1983 Fort Lauderdale Strikers indoor season

Fort Lauderdale Strikers
1983 season
OwnerUnited States Elizabeth Robbie
General managerUnited States Tim Robbie
ManagerEngland David Chadwick
StadiumTulsa Fairgrounds Pavilion
Bayfront Center
Montreal Forum
NASL indoorGrand Prix: Fourth place
Top goalscorerLeague: Canada Branko Šegota (10)
All: Canada Branko Šegota (11)
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The 1983 Fort Lauderdale Strikers season was the team's third season of indoor soccer in the North American Soccer League.

Club

Roster

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

Coaching staff

Background

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]

Review

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.

Statistics

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

Competitions

$5,000 Shootout Challenge

  • Semi-finals: Tampa Bay 3–1 Tulsa • Fort Lauderdale 3–1 Montreal
  • Finals: Tampa Bay 2–0 Fort Lauderdale

Grand Prix preliminary round results

Round 1

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

Round 2

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

Round 3

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

Standings

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

Match reports

Playoffs rounds

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

Semi-finals

played at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec

February 18 Montreal Manic 11–4 Fort Lauderdale Strikers Attendance: 6,049[12]

Third place match

played at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec (1:30 PM EDT)

February 20 Tulsa Roughnecks 9–4 Fort Lauderdale Strikers Attendance: 7,895

Final Grand Prix Rankings

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

Transfers

Date Position Player From club
4 February 1983 GK United States Craig Scarpelli[13] St. Louis Steamers
Date Position Player To club
4 February 1983 MF England Keith Weller[14] Tulsa Roughnecks

Non-grand prix matches

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.

Match reports

January 14, 1983 1 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, 1979 2 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

References

  1. ^ "Strikers win 4-3 on late Whelan goal". Fort Lauderdale News. January 15, 1983. p. 3C. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  2. ^ Sarni, Jim (January 11, 1983). "Strikers cruising into Grand Prix". Fort Lauderdale News. p. 3C. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  3. ^ "Strikers top Roughnecks despite travel problems". Fort Lauderdale News. January 23, 1983. p. 21C. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  4. ^ Sarni, Jim (January 24, 1983). "Strikers feels highs, lows in Grand Prix of Soccer". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 13D. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  5. ^ Sarni, Jim (January 28, 1983). "Strikers minus 10 equals headaches for Chadwick". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 10C. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  6. ^ Marmor, John (February 6, 1983). "Four Strikers Face Decisions As Team America Takes Off". Palm Beach Post. p. E13. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  7. ^ Rosaforte, Tim (February 5, 1983). "Strikers trade Weller to Tulsa – sort of". Fort Lauderdale News. p. 3C. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  8. ^ Rosaforte, Tim (February 17, 1983). "1–5 For struggling Strikers, Grand Prix of soccer is anything but grand". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. p. 3C. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  9. ^ Beard, Randy (February 21, 1983). "Championship effort carried Rowdies to title". The Evening Independent. p. 1-C. Retrieved January 23, 2014 – via Google News Archive Search.
  10. ^ "The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search".
  11. ^ "Lakeland Ledger - Google News Archive Search".
  12. ^ "The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search".
  13. ^ "Weller Transferred To Tulsa Roughnecks". Palm Beach Post. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  14. ^ "Weller Transferred To Tulsa Roughnecks". Palm Beach Post. Retrieved August 9, 2015.