WE ALL JUST STOOD IN TOTAL AWE
PETER SMITH can still see the goal Pele scored for the New York Cosmos against his LA Aztecs in 1976.
“We basically just stood in awe,” Smith tells The NLP. “The ball came to him on his chest. It didn’t touch the floor, he flicked it over a lad called Jose Lopez’s head, and volleyed it with the opposite foot into the top corner. You think to yourself, ‘That’s not bad’.”
Smith is Marine’s all-time record appearance holder having joined from Wrexham in March 1974 after deciding to leave with the Welsh club noncommittal on a pro deal.
“In the end I got a call off the Wrexham scout who was based in the Liverpool area called, believe it or not, Jack Daniels,” Smith says. “He said, ‘Peter, do you fancy going to Marine?’ I said, ‘Yes – but who are they?’ I’d never heard of them. I was from one end of the city and Marine played on the other side. I went up and the rest is history.”
Then a 21-year-old striker – he scored on his debut against Rhyl – manager Roly Howard later converted him into a centre back but he still found the net regularly, scoring 174 goals in his 957 appearances.
For many, he is the best Marine have ever had, but what some might not know is his summers in America’s NASL where he ended up playing with George Best for the Aztecs and going up against the likes of Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore – and marking Brazilian legend, the late Pele.
Edwards had contacts in the States and it led to some remarkable summer adventures for Smith.
Briefcase
He first played six games for Philadelphia Atoms but without a work permit he had to return home. Fast-forward a year and some representatives from LA Aztecs came over to sign John Marsh from Stoke and Chelsea’s Charlie Cooke to add to the squad that already had Best committed.
Smith says: “We played one night in March and the two guys were there – part owner John Chaffetz and another guy. I sat down with them and they were saying, ‘It’s going to be spectacular with Best’. Like a typical American trying to sell something but would I be interested. I said, ‘Yes, I would’.
“I was working for BT at the time so I had to get special leave. He opened his briefcase, got out a contract and I signed it. There was international clearance to sort and making sure I would return back and that was that. At the end of the season, I packed my bags and off
I went.” Flying all over the America as the season played out, they were soon at the Yankees Stadium up against Pele’s Cosmos, who were also fielding a well-known debutant, Italy World Cup striker Giorgio Chinaglia.
“Obviously I can’t remember everything but I recall going across a bridge over the river, saw the Empire State Building and then the stadium. You start thinking, ‘Who is in the side we’re playing’.
“I knew three lads in the Cosmos team, Brian Tinnion, who had been at Wrexham, and two Americans who had been at
Nutmegged
“I said, ‘What’s it like with Pele?’ They said, ‘He’s unbelievable, just a normal person’.
“I could say the same about George Best. After the first training session with went to a place called Putney Station with a couple of old railway carriage converted into a restaurant.
“Everyone was introducing themselves. He said, ‘My name is George Best, Peter nice to meet you’. I’m thinking, ‘Yeah, I know who you are!’ It was surreal. He was so normal, a smashing fella.
“One time in training he had nutmegged one of the players a few times and turned around and said, ‘That’s five times now’. He just sat down on the ball.”
Smith jokes they did have a minor spat in the game against Cosmos when
Best didn’t square the ball with the goal gaping. As it was Pele, Chinaglia and Keith Eddy all scored two each in a 6-0 win for New York Cosmos.
“It’s easy for me to say know but you don’t treat them any differently to any opposition player,” Smith says about Pele. “But there were times you had to stand off him otherwise he would just mug you. He nutmegged me down by the corner flag and, I’ve never seen it, but I believe it was on BBC News later that night. I remember one of my mates saying, ‘You’re on the telly with Pele nutmegging you’. I said, ‘Oh thanks!’.
“Pele and Chinaglia seemed to hit it off with each other. They were too good for us at that time. It was just an experience to play. We shook hands after and he said, ‘Well played’. I took that as a real compliment.
“The NASL had a Team of the Week and I was in it on how I played against New York and Philadelphia (a few days earlier). I was disappointed I didn’t ask for his shirt but I was a bit brassed off we’d been beaten.” With Pele’s sad death last week, it brings those fond memories back for Smith. “I will never forget it for as long as I live,” he says.