The 1979 Tampa Bay Rowdies indoor season was the fifth indoor season of the club's existence.
| 1979 indoor season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner |  George Strawbridge, Jr. | ||
| General manager | Chas Serednesky, Jr | ||
| Manager |  Gordon Jago | ||
| Stadium | Bayfront Center | ||
| Budweiser Indoor Invitational | runner up | ||
| Top goalscorer | League:  Mirandinha (4 goals)All:  Steve Wegerle, 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 | ||
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Overview
editMuch 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
editRoster
edit| No. | Position | Player | Nation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Winston DuBose | |
| 2 | GK | Željko Bilecki | |
| 3 | DF | Malcolm Chandler* | |
| 4 | DF | Arsène Auguste | |
| 5 | MF | Jan van der Veen | |
| 6 | DF | Mike Connell | |
| 7 | FW | Steve Wegerle | |
| 8 | MF | Wes McLeod | |
| 10 | MF | Rodney Marsh (capt.) | |
| 11 | FW | Mirandinha | |
| 12 | MF | Perry Van der Beck | |
| 13 | FW | Dave MacWilliams | |
| 14 | FW | Peter Chandler | |
| 15 | MF | Timothy Collins* | |
| 16 | DF | Farrukh Quraishi | |
| 17 | DF | Tony Crudo | |
| 18 | DF | Sandje Ivanchukov | |
| 19 | MF | Tommy Maurer | |
| 23 | DF | Teun Kist* |
*trialist players
Management and technical staff
editGeorge W. Strawbridge, Jr., owner
Gordon Jago, head coach
Honors
edit- Budweiser Indoor Soccer Invitational: runners-up
Competitions
editInvitational final standings
editGF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, GD = Goal Differential
| 1979 Budweiser Indoor Soccer Invitational | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Record | GF | GA | GD | Position | |
| Dallas Tornado* | 2–0 | 15 | 9 | +6 | 1st place | |
| Tampa Bay Rowdies | 2–0 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 2nd place (runners-up) | |
| Tulsa Roughnecks | 0–2 | 7 | 11 | –4 | 3rd place | |
| Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 0–2 | 6 | 13 | –7 | 4th place | |
*Dallas wins Invitational on goal differential
Results summaries
editMatch reports
edit| January 25, 1979 1 | Houston Hurricane | 4–6 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | Houston, Texas |
| 8:00 PM (CST) | Vaccaro Russell Russell Vasquez |
Report on p. 2C | Wegerle Van der Beck Marsh Wegerle Connell Wegerle |
Stadium: The Summit Attendance: 2,743 |
| January 27, 1979 2 Bud Invit'l | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 6–4 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| 8:30 PM | Marsh Mirandinha Mirandinha Maurer Wegerle Quraishi |
Report 1 Report 2 |
Njie Gemeri Njie Vaninger |
Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 6,342 |
| January 28, 1979 3 Bud Invit'l | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 3–0 | Tulsa Roughnecks | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| 7:30 PM | Marsh Mirandinha Mirandinha |
Report on p. 2-C | none | Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 6,338 |
| February 2, 1979 4 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 6–15 | Houston Hurricane | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| 8:00 PM | Wegerle McLeod Marsh Mirandinha McLeod Quraishi |
Report | Jump Anderson Stremlau Jump Lindsay Lindsay Haaskivi Anderson Jump Lindsay Charbonneau Anderson Maurer, (T.B.) Anderson Anderson |
Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 6,002 |
| February 19, 1979 5 Int’l friendly | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 1–8 | FC Dynamo Moscow | St. Petersburg, Florida |
| 8:00 PM | Kist |
Report on p. 5C | Gershkovich Lovchev Latysh Yakubik Latysh Reznik Reznik Maksimenkov |
Stadium: Bayfront Center Attendance: 6,040 |
Statistics
editScoring
editG = Goals (worth 2 points), A = Assists (worth 1 point), Pts = Points
| Player | G | A | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rodney Marsh | 4 | 6 | 14 |
| Mirandinha | 5 | 1 | 11 |
| Steve Wegerle | 5 | 1 | 11 |
| Wes McLeod | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Farrukh Quraishi | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Mike Connell | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Tommy Maurer | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Perry Van der Beck | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Teun Kist | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Winston DuBose | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Goalkeeping
editNote: 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 DuBose | 5 | 250 | 23 | 5.52 | 3 | 1 |
| Željko Bilecki | 1 | 20 | 5 | 15.00 | 0 | 1 |
Player movement
editThis section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (November 2015) |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Tierney, Mike (April 3, 1978). "NASL approves official indoor league in 1979". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1C. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ Tierney, Mike (January 20, 1979). "Rowdies want to come indoors". St. Petersburg Times. p. 3C. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ Tierney, Mike (January 25, 1979). "Rowdies hope to hold onto goalie". St. Petersburg Times. p. 4C. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ "Rowdies roll 6-4". St. Petersburg Times. January 26, 1979. p. 1C. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
- ^ "Indoor Returning, Officially This Time". Evening Independent. September 28, 1979. p. 4-C. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Beard, Randy (February 3, 1979). "Bayfront Turned Slaughterhouse". The Evening Independent. p. 1–C. Retrieved January 2, 2017 – via Google News Archive Search.