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| 1979 season | ||
|---|---|---|
| Owner |  Elizabeth Robbie | |
| General manager | Beau Rodgers | |
| Manager |  Ron Newman | |
| NASL indoor | Tournament: Fourth place | |
| Top goalscorer |  Tibor Gemeri (2 goals) | |
The 1979 Fort Lauderdale Strikers season was part of the club's twelfth season in professional soccer.
This was not the first instance of the Strikers playing indoors. Their first ever match, indoor or out, was an exhibition match played on February 27, 1977, versus their arch-rival, Tampa Bay Rowdies at the Bayfront Center. In January 1978 they played the Washington Diplomats indoors at the D.C. Armory on back-to-back days. The Strikers lost all of three of these matches.
In January 1979 four NASL teams participated in the Budweiser Indoor Soccer Invitational at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. The teams were the Dallas Tornado, Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, Tulsa Roughnecks, and the host, Tampa Bay Rowdies. The event was held over two days. [1] The Strikers finished the tournament in fourth place. The team wore a very basic, green and white, adidas uniform for the invitational. It was very similar to the away kit that the West German national team wore during that era, except that the Strikers's numbers on the backs were red and there was no team crest of any kind on the front of the jerseys. [2] [3]
| 1979 Budweiser Indoor Soccer Invitational | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | League | Record | Standings | GF | GA | GD |
| Dallas Tornado* | NASL | 2–0 | 1st place | 15 | 9 | +6 |
| Tampa Bay Rowdies | NASL | 2–0 | 2nd place (runners-up) | 9 | 4 | +5 |
| Tulsa Roughnecks | NASL | 0–2 | 3rd place | 7 | 11 | -4 |
| Fort Lauderdale Strikers | NASL | 0–2 | 4th place | 6 | 13 | -7 |
* Dallas wins title on goal differential
Session 1: January 27, 1979
| 7:00 PM EST | Dallas Tornado | 8–7 | Tulsa Roughnecks | Attendance: 6,342 |
| 8:30 PM EST | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 6–4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | |
Session 2: January 28, 1979 [4]
| 6:00 PM EST | Dallas Tornado | 7–2 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Attendance: 6,338 |
| 7:30 PM EST | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 3–0 | Tulsa Roughnecks | |
| January 27, 19791 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 6–4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| 8:30 PM | Marsh  9:16'Mirandinha 11:50' (McLeod)Mirandinha 20:44' (Maurer)Maurer 26:38' (Marsh)Wegerle 27:43' (Marsh)Quraishi 28:25' (Mirandinha) | Report 1 Report 2 | Njie 20:33' (Wiggemansen) Gemeri 24:37'Njie 30:21' (Wiggemansen)Vaninger 34:13' | Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 6,342 |
| January 28, 19792 | Dallas Tornado | 7–2 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| 6:00 PM | Ryan 9:38' (Haaskivi) Collins 16:28' (Haaskivi)Haaskivi 23:58' (Pecher)Ryan 28:54' (Haaskivi)Ryan 38:07' (Waddell)Haaskivi 41:04'Ryan 43:36' | Report on p. 2-C | Wiggemansen 14:36' (Jones), Gemeri 21:01' (Hudson) | Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 6,338 |
| February 27, 19771 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 9–8 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| 8:00 p.m. (EST) | Lindsay 4:21' (Wegerle) Smethurst 33:13'Smethurst 34:04' (Alston)Quraishi 41:34' (Smethurst)Smethurst 41:57' (Wegerle)Wegerle 48:29'Smethurst 49:30' (Wegerle)Wegerle 50:41'Alston 51:47' (Smethurst) | Report | Mulroy 12:07' (Nanchoff, Sharp) Sharp 12:27'Nanchoff 26:40' (Chadwick)Ceballos 44:20' (Sharp)Chadwick 47:40' (Hamlyn, Sharp)Sharp 50:41'Sharp 58:04'Hamlyn 59:57' | Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 5,016 Referee: Sam Hornich |
| January 7, 19782 | Washington Diplomats | 9–2 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Washington, D.C. |
| 8:00 p.m. (EST) | Report | Fearnley 14:01' (Nanchoff) Proctor (Bodonczy) | Stadium: D.C. Armory Attendance: 2,384 |
| January 8, 19783 | Washington Diplomats | 8–5 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Washington, D.C. |
| 3:00 p.m. (EST) | Garber , , Welch Darrell Mishalow Borozzi Denkowski | Report | Vaninger , Hamlyn Aguirre Nanchoff | Stadium: D.C. Armory Attendance: 2,163 |
