With the current “GOAT” of world soccer, Lionel Messi set to grace the stage of the 2023 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup Final on Sept. 26, it’s not the first time a player of his stature crossed paths with the tournament’s championship game. The difference is instead of charting a crash course with the game itself like Messi is doing this year, in 1975 the celestial footballing comet known to the world as Pele cast his enormous shadow over that year’s title game.
Pele announced his first retirement in 1974 after 19 years with Brazil’s Santos, the only club Pele had played for at that point. In 1975 speculation began to build that Pele would break his retirement to play in the North American Soccer League (NASL), and news broke on May 25 that Pele would sign a three-year, $7 million contract (“just” $39.7 million today, but an unheard of amount for 1975) to play for the New York Cosmos. The three-time World Cup winner was reported to make his debut on June 4 against the Hartford Bicentennials. Pele and the Cosmos initially denied the report, but finally on June 3 it was officially announced the deal was done and Pele was a member of the Cosmos.
While the American soccer public eagerly awaited the arrival of Pele, the US Open Cup quietly chugged along in the background. By 1975 the NASL and the Open Cup might as well have been on different planets, with the NASL ignoring the tournament either through fear of being embarrassed by semi-pro and amateur teams or simply a “we’re too big for that” attitude.
Despite not participating in the Open Cup, the NASL had a direct effect on one of the teams playing in it. Chicago’s UASC Lions (Ukrainian American Soccer Club) were forced to forfeit their quarterfinal encounter with Kutis SC of St. Louis because a chunk of their roster had signed on to play with the NASL’s Chicago Sting and the ASL’s Chicago Cats.
Facing Kutis in the semifinals were Maccabee AC of Los Angeles, who came back from a 2-0 first leg deficit to defeat San Francisco’s Greek American SC 3-0 in the second leg of their quarterfinal affair. In the East, Inter-Guiliana of New York City’s German American Soccer League were helped with two goals from Tony Froncillo to defeat the ASL’s Boston Astros 3-1, and Cleveland’s American Croatian SC got by Philadelphia Inter on penalties after a 1-1 extra time draw.
By the time the initial news of Pele’s signing broke on May 25, the finalists for the 1975 Open Cup Final had been determined. On May 5, Maccabee AC defeated Kutis 1-0 on Benny Bienstock’s goal in the 83rd minute. A couple weeks later on the 25th, Inter-Guiliana snuck by American Croatian on penalties after 120 minutes of scoreless play. Maccabee and Inter-Guiliana were set to face off on June 15 at Murdoch Stadium in Torrance, Calif.
The only problem was, Pele was set to debut the same day at Downing Stadium at Randall’s Island, N.Y. Initially, it was reported Pele would debut on June 9 against Philadelphia, but it turned out he was making his first appearance in a Cosmos uniform but not playing.
While the games were on opposite ends of the country and the Open Cup wasn’t exactly front page news, it was no consolation to Open Cup Final promotor Tony Morejon, who had been hopeful to attract a crowd of at least 5,000 (yes, that was considered a good crowd for the Open Cup in 1975), was now faced with the prospect of SoCal fans tuning out the Final altogether to stay home and watch Pele. The Cosmos game was set to kickoff at 12:30 p.m. Pacific Time, so it was decided to push the kickoff of the Open Cup Final to 3:30 p.m. local time, a half hour later than originally scheduled, with the hope that enough fans would still want to see more soccer.
About 2,800 miles to the East, Pele made his on-field debut with the Cosmos. The fact that the game with the Dallas Tornado was a friendly and not an official NASL game didn’t matter to the 21,278 fans who packed Downing Stadium, as well as those watching on CBS. One can only wonder how many in that crowd were aware, or even cared, that three hours later on the opposite coast the nation’s cup final was being played.
Pele initially insisted he would play the first half, but a 2-0 deficit at halftime apparently changed his mind. After assisting on the first Cosmos goal by Israeli international Mordecai Spiegler, those in attendance and watching on CBS got what they came to see. In the 70th minute, Spiegler lofted a corner kick in front of the goal, where in the crowd of players Pele got his head to the ball, flicking it to the top left corner to tie the score 2-2, where it stood for the remaining 20 minutes.
Over in Torrance, Calif., with no national tv coverage and far less hoopla, the US Open Cup Final attracted just 2,152 fans to El Camino College’s Murdoch Stadium. Maccabee and Inter-Guiliana played a scoreless first half. Seven minutes after the restart, Abraham Cohen scored the lone goal of the game, and 18-yard shot that skidded on the grass and past Inter-Guiliana goalkeeper Danville Clarke. It was Maccabee’s second Cup title in three years, a total that would grow to a record five-tying by 1980.
Media coverage of Pele’s debut continued for days after the game, while Maccabee’s Open Cup win was confined to a few Southern California papers, and whatever other papers across the country bothered to print the one-paragraph released by the Associated Press. The Open Cup Final would cross paths with the NASL again in 1978 when Maccabee won their fourth title over Vasco da Gama (Bridgeport, Conn.) when the Final was played before a Cosmos-Tampa Bay Rowdies NASL game at Giants Stadium. Like in 1975, coverage of the Open Cup was eclipsed by the NASL, with the New York Times printing just one paragraph for the Final compared to 18 for the NASL game.
The unfortunate reality was the Open Cup would continue to remain in the shadow of the NASL until the league’s demise in 1984. 48 years after the debut of one soccer superstar overshadowed the Open Cup Final, the arrival of another superstar hopes to lift the Final to a level of exposure it has never seen before.