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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 |
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| 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 |
The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It was the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the United States. The league final was called the Soccer Bowl from 1975 to 1983 and the Soccer Bowl Series in its final year, 1984. The league was headed by Commissioner Phil Woosnam from 1969 to 1983. The NASL laid the foundations for soccer in the United States that helped lead to the country hosting the 1994 FIFA World Cup and the set-up of Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1996.
Fort Lauderdale Sun was a U.S. soccer team which played two seasons in the United Soccer League. In 1984, the team was known as the Fort Lauderdale Sun. Before the 1985 season they changed their name to the South Florida Sun.
The Fort Lauderdale Strikers was a professional soccer team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1977 to 1983. They played their home matches at Lockhart Stadium.
The Tampa Bay Rowdies were an American professional soccer team based in Tampa, Florida, that competed in the original North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1975 to 1984. They enjoyed broad popular support in the Tampa Bay area until the NASL folded in 1984, after which the team played in various minor indoor and outdoor leagues before finally folding on January 31, 1994. The Rowdies played nearly all of their outdoor home games at Tampa Stadium and nearly all of their indoor games at the Bayfront Center Arena in nearby St. Petersburg, Florida. Although San Diego played indoors until 1996, the Rowdies were the last surviving NASL franchise that played outdoor soccer on a regular basis.
The United Soccer League was a professional soccer league in the United States in the mid-1980s.
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.
The Fort Lauderdale–Tampa Bay rivalry, also known as the Florida Derby, refers to the suspended soccer rivalry that most recently involved the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and the Tampa Bay Rowdies, both of whom played in the North American Soccer League through the 2016 season. Over the years the rivalry has spanned more than one hundred matches across eight soccer leagues and several tournaments, and involved nine different teams from the two regions of Florida. At times it has involved players, coaches, management and fans. Even the press has fanned the rivalry's flames at times. From 2010 through 2014, the winner of the regular season series automatically won the Coastal Cup as well. The status of the rivalry beyond 2016 remains unclear because the Rowdies have since joined the United Soccer League, while the Strikers ongoing ownership and legal battles of 2016 and 2017 have left them defunct.
In early 1975, the North American Soccer League hosted its first league-wide indoor soccer tournament over the course of seven weeks. All but four NASL teams participated.
Over the course of three weekends in March 1976, the North American Soccer League hosted its second league-wide indoor soccer tournament. Twelve of the twenty NASL teams participated.
The 1983 NASL Grand Prix of Indoor Soccer was an indoor soccer tournament staged by four franchises of the North American Soccer League.
Soccer Bowl '80 was the championship final of the 1980 NASL season. The New York Cosmos took on the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The match was played on September 21, 1980 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The Cosmos won, 3–0, to claim their fourth league championship, and third in the past four seasons.
The 1983 Fort Lauderdale Strikers season was the team's third season of indoor soccer in the North American Soccer League.
The 1979 NASL Budweiser Indoor Soccer Invitational was a four-team indoor soccer tournament held at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida on the final weekend of January 1979.
The 1977 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the third indoor season of the club's existence.
The 1978 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the fourth indoor season of the club's existence.
The 1976 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the second indoor season of the club's existence. The Rowdies were able to replicate their 1975 outdoor success by winning the North American Soccer League's 1976 indoor championship.
The 1975 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the first indoor season of the club's existence. It also marked the first time the expansion Rowdies participated in any North American Soccer League sanctioned competition.
The 1979 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the fifth indoor season of the club's existence.
The 1978 NASL Skelly Invitational was a four-team indoor soccer tournament held in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Tulsa Assembly Center on the first weekend of March 1979.
The 1983 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the ninth indoor season of the team's existence. The Rowdies captured the Indoor Grand Prix title. Although they would play for another 10 years, including two more indoors in 1983–84 and 1986–87, this would be the final trophy won by the original club.
