1975 NASL Indoor tournament

North American Soccer League
-1975 Indoor Tournament-

NASL Indoor Tournament
Tournament details
Host country	United States
Dates	January 24, 1975 – March 16, 1975
Teams	16
Final positions
Champions	San Jose Earthquakes (1st title)
Runners-up	Tampa Bay Rowdies
Tournament statistics
Matches played	20
Goals scored	230 (11.5 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Paul Child (14 goals)
Best player	Paul Child (San Jose) Gabbo Garvic (San Jose)

In early 1975 the North American Soccer League hosted its first league-wide indoor soccer tournament over the course of seven weeks. All but four NASL teams participated.

Overview

Though the Dallas Tornado had won the NASL's 1971 Hoc-Soc Tournament^[1] and the Atlanta Apollos staged two league sanctioned pilot matches at the Omni in 1973,^[2][3] the birth of the modern game in North America can be traced to 1974, when three indoor exhibitions against the touring Soviet Red Army of Moscow club took place. The games were played on a field the size of a hockey rink, with goals 4 feet high by 16 feet wide. Much like hockey, matches were played in three 20 minute periods, allowed free substitution, and featured six man sides (five field players and a goalkeeper). The Soviets beat an outmatched NASL All-Star team 8–4 on February 7 at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. The second game against the reigning champion Philadelphia Atoms on February 11, is considered by many as the watershed event of North American indoor soccer. The game stayed close into the third period, though the Red Army squad eventually pulled away 6–3. On February 13 the Russians closed out their tour with an 11–4 throttling of the St. Louis Stars in Missouri before an impressive crowd of 12,241.^[4][5][6]

In spite of the losses, and because another 11,790 curious fans packed Philadelphia's Spectrum to watch this "new" game, the NASL began considering indoor soccer’s potential to increase fan interest in the sport as a whole. A month and seven days later a Spectrum crowd of 6,314 turned out to watch the Atoms defeat the New York Cosmos 5–3. With this, franchises also recognized that they could generate more revenue from players already under contract. The league hinted at having a 10-game indoor season in early 1975,^[7] but by autumn eventually scaled that plan back.^[8] The following year the NASL staged an indoor tournament: sixteen of the twenty teams participated. It was divided into four regional tournaments, with the regional winners meeting in San Francisco for the overall title in a similar format to the NCAA college basketball tournament. In the regionals, two teams would play each other, and then winners would play losers in a two-game series. The team with the best record advanced to the semifinals; in the event of teams having identical records, the side with the best total goal differential advanced out of the region. That first year the goals stayed 4 x 16 and the games remained divided into three 20 minute frames like those played against the Red Army club the previous year.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Four NASL clubs, Chicago, Denver, Portland and San Antonio did not participate in the tournament. However three of them were recently announced^[13] expansion teams that had yet to play an outdoor season either.

The San Jose Earthquakes defeated the newly formed Tampa Bay Rowdies 8–5 in the Championship Final. Paul Child of San Jose scored seven goals in the regionals,^[14] and added another seven during the final four to lead all goal scorers. Child and teammate Gabbo Garvic shared the MVP honors.

Pre-1975 NASL indoor matches

St. Louis Stars v Dallas Tornado

March 19, 1971 1 (Hoc-Soc)	St. Louis Stars	1–2	Dallas Tornado	St. Louis, Missouri
8:00 PM (CST)	Leeker  8'	Report	Benedek  17', 21'	Stadium: St. Louis Arena Attendance: 5,060 Referee: Larry King / Ray Puricelli

Rochester Lancers v Washington Darts

March 19, 1971 2 (Hoc-Soc)	Rochester Lancers	3–1	Washington Darts	St. Louis, Missouri
8:45 PM (CST)	Seissler  13:08' Durante  13:45' Metidieri  29:43'	Report	Kerr  5:40'	Stadium: St. Louis Arena Attendance: 5,060 Referee: Larry King / Ray Puricelli

St. Louis Stars v Washington Darts

March 19, 1971 3 (Hoc-Soc)	St. Louis Stars	2–0	Washington Darts	St. Louis, Missouri
	Popović  16:27', 29:31'	Report		Stadium: St. Louis Arena Attendance: 5,060 Referee: Larry King / Ray Puricelli

Dallas Tornado v Rochester Lancers

March 19, 1971 4 (Hoc-Soc)	Dallas Tornado	3–0	Rochester Lancers	St. Louis, Missouri
	Renshaw  12:15', 24:08' Molnar  28:11'	Report		Stadium: St. Louis Arena Attendance: 5,060 Referee: Larry King / Ray Puricelli

Atlanta Apollos v Montreal Olympique

May 3, 1973 5	Atlanta Apollos	8–6	Montreal Olympique	Atlanta, Georgia
		Report 1 Report 2	Bachner , Filby , Wheeler Simmons	Stadium: The Omni Attendance: 7,115

Atlanta Apollos v Dallas Tornado

July 8, 1973 6	Atlanta Apollos	7–4	Dallas Tornado	Atlanta, Georgia
	Child , , ,	Report		Stadium: The Omni

NASL All-Stars v Red Army

February 7, 1974 7	NASL All-Stars	4–8	Red Army	Toronto, Ontario
	Siega ,  (pen.)' Smith Strencier	Report	Tellinger , , ,	Stadium: Maple Leaf Gardens Attendance: 11,535

Philadelphia Atoms v Red Army

February 11, 1974 8	Philadelphia Atoms	3–6	Red Army	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
	Siega  6:21' (Papadakis) Child  26:20' (Siega) Siega  42:51' (Child)	Report	Tellinger  6:55' (Shladak) Babenko  13:25' (Popev, Dorofeov) Kaplichnyi  35:44' (Tellinger) Popev  45:59' (Kodeikin) Dudarenko  53:25' (Popev) Dorofeov  58:06' (Morosov, Pollacarpov)	Stadium: Spectrum Attendance: 11,790

St. Louis Stars v Red Army

February 13, 1974 9	St. Louis Stars	4–11	Red Army	St. Louis, Missouri
	Vaninger , , ,	Report	Fedotov , , ,	Stadium: St. Louis Arena Attendance: 12,241 Referee: Larry King

Philadelphia Atoms v New York Cosmos

March 18, 1974 10	Philadelphia Atoms	5–3	New York Cosmos	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
7:30 PM (EST)	Child , Minor ,	Report		Stadium: Spectrum Attendance: 6,314

1975 Indoor Regional tournaments

Region 1

played at Fair Park Coliseum in Dallas, Texas

*Dallas wins region on goal differential, advances to semifinals

Region 2

played at Rochester War Memorial in Rochester, New York

*New York wins region on goal differential, advances to semifinals

Region 3

played at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida^[15][16][17]

*Tampa Bay wins region on goal differential, advances to semifinals^[18][19]

• Region 3 MVP: Ringo Cantillo^[20] (Tampa Bay) – 4 goals

Region 4

played at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California

#Vancouver and San Jose won by such large margins, that the NASL and the two teams agreed to a head-to-head pairing on Feb. 28.^[9]

*San Jose wins region, advances to semifinals

• Region 4 MVP: Paul Child^[22] (San Jose) – 7 goals

1975 Indoor Final Four

Bracket

Semi-finals

played at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California

Third place match

played at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California

Championship Final

San Jose Earthquakes v Tampa Bay Rowdies

March 16, 1975 9:00 PM PDT

San Jose Earthquakes	8–5	Tampa Bay Rowdies
Roboostoff  7:10' Child  9:25' (Gavric) Roboostoff  14:36' (Child) Child  16:22' (Welch) Roboostoff  18:38' (Moore) Welch  19:38' (Child) Zaczynski  50:50' (Child) Child  52:56'	Report (p. 2C)	Engerth  9:36' (Lima) Hartze  25:14' (Quraishi) Lezak  33:35' Wark  50:55' (Hartze) Quraishi  54:56' (Boyle)

Cow Palace, Daly City, California Attendance: 8,618 Referee: Henry Landuer

Television: CBS (tape delayed)

Final Four awards

• Most Valuable Player: Paul Child (San Jose) & Gabbo Garvic (San Jose)
• All-tournament Team: Paul Child (San Jose), Doug Wark (Tampa Bay), Ilija Mitić (Dallas), Gabbo Garvic (San Jose), Mike Renshaw (Dallas), Ken Cooper (Dallas)

Final Four statistics

Final team rankings

Non-tournament matches

In addition to the Region 4 and Final Four tournament games (eight contests in all), the San Jose Earthquakes also hosted two other indoor matches at the Cow Palace as tune-ups for the impending tournament. The two matches drew a combined 21,299 spectators and San Jose won both.^[25][26]

Match reports

San Jose Earthquakes v Dallas Tornado

February 7, 1975 1	San Jose Earthquakes	8–6	Dallas Tornado	Daly City, California
8:00 PM (PST)	Child , Moore , Kemp B. Demling Hernandez Roboostoff	Report	Renshaw , DeLong , Mitić Newman	Stadium: Cow Palace Attendance: 11,421

San Jose Earthquakes v Los Angeles Aztecs

February 14, 1975 2	San Jose Earthquakes	11–7	Los Angeles Aztecs	Daly City, California
8:00 PM (PST)	Roboostoff	Report		Stadium: Cow Palace Attendance: 9,878

References