Fairytale in New York: On superstars, movie stars, Cosmos, and uniting for a good cause

By Tom Goulding, writing from New York City

On a dark and wet day in Manhattan, stars of American soccer gathered on the football fields of Greenwich Village for the Tribeca Film & Soccer Festival. With the upcoming rise of the New York Cosmos the running theme of the day (Cosmos kits, Cosmos signs), the festival consisted of a series of soccer exhibitions and charity tournaments, culminating in a celebrity match to end the day.

There were small-sided games throughout for kids from all neighbourhoods of New York City through the ‘City Soccer’ program, a not-for-profit regime run by Manchester City for under-privileged kids to play soccer on a regular basis without having to pay. A quick chat with Paul Jeffries, the Program Director of City Soccer, reveals that the program is no mere token gift from a rich club looking for some easy PR. Jeffries, a City fan himself who used to be on the books of Oldham Athletic, joined the program a few years ago and showed it to Gary Cook, City’s Director of Football, in the summer when the club were on tour in New York.

“Gary Cook liked what we were doing and asked us what we needed,” said Jeffries. “Our reply was simple - just space to play. These kids don’t even have a free playground in which to kick a ball around, as everything is on a pay-to-play basis here in the city.”

“And so the club gave us what we needed and we get thousands of kids coming to play every week.” Thanks to the club, the program is developing pitches on a rooftop on 104^th and Lexington Avenue, right on the border of one of Manhattan’s most affluent areas, the Upper East Side, and one of the least affluent, East Harlem, where many of the kids come from. Jeffries brought my attention to the atmosphere of the multi-national kids on the pitches chasing the ball to this end and that. It was silent. “This is one of the few times in these kids’ weeks when they have peace and quiet, and they’re really joyful. Just look at them – no screaming, no shouting.”

This was true; there was genuine joy visible on the kids faces at the freedom they were allowed on this small pitch through a football. Football is providing the function everyone hopes it would for children but so often it fails to do – simply to liberate and entertain. “These club academies are killing kids,” Jeffries continued. “The coaches are having to produce the end-product for clubs otherwise they’re fired, and so they are drilling the kids in the gym every day”.

Did the program manage to escape what has known to become an ‘English’ style of coaching, I wondered – of ‘putting the opposition under’, and ‘hitting the channels’?

“Look at our coaches,” answered Jeffries. “There are about 15 of them and they are from 8 different countries. We’re not here to produce top players. We use smaller futsal balls so the kids make lots of small touches. We also help them make the journeys from Chinatown and Harlem over here via buses, which can take an hour or more, to play and enjoy football for what it’s meant to be”.

As the skies cleared and the terrible drainage of the 3G pitches left pools of water here and there, the crowds gathered for the arrival of the stars playing in the celebrity match in the afternoon. An eclectic bunch took to the field, including stars from TV shows Desperate Housewives and Law & Order in addition to film stars Ethan Hawke and Gael Garcia Bernal, as well as a variety of sportsmen such as UFC fighter Anderson Silva and John MacEnroe.  While Claudio Reyna did his best not to run the game himself, John MacEnroe popped up at the back post for a diving header for the first goal which received whoops from the crowd. Several stars who had little interest in football, such as Orlando Bloom and Scrubs’ star Judy Reyes, turned up simply to see friends and support the local cause.

The children gathered round New York Red Bulls centre-back Tim Ream, an up-and-coming MLS star who partners Rafael Marquez in the centre of defence.  “Playing with Thierry [Henry] in training has been intense,” explained Ream, who has earned his first few international caps with the US national team in recent months. “Thierry is a big presence on the pitch and in the dressing room. But the addition of Teemu Tainio has possibly been our biggest benefit – when he sits in front of me and Rafa, we work well together. Now that we’re scoring goals, who knows what the Red Bulls could achieve this season?”

Would the Red Bulls welcome another, perhaps more glamourous team in New York to join the MLS in the shape of the Cosmos, who might potentially draw fans away from the Red Bulls? “I think it can only be a good thing for the city and for the league in general. It’d be great to have some rivalry in the city and for more big players to come and play in the league”.

Cobi Jones, the most capped international footballer for USA, was one of the many big names who donned a New York Cosmos kit and did kick-ups for the cameras. He was one of the many voices expressing enthusiasm at the prospect of a second MLS franchise in New York City. “I’m not sure whether they’ll be a franchise by [the projected date of] 2013, but it could well happen in the near future,” said Jones. “All the signs are good.”

The Cosmos are, after twenty years of non-existence, currently no more than a series of press releases from wealthy directors, but the wheels are certainly in motion for a more substantial future. The Cosmos have set up both an academy in New York and an academy in California, run by ex-internationals Giovani Savarese of Venuzuela and American Teddy Chronopolous for some of the best young players in the country to develop. This commitment to youth clearly shows a more subtle and sustainable approach to the short-termism that so often dominates rich board rooms. The question will be whether they can integrate the youth they produce into the first team which will no doubt include a number of imported stars. “That’s the aim,” continued Jones. “Hopefully the youth players will become the stars one day. That’s the dream for every club, really.”

Of course the Cosmos academies need to develop and an MLS franchise needs to be bought before they can start thinking about playing at the top level, but Cosmos Director Terry Byrne, the godfather of one of David Beckham’s children, may be able to use his close ties with Beckham to generate the funds and support the club needs to get off the ground. Playing in a non-competitive format before entering into the MLS, while it may seem the most obvious option to begin with, would obviously not be likely to attract the big players to the club that the Cosmos would thrive on.

But these issues are for another day. For Saturday, the most important thing, past seeing some familiar faces kick a ball around and saying nice things about the Cosmos, was appreciating the work of City Soccer in bringing the simple pleasure of kicking a ball around to children whose lives are not full of simple pleasures.

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