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

Los Angeles Aztecs The Los Angeles Aztecs were 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 North American Soccer League season, 1974 ...

and the

Miami Toros The Miami Toros were a professional soccer team in the North American Soccer League (1968–1984), 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 ...

. 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. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

, in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. 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 in Boston, Massachusetts that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL). They played from 1974 to 1976. Their home fields included Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, ...

, 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 The Dallas Tornado was a soccer team based in Dallas, Texas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the U.S. in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest–15 seasons. T ...

, 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 (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

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

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. 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 List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

viewing audience. At the time it was the standard in many U.S.-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 Los Angeles Coliseum or L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park, Los Angeles, Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. Conceived as a hal ...

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 move 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 Greater Downtown Miami, downtown Miami. The venue was considered a landmark and ser ...

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 ...

. 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 a versatile American sportscaster known primarily for his play-by-play commentary on NFL telecasts for CBS Sports. Along the way, he served as a mentor to several athletes and coaches wh ...

Clive Toye Clive Roy Toye (born 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 sports writer for the '' ...

, Kyle Rote, Jr.

Match Statistics

References

External links

* {{1974 in American soccer 1974 in sports in Florida 1974 controversies in the United States August 1974 sports events in the United States 1970s in Miami

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

Sports competitions in Miami Soccer in Florida