1979 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season

Tampa Bay Rowdies
1979 indoor season
Owner United States George Strawbridge, Jr.
General Manager United States Chas Serednesky, Jr
Manager England Gordon Jago
Stadium Bayfront Center
Budweiser Indoor Invitational runner up
Top goalscorer League:
Brazil Mirandinha (4 goals)
All:
South Africa Steve Wegerle,
Brazil Mirandinha (5 goals)
Highest home attendance 6,342
(Jan. 27 vs. Ft. Lauderdale)
Lowest home attendance 6,002
(Feb 2 vs. Houston)
Average home league attendance 6,181
Home colors
Away colors

The 1979 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the fifth indoor season of the club's existence.

Overview

Much to the dismay of Rowdies owner, George Strawbridge, the North American Soccer League owners voted to hold off on a full indoor season for 1978–79 after previously approving it.[1][2] And just as in the winters of 1977 and 1978, when indoor seasons had been nixed, the NASL did not restrict teams from scheduling indoor matches on their own. The end result of this was that the Major Indoor Soccer League was able to launch its inaugural season from December 1978 though March 1978 with virtually no competition from the NASL.

For their part, Tampa Bay played five indoor games in the Winter of 1979, the last four of which were played at the Bayfront Center. The Rowdies first match, on January 25 against the Houston Hurricane, took on a different complexion than the ones that it preceded, and not just because it was an away game. The Hurricane spent their winters playing indoors in the MISL, as the Houston Summit. Although the Summit were in midseason, the two leagues didn’t officially sanction interleague play, so when facing the Rowdies Houston played under their “Hurricane” moniker. Despite that fact, they wore their Summit uniforms, and the match featured MISL timing (four 15-minute quarters), MISL goal dimensions (6.5’ high x 12’ wide),[3] even a bright orange MISL ball.[4] Ironically, the NASL would wind up adopting the MISL's timing and goal size when they finally began their first full indoor season 10 months later in November 1979.[5]

Tampa Bay's next two matches were part of a two-day, four-team mini-tournament called the 1979 NASL Budweiser Indoor Soccer Invitational.[6] The Rowdies won both of their matches, but lost the title on goal differential to the Dallas Tornado, who had also won both of theirs. The second of those invitational matches saw Tampa Bay goalie, Winston DuBose, become only the second goalkeeper in the NASL’s brief indoor history to record a shutout.[7]

The Rowdies game on February 2 versus the Houston Hurricane (this time played with NASL goals and timing) marked the first time they had ever lost an indoor match at home to a domestic opponent.[8] Tampa Bay's final match of the indoor campaign was an international friendly against FC Dynamo Moscow on February 19. The lopsided, 8–1, loss closed their indoor season record at 3–2. Over 24,700 fans watched the Rowdies at home in 1979, with all but about 650 total tickets being sold for the four matches.

Club

No. Position Player Nation
1 Goalkeeper Winston DuBose  United States
2 Goalkeeper Željko Bilecki  Canada
3 Defender Malcolm Chandler*  England
4 Defender Arsène Auguste  Haiti
5 Midfielder Jan van der Veen  Netherlands
6 Defender Mike Connell  South Africa
7 Forward Steve Wegerle  South Africa
8 Midfielder Wes McLeod  Canada
10 Midfielder Rodney Marsh (capt.)  England
11 Forward Mirandinha  Brazil
12 Midfielder Perry Van der Beck  United States
13 Forward Dave MacWilliams  United States
14 Forward Peter Chandler  United States
15 Midfielder Timothy Collins*  Ireland
16 Defender Farrukh Quraishi  England
17 Defender Tony Crudo  United States
18 Defender Sandje Ivanchukov  United States
19 Midfielder Tommy Maurer  United States
23 Defender Teun Kist*  Netherlands

*trialist players

Competitions

Match reports

Statistics

Scoring

G = Goals (worth 2 points), A = Assists (worth 1 point), Pts = Points

Player G A Pts
Rodney Marsh4614
Mirandinha5111
Steve Wegerle5111
Wes McLeod226
Farrukh Quraishi215
Mike Connell113
Tommy Maurer113
Perry Van der Beck102
Teun Kist102
Winston DuBose011

Goalkeeping

Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses

Player GP Min GA GAA W L
Winston DuBose5250235.5231
Željko Bilecki120515.0001

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tierney, Mike (April 3, 1978). "NASL approves official indoor league in 1979". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1C. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  2. ↑ Tierney, Mike (January 20, 1979). "Rowdies want to come indoors". St. Petersburg Times. p. 3C. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  3. ↑ Tierney, Mike (January 25, 1979). "Rowdies hope to hold onto goalie". St. Petersburg Times. p. 4C. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Rowdies roll 6-4". St. Petersburg Times. January 26, 1979. p. 1C. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Indoor Returning, Officially This Time". Evening Independent. September 28, 1979. p. 4-C. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  6. ↑ Tierney, Mike (January 27, 1979). "Blast off! Rowdies aim for indoor orbit". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1c. Retrieved October 24, 2016 – via Google News Archive Search.
  7. ↑ Beard, Randy (January 29, 1979). "Rowdies Had To Do More". The Evening Independent. p. 1–C. Retrieved January 2, 2017 – via Google News Archive Search.
  8. ↑ Beard, Randy (February 3, 1979). "Bayfront Turned Slaughterhouse". The Evening Independent. p. 1–C. Retrieved January 2, 2017 – via Google News Archive Search.
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