NASL Final 1974 was the championship match of the 1974 season, between the expansion

Los Angeles Aztecs The Los Angeles Aztecs was an American professional soccer team based in Los Angeles, California that existed from 1974 to 1981. The Aztecs competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1974 to 1981 as well as the 1975 NASL Indoor tourn ...

and the

Miami Toros The Miami Toros was a professional soccer team in the North American Soccer League from 1972 to 1976. The club was founded in 1967 as the Washington Darts, and moved to Miami, where they played the 1972 season in the NASL's Southern Division ...

. The match was played on August 25, 1974 at the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game ...

, in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. The teams played to a, 3–3, draw, and after a short break the game moved directly to a

penalty shoot-out 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 pe ...

. Los Angeles won the shoot-out, 5–3, and were crowned the 1974 champions. This was the second consecutive year that an expansion team won the NASL title

Background

Los Angeles Aztecs

The Los Angeles Aztecs qualified for the playoffs by virtue of winning the Western Division with 110 points. The point total earned them a quarterfinal bye in the playoffs. The Aztecs defeated the Northern Division champion

Boston Minutemen The Boston Minutemen were an American professional soccer team based out of Boston that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL). They played from 1974 to 1976. Their home fields included Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Schaefer Stadium ...

, 2–0, in a semifinal game played on August 17, 1974 at ELAC Stadium in Monterey Park, California to advance to the finals.

Miami Toros

The Miami Toros qualified for the playoffs by virtue of winning the Eastern Division with 107 points. They were also given a quarterfinal bye in the playoffs. The Toros defeated the Central Division champion Dallas Tornado, 3–1, in a semifinal game played on August 17, 1974 at Tamiami Stadium to advance to the finals.

Game site controversy

Although the Aztecs had a league-best record and points total, and rightly should have hosted the championship final,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

intervened and strongly influenced the NASL's decision to play the match in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. CBS was under contract to air the game live and was unwilling to black-out the large

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

viewing audience. At the time it was the standard in many US-based sports for the host market not to broadcast games locally unless they were sold out. At the time, the

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a mem ...

had a capacity of 94,500 and, even in a best-case scenario, an Aztecs sell-out was unlikely. Moreover, in an effort by CBS to capture more viewers during the peak East Coast time slot, a Los Angeles-hosted game would have begun at 12:30 ( PDT) local time. The league recognized that both these factors would be detrimental to ticket sales and agreed to moved the game to the

Miami Orange Bowl The Miami Orange Bowl was an outdoor athletic stadium in Miami, Florida from 1937 until 2008. The stadium was located in the Little Havana neighborhood west of Downtown Miami. The Miami Orange Bowl was considered a landmark and served as the ho ...

with a 3:30 ( EDT) local start. CBS had also stepped in the previous week and forced the Toros to play their semi-final match at the much-smaller Tamiami Stadium in

Tamiami Park Tamiami Park is a public urban park in metropolitan Miami, just south of the Modesto Maidique campus of Florida International University. Background The park was built in the late 1960s on the site of the former ''Tamiami Airport'', which was re ...

. This was done so that if Miami did win, CBS's production crews would have a full week for set-up in the Orange Bowl stadium.

Match details

1974 NASL Champions:

Television:

Announcers:

Frank Glieber Frank John Glieber (April 5, 1934 – May 1, 1985) was an American sportscaster. Early life and career Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Glieber was the oldest child of immigrants—John, a native of Austria, and Mary, a native of Ger ...

Clive Toye Clive Roy Toye (born Devonport, Plymouth, 23 November 1932) was inducted to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in the United States in 2003. Toye was born in Plymouth, United Kingdom, to Thomas Roy Toye (1906–65) and Irene Turner. He was a spo ...

Kyle Rote, Jr. Kyle Rote Jr. (born December 25, 1950) is an American former professional soccer forward who played seven seasons in the North American Soccer League (NASL) and earned five caps with the United States men's national soccer team between 1973 a ...

Match Statistics

References

External links

* {{1974 in American soccer 1974 1974 August 1974 sports events in the United States 1974 in sports in Florida Sports competitions in Miami Soccer in Florida Association football penalty shoot-outs