Santiago Formoso spent two seasons with the Cosmos, beginning with the 1977 postseason world tour, scoring twice in 46 league appearances from his left back position. The speedy, stylish and notoriously sleepy-headed left back was a product of the local soccer scene, graduating from Kearny High School in 1973 before playing at the University of Pennsylvania and beginning his professional career with the Hartford Bicentennials in 1976. Few knew the US National Team standout was a native of Vigo, Spain in the Galicia region of northwest Spain.

The documentary film, Alén do Cosmos (written and directed by Pedro Pablo Alonso) tells his story. After a premiere in Vigo last year and screenings at the Thinking Football Festival in Bilbao and the Off Side Festival in Barcelona, Alén do Cosmos makes its New York debut at the Galician Cinema and Food Festival at 6:00pm this Thursday, June 29th, at the Cervantes Institute, 211 E. 48th St. in Manhattan. 

Santiago recently took time to discuss the film and his career with Club Historian Dr. David Kilpatrick.

Read Part I here.

Dr. David Kilpatrick (DK): Obviously the way teams would move around then, you just refused to go with the Bicentennials when they left Connecticut for the west coast, right?

Santiago Formoso (SF): Take my situation into hand. So my father’s just passed away nearly a couple years before. My family is on the east coast. I’m not making real money. I was making peanuts. So why would I go all the way to the west coast, for what? I can find teams in New York and make more money in the semi-pro league. So there’s no need for me to go coast-to-coast, I’m not doing it.

They were good. They were nice, because the year before they asked me, three of us – Hugh O’Neill went to play for Rangers in Scotland, Gene DuChateau, the goalkeeper, he went to Hong Kong, and I was supposed to go to Man U. That was my destination. But I said, “No, I’m not going.” They said, “What?” I said, “No, I got called up to the US National Team. I’m not giving up the National Team over Man U.” Going back to the same dilemma as with the Olympic Team. So I went into camp and I never went to England. Because, like I said, England was to me, first of all, the weather sucks, second of all, the food ain’t that good, and third of all, they can’t play. I said, “No, no way. There’s got to be option B,C, or D.”

DK: And what an option, you wind up with the most skilled team of all time.

SF: Well that was the year before – must have been 1976. Then the year after that was when I refused to go to California. Then luckily, I was at the right place at the right time.

I met up with [Cosmos Assistant Coach] Ray Klivecka after one of the games. I think it was the game the Cosmos played Ft. Lauderdale and spanked them.

DK: The playoff game?

SF: Yeah, the playoff game – I was there. We [Connecticut Bicentennials] were out of the playoffs. So I just came home [to Kearny] and just went to the game. After, I just walked into the Stadium Club and I explained my situation to Ray Klivecka. “Ray,” I said, “I’ve got this problem. Man, I don’t want to go. I’ll play for Rochester. I’ll play in Boston. I’ll do Philly. I’ll do Washington. I want to stay on the east coast. I want to be close to my family. My mother’s here all alone, she’s a widow.” My brother was here and we had to pool our resources together just to get by.

And you know, he says, “Let me think about it and I’ll get back to you.” And it was literally twenty-four hours, and he says, “Would you like to come on a world tour?” And I said, “What did you just say? Would I like to come on a world tour? You’re kidding me, right?” And he said, “No, we’re going on a world tour. Are you in?” “Where do I sign?” So he gave me a date, and I just showed up at Giants Stadium, got on a bus, and went on a tour of the planet. And I got signed like a week later in Tokyo, Japan.

DK: Being faithful to your family pays off.

SF: Yes, 5 o’clock in the morning, there was Giorgio Chinaglia and Eddie Firmani, they woke me up. They said, “Get up, you’re up now. Get some clothes on, come down here and have a cup of coffee.” So I get up, I went down to the hotel cafeteria and I said, “What’s wrong, what did I do?” They said, “You didn’t do anything. It’s 'what are you going to do?'” I said, “What am I going to do?” They said, “Sign these papers. This is your contract. Do you want to play or what?” I said, “Of course I want to play, are you crazy?” I didn’t negotiate anything.

DK: Where did this happen?

SF: I signed my contract in Tokyo. I got there. They knew I was good but they didn’t know how good I was. And in those days, two Americans had to play. So I was a commodity. And they went, “Woah, woah, woah! Before he gets back to the States, everybody’s gonna snatch him, so let’s get him right now.” And they did.

DK: That’s fantastic!

SF: Yeah, it was a great experience.

DK: So in the next season, 1978, you’re playing against your old coach Bobby Thomson in Memphis, and you finally crack the lineup. That was a famous 1-nil loss. What was it about that game? You made the most of your chance there, didn’t you?

SF: I never thought, I didn’t think when Manny said I need a left-back, I didn’t think I had any competition there. That was my spot. I thought, whoever was there the year before they’re going to get the first couple of games and then, they’re over. Because, you need to play an American. And the other Americans were Werner Roth and Bobby Smith. So there wasn’t that many of us. There was Werner, Smitty and myself. And the rest, they were all on the bench. They weren’t going to take out Giorgio Chinaglia, or Franz Beckenbauer, or Carlos Alberto to put a young American in.

DK: Well that’s three great American defenders there.

SF: Absolutely, but you have to realize that I was the better one out of all of them. Not the better defender, but the better player. I had more skill than both of them.

DK: You must have just felt you had a perfect fit with the Cosmos.

SF: I did.

DK: With that team, you could make those great overlapping runs and attack.

SF: And it wasn’t like I was making a fool out of myself. Because there was a lot of guys who can make overlapping runs but they couldn’t cross the ball. So you had to fit in. You had to be able to play that one-touch with them, that possession type of football, that we play today, too. And that was that.

DK: So you said Chinaglia and Firmani had to wake you up in Tokyo. I understand that was a running thing with you, you liked to sleep in.

SF: I love to sleep. I should be sleeping now. But mind you, I got up at 5 o’clock in the morning and went to work.

DK: You break into the lineup in Memphis, you end up having that starting role on that fantastic ’78 team that everyone says is the greatest of all time.

SF: Yes, I think so, too. I think so, too.