The 1994 season of the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. It ...

(APSL) was the fifth in the history of the league, which was the top level of club

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

in the United States from 1990 to 1995. It was planned to be contested by eight teams in the U.S. and Canada and took place between July 1 and October 15, partially overlapping with the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

. The

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

folded and the

Toronto Blizzard Toronto Blizzard may refer to: *Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984), the original soccer club, a franchise of the North American Soccer League *Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993), the later club and franchise of the Canadian Soccer League *Toronto Azzurri B ...

were replaced by the

Toronto Rockets The Toronto Rocket (TR) train is the fifth and latest series of rolling stock used in the Toronto subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Owned and operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), the trains were built by Bombardier Transpo ...

, who were formed from the

North York Rockets The North York Rockets were a professional soccer team based in North York, Toronto, Ontario that competed in the original Canadian Soccer League. They were one of four teams to participate in every season of the CSL. Upon the demise of the CSL, ...

of the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; french: Ligue canadienne de soccer — LCS) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (C ...

. Two

expansion teams An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

, the Houston Force and

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's association football, soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club w ...

, were also added. The Force postponed their first two matches and played against the

Los Angeles Salsa The Los Angeles Salsa was an American soccer team based in Los Angeles that played in the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) and the USISL Pro League. The club played on the campus of California State University, Fullerton at Titan Stad ...

before the APSL revoked their franchise on July 22, 1994. The league cited financial issues that the ownership group were unwilling to address. The season continued with 20 regular season matches for each team, including new fixtures to replace Houston's schedule, and a two-round playoffs for the top four teams. The playoffs semifinals were played in a

best-of-three There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

format, with a 30-minute third match following the second leg and a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

if necessary. The third match was held on the same day as the second leg due to budget constraints.

Regular season

Playoffs

Bracket

Semifinal 1

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Semifinal 2

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Final

MVP: Rudy Doliscat

Points leaders

Honors

* MVP:

Paulinho Paulinho is a Portuguese nickname for people named ''Paulo'' (Paulo -inho, little Paulo). People known as Paulinho include: Music *Paulinho da Costa (born 1948), Brazilian percussionist *Paulinho da Viola (born 1942), Brazilian sambista *Paulinho ...

* Leading goal scorer: Paul Wright * Leading goalkeeper:

Marcus Hahnemann Marcus Stephen Hahnemann (born June 15, 1972) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. Graduating out of Seattle Pacific University, he played for the Seattle Sounders between 1994 and 1996. Between 1997 and ...

* Rookie of the Year: Jason Dunn * Coach of the Year:

Alan Hinton Alan Thomas Hinton (born 6 October 1942) is an English former footballer who played at the top level of English football from 1961 to 1975. He famously wore white football boots. Playing career Wolverhampton Wanderers Hinton started his career ...

* First Team All League ** Goalkeeper:

** Defenders:

Robin Fraser Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

Danny Pena Danny Pena (born June 17, 1968, in Inglewood, California) is a retired U.S. soccer defensive midfielder. He spent most of his career, both indoors and outdoors, with teams in the western U.S. Player Youth Pena grew up in Southern California, pl ...

, Neil Megson, Steve Trittschuh ** Midfielders:

, Dale Mitchell,

Shawn Medved Shawn Medved is a retired American soccer forward and midfielder. Currently, he coaches youth soccer. Youth Medved was born and grew up in Issaquah, Washington. His father, Ron Medved, was a noted American football player for the University of ...

Ted Eck Ted Eck (born July 14, 1966, in Springfield, Illinois) is a retired American soccer player who played for numerous clubs in the United States and Canada over a thirteen-year professional career. He is currently an assistant coach with Real Salt La ...

** Forwards:

Chance Fry Chance Fry (born June 29, 1964, in Bellevue, Washington) is a retired U.S. soccer forward who began his career straight out of high school with the Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League. With the collapse of the NASL, he moved to in ...

, Paul Wright * Second Team All League ** Goalkeeper: Pat Harrington ** Defenders:

Jeff Agoos Jeffrey Alan Agoos (born May 2, 1968) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a defender. He is one of the all-time appearance leaders for the United States national team. Agoos served as the Sporting Director for the N ...

, Billy Crook, James Dunn, Robert Lipp ** Midfielders:

Nick Dasovic Nick Robert Dasovic (born December 5, 1968) is a Canadian former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. He began his career with Croatian club HNK Segesta in 1988, followed by short stints at NK Dinamo Zagreb and NK Zagreb. He ...

Jason Farrell Jason Farrell (born December 31, 1970 in Seattle, Washington) is a former U.S. soccer midfielder who spent four seasons in Major League Soccer, two in the American Professional Soccer League, one in the A-League, three in the National Profess ...

David Hoggan David Leslie Hoggan (March 23, 1923 – August 7, 1988) was an American professor of history, author of ''The Forced War: When Peaceful Revision Failed'' and other works in the German and English languages. He was antisemitic, maintained ...

Dominic Kinnear Dominic Kinnear (born July 26, 1967) is an American soccer coach and former player. On January 18, 2022, he was named an assistant coach by FC Cincinnati, his first coaching role since serving as the interim head coach of the LA Galaxy. As a ...

** Forwards:

Jean Harbor Jean Harbor (born 19 September 1965 in Lagos, Nigeria) is a former Nigerian American soccer forward who played for numerous teams in Nigeria and the US He earned fifteen caps with the US national team after becoming a US citizen in 1992. Yout ...

, Jason Dunn

References

External links

The Year in American Soccer - 1994
{{USSF D2 soccer seasons APSL/A-League seasons 1 1994 in Canadian soccer