1971 North American Soccer League season

Overview

Eight teams competed in the 1971 season. The Dallas Tornado won the league championship after playing several playoff matches under the new sudden death rule, which replaced the penalty shootout. In Game 1 of the best-of-three semifinal against the Rochester Lancers, league scoring champion Carlos Metidieri of Rochester scored to end the match at 2–1 in the 176th minute after six periods of overtime—shortly before midnight. Three days later, Dallas tied the series with a 3–1 regulation win. In the deciding match, the two teams ended regulation with a 1–1 tie and played four overtime periods before Bobby Moffat scored in the 148 minute for a 2–1 victory. Four days later, Dallas lost Game 1 of the NASL Championship Series, 2–1, in the 3rd overtime to the Atlanta Chiefs after 123 minutes. All totaled, Dallas had played 537 minutes of soccer (3 minutes short of six games) in 13 days. The Tornado won 4–1 in Game 2 and 2–0 in Game 3 to clinch the league championship.

Changes From the previous season

Rule changes

Playoffs series switched from a two-game aggregate score to a best-two-out-of-three match format. Any playoff games tied after 90 minutes would now be settled by golden goal (or sudden death) overtime periods lasting 15 minutes each.

New teams

• Montreal Olympique
• New York Cosmos
• Toronto Metros

Teams folding

• Kansas City Spurs

Teams moving

• None

Name changes

• None

Map of clubs

Regular season

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

6 points for a win, 3 points for a tie, 0 points for a loss, 1 point for each goal scored up to three per game. :-Premiers (most points). -Other playoff teams.

1971 NASL All-Stars

Playoffs

Bracket

| score-width=25 | team-width=150px Best-of-3 Best-of-3 | RD1-seed1=N1 | RD1-team1=Rochester Lancers | RD1-score1-1=2 | RD1-score1-2=1 | RD1-score1-3=1 | RD1-seed2=S2 | RD1-team2=Dallas Tornado | RD1-score2-1=1 | RD1-score2-2=3 | RD1-score2-3=2 | RD1-seed3=S1 | RD1-team3=Atlanta Chiefs | RD1-score3-1=1 | RD1-score3-2=2 | RD1-score3-3= – | RD1-seed4=N2 | RD1-team4=New York Cosmos | RD1-score4-1=0 | RD1-score4-2=0 | RD1-score4-3= – | RD2-seed1=S2 | RD2-team1=Dallas Tornado | RD2-score1-1=1 | RD2-score1-2=4 | RD2-score1-3=2 | RD2-seed2=S1 | RD2-team2=Atlanta Chiefs | RD2-score2-1=2 | RD2-score2-2=1 | RD2-score2-3=1

Semifinals

NASL Final 1971

Main article: NASL Final 1971

Game one

Kaizer Motaung

Game two

Report 2 Luiz Juracy Luiz Juracy Tony McLoughlin

Game three

Bobby Moffat

1971 NASL Champions: Dallas Tornado

Post season awards

• Most Valuable Player: Carlos Metidieri, Rochester
• Coach of the year: Ron Newman, Dallas
• Rookie of the year: Randy Horton, New York

References

References

1. Lewis, Michael. (September 1, 2015). "Exhaustion and a 176th minute winner: The NASL game that lasted nearly three hours". [[The Guardian]].
2. "The Year in American Soccer - 1971". Homepages.sover.net.
3. (2008-05-01). "NASL Homepage".
4. "Steve Dimitry's NASL Web Page". Oocities.org.
5. (September 5, 1971). "Dallas Evens Soccer Series". Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
6. Roberts, Charles. (September 3, 1971). "Chiefs Topple Cosmos In Sudden Death, 1-0". Atlanta Constitution.
7. (September 6, 1971). "Atlanta Moves into Finals". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
8. (22 Sep 2015). "Previo Campeones: Dallas Tornado Ganan Titulo en 1971".