Just a few short weeks ago, New York Cosmos signed 37-year-old former Real Madrid icon Raul.

The very same Cosmos - sort of - which football legends like Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto graced in their later years.

Re-founded in 2010, the Cosmos is an illustrious name beyond the US, even if they are unlikely to join to the MLS.

However, the events of the 1970s planted the soccer seed in a whole generation of soccer fans and players that kept the flame alive even after the old North American Soccer League breathed its last in 1984.

Thanks to Mercy College professor and New York Cosmos's official club historian Dr David Kilpatrick and our USA World Cup contributor and veteran New York Times columnist George Vecsey, we were able to chart the rise, fall and rise of New York Cosmos and American soccer on Team 33.

From the Warner company inspired-Cosmos Galactico project which saw clashes between a "real piece of work" like star striker Giorgio Chinaglia and Pele, to the way in which losing the 1986 World Cup bidding to Mexico effected US soccer, David and George took us through it all.

And what of the Cosmos? Were they good or bad for US soccer in the long-term? And should the MLS and its biggest historical brand not come together in a happy marriage?

Listen in via the podcast player below or download the episode for free via iTunes.

The new episode of Team 33 also features a rundown of the story behind the club songs of West Ham, Millwall and Roma among others.

Plus we inevitably talk Ireland and Roy Keane.