Soccer Bowl '79

Event	Soccer Bowl
Vancouver Whitecaps Tampa Bay Rowdies 2 1
Date	September 8, 1979 (1979-09-08)
Venue	Giants Stadium,East Rutherford, New Jersey
Man of the Match	Alan Ball
Referee	Gino D'Ippolito (United States)
Attendance	50,699
←1978 1980 →

Soccer Bowl '79 was the championship final of the1979 NASL season. The National Conference championVancouver Whitecaps played the American Conference championTampa Bay Rowdies. The match was played on September 8, 1979, atGiants Stadium, inEast Rutherford, New Jersey. This was the second straight year that Giants Stadium hosted the Soccer Bowl. The Whitecaps won the match, 2–1, to claim their first North American championship.^[1][2]

The Vancouver Whitecaps qualified for the playoffs by virtue of winning theWestern Division of the National Conference with 172 points. The Whitecaps defeated theDallas Tornado in a first round series, two games to none. The first leg was played on August 15, 1979, in Dallas. The 'Caps won the match, 3–2. The return leg was played in Vancouver on August 18, 1979, before 30,328 fans. The home side did not disappoint, delivering a series winning, 2–1, victory.

In the conference semifinal series they went up against a divisional foe that knew them well, theLos Angeles Aztecs. Game 1 of the series proved to be their biggest test yet. When regulation ended the teams were level at 2–2. After 15 minutes of scorelessgolden goal extra time the teams moved on to anNASL shoot-out, which the Aztecs won, 2–1. With their backs against the wall in Game 2, the Whitecaps delivered a gritty, 1–0, victory to tie the series at one game apiece. The squads took a 10-minute intermission before returning to the pitch to play a 30-minute mini-game tie breaker. Vancouver won it, 1–0, sending 32,375 fans home happy and themselves into theNational Conference finals.

In what would prove to be one of the most memorable series in NASL history, they faced the defending champion and number one seededNew York Cosmos. The first game was played in Vancouver on August 29, 1979, before 32,875. The Whitecaps top defense stymied the high powered Cosmos' attack to the tune of 2–0. The second leg was played atGiants Stadium on September 1, 1979, with 44,109 in the stands and millions more watching the nationally televised match onABC. The affair was a dogfight that sawWillie Johnston level the score at 2–2 with a diving header the 85th minute to force extra time.^[3]

The Cosmos won a shootout, 3–1, after neither team was able to break through in the 15 minutes of extra time. This tied the series at 1 game apiece, and set the stage for another 30-minute mini-game. In the mini-game each teamed thought they'd taken the lead, only to have referee Toros Kaibritjain wave off the goal. And so, after another scoreless 30 minutes, a shootout was again the order of the day. This time it however, it was Vancouver who would come out on top, 3–2, to win the National Conference title and earn a hard-fought, well-deserved spot in the Soccer Bowl.

The Tampa Bay Rowdies' road to the finals, though not nearly as bumpy as Vancouver's, had its challenges as well. Tampa Bay qualified for the playoffs by virtue of winning theEastern Division of the American Conference with 169 points. The Rowdies easily dispatched theDetroit Express in a first round series, two games to none. The first leg was played in the climate-controlledPontiac Silverdome on August 15, 1979. The Rowdies won convincingly that evening, 3–0. The return leg was played atTampa Stadium in the afternoon heat of August 19, 1979, before 27,210 fans. The Rowdies again proved to be too much for the Express, delivering a series winning, 3–1, victory.

In the conference semifinal series they went up against the upstartPhiladelphia Fury, who had coolly swept the number one seededHouston Hurricane out of the playoffs. On the evening of August 23, 1979, after four second-half goals, game 1 of the series ended level at 2–2. Following a scoreless overtime period, the teams moved to a shoot-out, which the Rowdies won, 2–0.^[4] Game 2 was played on a hot and muggy Florida afternoon before 21,112 sweat-drenched fans, with national television coverage from ABC. Tampa Bay counter punched their way to a 1–0 victory onSteve Wegerle's goal andŽeljko Bilecki's save of a latepenalty kick on August 23, 1979.^[5] The win propelled them into theAmerican Conference finals.

Their opponent for this series was the Western Division winner,San Diego Sockers, whom the Rowdies had eliminated the previous year via the mini-game. The Sockers took game 1 on August 30, 1979, at home, by the score of 2–1. When the teams returned to Tampa, the pressure was squarely on the Rowdies' shoulders. In a match played under threat of cancellation^[6] due toHurricane David on September 2, 1979, and reminiscent of the previous day's Whitecaps-Cosmos tilt, 38,766 fans witnessed a 2–2 draw that needed a shoot-out to break the deadlock. Tampa Bay wasted no time converting their first three shots, while goalieWinston DuBose snuffed out all three Sockers' attempts.

The ensuing 30-minute mini-game had early drama as the diminutiveIvan Grnja scored in the third minute, just 27 seconds after entering the match as a substitute for the injuredJohn Gorman. From there the Rowdies hung on the rest of the way for a 1–0 win, the American Conference title, and their second straight trip to the Soccer Bowl.^[7]

September 8

2:00 p.m.EDT

Vancouver Whitecaps	2–1	Tampa Bay Rowdies
Whymark 13',60'	Report	Van der Veen 23'

Giants Stadium,East Rutherford

Attendance: 50,699

Referee: Gino D'Ippolito (United States)^[8]

Vancouver Whitecaps[9]

Tampa Bay Rowdies

GK 1 Phil Parkes DF 7 Buzz Parsons 69:42 DF 4 John Craven (c) DF 6 Roger Kenyon DF 5 Bob Lenarduzzi MF 2 Ray Lewington MF 23 Alan Ball MF 21 Carl Valentine FW 11 Kevin Hector FW 9 Trevor Whymark FW 20 Willie Johnston Substitutes: MF 10 Bob Bolitho 69:42 GK 22 Bruce Grobbelaar DF 17 Peter Daniel MF 8 Jon Sammels Manager: Tony Waiters

GK 2 Željko Bilecki D 3 John Gorman 85:07 DF 22 Barry Kitchener DF 6 Mike Connell 66:24 DF 21 Manny Andruszewski MF 9 Peter Anderson MF 5 Jan van der Veen 78:41 MF 8 Wes McLeod FW 7 Steve Wegerle 70:50 FW 20 Oscar Fabbiani 86:43 FW 10 Rodney Marsh (c) 33:37 78:37 Substitutes: MF 15 Petar Baralić 70:50 FW 23 Ivan Grnja 78:37 GK 1 Winston DuBose DF 16 Farrukh Quraishi MF 12 Perry Van der Beck Manager: Gordon Jago

1979 NASL Champions:Vancouver Whitecaps

Television:ABC (Simulcast onCTV inCanada)
Announcers:Jim McKay,Paul Gardner

• 1979 North American Soccer League season

• Highlights of the game onYouTube
• Complete match onYouTube

• Soccer Bowl
• 1979 North American Soccer League season
• Vancouver Whitecaps FC matches
• Tampa Bay Rowdies matches
• 1979 in Canadian soccer
• September 1979 sports events in the United States
• 1979 in sports in New Jersey
• Sports competitions in East Rutherford, New Jersey
• Soccer competitions in New Jersey

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
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