American Soccer Pioneer dies at age 74

Before Major League Soccer was established in the mid 90's, the United States did not have a major soccer league since 1985. This league was the NASL (North American Soccer League). The heyday of this league ran parallel with success of the New York Cosmos (most notably because of Brazilian player Pele and their coach Gordon Bradley).

Coach Bradley, who was a big catalyst to the success of the New York Cosmos, died Tuesday at the age of 74, according to an Associated Press article that I just found on the Sports Illustrated website.

Bradley coached a New York Cosmos team that brought 70,000 fans to Giants Stadium for almost every match. Nowadays, that many spectators is extremely rare for a soccer match. The only match of my lifetime (or the only one that I've at least been old of to watch live at the stadium) that had close to this many people was when David Beckham came to Giants Stadium for the first time to play the New York Red Bulls last August. This match ended with a 5-4 victory for the Red Bulls in front of 66,237 fans. It was an unexpected high scoring match and is probably the closest we will ever get to have such a large number of people flocking to Giants Stadium to watch a soccer match of such high quality.

I never knew much about the New York Cosmos and the NASL since the league ended about a year before I was born, but I found a little bit about it from my father who had just arrived in New York at the heyday of the New York Cosmos. At this time, soccer was doing very well in the United States.

While some great coaches would probably be belittled by lowering their standards to coach at the college level after bringing such large crowds to soccer matches, Bradley did exactly this--coaching George Mason where had a .606 winning percentage and brought their team to the NCAA tournament six times.

Bradley earned a spot in the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1996 and was always as a pioneer of American soccer. He also played in England and Canada before coaching the Cosmos in 1971.

He leaves behind his wife of 49 years, two sons, and five grandchildren.

For more information regarding the North American Soccer League, see this website.

Here is an excerpt of a documentary about the New York Cosmos and their well known coach that I found on youtube:



Here is another good video about the New York Cosmos: