Comets

Between 1972 and 1982, New York Cosmos won the Soccer Bowl, the North American Soccer League's championship, five times, a stretch that made them the league's defining side through the decade. The run began the same year the club turned two and did not stop until the NASL itself was already fading around them.

The team took shape in December 1970 as a deliberate experiment: sign the biggest names the sport had and build everything else around them. Pelé's arrival turned that idea into a working formula, and the "Marquee Club" approach he anchored drew crowds far beyond what American soccer had drawn before.

Cosmos moved between grounds in their early years before settling at Giants Stadium in 1977, a venue built to hold more than 80,000. The choice of ground was as much about scale as convenience — a stage large enough for the crowds Pelé's presence had created.

The name resurfaced in 2013, and the revived Cosmos matched something close to the old club's habit of winning: three Soccer Bowl titles, in 2013, 2015 and 2016, inside a spell that ran through to 2020.