Maurer had to watch from the bench as New York lifted the title in 2013

Goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer had a great view the last time the New York Cosmos played in the NASL title match. Thing was it was not from the spot between the goalposts he has become accustomed to the past two years.

Instead, it was from the bench as the backup to Kyle Reynish when the Cosmos, in their reboot season, went to Atlanta and defeated the Silverbacks, 1-0, in 2013 to raise the Soccer Bowl trophy for the first time since 1982.

“As a professional you want to be in final,” Maurer said last Saturday after backstopping the Cosmos’ 2-1 win over Fort Lauderdale in a semifinal match in The Championship at MCU Park in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, N.Y. “In 2013 it was awesome being a part of the team and winning, but it’s always a little bit different when it’s your team, when you’ve been playing all year. Now, I’m really excited and looking forward to a great match on Sunday.”

Now, it is Maurer’s team, a club that finished No. 1 overall in the NASL this year, winning the Spring Season title and finishing first in the Combined Standings to clinch home-field advantage throughout the postseason. The season, for Maurer, the Cosmos, and the league will culminate on Sunday evening when New York hosts No. 2 Ottawa Fury FC in The Championship Final at Shuart Stadium in Hempstead, N.Y. with kickoff slated for 5 p.m. ET.

And there is a strange kind of symmetry to this title match. While Maurer will be on the field, not the bench, this time, he is still playing second fiddle – of a kind – to Fury FC’s record-setting goalkeeper Romuald Peiser. While Maurer started 28 games this year and had a 14W-11D-3L record, his stellar 0.93 goals against average and 12 shutouts were only second best to Ottawa’s equally stellar French goalkeeper. Peiser played in 29 games, compiled a 15-10-4 record, a league-record 14 shutouts, a league-record 648-minute shutout streak and a league-leading 0.76 goals against average (which also tied a league record).

The Cosmos are back in the final and Maurer knows that the team’s strong regular season will lose its meaning if the team fails to take home the Soccer Bowl trophy on Sunday.

“It’s huge,” he said, referring to The Championship Final. “It’s what you work all season for. We talked before about everything we did all season, to end up with the top seed is great and that’s what we wanted. But at the end of the day it doesn’t mean anything if you get to the postseason if it all goes out the window. If we would have lost [to the Strikers] what would have that top seed meant? So now it’s huge that we were able to follow through. It was a tough battle.”

Against Fort Lauderdale last Saturday, the Cosmos found themselves trailing by 1-0 after 16 minutes when PC powered a low, hard shot past Maurer. PC nearly made it 2-0 late in the first half, if not for a pivotal save by Mauer. In 2015, the Cosmos were unbeaten when they scored the first goal (11-2-0) but were less successful after conceding first (4-6-4).

“I don’t know what the records or stats were, but everyone is always using the name Cardiac Cosmos,” Maurer said. “All I know is that we never give up. But for me it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for us to come back. It didn’t change anything, we kept playing our game and knew the chances would come.”

Turning his attention to the save that may have saved the Cosmos season, Maurer said: “It was a tough one. It was skipping off the turf and luckily enough I was able to dig it out and push it wide. Key moments pass in the game at both ends of the field and they had just scored one to go up. Luckily I was able to make the play and keep it at 1-0. The game goes to 2-0 and it could have been tough. There’s always key moments in the game and we were able as a team to come away with the big moments and make them count.”