1971 NASL Professional Hoc-Soc Tournament

Indoor soccer tournament in the United States August 2023 North American Soccer League-1971 Hoc-Soc Tournament- 1971 NASL Indoor Tournament March 19, 1971 4 Dallas Tornado 1 Rochester Lancers 4 12 5060 USA Mike RenshawUSA Jim BenedekCAN Dragan Popović(2 goals) USA Mike Renshaw First year 1975 The 1971 NASL Professional Hoc-Soc Tournament was the first indoor variant of soccer sanctioned by the North American Soccer League. It was held in St. Louis, Missouri on the evening of March 19, 1971 and involved four of the league's eight franchises. Overview Indoor soccer tournaments had been played in one form or another in North America throughout much of the 20th century, but 1971 marked the first time that a Division One professional league organized an indoor competition for its member clubs.https://www.rsssf.org/usadave/usindoor.html History of Indoor Soccer in the USA Rsssf.com August 14, 2016 The total purse was $2,800. The winning side received $1,000, while the runners-up earned $750. The winners and losers of the third place match made $600 and $450 respectively.Flachsbart Harold Pro Soccer Sends Up Trial Balloon Tonight March 19, 1971 St. Louis Post-Dispatch https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/140196781/ 23 August 14, 2016 The matches themselves were all played on March 19 at the St. Louis Arena. Individual matches lasted 30 minutes and were divided by an intermission into two 15-minute periods. Golden goal overtime was in place to break any tie after regulation time if needed. The first two matches were scheduled for 8:00 PM and 8:45 PM starts, with the others to follow at unspecified times. Four of the NASL's five established franchises participated: the Dallas Tornado, Rochester Lancers, St. Louis Stars and Washington Darts. The Atlanta Chiefs did not. The other three NASL squads, Montreal, New York and Toronto, were all expansion teams set to begin play in the 1971 outdoor season, which itself was to begin a few weeks later. Hoc-Soc rules The basic premise of hoc-soc, was to combine several of the rules of hockey with small-side soccer. The playing surface was AstroTurf and the field dimensions were the same as a standard NHL hockey rink (200 feet by 85 feet), surrounded by dasher boards. The goals were set into the end boards and essentially cut in half (12 feet across by 8 feet high). As in hockey, the dasher boards were in play. Rosters were nine players strong, with six a side taking the field at the start of play. Free substitutions were permitted on the fly at the substituting team's own risk. Most fouls committed would result in a two-minute, sending-off penalty being assessed to the offending player, which would also give the opposition a hockey-style power play. The offending player's team would play short handed for two minutes or until the other team scored a goal –whichever occurred first.Flachsbart Harold Rules are Different For Hoc-Soc Games March 18, 1971 St. Louis Post-Dispatch https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/140195826/ 27 August 14, 2016 As there were no assistant referees, the standard offside rules of soccer did not apply to hoc-soc. This caused many at the time to predict that the scoring would be much higher than that of a conventional match. Two specific rules were created to keep play moving. The first was that a player in their own defensive half was not permitted to kick the ball directly over the boards out of play. Doing so would result in a two-minute penalty for delay of game. The second allowed the goalie to clear the ball only by throwing the ball to teammates within the defensive half of the field. Kicking the ball to clear it or throwing the ball to a teammate beyond midfield would result in an indirect free kick from the spot of the illegal pass. Map of clubs left 10px NASL Professional Hoc-Soc Tournament clubs 1100 500 300 425 390 North America 900 North America 32.78 -96.76 Black pog.svg 80 bottom Tornado North America 43.17 -77.62 Black pog.svg 80 bottom Lancers North America 38.63 -90.28 Black pog.svg 80 bottom Stars North America 38.93 -77.00 Black pog.svg 80 bottom Darts Tournament recap A crowd of 5,060 came out to witness the four back-to-back games. Eight minutes and five seconds into the opening match of the tournament, the home fans cheered as Jim Leeker put St. Louis ahead with the historic, first-ever NASL indoor goal. Their joy was short-lived as the Tornado rallied to defeat the Stars, 2–1, on the strength of two second-half goals by Jim Benedek. The second match saw the Lancers dispatch the Darts, 3–1. After a longer intermission, the losing teams, St. Louis and Washington, faced off in the Third Place match, with the Stars winning, 2–0. Dragan Popović scored both of St. Louis' goals. The evening culminated with the championship game between Dallas and Rochester. Tournament MVP Mike Renshaw was the man of the match with a pair of goals. After their 3–0 victory, the Dallas Tornado were crowned the NASL's professional hoc-soc champions.Flachsbart Harold Fans Get A Kick Out Of Hoc-Soc March 20, 1971 St. Louis Post-Dispatch https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/140197378/ 6 August 14, 2016 Despite pre-tournament predictions, the score lines were not overly high (in fact, there were only 12 goals in the four games, or three per contest; in the 1971 NASL "outdoor" season, there were 292 goals scored in 89 games, or 3.28 per match). Pundits attributed this to the players' instinctive reluctance to play in offside positions, despite the nonexistence of such a rule in hoc-soc. Match results Bracket Opening round Championship Final 35px high Dallas Tornado 2 St. Louis Stars 1 Rochester Lancers 3 Washington Darts 1 Dallas Tornado 3 Rochester Lancers 0 St. Louis Stars 2 Washington Darts 0 Opening round Game 1 March 19, 1971 8:00 PM (CST) St. Louis Stars 1–2 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/140197378/ Dallas Tornado Leeker (McBride) 8:05 Benedek (Berto)17:00Benedek (Renshaw) 21:00 St. Louis Arena St. Louis, Missouri 5,060 Larry King / Ray Puricelli Game 2 March 19, 1971 8:45 PM (CST) Rochester Lancers 3–1 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/140197378/ Washington Darts Seissler (Durante) 13:08Durante 13:45Metidieri (Seissler) 29:43 Kerr 5:40 St. Louis Arena St. Louis, Missouri 5,060 Larry King / Ray Puricelli Third-place match 3rd Place March 19, 1971 St. Louis Stars 2–0 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/140197378/ Washington Darts Popović (McBride) 16:27 Popović (Leeker) 29:31 St. Louis Arena St. Louis, Missouri 5,060 Larry King / Ray Puricelli Championship final March 19, 1971 Dallas Tornado 3–0 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/140197378/ Rochester Lancers Renshaw 12:15 24:08 Best (Molnar) 28:11 St. Louis Arena St. Louis, Missouri 5,060 Larry King / Ray Puricelli Tournament awards Most Valuable Player: USA Mike Renshaw (Dallas) - Goals: 2 Assists: 1 All-tournament Team: USA Mike Renshaw (Dallas), USA Jim Benedek (Dallas), USA Manfred Seissler (Rochester), ENG Peter Short (Rochester), CAN Dragan Popović (St. Louis), BRA Miguel de Lima (St. Louis) Final rankings Pos = Final Position, G = Games, W = Wins, L = Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Differential PosTeamGWLGFGAGD1Dallas Tornado22051+42Rochester Lancers21134–13St. Louis Stars21132+14Washington Darts20215–4 Statistical leaders Goals (worth 2 points), A = Assists (worth 1 point) Leading scorersGoalsAssistsPointsUSA Mike Renshaw (Dallas)215USA Jim Benedek (Dallas)204CAN Dragan Popović (St. Louis)204BRA Eli Durante (Rochester)113USA Jim Leeker (St. Louis)113USA Manfred Seissler (Rochester)113USA John Best (Dallas)102CAN John Kerr (Washington)102USA Carlos Metidieri (Rochester)102USA Pat McBride (St. Louis) 022BRA Berto (Dallas)011HUN Tibor Molnár (Dallas)011 GA = Goals Against, GAA = Goals Against Average Leading GoalkeepersMinutesGAGAAENG Ken Cooper (Dallas)6010.50BRA Miguel de Lima (St. Louis)6021.00unknown (Rochester)6042.00USA Manford Elcer (Washington)6052.50 Legacy While 1971 marked the NASL's first foray into indoor soccer, it was by no means its last. In 1973 the Atlanta Apollos hosted two matches at The Omni against Montreal and Dallas respectively.Indoor soccer 'pilot contest' pits Montreal against Atlanta May 2, 1973 Rome News-Tribune https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19730502&id=6-wtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qDUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3086,116270&hl=en 8A August 2, 2016Yannis Alex Cosmos Hire an Ex-Commuter June 23, 1973 New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/24/archives/cosmos-hire-an-excommuter.html?_r=0 August 14, 2016 In February 1974 the famed Soviet Red Army squad embarked on a three-city tour (Toronto, Philadelphia, St. Louis) against NASL competition. It was the second of those three matches, played on February 11 that caught everybody's attention.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYhz1EvkzJg - YouTube YouTube The Philadelphia Atoms lost a close match to the Soviets before 11,790 screaming fans at the Spectrum. That night is often cited as the watershed moment of indoor soccer in the United States. With over 35,000 fans attending the three Russian matches, the NASL began to recognize the sport's potential. Larger indoor tournaments were staged in 1975 and 1976, as well as more independently staged matches. All of this ultimately led to full NASL indoor seasons beginning in 1979–80. By no small coincidence, the future co-founder of the Major Indoor Soccer League, Ed Tepper, was also in attendance at the Spectrum that night in 1974. Liking what he saw, Tepper later shared a videotape of a 1977 indoor matchhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuaIdLaeP40 Indoor Soccer: Tampa Bay Rowdies vs. Zenit Leningrad 3/9/1977 YouTube December 19, 2010 with former Washington Whips owner, Earl Foreman. Foreman also saw the game's potential, and the two men set about forming a new indoor-only soccer league. The MISL began play in 1978, and lasted until 1992. Other national indoor leagues that followed included the Continental Indoor Soccer League, the American Indoor Soccer Association, (MISL II and MISL III), as well as the current Major Arena Soccer League. In 2008 the Federación Internacional de Fútbol Rápido, or FIFRA, was formed as the sport's international governing body. FIFRA was effectively replaced in 2013 by the World Minifootball Federation. References 2 Category:NASL Indoor seasons NASL Category:1971 North American Soccer League season 1971 1971 Category:Soccer competitions in St. Louis Category:1971 in sports in Missouri Category:1970s in St. Louis