1993 American Professional Soccer League

Last updated

American Professional Soccer League
Season1993
Champions Colorado Foxes
(2nd Title)
Premiers Vancouver 86ers
(1st Title)
1994 CONCACAF Champions' Cup Los Angeles Salsa
Matches played84
Goals scored279 (3.32 per match)
Best Player Flag of Brazil.svg Paulinho Los Angeles Salsa
Top goalscorer Flag of Brazil.svg Paulinho Los Angeles Salsa
(15 goals)
Best goalkeeper Flag of the United States.svg Jim St. Andre Colorado Foxes
1992
1994

The 1993 American Professional Soccer League season was the 4th season of the American Professional Soccer League. Seven teams competed this season including four expansion teams and three teams returning from 1992.

Contents

History

In 1993, the league added three teams from Canada. The Canadian Soccer League had collapsed at the end of the 1992 season and the Vancouver 86ers and Toronto Blizzard along with a new club the Montreal Impact moved to the APSL. Vancouver topped the regular season standings, but fell in the playoff semifinals to the Los Angeles Salsa. In the other semifinal, the Colorado Foxes defeated the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Although the Foxes had a better record than the Salsa, the championship game took place in Los Angeles because the Foxes home stadium of Englewood High School had a homecoming football game the night of the championship. [1]

In 1993 before the USSF chose MLS as Division 1, a couple teams had significant capital backing, had local TV and radio deals, and many of the players were US national team hopefuls or Canadian internationals.

Regular season

The competition was a single table on the league principle with a balanced schedule home and away where each of the seven teams plays the other six four times. The league's regular season was played over twenty weeks, beginning April 30 and concluding September 12. The top four in the table qualified for a single-elimination tournament held in September. The league was a generally close competition, given the points system adopted all teams were still in the playoff race into early August or about 70% of the season. The points system included 6 points for a win, 4 points for a shootout win, 2 points for a shootout loss, and bonus points for goals to a maximum of three. If the game was tied, then instead of following FIFA rules of two 15-minute extra halves followed by penalty kicks, the APSL did two 7.5 minute extra halves followed by the NASL shootout. The shootout consisted of the player starting 35 yards from the net, goalkeeper in net, and five seconds for the player to score (essentially a timed five second break-away skills competition). Game day rosters had to have eleven of the eighteen as domestic players.

RankTeamGPWLWNWEWSLNLELSGFGAGDPts
1 Vancouver 86ers 2415911228014335+8126
2 Colorado Foxes (C)2415912036304034+6121
3 Tampa Bay Rowdies 241212102010115347+6118
4 Los Angeles Salsa 2412128139034137+4109
5 Toronto Blizzard 24101482011123541-697
6 Fort Lauderdale Strikers 2491580111133952-1394
7 Montreal Impact 24111390211112833-590

Playoffs

Bracket

Semifinals1993 APSL Final
      
1 Vancouver 86ers 2(1)
4 Los Angeles Salsa 2(3)
4 Los Angeles Salsa 1
2 Colorado Foxes 3
2 Colorado Foxes 1
3 Tampa Bay Rowdies 0

Semifinal 1


Semifinal 2

Colorado Foxes (CO)1–0 Tampa Bay Rowdies (FL)
Brian Haynes Soccerball shade.svg74:25' Report

Final

Los Angeles Salsa (CA)1–3 (a.e.t.) Colorado Foxes (CO)
Philip Gyau Soccerball shade.svg67' Report Ted Eck Soccerball shade.svg87:38'
Taifour Diané Soccerball shade.svg104:50' (Lipp)
Robert Lipp Soccerball shade.svg110' (Diané)

Points leaders

RankScorerClubGoalsAssistsPoints
1 Paulinho Los Angeles Salsa 15737
2 Paul Wright Los Angeles Salsa 13730
3 Paul Dougherty Tampa Bay Rowdies 81127
4 Zico Doe Fort Lauderdale Strikers 12226
Hector Marinaro Toronto Blizzard 71226
6 Taifour Diané Colorado Foxes 10525
Pierre Morice Tampa Bay Rowdies 9725
8 Domenic Mobilio Vancouver 86ers 10323
9 Scott Benedetti Colorado Foxes 10121
10 Fernando Aguiar Toronto Blizzard 9119
Ted Eck Colorado Foxes 8219
Carlo Corazzin Vancouver 86ers 7519
13 Alvin James Fort Lauderdale Strikers 7418
Steve Trittschuh Tampa Bay Rowdies 7418
15 Jean Harbor Tampa Bay Rowdies 5717
16 Brad Smith Tampa Bay Rowdies 6416
Ivor Evans Vancouver 86ers 4816
Dale Mitchell Vancouver 86ers 4816
Amadeo Gasparini Toronto Blizzard 4816
20 Grant Needham Montreal Impact 6315
21 Eddy Berdusco Toronto Blizzard 5313

Honors

References

  1. Foxes become road warriors in title defense The Denver Post - Saturday, October 2, 1993