| 1983 season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner |  Elizabeth Robbie | ||
| General manager | Tim Robbie | ||
| Manager |  David Chadwick | ||
| Stadium | Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion Bayfront Center Montreal Forum | ||
| NASL indoor | Grand Prix: Fourth place | ||
| Top goalscorer | League:  Branko Šegota (10) All: Branko Šegota (11) | ||
The 1983 Fort Lauderdale Strikers season was the team's third season of indoor soccer in the North American Soccer League.
| No. | Position | Player | Nation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | GK | Craig Scarpelli | United States |
| 1 | GK | Jan van Beveren |  Netherlands |
| 2 | DF | Alexander Szatmari |  Romania |
| 4 | MF | Ray Hudson | England |
| 5 | DF | Bruce Savage | United States |
| 6 | MF | Thomas Rongen | Netherlands |
| 7 | DF | Ken Fogarty | England |
| 8 | DF | Colin Fowles | United States |
| 10 | MF | Teófilo Cubillas |  Chile |
| 11 | FW | Brian Kidd | England |
| 12 | MF | Carl Strong | United States |
| 13 | GK | Jim Tietjens | United States |
| 14 | MF | Keith Weller | England |
| 14 | FW | Steve Wegerle |  South Africa |
| 16 | DF | Dan Canter | United States |
| 18 | FW | Robert Meschbach | United States |
| 20 | FW | Branko Šegota | Canada |
| 21 | DF | Tony Whelan | England |
| 24 | DF | Bob Bolitho | Canada |
| 25 | DF | Bruce Miller | Canada |
| unk | FW | Andrew Parkinson | United States |
| unk | DF | Charlie Kadupski | United States |
David Chadwick Bill Nuttall The 1983 indoor season was part of the club's seventeenth season in professional soccer. Previously, the NASL indoor season was played during the winter months and running through the new year, such as the 1981–82 season. This year, because five NASL teams elected not to play indoor while three others played in the MISL, the format changed to a round-robin tournament known as the 1983 NASL Grand Prix of Indoor Soccer. In addition to the Grand Prix, the Strikers played two friendlies, the first of which was a farewell of sorts from the briefly defunct Jacksonville Tea Men to their fans. [1]
The team's long history of poor showings indoors looked to change this time around, because unlike in previous years most of the Strikers' marquee players decided to participate. [2] The Grand Prix campaign started off ominously with the airline losing the team's uniforms in transit to Tulsa before their first game, [3] and forcing them to borrow kits from their opponents. [4]
The bad luck continued. Going into the third round of the Grand Prix, a total of 10 players were unavailable for the match. [5] Four (Canter, Fowles, Meschbach, Savage) were trying out for Team America. [6] Tony Whelan and Brian Kidd were battling the flu. Ken Fogarty (hamstring) and Thomas Rongen (fractured iliac) were nursing injuries, while Branko Šegota was serving a one-game red card suspension for verbally abusing a referee. Finally, Ray Hudson was in the midst of missing at least five games with a case of the mumps.
Most of this unfortunate situation happened to occur after they'd agreed to loan Keith Weller to the Roughnecks. [7] To make matters worse, the 36 year-old Weller came alive with 8 goals and 7 assists in just six games with Tulsa. With so many line-up changes it made it nearly impossible to play with any kind of consistency. [8] The Strikers finished the Grand Prix in fourth place. They did however reach the finals of the Molson $5,000 Shootout Challenge, which was a side competition held in conjunction with the Grand Prix. [9]
Including friendlies, from 1977 through 1983 the Strikers posted an indoor record of 6–39, losing the final eight in a row. This would be the final year of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers as an indoor team. They sat out the 1983–84 NASL Indoor season and the club moved to Minnesota.
Goals (worth 2 points), Assists (worth 1 point)
| Leading Scorers* | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branko Šegota | 11 | 9 | 31 |
| Teófilo Cubillas | 9 | 10 | 28 |
| Steve Wegerle | 7 | 6 | 20 |
| Tony Whelan | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Robert Meschbach | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| Brian Kidd | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| Bob Bolitho | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Bruce Miller | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Andrew Parkinson | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Colin Fowles | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Alexander Szatmari | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Charlie Kadupski | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Carl Strong | 0 | 1 | 1 |
*includes Grand Prix and friendlies
played at Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion in Tulsa, Oklahoma [10]
| January 21 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 8–4 | Tulsa Roughnecks | Attendance: 3,522 |
| January 22 | Montreal Manic | 8–6 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Attendance: 4,341 |
played at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida [11]
| February 4 | Montreal Manic | 6–3 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Attendance: 4,450 |
| February 5 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 10–6 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Attendance: 5,545 |
played at the Tulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion in Tulsa, Oklahoma
| February 11 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 7–5 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Attendance: 2,064 |
| February 12 | Tulsa Roughnecks | 5–4(OT) | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Attendance: 3,245 |
G = Games, W = Wins, L = Losses, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Differential, PTS= point system
6 points awarded for a win. Beginning with the fourth goal, 1 bonus point awarded for each goal scored. Maximum of 5 bonus points per game.
| Pos | Team | G | W | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1* | Montreal Manic | 6 | 4 | 2 | 36 | 31 | +5 | 42 |
| 2 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 6 | 4 | 2 | 38 | 31 | +7 | 42 |
| 3 | Tulsa Roughnecks | 6 | 3 | 3 | 33 | 37 | -4 | 33 |
| 4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 6 | 1 | 5 | 32 | 40 | -8 | 20 |
*Montreal wins top seed based on 2-0 head-to-head edge over Tampa Bay
 | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (November 2013) |
| Semifinals | Championship | ||||||||
| 1 | Montreal Manic | 11 | |||||||
| 4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 4 | |||||||
| 1 | Montreal Manic | 4 | |||||||
| 2 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 5 | |||||||
| 3 | Tulsa Roughnecks | 6 | |||||||
| 2 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 8 | Third place match | ||||||
| 3 | Tulsa Roughnecks | 9 | |||||||
| 4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 4 | |||||||
played at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec
| February 18 | Montreal Manic | 11–4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Attendance: 6,049 [12] |
played at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec (1:30 PM EDT)
| February 20 | Tulsa Roughnecks | 9–4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Attendance: 7,895 |
| Pos | Team | G | W | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 8 | 6 | 2 | 51 | 41 | +10 |
| 2 | Montreal Manic | 8 | 5 | 3 | 51 | 40 | +11 |
| 3 | Tulsa Roughnecks | 8 | 4 | 4 | 48 | 49 | -1 |
| 4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 8 | 1 | 7 | 40 | 60 | -20 |
| Date | Position | Player | From club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 February 1983 | GK | Craig Scarpelli [13] | St. Louis Steamers |
| Date | Position | Player | To club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 February 1983 | MF | Keith Weller [14] | Tulsa Roughnecks |
Before the Grand Prix began the Strikers helped the defunct Jacksonville Tea Men say thanks and goodbye to 5,000 loyal fans in a match at the Jacksonville Coliseum. Five days after the Grand Prix concluded, the Strikers played the Tampa Bay Rowdies in an indoor friendly, in Lakeland, Florida.
| January 14, 19831 | Tea Men All-Stars | 3–4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Jacksonville, Florida |
Zec  | Report | Whelan , 59:22' Bolitho Šegota | Stadium: Jacksonville Coliseum Attendance: 5,000 |
| February 25, 19792 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 8–5 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | Lakeland, Florida |
| 8:00 PM (EST) | Tatu 6:15' (Gruber, Easton) Karpun 13:04'Miller 22:55' (Pérez, Kozic)Karpun 31:35' (Fall)Gruber 44:42' (Fall)Molina 46:43' (Thompson)Bates 53:38' (Molina, McLeod)Oliveira 57:51' (Pérez, Molina) | Report p. 2-C | Kidd 13:26' (Segota) Cubillas 23:55' (Kidd)Kidd 36:14' (Whelan)Meschbach 39:31' (Kadupski, Cubillas)Kidd 54:16' (Kadupski) | Stadium: Lakeland Civic Center Attendance: 3,506 |
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.
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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.
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The 1983 NASL Grand Prix of Indoor Soccer was an indoor soccer tournament staged by four franchises of the North American Soccer League.
The 1982 New York Cosmos season was the 12th season for the New York Cosmos in the now-defunct North American Soccer League. The Cosmos completed their fourth double—a feat not matched by any NASL or, as yet, MLS club—finishing 37 points ahead of Seattle for the league premiership, and defeating the Sounders in Soccer Bowl '82 for the league championship.
The 1979 Fort Lauderdale Strikers season was part of the club's twelfth season in professional soccer.
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.
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The 1978 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the fourth indoor season of the club's existence.
The 1979 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the fifth indoor season of the club's existence.
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.
The 1983 Tulsa Roughnecks season was the club's sixth season of existence, and their fifth in North American Soccer League, the top flight of American soccer at that time. The 1983 season was Terry Hennessey's second full NASL season as head coach of the Roughnecks.
