So, like, since they had this star studded 24 team league back in the 80s and stuff, what the hell happened? How did it go broke?
by star studded... you mean over the hill, over paid, former stars therefore killing the league by putting out a product with has beens who were vastly overpaid the bottom feeders of the teams were terrible the league made no money and paid way too much for players mls draws better than the nasl ever did... look it up (www.kenn.com)... the statistics don't lie... it's not good to live in a fantasy world teams were not stable... the died and popped up mls is stable... it's actually investing into what they do... bringing in cheap, young talent and making great players... getting their hands on soccer tv rights in this country, promoting soccer in this country (outside of mls) and building stadiums things the nasl would have wet dreams about
They over-expanded. Had they kept it at 12 teams they'd have had a better chance. Instead they went into many markets where there really wasn't much interest. After the novelty wore off not many people were buying tickets. Recessions in 1969-70, 1974-75, 1979-80, and 1981-82 didn't help matters. Inflation was rampant and times were tighter. People were more inclined to spend what money they had on football and baseball. Europeans called the NASL the elephants' graveyard. Most of the foreign players were on their last legs and it showed. There was only one Pele and after he retired they lost their Michael Jordan. There were very few American players of any note. Kyle Rote Jr probably was the best known. This made for a harder sell. There wasn't the youth soccer that there is now, no soccer moms in those days. The league lasted long enough to develop a whole generation of young fans but the base just wasn't there.
Well I could tell you what happened to the NASL! This is coming from a San Jose Earthquakes fan, so I may be a little biased in some ways, but here it goes. First of all, the league started to grow in 1974-75. Milan Mandaric bought an expansion San Jose Eartquakes club as did other owners in Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and LA. The Quakes averaged a blistering 17,000 a game which is considered very good especially by MLS standars. Anyway, Milan decided to field a team of average Yugoslavs & maybe some 3rd divison Brits. The team did well untill 1978..... What had happened was the NY Cosmos had started importing high priced internationals like Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia, Carlos Alberto, Franz Beckenbauer, Vladislav Bogicevic, Wim risbergen and johan Neeskens. Most of these guys were starting for their national teams and although they were all pretty much over 30 , they could still play pretty well in the NASL. Then the rest of the league had to catch up. First you had LA going after & Johann Cruyff respectively, and then all the rest of the clubs had to import high priced aging foreigners.. ......Anyway, the Quakes had decent following but their foreigners were not as good as the rest of the leagues. So they had losing season from 1978-1982... I'll never forget when the Quakes lost 10-0 (in 1978) to the Detroit Express and Trevor Francis a center forward for England scored 5 goals! In 1979 ABC decided to telvise some games but with commercial interruptions! the first goal on TV no one saw because they broke away for a commercial! Most say that the lack of a TV deal spelled the deat of the league.....I think it more has to do with the lack of home grown American quality players that fans could identify with.....For example ,the Quakes 1983 were real good becuase they brought in Steve Zungul (Yugo), Mike Kerri(Yugo)Godfrey Ingram(England), Bill Irwin(Ireland), Stan Terlecki(Poland)Steve Litt (England) Jan Goosens(Holland)...Most of these guys were all quality first divison guys from overseas..... The thing was, when you sign players over 30 , sooner or later these guys will retire. I mean how many guys really play until they are 34? When these guys quit or retired or what have you, it was very difficult to replace the same type of foreign or continental player with the same skill level and the same moves without going back overseas & buying them. Americans at that time were basically reduced to maybe defenders and GK. They did produce some good Americans at that time, like Steve Moyers & Mark Peterson & Kyle Rote Jr. who showed that Americans could play this foreign game, but they weren't enough! Most of the Americans who had signed had sat on the bench & were in no way near the class players of their foreign counterparts....So what happened? Do you continue to go to Europe and bring in more over age foreigners or do you develop the American born player? Well the league wanted to develop or Americanize the sport but becuase teams kept folding left & right and becuase the league was getting just to expensive to stay afloat with no tv contract or what have you , the NASL folded! That is the basic story! The MLS is watching those mistakes of the past...Yes they brought in Lothar Mattheus & Stoichkov & Valderrama who were all over 34 but at least the rest of the guys on the team were Americans....Most of those americans were on the national team at some point or aspired to be.... I'm sure they don't want to have another NASL......I miss those NASL days when the level of play and the excitement at least at Spartan Stadium was electric, but I think the MLS is more of a long term solution, and I think they are doing things right! I hope to GOD they don't move the Quakes....They are playing better than anyone and are close to the old NASL Quakes.....They are not as good skill wise and they don't have the same flair that those old foreigners had, but becuase of the MLS concept of staging American players, they will one day get to level of the NASL!
I did want to add this about the NASL. You see the players who were brought over from overseas were 1st 2nd & maybe even 3rd division players. The level of play was kind of funny becuase you had top World Cup players playing along with 3rd division English hacks....I'll never forget how Laurie Calloway (the frist Clash coach) & David Kemp marked Pele out of the game in his debut at Spartan Stadium....It was a difficult league to say the least...Not all the stars could play in this league! Karl Heinz Granitza of the Chicago Sting was brought over from GMY , I don't think he played much at all in GMY or at least not with much success...Here he had a great outdoor and indoor career...Then you had a guy who had been successful in GMY Klaus Toppmoller, who had come over in 1980..He had bet Giorgio Chinaglia that he would win the scoring title and he was injured never to be herd from again! The exhibition games held here in the US against international teams were close and exciting .....I remember a game in 1983 where the Quakes had an exhibition against Dynamo Minsk at Spartan.....If I'm not mistaken the score ended up 3-3 , and it was one of the best games I've ever seen.....Steve Zungul & Stan Terlecki had killer goals from what I remember......Then I would see players dressed in warm ups kicking the ball behind both goals..Later we found out that they were KGB agents posing as soccer players trying to prevent anyone from defecting to the States...How funny! One of the things that I do miss however about the NASL was the colorful stories and the excitement the foreign players produced...George Best for example hiding out for days in Capitola for days and no one knew where he was......I am not sure how much or if good Old George practiced or not while with the Quakes, but he was by far the class of the league! If the MLS or the US could produce just one player like him skill wise, they would in fact win the world cup , no question about it! On another note, its too bad the league folded when it did. I mean the American players started to come out of their shells....Even though they didn't play often they were training with top players all the time...Even Ricky Davis said it best when he said when you train with Pele, Chinaglia, Beckenbauer etc etc sooner or later you will get good! Anyway, those were the days!
Neither has MLS. lies, damnable lies, and statistics.... try these: 2005 -- 12 teams in MLS & 12 teams in USL1 Los Angeles 24,011 Salt Lake 18,932 CD Chivas 17,981 Chicago 17,401 DC United 15,810 MetroStars 14,038 Colorado 12,959 San Jose 12,460 N. England 12,200 Columbus 11,986 Dallas 11,039 Kansas City 9,457 USL-1 ATTENDANCE Montreal 11,176 Rochester 9,570 Portland 5,553 Vancouver 5,086 Puerto Rico 5,003 Charleston 3,649 Minnesota 3,135 Seattle 2,885 Richmond 2,654 Toronto 2,462 Atlanta 1,724 Virginia Beach1,240 1980 24-team NASL New York 42,754 Tampa Bay 28,345 Vancouver 26,834 Seattle 24,246 Tulsa 19,787 Washington 19,205 Minnesota 18,279 Toronto 15,043 Ft.Laud 14,279 San Jose 13,169 San Diego 12,753 Los Angeles 12,057 Chicago 11,672 Detroit 11,198 Edmonton 10,920 Portland 10,210 Memphis 9,864 New England 8,748 Rochester 7,757 California 7,593 Dallas 6,752 Houston 5,818 Atlanta 4,884 Philadelphia 4,465 Compare NASL's 18-24 teams: NASL '77 avg attendance: 13,558 NASL '78 avg attendance: 13,084 NASL '79 avg attendance: 14,201 NASL '80 avg attendance: 14,443 NASL '81 avg attendance: 14,084 to MLS 10-12 teams: MLS '00 avg attendance: 13,756 MLS '01 avg attendance: 14,961 MLS '02 avg attendance: 15,821 MLS '03 avg attendance: 14,898 MLS '04 avg attendance: 15,559 MLS '05 avg attendance: 14,916 ...only as stable as the owners who've lost tens of millions to bankroll the league. It's amazing that TWENTY FIVE years after 1980, MLS' per game average for 12 teams is one-fifteenth higher than the average attendance for an "overexpanded" 24 team NASL. If St Phil and Uncle Lamar pulled the plug, the league would die. And if it died, I anticipate a less stable, more innovative league would eventually take its place and learn from its mistakes.
Speaking of attendence; if you're going to compare the NASL's attendence to that of MLS, then take a look at what the NFL, NHL, NBA, and baseball were drawing then compared to now. You'll find greater attendence at sporting events of all types.
I don't know if anyone is interested or if anyone cares especially because more than 20 years have passed but what the heck we are talking about the NASL so here is the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers all time roster: & their coaches All-Time Fort Lauderdale Strikers Roster Players Aguirre, Roberto (1977-1978) Auguste, Arsene (1980-1981) Banks, Gordon (1977-1978) Baptiste, Ernst-Jean (1983) Barto, Barry (1977) Bell, Bobby (1977) Best, George (1978-1979) Bodonezy, Nico (1977-1980) Bolitho, Bob (1981-1983) Bonvallet, Eduardo (1980) Cacciatore, Steve (1980) Callaghan, Ian (1978) Cano, Marine (1978) Canter, Dan (1982) Ceballos, Sergio (1977) Chadwick, David (1977-1979) Corish, Bob (1979) Cubillas,Teofilo (1979-1983) Dallas, Gordon (1983) Davies, Roger (1983) Demers, Norman (1979) Dewsnip, George (1977-1978) Fazee, Mike (1979) Feamley, Gordon (1977-1978) Figueroa, Elias (1981) Fogarty, Ken (1979-1983) Fowles, Colin (1977-1983) Gaston, Danaiel (1979) Gemeri, Tibor (1978-1981) Groark, Tom (1983) Hamilton, Tedd (1981-1982) Hamlyn, Alan (1977-1978) Hickton, John (1978) Holzenbein, Bernd (1981-1982) Hudson, Ray (1977-1983 Irving, David (1977-1980) Jones, Gary (1978-1979) Kidd, Brian (1982-1983) Kirschner, Edward (1982) Leeper, Curtis (1977-1979) Lugg, Ray (1977) Marinho, Francisco (1980) Mausser, Arnie (1979-1980) Meschbach, Robert (1981-1983) Miller, Bruce (1982-1983) Morales, Ruben (1981-1982) Müller, Gerd (1979-1981) Nanchoff, George (1977-1978) Newman, Guy (1979) Newman, Ron (1979) Njie, Al (1979) Ortiz-Velez, Mike (1978-1980) Park, Terry (1979) Parkin, Tim (1977) Pereira, Fred (1977) Peterson, Les (1978) Piper, Norman (1977-1978) Pot, John (1980-1982) Proctor, David (1977) Rolland, Andy (1978) Rongen, Thomas (1981-1983) Ronson, Bill (1978) Rosul, Roman (1977) Salsamendi, Al (1979) Salsamendi, Joe (1979) Savage, Bruce (1982) Schoenmaker, Alex (1980) Segota, Branko (1981-1983) Stanley, Gary (1979) Strong, Carl (1983) Szatmari, Alexander (1982-1983) Tietjens, Jim (1980) Turner, Ian (1978) van Beveren, Jan (1980-1983) Vaninger, Dennis (1978-1979) Villa, Greg (1980) Walker, Clive (1979) Walsh, Mick (1983) Waslander, Koos (1980) Wegerle, Steve (1983) Weller, Keith (1980-1983) Whelan, Tony (1977-1979, 1983) Whittle, Maurice (1977-1979) Wiegand, Rick (1980-1981) Wiggemansen, Roy (1979-1980) Zerhusen, Steve (1979-1980) Coaches 1977-1979 - Ron Newman (regular season 52 - 34, playoffs 4 - 7) 1980 - Cor Van der Hart (regular season 18 - 14, playoffs 6 - 4) 1981-1982 - Eckhard Krautzun (regular season 36 - 28, playoffs 6 - 5) 1983 - David Chadwick (regular season 14 - 16, playoffs 0 - 2)
true that's what numbers are for try 1/15th higher -5 world cups in a row -a few women's world titles -100+ americans playing abroad -crew stadium -home depot -pizza hut whatever -bridgeview -commerce whatever -harrison -S.U.M. make note... that's 4 stadiums, plus two to start that ain't going away owners like that... as in new owners game changes nasl is dead
You are right and I totally agree with you except for 1 thing....... It would have been 3 World Cups in a row. The 1990 USMNT qualified for the World Cup Team with a group of 80's college all star team who had no league in this country to choose from. Also, Mexico was banned from taking part for using overage players in an underage tourney.... Teh 1994 USMNT qualified automatically becuase the USA was the host country..... So its true that the USMNT qualified for 3 world cups with the help of the MLS,
IMO there were three thing that led to the demise of the NASL... 1) The premature formation of a militant players union. 2) The way too agressive expansion from 16 to 24 teams in one year 3) The signing, by the Dallas Tornado, of Klaus Toppmoller (it's a long story and has been told on these boards before)
hmmm... and I said one-fifteenth higher... well, I guess we agree on something... Really? So you'll give MLS credit for our World Cup appearances retroactively??? '90 and '94 nats players never attended an MLS game but probably saw a number of NASL games. JoeMax Moore was a ballboy for the Tulsa Roughnecks and son of one of the team's owners. One of the conditions for the US to host WC '94 was THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DOMESTIC LEAGUE... then poof... MLS. '98 team made it into an expanded field only to lose all three games. '02 Success-- the nats proved MLS players can step it up and that the team wouldn't just "fall apart" in the absence of Reyna. '06 ??? Mia Hamm, Kim Akers and that juggernaut were playing the game years before the establishment of MLS. The explosion of girls/boys youth soccer in the late 70s/80s and Title IX layed the foundation for the US Women nats. The huge media circus around the WWC kept the momentum going for a short lived WUSA. MLS had little/nothing to do with it. Dude, MLS is a men's league. Yep, with few exceptions, players make more money sitting on the bench in Europe than they could starting games in a single-entity MLS. Two words: Lamar Hunt, who was also a major owner in the NASL. Mr Hunt made the decision in 1980 to move the Dallas Tornado from 21,000 seat Ownby Stadium with a grass field to the astroturf at huge Texas Stadium. Attendance plummeted. As an MLS "owner/investor," he moved the Dallas Burn from a pristine grass field at the Cotton Bowl to "running on hot coals" Southlake. Attendance plummeted. Now, he gets a stadium built so an MLS team can play next door to a AA baseball team in Frisco. I honestly hope it works but I ain't holdin my breath here. Of course the NASL is dead. It's been dead for 20 years now. It was conceived in a different generation and developed under different circumstances in a different era. It's history. Some good, some bad. Some unexplainable/inexcusable. But talking smack about your history just isn't very cool.
Let me give you an admittedly simplistic cliffnotes/NASL-for-Dummies version of what happened. After the 1966 World Cup generated a certain amount of interest, a couple of rival groups started what would become the NASL. One of the 2 leagues in '67 actually had ENTIRE teams imported to play in american cities. The league dwindled down to 5 teams in '69, then limped along with 8-10 teams. You could say the league was at a crossroads in 1974 when the league added 4 west coast teams (Vancouver, Seattle, LA and San Jose) plus another 4 teams for a total of 15 franchises. The fee for a new franchise tripled to $75,000. The league was going in the direction of homegrown talent; the St Louis team was literally "all-American" and the Dallas Tornado's Kyle Rote Jr won ABC's "Superstars" competition over better known players from the NFL, MLB, etc. That same year the league mandated all ties would be broken by a series of penalty kicks, a change that eventually would become the "shootout." The league expanded to 20 teams for the 1975 season, then: Amazingly, on June 3, 1975, Clive Toye announced the most ground-shaking signing in soccer history: Pelé, the Brazilian legend, had agreed to come out of retirement to play for the New York Cosmos. Signing a three-year, $4.7 million dollar deal, Pelé brought instant credibility for the young league around the world.-- Steve Holroyd with supplemental materials by Dave Litterer. http://home.att.net/~nasl/nasl.htm League attendance jumped after Pele's signing, from 7642 per game in 1975, to 13558 per game in 1977. Pele toured the US promoting the sport and youth soccer participation started to explode. Then, ABC announced its agreement to show NASL games in '78-- the league expanded to 24 teams in NFL-like conferences and divisions and salaries skyrocketed with the addition of players like Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, Trevor Francis, etc, etc, etc. In my humble opinion, the league didn't die because of overexpansion as much as simply getting "too big for its britches." Millions were being spent on older highly skilled players. American players looked out of place on the field, you really could play "spot the American" because the talent dropoff was pretty severe. Games were faster paced than MLS simply because many of the fields were astroturf-- lots of goals were scored after defenders misjudged crosses/passes after the ball took a particularly high bounce. Commissioner Phil Woosnam kept trumpeting how the league will someday overtake other major sports once all those kids playing now grow up into ticket buying adults-- soccer would become the "sport of the 80s." Somehow I think many of the league's owners were conned into believing they could lose millions and millions of dollars until that magic day when the league starts drawing the same crowds as the NFL. It was just plain odd to watch these teams locate themselves in the highest profile stadiums available-- in 1980, teams in the MAJOR markets of Dallas, Houston, Philly and Atlanta that hadn't been able to draw over 7k per game were playing in Texas Stadium, the Astrodome, Fulton-County Stadium and Veterans Stadium (all with capacities over 50,000). The fanbase was different. Parents holding the purse-strings knew very little about the sport; their kids were the ones who actually played the game. These kids would eventually grow to appreciate the outdoor game. Adults fell prey to the high scoring and excitement of human pinball... er, uh... the indoor game, which made for a succssful MISL, a league with lower salaries and a more intimate atmosphere. Some NASL franchises were much more successful at the gate in indoor soccer then they ever were with the outdoor game-- San Diego and Chicago among others...
Here are some of the (North)Americans who sttod out as decent players during the NASL era...Its from the top of my head so here goes.... Chris Turner GK Canada Bob Lenarduzzi D Canada Bruce Wilson D Canada Jim McAlister D USA Mike Hunter D USA Gary Etherington M USA Steve Pecher D USA Werner Roth D USA Ricky Davis D/M/ USA Tino Lettieri Gk Canada Robert Iarusci D Canada Alan Mayer GK USA Shep Messing GK USA Steve Moyers F USA Glenn Myernick D USA George Nanchoff D USA Louie Nanchoff M USA Jim Pollihan D USA Archie Roboostoff F USA Kyle Rote F USA Branko Segota F Canada As you can see a lot of these guys were Canadian. In those days of the NASL , Canada was actually a very good side in Cancacaf....I guess that is why they made the 1986 World Cup......Most of the North Americans were reduced to either GK or Defenders....They were a good bunch of guys and they held their own......Of course they never stood out like Ace or George Best, or Teofilo Cubillas, but they did ok....I'm sure these guys will have started in the MLS no problem... To tell you the truth , I think Steve Moyers was an exceptional forward for an American....Its almost a shame that the NASL folded when it did.....I think for most of these guys, there just wasn't enough teams or space(becuase of the foreigners) for them to play..... I wonder what would have happened to the League had the USMNT qulified for the 1986 WC?
Certainly there are 10 or 20 or 30 times as many youth players now...but there was youth and school soccer then, and in some places it was well established. NASL didn't so much start incredible growth of youth soccer, as kick it into a higher gear, and following the signing of Pele, certain ideas or "slogans" really, became well known: 1. Anyone can play soccer. 2. In ten years soccer will draw more fans than american football. 3. Throw-ins are complicated things involving the ref awarding style points. Anyway, if nothing else, NASL was a key to the youth player explosion we have had.
I'm glad USRufnex brought the MISL into the discussion. Indoor soccer set the "proper" outdoor game back fifteen years. Soon, the NASL didn't know if it should be outdoor, indoor, bi, or whatever. And like their outdoor counter-parts, MISL teams like the NY Arrows over spent and folded, and I think the novelty quickly wore off. [Now I can't stand to watch the new-MISL with its various points for goals based on where the ball was kicked, etc.] There were alot of NASL investors who thought they could cash in fast and weren't in it for the long haul. I grew up with the Memphis Rogues, and moved to NY a few weeks before the Rogues left for Calgary. The level of play in the NASL was excellent, as those "elephants" still had game. Essentially all of the stars from WC74 made it over here, and they interacted with fans at a grassroots level that MLS still needs to adopt. I thought last year we were seeing the same thing happen to the NHL as happened to the NASL. Perhaps they've dodged that iceburg. As for the Yank talent, or lack thereof, there was in addition to Kyle Rote, Jr. guys like Ricky Davis and Glenn Myernick, and flashy media-friendly keepers like Shep Messing and John Houska. But I loved the foreign players who came over here. My Chelski and Woves supporting friends still drool when I talk about how Charlie Cooke and Bobby Thompson would run clinics for the kids in Memphis. These were guys who came from a place where the sport had tradition, and they brought it with them. Their love for soccer was contagious, and the seeds were sown in the Seventies that have now bloomed with the success of the Nats. I'm so grateful to be able to say I saw Chinaglia, Beckenbauer, Müller, Best, Chryuff, Alberto, etc. I wish MLS would find a way to blend in more foreign talent. I'm of the few who are grateful to have had the World Footballer of the Year and winning captain of a World Cup championship side play for my Metros for one season (our most successful, BTW). Lots of reasons the NASL folded. But it was great while it lasted.
because Peter Frampton owned the Philadelphia Fury Do yoooooo YOOO!! Feel like I do seriously though, my very first soccer game was at the Vet to see the Fury. I have fond memories of the 2 or 3 years they played in Philly.
I remember something with Peter Frampton & Maybe even was it Rod Stewart? Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Elton John own the LA AZTECS which is why George Best came to LA? Either way, the MLS is a good league and its developing into a strong viable I'd say maybe a 2nd or 3rd divison Euorpean side(which is not bad believe me)....Youth soccer was however, big in the 70's & 80's...The coaches were no good , but to tell you the truth in most NASL cities the level of youth soccer and/or school soccer was pretty good...The coaching may be better today as opposed to those days....The thing was the youths back then didn't listen to their coaches, anyway.... What they did was emulate and study the NASL players... I mean when you are wacthing Best, Chinaglia & Beckenbauer, how can you not learn?
I remember when we got cable television... Atlanta Chiefs, Cosmos, and Ft Lauderdale. Super back then, but that's my memory. I love The MLS now and am thankful that we have full tv with EPL, UEFA, MLS, etc.
The new MISL seems to now be following what MLS did when Garber took over: taking the gimmicks out of the game. It's back to one-goal-one-point. But that's beside the point. I still have doubts about the quality of the American players in the NASL, given that the US national team that the best of them played for was struggling against teams like Bermuda at that time. This year, by comparison, a preseason New England Revolution, featuring a quite a few benchwarmers and even players who ended up not making any MLS roster, defeated the Bermuda national team twice in two attempts - a Bermuda national team probably stronger than the 1970s edition. In one of this year's matches, Shaun Goater played for the Bermuda team, and I'm pretty sure he's better than anyone Bermuda fielded in the 1970s. So, by extension, the US national team during the NASL years was about as good as a present-day preseason MLS team? Actually doesn't sound that far off.
In 1983 they had Team America playing in the league out of DC. The concept was to get the American players ready for World Cup Qualifying and/or improve the American team. It was a good idea at first but the Americans were just not as good as the foreigners who were already playing very well in the NASL. The NASL was supposed to add an American born player every year from what I remember was 1979- 1984. Every year that went by the foreigners who were already playing in the league continued playing with their clubs and I don't think the owners wanted to bench them in favor or a worse(American Born)player. The thing was the few Americans that started in the NASL showed pretty good promise. A lot of them were reduced to defenders and Gk with very few M/F. When they started coming into their own the league folded. Remember the MLS has now been in existence for 10 years...Realistically the "TRUE" NASL didn't start until the 74-75 season when Pele arrived. Ten years later the league was dead. Had the league continued , I'm sure the USMNT would have obtained good results. I remember them holding their own in the 84 Olympics. They did ok. I mean they did get eliminated in the 1st round but they played pretty well. Clyde Best played for Bermuda in those days I believe. He was a pretty good player that had played for West Ham in England. He had a good NASL run and scored 54 goals in 8 seasons. Check out his stats: BEST, CLYDE (Bermuda). Striker. West Ham (Engl.) Born 2/29/1951. Regular season Playoffs GP G A Pts GP G A Pts 1975 Tampa Bay Rowdies 19 6 5 17 3 2 1 5 1976 Tampa Bay Rowdies 19 9 6 24 2 0 0 0 1977 Portland Timbers 25 7 4 18 - - - - 1978 Portland Timbers 30 12 9 33 5 2 0 4 1979 Portland Timbers 29 8 8 24 - - - - 1980 Portland Timbers 30 11 6 28 - - - - 1981 Portland Timbers 4 0 0 0 - - - - 1981 Toronto Blizzard 19 1 4 6 - - - - 1982 Toronto Blizzard 3 1 1 3 - -
BTW, now that we are on the subject of the NASL, I just wanted to add that Al Miller who was an American coach at that time, had said he wanted this concept of a Team America a long time before it became a reality only no one would listen to him. Considering the teams failures on the field, I can see why no one really listened to him. The team however, averaged a pretty decent amount of people at the gate. Below are their stats: Team America 1983 Southern 30 10 0 20 33 54 79 .333 12894