1983 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season

Tampa Bay Rowdies

1983 indoor season
Owner	George Strawbridge, Jr. Lamar Hunt Bill McNutt
General manager	Ted Moore
Manager	Al Miller
Stadium	Bayfront Center, Lakeland Civic Center
NASL Grand Prix	Round robin: 2nd Grand Prix: Champions
Top goalscorer	League: Hugo Pérez (10 goals) All: Hugo Pérez Tatu (12 goals)
Highest home attendance	5,545 (Feb. 5 vs. Strikers)
Lowest home attendance	3,506 (Feb. 25 vs. Strikers)
Average home league attendance	4,756
Home colors Away colors
← 1981–82 1983–84 →

The 1983 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the ninth indoor season of the team's existence. The Rowdies captured the Indoor Grand Prix title. Although they would play for another 10 years, including two more indoors in 1983–84 and 1986–87, this would be the final trophy won by the original club.

Overview[]

Nearly all of the NASL teams opted out of participating in a full 1982–83 indoor season.^[1] Four clubs (Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Montreal Manic, Tulsa Roughnecks and Tampa Bay) played in a scaled down indoor tournament called the Grand Prix of Indoor Soccer. In this format each team would play a total of eight times, consisting of three weeks of double round-robin play, followed by a seeded "championship weekend" of matches.^[2]

A four-week long "shootout challenge" competition sponsored by Molson beer,^[3] was also played each match day, with the overall winners splitting a $5,000 purse on the final day.^[4]

Overall Tampa Bay fared well in the round-robin stage with a 4–2 record and 42 points. However, both losses were to Montreal who had finished with an identical record and points. The Manic earned the number one seed based on the head-to-head tiebreaker.^[5] This paired Tampa Bay up with the 3–3 Roughnecks for the semifinals. The Rowdies defeated Tulsa, 8–6, with a third quarter barrage that eventually turned a one-goal deficit into a three-goal cushion.^[6] That victory earned them a rematch with Montreal for the Grand Prix title.

In the championship final, "Le Manic" and the Rowdies battled back and forth into double overtime at the Montreal Forum. The visitors gained a 2–0 advantage, before Dale Mitchell put Montreal in the lead with a second period hat-trick. Each team added a goal in the third quarter. Tampa Bay continued to trail for most of the fourth until Zequinha tied the match with 1:55 remaining to send it to sudden death overtime. The first extra session failed to produce a golden goal, but with just under two minutes lapsed in the second overtime Mark Karpun beat his defender down the left wing. He then tucked a shot past Manic goalie, Mehdi Cerbah, inside the far post for the game winner and the Rowdies' third indoor trophy.^[7][8]

Combined with their 4–0 record in friendlies, the Tampa Bay Rowdies completed their winter 1983 indoor schedule with a record of 10–2 in all matches. The Rowdies also won the finals of the $5,000 shootout challenge against Fort Lauderdale. In that event, goalie Jürgen Stars stopped all five Strikers' shots, while Wes McLeod and Hugo Perez converted their attempts for a 2–0 victory.^[9]

Club[]

The team's winter roster saw numerous changes over the course of the brief indoor season. Goalkeeper, Tom Boric was lost for the remainder of the indoor season after a knee injury in the Rowdies' second grand prix match on January 22.^[10] Defender, Mike Connell was only able to appear in one match because of a nagging Achilles injury.^[11][7] With Connell injured, Wes McLeod served as team captain for the 12-game indoor season^[12] Brazilian indoor specialist Tatu did not arrive from São Paulo FC until January 28, because of transfer issues, and missed the first four games.^[13] Peter Roe missed the final six matches with a broken toe.^[14]

Around the same time the NASL began the ill-fated Team America experiment. The February try-outs for Team America overlapped with the Grand Prix schedule and as a result Arnie Mausser, Pedro DeBrito, Perry Van der Beck and Glenn Myernick became unavailable to the Rowdies for several games including the semifinal and championship matches.^[15][16] This forced the Tampa Bay coach, Al Miller to use rookies and reserve team players more often.^[11]

Roster[]

No.	Position	Player	Nation
00	GK	Arnie Mausser	United States
1	GK	Jürgen Stars	Germany
2	DF	Peter Gruber	Germany
3	DF	Glenn Myernick	United States
4	DF	Refik Kozić	Yugoslavia
5	DF	Peter Nogly	Germany
6	DF	Mike Connell	South Africa
7	FW	Zequinha	Brazil
8	MF	Wes McLeod (capt.)	Canada
10	FW	Tatu	Brazil
11	MF		Brazil
12	MF	Perry Van der Beck	United States
14	MF	Juan Carlos Molina	Argentina
15	MF	Peter Roe	Canada
16	FW	Pedro DeBrito	United States
17	DF	Gregg Thompson	United States
18	FW	Mark Karpun	Canada
19	FW	Hugo Pérez	United States
20	GK	Tom Boric	Canada
21	DF	Bruce Bates	Canada
22	MF		United States
23	MF	Jim Easton	Canada
—	MF	Mike Fall	United States

Management and technical staff[]

• George W. Strawbridge, Jr., owner
• Lamar Hunt, co-owner
• Bill McNutt, co-owner
• Ted Moore, general manager
• Francisco Marcos, director of player personal
• Al Miller, head coach
• Ken Shields, trainer
• Alfredo Beronda, equipment manager

Honors[]

• NASL Grand Prix of Indoor Soccer: Champions
• Grand Prix assists leader: Wes McLeod (12)

Competitions[]

Friendlies[]

The Rowdies participated in and won four friendlies. The first was played at Reunion Arena in Dallas against Tulsa. Three days before the grand prix began they faced Tulsa again at Oklahoma City's Myriad Arena.^[17] A mid-grand prix friendly pitted the club against Montreal at the Bayfront Center on January 29.^[18] Finally, in-state rival, Fort Lauderdale, met Tampa Bay at the Lakeland Civic Center in a post-tournament fixture, to close out the Rowdies' abbreviated 1983 indoor campaign.^[19]

Grand Prix round-robin table[]

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

6 points awarded for a win. Beginning with the fourth goal, 1 bonus point awarded for each goal scored. Maximum of 5 bonus points per game.

Pos	Team	G	W	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1*	Montreal Manic	6	4	2	36	31	+5	42
2	Tampa Bay Rowdies	6	4	2	38	31	+7	42
3	Tulsa Roughnecks	6	3	3	33	37	−4	33
4	Ft. Lauderdale Strikers	6	1	5	32	40	−8	20

*Montreal wins top seed based on 2–0 head-to-head record vs. Tampa Bay.^[20]

Grand Prix Championship rounds[]

	Semifinals					Championship Final
	1	Montreal Manic	11
	4	Fort Lauderdale Strikers	4
						1	Montreal Manic	4
						2	Tampa Bay Rowdies	5(2OT)
	3	Tulsa Roughnecks	6
	2	Tampa Bay Rowdies	8

Match reports[]

Statistics[]

Scoring[]

GP = Games Played, G = Goals (worth 2 points), A = Assists (worth 1 point), Pts = Points

Player	GP	G	A	Pts
Hugo Pérez	12	12	8	32
Tatu	8	12	6	30
Wes McLeod	12	8	14	30
Mark Karpun	10	11	2	24
Peter Nogly	11	5	12	22
Zequinha	10	7	6	20
Juan Carlos Molina	10	4	10	18
	10	5	6	16
Glenn Myernick	7	2	7	11
Peter Roe	6	2	6	10
Peter Gruber	12	2	5	9
Perry Van der Beck	7	3	2	8
Refik Kozić	11	1	5	7
Bruce Bates	7	1	2	4
Pedro DeBrito	6	1	0	2
	1	1	0	2
Mike Fall	1	0	2	2
Jürgen Stars	9	0	1	1
Gregg Thompson	5	0	1	1
Jim Easton Jr.	4	0	1	1
Tom Boric	2	0	0	0
Mike Connell	1	0	0	0
Arnie Mausser	1	0	0	0

Goalkeeping[]

Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; SV = Saves; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses

Player	GP	Min	SV	GA	GAA	W	L
Jürgen Stars	9	550	127	45	4.91	7	2
Tom Boric	2	120	38	5	2.50	2	0
Arnie Mausser	1	60	14	6	6.00	1	0

Player movement[]

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See also[]

• 1983 team indoor stats

References[]