1993 American Professional Soccer League
| Season | 1993 |
|---|---|
| Champions | Colorado Foxes (2nd title) |
| Premiers | Vancouver 86ers (1st title) |
| 1994 CONCACAF Champions' Cup | Los Angeles Salsa |
| Top goalscorer | Paulinho (15 goals) |
← 1992 1994 → | |
Statistics of American Professional Soccer League in season 1993.
History
[edit]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
[edit]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 Sept. 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 6pts for a win, 4pts for a shootout win, 2pts 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.
| Place | Team | GP | W | L | WN | WE | WS | LN | LE | LS | GF | GA | GD | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vancouver 86ers | 24 | 15 | 9 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 43 | 35 | +8 | 126 |
| 2 | Colorado Foxes (C) | 24 | 15 | 9 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 40 | 34 | +6 | 121 |
| 3 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 24 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 53 | 47 | +6 | 118 |
| 4 | Los Angeles Salsa | 24 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 41 | 37 | +4 | 109 |
| 5 | Toronto Blizzard | 24 | 10 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 35 | 41 | -6 | 97 |
| 6 | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 24 | 9 | 15 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 39 | 52 | -13 | 94 |
| 7 | Montreal Impact | 24 | 11 | 13 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 28 | 33 | -5 | 90 |
Playoffs
[edit]Bracket
[edit]| Semifinals | 1993 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
[edit]
Semifinal 2
[edit]| Colorado Foxes (CO) | 1–0 | Tampa Bay Rowdies (FL) |
|---|---|---|
Brian Haynes  74:25' |
Report |
Final
[edit]| Los Angeles Salsa (CA) | 1–3 (a.e.t.) | Colorado Foxes (CO) |
|---|---|---|
| Philip Gyau 67' |
Report | Ted Eck 87:38' Taifour Diané 104:50' (Lipp) Robert Lipp 110' (Diané) |
Points leaders
[edit]| Rank | Scorer | Club | Goals | Assists | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paulinho | Los Angeles Salsa | 15 | 7 | 37 |
| 2 | Paul Wright | Los Angeles Salsa | 13 | 7 | 30 |
| 3 | Paul Dougherty | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 8 | 11 | 27 |
| 4 | Zico Doe | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 12 | 2 | 26 |
| Hector Marinaro | Toronto Blizzard | 7 | 12 | 26 | |
| 6 | Taifour Diané | Colorado Foxes | 10 | 5 | 25 |
| Pierre Morice | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 9 | 7 | 25 | |
| 8 | Domenic Mobilio | Vancouver 86ers | 10 | 3 | 23 |
| 9 | Scott Benedetti | Colorado Foxes | 10 | 1 | 21 |
| 10 | Fernando Aguiar | Toronto Blizzard | 9 | 1 | 19 |
| Ted Eck | Colorado Foxes | 8 | 2 | 19 | |
| Carlo Corazzin | Vancouver 86ers | 7 | 5 | 19 | |
| 13 | Alvin James | Fort Lauderdale Strikers | 7 | 4 | 18 |
| Steve Trittschuh | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 7 | 4 | 18 | |
| 15 | Jean Harbor | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 5 | 7 | 17 |
| 16 | Brad Smith | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| Ivor Evans | Vancouver 86ers | 4 | 8 | 16 | |
| Dale Mitchell | Vancouver 86ers | 4 | 8 | 16 | |
| Amadeo Gasparini | Toronto Blizzard | 4 | 8 | 16 | |
| 20 | Grant Needham | Montreal Impact | 6 | 3 | 15 |
| 21 | Eddy Berdusco | Toronto Blizzard | 5 | 3 | 13 |
Honors
[edit]- MVP: Paulinho
- Leading goal scorer: Paulinho
- Leading goalkeeper: Jim St. Andre
- Rookie of the Year: Jason De Vos
- Coach of the Year: Ken Fogarty
- First Team All League
- Goalkeeper: Paul Dolan
- Defenders: Robin Fraser, Danny Pena, Mark Watson, Patrice Ferri
- Midfielders: Paulinho, Ivor Evans, Paul Dougherty, Ted Eck
- Forwards: Taifour Diané, Paul Wright
- Second Team All League
- Goalkeeper: Ian Feuer
- Defenders: Jason De Vos, Steve MacDonald, Kim Roentved, Mark Santel
- Midfielders: Chad Ashton, Bryan Haynes, Pierre Morice, Steve Trittschuh
- Forwards: Domenic Mobilio, Hector Marinaro
References
[edit]- ^ Foxes become road warriors in title defense The Denver Post - Saturday, October 2, 1993