United Soccer Association
The United Soccer Association (USA) was a North American professional football league , the 1968 after just one season with its main competitor National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) to North American Soccer League merged (NASL). The USA consisted of ten US and two Canadian franchises, which however had no teams of their own, but consisted of the cadres of European and South American professional teams; the only Champion League were as Los Angeles Wolves accruing Wolverhampton Wanderers .
prehistory
In the spring of 1966, three groups of investors were found independently of each other, each of which wanted to start playing a professional soccer league in North America in the following years and all vied for recognition by the US soccer association USSFA , but to meet the association's demand strictly refused. The USSFA demand for financial participation - 25,000 USD lump sum for each new franchise, as well as 4–10% of all revenues - wanted only one of the investor groups around the owner of the LA Lakers , Jack Kent Cooke , as well as the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Chicago Bulls , Lamar Hunt , who originally called their league the North American Soccer League . After being recognized as the only legal league by the USSFA and thus FIFA in November 1966 , they renamed the league to the United Soccer Association (USA) , officially in order to avoid confusion with the competition now merged as the National Professional Soccer League and the " to make official recognition visible to the fans ”, the name should appeal to American patriotism.
1967 season
Because of the NPSL competition, the league start was postponed from 1968 to a year before the spring of 1967; In the few remaining months it seemed impossible to put together your own teams, so the plan was to recruit professional teams from Europe and South America for around USD 250,000 each for the game operation, which should take place in the game-free time of the European leagues. Originally, top teams were supposed to be hired, but it quickly turned out that they couldn't be hired in the short time due to other commitments. Only the two English clubs Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City , as well as the reigning national champion of Rio de Janeiro Bangu AC were top teams, the other clubs either came from weaker leagues or were not top national teams. The teams were divided among the cities with franchises, partly according to the ethnic aspects of the population of the respective cities - so the Shamrock Rovers were sent to the Irish capital of the USA to the Boston Rovers and Cagliari Calcio because of the large Italian community there to the Chicago Mustangs , which remaining teams were simply distributed.
The game ran from May 27th until the final game on July 14th. The teams were divided into two divisions, each with six teams, whose respective champions played off the champions in a final game. Athletic winners were the Wolves after a 6 to 5 victory over the East Coast First Washington Whips in the 36th minute of overtime, which continued until the golden goal or sudden death . The quality of the game was mediocre at best, the players didn't see any real competition in their stay, but more or less a paid summer vacation. The attendance was mixed: while the previous year's champions of Rio de Janeiro Bangu AC reached an average attendance of almost 20,000 when Houston Stars played, the Boston Rovers' games did not come to an average of 5,000 spectators, a record setting of 35,000 was the league opening game of Bangu AC / Houston against the Wolves. - No bad results compared to ML Baseball , where the New York Yankees only achieved a home average of 14,000 in 1967 and other traditional clubs such as Chicago or Philadelphia stayed below an average of 10,000, but could not prevent massive financial losses. Because of these losses, the Toronto City and New York Skyliner franchises dissolved at the end of the 1967 season , and the San Francisco Golden Gate Gales merged with the Vancouver Royal Canadians . In addition, the USA united after the season with the competitor to the NASL, which almost collapsed in its first season, however, because of the further losses; Of the USA franchises, only Lamar Hunt's Club Dallas Tornado survived the 1968 season .
Closing tables
Eastern Division
| team | Games | Victories | Defeats | draw | Goal difference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Whips | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 19:11 | 15: 9 |
| Cleveland Stokers | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4th | 19:13 | 14:10 |
| Toronto City | 12 | 4th | 3 | 5 | 23:17 | 13:11 |
| Detroit Cougars | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6th | 11:18 | 12:12 |
| New York Skyliners | 12 | 2 | 4th | 6th | 15:17 | 10:14 |
| Boston Rovers | 12 | 2 | 7th | 3 | 12:26 | 7:17 |
Western Division
| team | Games | Victories | Defeats | draw | Goal difference | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Wolves | 12 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 21:14 | 15: 9 |
| San Francisco Golden Gate Gales | 12 | 5 | 4th | 3 | 25:19 | 13:11 |
| Chicago Mustangs | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7th | 20:14 | 13:11 |
| Houston Stars | 12 | 4th | 4th | 4th | 19:18 | 12:12 |
| Vancouver Royal Canadians | 12 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 20:28 | 11:13 |
| Dallas tornado | 12 | 3 | 6th | 3 | 14:23 | 9:15 |
Championship game
| July 14, 1967 | los Angeles | Los Angeles Wolves | - | Washington Whips | 6: 5 (5: 5; 4: 4; 1: 1) * |
In second overtime, with a golden goal rule after 126 minutes.
Stadium: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Spectators: 17,824
Champion team: Phil Parkes , Gery Taylor , Bobby Thomson 
, John Holsgrove , Dave Woodfield , Dave Burnside , Terry Wharton , Ernie Hunt , Derek Dougan , Peter Knowles , Dave Wagstaffe .
Teams
Individual evidence
- ^ Andrei S. Markovits, Steven L. Hellerman: "Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism", 2001, ISBN 0-691-07446-1 , p. 164.
- ^ David Wangerin: Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game . WSC Books Limited, London 2006, ISBN 0-9540134-7-6 , pp. 124 .
- ^ David Wangerin: Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game . WSC Books Limited, London 2006, ISBN 0-9540134-7-6 , pp. 129 .
- ^ David Wangerin: Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game . WSC Books Limited, London 2006, ISBN 0-9540134-7-6 , pp. 125 .
- ^ David Wangerin: Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game . WSC Books Limited, London 2006, ISBN 0-9540134-7-6 , pp. 124 f .
- ^ A b c Steve Holroyd: " The Year in American Soccer - 1967 ", The USA Soccer History Archives, (as of August 15, 2008).
- ^ David Wangerin: Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game . WSC Books Limited, London 2006, ISBN 0-9540134-7-6 , pp. 129 .
- ↑ Jim Heath, " USA, 1967 - Life In The Fast Lane, " Wolvesheroes.com, May 4, 2009.
- ^ Andrei S. Markovits, Steven L. Hellerman: "Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism", 2001, ISBN 0-691-07446-1 , p. 165.
- ^ David Wangerin: Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game . WSC Books Limited, London 2006, ISBN 0-9540134-7-6 , pp. 136 .
- ^ David Wangerin: Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game . WSC Books Limited, London 2006, ISBN 0-9540134-7-6 , pp. 130 .
- ↑ David A. Litterer: " North American Soccer League ," rsssf.com (as of 12.02.200).