more like a book about Chaniglia (and I understand the important role that he played) instead of the Cosmos. If you are looking for a story about the New York Cosmos and the NASL you might want to find an alternative book, or skim through this one.

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amazing story of how association football took New York by storm in the late 70's, thanks to the Cosmos and their team of star players. Long before the game of Fantasy Football came along, the NY Cosmos and their backers from Warner Communications had the ultimate "dream team", with superstars such as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto, Giorgio Chinaglia and Johann Cryuff plying their trade in the Big Apple. This is the story about the rise and fall of a sporting franchise and it concentrates on the off the field shenanigans rather more than what when on, on the field.
This book would have received five stars had it not been for the appalling grammar and spelling errors contained within its pages, did this book ever get proof read?

[Dillon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good starting point for anyone interested in the rise and fall of the NASL (North American Soccer League) and the New York Cosmos. It is also a good book for anyone who wants to read about what the MLS should and should not do.

Couple of interesting facts for Minnesota NASL Fans: The Minnesota Kicks were the only team to turn a profit in 1978, and the Minnesota Strikers, along with Toronto were the last two teams in the league two teams to dissolve.

[Steven Spector · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always disappointing when the best profile of the greatest professional US soccer team is chronicled by a writer from the UK. A shame there is little out there on the subject - still the Rodney Dangerfield of sports in America. For what it is, the memories did return although I suspect that with a proper American writer, more could be written about the team, about the league, and about the times.

[Jake Fey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rise and fall of the Cosmos. I was too young to live it, so it's a little hard to put the book in context, but it's certainly a fascinating story.

More background info on the NASL would have been helpful, although the author clearly states that he doesn't want to go there.

In the end, it's a bit superficial and reads something like a tabloid. But it's a fun book nevertheless.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating subject, strangely disjointed writing

[Donavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential overview of the history of the Cosmos, but it's more concerned with the behind-the-scenes stuff than the team's performance on the pitch.