For Alecko Eskandarian, The Cosmos Are All In The Family

He will be on the field Wednesday night, but not on the field.

Alecko Eskandarian will be there  when the New York Cosmos, the lone NASL team still alive in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, take the field at Red Bull Arena in a fifth-round tournament match. Eskandarian, the son of the former Cosmos defender Andranik and the current coach of the Cosmos’ B team, will has a seat on the bench with the touchline in sight, silently beckoning.

“I told my Cosmos B guys yesterday at practice how hard it is for me to hold myself back,” Eskandarian said last week after one of the big club’s practice sessions at the Mitchel Athletic Complex on Long Island. “It’s great for me to be able to pass things along to them and I also said that I’d cut off a leg, obviously my right leg, if I could play. I’m glad I’m coaching. It keeps me in the game and has kept me sane.”

The younger Eskandarian was a scoring terror on the fields of Northern New Jersey only a few years after his father, who played for Iran in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, joined the Cosmos of the NASL’s Golden Era. Aggressive and single-minded, the younger Eskandarian used a lethal left foot to star at Bergen Catholic High School in Oradell, NJ (leading the state in scoring his senior year with 66 goals and 15 assists), then at the University of Virginia (where he won the Hermann Trophy as the top male collegiate player in 2002) before becoming the No. 1 overall draft pick of DC United of MLS in 2003.

In every sense, Eskandarian is a Cosmos Baby grown into a Cosmos Man.

“If i go back to beginning my family were season-ticket holders to the MetroStars,” Eskandarian said. “I had posters on the wall. I used to watch Gio [Giovanni Savarese, the Cosmos current coach] score goals. I was the kid who was hanging around after practice to get autographs. My senior year of high school I trained with the MetroStars. I always wanted to play for them. I got to train next to Tab [Ramos], Clint [Mathis] and [Mark] Chung. They really showed me a lot.

“I always dreamed of playing in New Jersey in front of my family. I went to college at UVA and when I came out of school was drafted by DC No 1. The Red Bulls had the No. 2 pick, and I heard whispers that some things were said by some people over there. I don’t want to say who or what, but that lighted a fire under me. I made up my mind that every time I got a chance to play back at home I would try to show them what could have been.”

The intensity manifested itself during a game at Giants Stadium against the Red Bulls, renamed from the MetroStars, in April 2006. After scoring the first of his two goals in a 4-1 victory, Eskandarian ran to his team bench, caught a can of Red Bull thrown his way by a teammate, popped the top, took a swig and spit the contents onto the artificial turf. For his performance the league fined him $250.

“I used those things that were said as motivation,” he said. “I bleed for the shirt I’m wearing.”

After four seasons with DC, Eskandarian bounced from Toronto to Real Salt Lake and finally to Los Angeles where an accumulation of debilitating concussions forced him to retire as an active player. It was a crushing blow for a guy who had spent his entire life in and around the game. He simply could not leave it behind.

After a brief tenure as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Union, Eskandarian joined the staff of Cosmos Coach Giovanni Savarese in February 2013 as the club was preparing for its relaunch with the Fall Season. It was a homecoming of sorts. The club went on to win the Soccer Bowl trophy. With the creation of the Cosmos B team this year, which plays in the NPSL, Eskandarian accepted a new challenge as the coach of that team.

And now, with a match against his personal nemesis, the Red Bulls, next week in the Open Cup, you can see the emotion on Eskandarian’s face as he contemplates the Cosmos opportunity to claim superiority in the New York/New Jersey area.

“It is a very significant game, but there’s a long way to go until you can call it a true rivalry,” he said. “It has all the makings, proximity and different leagues -- there are so many story lines. At end of the day regardless of team names, we’re two teams in the same area that want to be the best team in New York and in the country. So on that level it’s a great thing for soccer in this area and I think it’s just two competitive organizations and teams that are going to get after it. It will be fun for the fans to watch. Being a fan in this area, I know people will want to come to watch when there’s more on the line, when it’s interesting and when the quality is there.

“I think last year [after a 3-0 thumping of the Red Bulls in the Open Cup] we proved that we’re not a little brother that we can play with the big boys and can hold our own. I think it sent a message that was very significant, so this year it won’t be easy. We knew that coming in to the game against NYC FC. Now there are no more surprises when you come to play the Cosmos.

“We made our statement last year now it’s a matter of maintaining it. Last week we got one step out of the way with NYC FC. Now we have a difficult task against the Red Bulls.”