1971 North American Soccer League season

North American Soccer League -1971 Season-

Season	1971
Champions	Dallas Tornado
Premiers	Rochester Lancers
Matches played	112
Goals scored	306 (2.73 per match)
Top goalscorer	Carlos Metidieri (19 goals)
Highest attendance	19,437 Rochester @ NY
Average attendance	4,154
← 1970 1972 →

Statistics of North American Soccer League in season 1971. This was the 4th season of the NASL.

Overview

Eight teams competed with Dallas Tornado winning the championship. However Dallas' road to that title was the stuff of legends. In Game 1 of the best-of-three semifinal against the Rochester Lancers, league scoring champion Carlos Metidieri of Rochester mercifully ended the longest match in NASL history, 2–1, late in the 6th 15 minute OT period. The golden goal was scored in the 176th minute, or less than four minutes shy of playing two complete games in one day! Three days later Dallas evened the series at one game each with a 3–1 regulation win. In the rubber match four days later, the two teams ended regulation tied again at 1 goal apiece. This time the game would reach a 4th OT before Bobby Moffat sent Dallas into the Finals in the 148 minute. Incredibly, only four days after that, Dallas lost Game 1 of the NASL Championship Series, 2–1, in the 3rd OT to Atlanta after 123 minutes. All totaled, Dallas had played 537 minutes of football (3 minutes short of six games) in 13 days time. Finally the Tornado were able to get control of the finals, pulling away in Games 2 and 3, by scores of 4–1 and 2–0 respectively, to capture the title.^[1]

Changes From the previous season

Montreal Olympique, New York Cosmos and Toronto Metros joined the league while the Kansas City Spurs folded. 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.^[1]

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.

Northern Division	W	L	T	GF	GA	PT
Rochester Lancers	13	5	6	48	31	141
New York Cosmos	9	10	5	51	55	117
Toronto Metros	5	10	9	32	47	89
Montreal Olympique	4	15	5	29	59	65

Southern Division	W	L	T	GF	GA	PT
Atlanta Chiefs	12	7	5	35	29	120
Dallas Tornado	10	6	8	38	24	119
Washington Darts	8	6	10	36	34	111
St. Louis Stars	6	13	5	37	47	86

1971 NASL All-Stars

First Team[2][3]	Position	Second Team	Honorable Mention
Mirko Stojanovic, Dallas	G	Leonel Conde, Washington	Manfred Kammerer, Atlanta / Claude Campos, Rochester
Dick Hall, Dallas	D	Clive Charles, Montreal	Frank Donlavey, Washington
Willie Evans, Washington	D	Uriel Da Viega, Atlanta	Oreco, Dallas
Peter Short, Rochester	D	John Cocking, Atlanta	Gabbo Gavrić, Dallas
John Best, Dallas	D	Charlie Mitchell, Rochester	Mick Hoban, Atlanta / Roberto Lonardo, Rochester
Dragan Popovic, St. Louis	M	Francisco Escos, Rochester	Freddie Mwila, Atlanta / Barrie Lynch, Atlanta
Siggy Stritzl, New York	M	Felix Correia, Toronto	Billy Fraser, Washington / Keith Pointer, Montreal / Roy Turner, Dallas
Carlos Metidieri, Rochester	F	Warren Archibald, Washington	Tommy Youlden, Dallas
Randy Horton, New York	F	Casey Frankiewicz, St. Louis	Iris DeBrito, Rochester
Kaizer Motaung, Atlanta	F	Franco Gallina, Montreal	Mike Renshaw, Dallas
Manfred Seissler, Rochester	F	Jorge Siega, New York	Leroy DeLeon, Washington / Ian MacHattie, Toronto

Playoffs

Bracket

	Semifinals Best-of-3							NASL Final 1971 Best-of-3
	N1	Rochester Lancers	2	1	1
	S2	Dallas Tornado	1	3	2
								S2	Dallas Tornado	1	4	2
								S1	Atlanta Chiefs	2	1	1
	S1	Atlanta Chiefs	1	2	-
	N2	New York Cosmos	0	0	-

Semifinals

Higher seed	Series	Lower seed	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Attendance
Rochester Lancers	1 - 2	Dallas Tornado	2–1 (6ot)	1–3	1–2 (4ot)	September 1 Aquinas Memorial Stadium-8,309 September 4 Franklin Stadium-? September 8 Aquinas Memorial Stadium-7,635
Atlanta Chiefs	2 - 0	New York Cosmos	1–0	2–0	x	September 2 Atlanta Stadium-3,800 September 5 Yankee Stadium-?[4]

NASL Final 1971

Higher seed	Series	Lower seed	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Attendance
Dallas Tornado	2 - 1	Atlanta Chiefs	1–2 (3ot)	4–1	2–1	September 12 Atlanta Stadium-3,218[5] September 15 Franklin Stadium-6,456 September 19 Atlanta Stadium-4,687

Game one

Atlanta Chiefs v Dallas Tornado

September 12	Atlanta Chiefs	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Dallas Tornado	Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
	Uriel De Veiga Kaizer Motaung		Tibor Molnár	Attendance: 3,218

Game two

Dallas Tornado v Atlanta Chiefs

September 15	Dallas Tornado	4–1	Atlanta Chiefs	Franklin Stadium, Dallas, Texas
	Luiz Juracy Luiz Juracy Phil Tinney Tony McLoughlin		Henry Largie	Attendance: 6,456

Game three

Atlanta Chiefs v Dallas Tornado

September 19	Atlanta Chiefs	0–2	Dallas Tornado	Atlanta Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia
			Mike Renshaw  (Tinney) 3' Bobby Moffat	Attendance: 4,687

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

1. "The Year in American Soccer - 1971". Homepages.sover.net. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
2. "NASL Homepage". Web.archive.org. 2008-05-01. Archived from the original on May 1, 2008. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
3. "Steve Dimitry's NASL Web Page". Oocities.org. Retrieved 2014-01-13.
4. "Atlanta Chiefs All-time Game Results – SoccerStats.us". soccerstats.us. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
5. "Previo Campeones: Dallas Tornado Ganan Titulo en 1971". 22 Sep 2015. Retrieved 2016-01-28.