February 4, 2013
INVITATION-ONLY COMBINE
Cosmos looking for candidates for mid-February tryout

Do you think you have the talent to play professional soccer for the New York Cosmos?

Well, you could get an opportunity to strut your stuff for the North American Soccer League team in mid-February.

The Cosmos, under the auspices of head coach Giovanni Savarese, will host an invitation-only player combine.

Space at the combine is limited, but all interested players must register online at: www.nycosmos.com/combine.

Applications should be submitted online.

Applicants must be 18-year-old or older and have a valid e-mail address as registration forms will not be accepted via fax or over the phone. All successful registrants will be contacted with a schedule via e-mail.

The registration deadline is Friday, Feb. 8 at midnight.

No registration forms for the combine will be accepted after Feb. 8, but applications also will be under consideration for open tryouts the team plans to hold in the spring in the New York area.

The Cosmos will retrun to competitive play in the NASL fall season, either at the end of July or the beginning of August. They will play at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

"The fact that we are a New York team and maybe a little bit more accessible to some of of the guys that are around, that maybe for one reason or another, they did not have the opportunity to go play somewhere else or they were not considered somewhere else and we see the potential in them to be part of this." Savarese said. "Through this invitational combine, we hope to be able to find some players.

“The good thing is that even though we will have the combine, we still we will talking to different coaches, soccer people in the area about the guys who we are going to invite. We will try to keep the best guys possible. I think it's a good opportunity to be able to see some players. This is not a marketing move. This is legitimate intention to find players to participate on the team."

Beyond the invitation-only combine, the Cosmos plan to have open tryouts as well.

"We will go to different locations. We'll go to different fields in different areas in New York we want to go out there to the people than them come to us," Savarese said.