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(s)	Paul Child (San Jose) Gabbo Garvic (San Jose)
← 1971 1976 →

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. ^[4] 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. ^{[5] [6] [7]}

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, ^[8] but by autumn eventually scaled that plan back. ^[9] 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. ^{[10] [11] [12] [13]}

Four NASL clubs, Chicago, Denver, Portland and San Antonio did not participate in the tournament. However three of them were recently announced, ^[14] 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, ^[15] 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

1975 Indoor Regional tournaments

Region 1

played at Fair Park Coliseum in Dallas, Texas

January 24	Philadelphia Atoms	5–3	St. Louis Stars	3,200 [16]

	Toronto Metros-Croatia	2–1	Dallas Tornado

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January 26	St. Louis Stars	8–4	Toronto Metros-Croatia	3,800 [17]

	Dallas Tornado	6–2	Philadelphia Atoms

Pos	Team	G	W	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	Dallas Tornado	2	1	1	7	4	+3	2
2	St. Louis Stars	2	1	1	11	9	+2	2
3	Philadelphia Atoms	2	1	1	7	9	–2	2
4	Toronto Metros-Croatia	2	1	1	6	9	–3	2

*Dallas wins region on goal differential, advances to semifinals

Region 2

played at Rochester War Memorial in Rochester, New York

February 6	New York Cosmos	6–4	Hartford Bicentennials	Attendance: 2,191

	Boston Minutemen	4–3	Rochester Lancers

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February 8	Hartford Bicentennials	5–3	Boston Minutemen	Attendance: 3,173

	Rochester Lancers	8–7	New York Cosmos

Pos	Team	G	W	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	New York Cosmos	2	1	1	13	12	+1	2
2	Hartford Bicentennials	2	1	1	9	9	0	2
3	Rochester Lancers	2	1	1	11	11	0	2
4	Boston Minutemen	2	1	1	7	8	–1	2

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

Region 3

played at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida ^{[18] [19] [20]}

February 14	Miami Toros	11–8	Baltimore Comets	Attendance: 4,437

	Tampa Bay Rowdies	7–2	Washington Diplomats

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February 16	Miami Toros	7–4	Washington Diplomats	Attendance: 4,032

	Tampa Bay Rowdies	8–6	Baltimore Comets

Pos	Team	G	W	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	Tampa Bay Rowdies	2	2	0	15	8	+7	4
2	Miami Toros	2	2	0	18	12	+6	4
3	Baltimore Comets	2	0	2	14	19	–5	0
4	Washington Diplomats	2	0	2	6	14	–8	0

*Tampa Bay wins region on goal differential, advances to semifinals ^{[21] [22]}

• Region 3 MVP: Ringo Cantillo ^[23] (Tampa Bay) – 4 goals

Region 4

played at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California

February 21	Vancouver Whitecaps	15–4#	Los Angeles Aztecs	Attendance: 9,223 [24]

	San Jose Earthquakes	14–4#	Seattle Sounders

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February 23	Los Angeles Aztecs	9–4	Seattle Sounders	Attendance: 7,232 [25]

	San Jose Earthquakes	7–3	Vancouver Whitecaps

#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. ^[10]

Pos	Team	G	W	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	San Jose Earthquakes	2	2	0	21	7	+14	4
2	Vancouver Whitecaps	2	1	1	18	11	+7	2
3	Los Angeles Aztecs	2	1	1	13	19	–6	2
4	Seattle Sounders	2	0	2	8	23	–15	0

*San Jose wins region, advances to semifinals

• Region 4 MVP: Paul Child ^[26] (San Jose) – 7 goals

1975 Indoor Final Four

Bracket

	Semifinals					Championship Final
	R4	San Jose Earthquakes	8
	R1	Dallas Tornado	5
						R4	San Jose Earthquakes	8
						R3	Tampa Bay Rowdies	5
	R3	Tampa Bay Rowdies	13
	R2	New York Cosmos	5			Third place
						R1	Dallas Tornado	2
						R2	New York Cosmos	0

Semi-finals

played at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California

March 14	Tampa Bay Rowdies	13–5	New York Cosmos [27]	Attendance: 9,113

	San Jose Earthquakes	8–5	Dallas Tornado

Third-place match

played at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California

March 16	Dallas Tornado	2–0	New York Cosmos [28]

Championship final

1975 NASL Indoor Champions: San Jose Earthquakes
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

Leading Scorers	Goals	Assists	Total Points
Paul Child (San Jose)	7	3	17
Doug Wark (Tampa Bay)	7	0	14
Bernard Hartze (Tampa Bay)	4	3	11
Ilija Mitić (Dallas)	4	1	9
Zygmunt Lezak (Tampa Bay)	4	0	8

Final team rankings

G = Games, W = Wins, L = Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Differential

Pos	Team	G	W	L	GF	GA	GD
1	San Jose Earthquakes	4	4	0	37	17	+20
2	Tampa Bay Rowdies	4	3	1	33	21	+11
3	Dallas Tornado	4	2	2	14	12	+2
4	New York Cosmos	4	1	3	18	27	–9
5	Miami Toros	2	2	0	18	12	+6

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 first one was dubbed the "Calamity Cup" because it pitted the Earthquakes against the Tornado. The second was against their in-state rival, Los Angeles Aztecs. The two matches drew a combined 20,908 spectators and San Jose won both. ^{[29] [30]} In another match, the Rochester Lancers hosted the Toronto Metros-Croatia on March 29 in front of 2,562 fans at the Rochester War Memorial. Toronto won the game, 10–7. ^[31]

Match reports

References