1980 North American Soccer League season

North American Soccer League -1980 Season-
Season	1980
Champions	New York Cosmos ; (4th title)
Premiers	New York Cosmos ; (4th title) most total points ; *Seattle Sounders ; best Won/Loss record
Matches played	384
Goals scored	1,371 (3.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Giorgio Chinaglia ; (32 goals)
Highest attendance	70,312 ; (Ft. Lauderdale @ NY)
Lowest attendance	254 ; (Memphis at New England)
Average attendance	14,440
	← 1979 1981 →

Statistics of North American Soccer League in season 1980. This was the 13th season of the NASL.

Overview[]

The league comprised 24 teams; for the only time in NASL history, the lineup of teams was identical to the year before, with no clubs joining or dropping out, franchise shifts or even name changes. The New York Cosmos defeated the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the finals on September 21 to win the championship. For the third time in league history the team with the most wins (Seattle) did not win the regular season due to the NASL's system of awarding bonus points for goals scored.

Changes from the previous season[]

The 1980 season saw the regular season expand from 30 games to 32 games. Three North Americans were required to be among the eleven playing in the match for each team, up from two during the previous season.^[1]

New teams[]

None

Teams folding[]

None

Teams moving[]

None

Name changes[]

None

Regular season[]

W = Wins, L = Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PT= point system

6 points for a win, 0 points for a loss, 1 point for each regulation goal scored up to three per game.

-Premiers (most points). -Best record. -Other playoff teams.

American Conference[]

Eastern Division	W	L	GF	GA	PT
Tampa Bay Rowdies	19	13	61	50	168
Fort Lauderdale Strikers	18	14	61	55	163
New England Tea Men	18	14	54	56	154
Philadelphia Fury	10	22	42	68	98

Central Division	W	L	GF	GA	PT
Chicago Sting	21	11	80	50	187
Houston Hurricane	14	18	56	69	130
Detroit Express	14	18	51	52	129
Memphis Rogues	14	18	49	57	126

Western Division	W	L	GF	GA	PT
Edmonton Drillers	17	15	58	51	149
California Surf	15	17	61	67	144
San Diego Sockers	16	16	53	51	140
San Jose Earthquakes	9	23	45	68	95

National Conference[]

Eastern Division	W	L	GF	GA	PT
New York Cosmos	24	8	87	41	213
Washington Diplomats	17	15	72	61	159
Toronto Blizzard	14	18	49	65	128
Rochester Lancers	12	20	42	67	109

Central Division	W	L	GF	GA	PT
Dallas Tornado	18	14	57	58	157
Minnesota Kicks	16	16	66	56	147
Tulsa Roughnecks	15	17	56	62	139
Atlanta Chiefs	7	25	34	84	74

Western Division	W	L	GF	GA	PT
Seattle Sounders	25	7	74	31	207
Los Angeles Aztecs	20	12	61	52	174
Vancouver Whitecaps	16	16	52	47	139
Portland Timbers	15	17	50	53	133

NASL All-Stars[]

First Team	Position	Second Team	Honorable Mention^[2]^[3]
Phil Parkes, Chicago	G	Jack Brand, Seattle	Jan van Beveren, Fort Lauderdale
Carlos Alberto, New York	D	Mihalj Keri, Los Angeles	David Nish, Seattle
Mike Connell, Tampa Bay	D	Wim Rijsbergen, New York	John Gorman, Tampa Bay
Rudi Krol, Vancouver	D	Peter Nogly, Edmonton	Frantz Mathieu, Chicago
Bruce Rioch, Seattle	D	John Ryan, Seattle	Andranik Eskandarian, New York
Franz Beckenbauer, New York	M	Arno Steffenhagen, Chicago	Ray Hudson, Ft. Lauderdale
Vladislav Bogićević, New York	M	Johan Neeskens, New York	Ace Ntsoelengoe, Minnesota
Teófilo Cubillas, Fort Lauderdale	M	Alan Hudson, Seattle	Jomo Sono, Toronto
Giorgio Chinaglia, New York	F	Steve Wegerle, Tampa Bay	Tommy Hutchison, Seattle
Johan Cruyff, Washington	F	Karl-Heinz Granitza, Chicago	Alan Green, Washington
Roger Davies, Seattle	F	Luis Fernando, Los Angeles	Julio César Romero, New York

Playoffs[]

The top two teams from each division qualified for the playoffs automatically. The last two spots would go to the next best teams in the conference, regardless of division. The top three seeds went to the division winners, seeds 4-6 went to the second place teams and the last two seeds were given wild-card berths. The winners of each successive round would be reseeded within the conference by regular season point total, regardless of first-round seeding.^[4] The Soccer Bowl remained a single game final.

In 1979 and 1980, if a playoff series was tied at one win apiece, a full 30 minute mini-game was played. If there was no winner after the 30 minutes ended, the teams would then move on to a shoot-out to determine a series winner.^[5]

Bracket[]

Conference Quarterfinals				Conference Semifinals				Conference Championships				Soccer Bowl '80

Chicago	1	3	1(0)

San Diego	2	2	1(3)
				San Diego	6	0	1(2)

				Tampa Bay	3	6	1(0)
Tampa Bay	1	4	–

New England	0	0	–
								San Diego	1	4	0

								Fort Lauderdale	2	2	2
Edmonton	2	0	1

Houston	1	1	0
				Edmonton	0	2(2)	0

				Fort Lauderdale	1	2(1)	3
Fort Lauderdale	2	0	0(3)

California	1	2	0(2)
												Fort Lauderdale	0

												New York	3
New York	3	8	–

Tulsa	1	1	–
				New York	3	0	3

				Dallas	2	3	0
Dallas	1	2	–

Minnesota	0	0	–
								New York	2	3	–

								Los Angeles	1	1	–
Los Angeles	0	1(5)	2

Washington	1	1(4)	0
				Los Angeles	3	0	1(2)

				Seattle	0	4	1(0)
Seattle	2	3	–

Vancouver	1	1	–

First round[]

Lower seed		Higher seed	Game 1	Game 2	Mini-game	(lower seed hosts Game 1)
Minnesota Kicks	-	Dallas Tornado	0–1	0–2	x	August 27 • Metropolitan Stadium • 17,461 August 31 • Texas Stadium • 8,674
San Diego Sockers	-	Chicago Sting	2–1	2 - 3	2–1 (SO, 3–0)	August 27 • San Diego Stadium • 12,125 August 30 • Comiskey Park • 12,267
New England Tea Men	-	Tampa Bay Rowdies	0–1	0–4	x	August 27 • Schaefer Stadium • 17,121 August 30 • Tampa Stadium • 26,368
Vancouver Whitecaps	-	Seattle Sounders	1–2 (OT)	1 –3	x	August 27 • Empire Stadium • 27,231 August 30 • Kingdome • 35,254
Washington Diplomats	-	Los Angeles Aztecs	1–0	1–2 (SO, 4–5)	0–2	August 27 • RFK Stadium • 20,231 August 30 • Rose Bowl • 14,163
Houston Hurricane	-	Edmonton Drillers	1–2	1–0	0–1	August 27 • Astrodome • 3,902 August 31 • Commonwealth Stadium • 22,059
California Surf	-	Fort Lauderdale Strikers	1–2	2–0	0–1 (SO, 2–3)	August 28 • Anaheim Stadium • 2,929 August 31 • Lockhart Stadium • 15,282
Tulsa Roughnecks	-	New York Cosmos	1–3	1–8	x	August 28 • Skelly Stadium • 22,890 August 31 • Giants Stadium • 40,285

Conference Semifinals[]

Lower seed		Higher seed	Game 1	Game 2	Mini-game	(lower seed hosts Game 1)
Los Angeles Aztecs	-	Seattle Sounders	3–0	0–4	2–1 (SO, 2–0)	September 3 • Rose Bowl • 13,466 September 5 • Kingdome • 32,564
Edmonton Drillers	-	Fort Lauderdale Strikers	0–1	3–2 (SO, 2–1)	0 - 3	September 3 • Commonwealth Stadium • 18,029 September 6 • Lockhart Stadium • 17,380
Dallas Tornado	-	New York Cosmos	2–3	3–0	0–3	September 3 • Texas Stadium • 7,459 September 7 • Giants Stadium • 45,153
San Diego Sockers	-	Tampa Bay Rowdies	6–3	0–6	2–1 (SO, 2–0)	September 4 • San Diego Stadium • 20,109 September 7 • Tampa Stadium • 25,852

Conference Championships[]

Lower seed		Higher seed	Game 1	Game 2	Mini-game	(lower seed hosts Game 1)
San Diego Sockers	-	Fort Lauderdale Strikers	1–2	4–2	0–2	September 11 • San Diego Stadium • 27,635 September 13 • Lockhart Stadium • 18,420
Los Angeles Aztecs	-	New York Cosmos	1–2	1–3	x	September 10 • Rose Bowl • 25,487 September 13 • Giants Stadium • 42,324

Soccer Bowl '80[]

September 21^[6]

12:44 pm EDT^[7]

New York Cosmos	3–0	Fort Lauderdale Strikers
Romero 47:55' (Chinaglia, Bogićević) Chinaglia 70:06' (Davis, Rijsbergen) Chinaglia 87:07' (Cabañas)

RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C.

Attendance: 50,768^[8]

Referee: Paul Avis (Canada)^[9]

1980 NASL Champions: New York Cosmos

Post season awards[]

Most Valuable Player: Roger Davies, Seattle
Coach of the year: Alan Hinton, Seattle
Rookie of the year: Jeff Durgan, New York
North American Player of the Year: Jack Brand, Seattle^[10]

References[]

^ "The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search".
^ "Archived copy". home.att.net. Archived from the original on 1 May 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Steve Dimitry's NASL Web Page".
^ 1980 Official North American Soccer League Guide. 1980. p. 276.
^ "NASL Playoffs Open Tonight". The Hour. August 14, 1979. p. 49. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
^ "St. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search".
^ "Cosmos regain soccer title". Christian Science Monitor. 23 September 1980.
^ "The Evening News - Google News Archive Search".
^ http://www.naslsoccerbowl.com/index.php?id=788
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-05-18. Retrieved 2013-05-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

1980 Official North American Soccer League Guide. New York, NY: North American Soccer League. 1980.

External links[]

[1] "The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search".

[2] "Archived copy". home.att.net. Archived from the original on 1 May 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[3] "Steve Dimitry's NASL Web Page".

[4] 1980 Official North American Soccer League Guide. 1980. p. 276.

[5] "NASL Playoffs Open Tonight". The Hour. August 14, 1979. p. 49. Retrieved 2013-07-06.

[6] "St. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search".

[7] "Cosmos regain soccer title". Christian Science Monitor. 23 September 1980.

[8] "The Evening News - Google News Archive Search".

[9] ttp://www.naslsoccerbowl.com/index.php?id=788

[10] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-05-18. Retrieved 2013-05-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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