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1993 American Professional Soccer League

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American Professional Soccer League
Season1993
ChampionsColorado Foxes
(2nd Title)
PremiersVancouver 86ers
(1st Title)
1994 CONCACAF Champions' CupLos Angeles Salsa
Matches84
Goals279 (3.32 per match)
Best playerBrazil Paulinho, Los Angeles Salsa
Top goalscorerBrazil Paulinho, Los Angeles Salsa
(15 goals)
Best goalkeeperUnited States 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.

History

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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 did not have an available home stadium. Their home venue at Englewood High School was planned to host a homecoming football game on the same day and an alternative venue, the Brooks Field in Golden, Colorado, was secured too late.[1] The Foxes attempted unsuccessfully to move the championship to a neutral-site venue in Vancouver.[2]

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

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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.

Rank Team GP W L WN WE WS LN LE LS GF GA GD Pts
1Vancouver 86ers 2415911228014335+8126
2Colorado Foxes (C) 2415912036304034+6121
3Tampa Bay Rowdies 241212102010115347+6118
4Los Angeles Salsa 2412128139034137+4109
5Toronto Blizzard 24101482011123541-697
6Fort Lauderdale Strikers 2491580111133952-1394
7Montreal Impact 24111390211112833-590

Playoffs

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Bracket

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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

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Semifinal 2

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Colorado Foxes (CO)1–0Tampa Bay Rowdies (FL)
Brian Haynes (74:25) Report
Attendance: 5,005

Final

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Los Angeles Salsa (CA)1–3 (a.e.t.)Colorado Foxes (CO)
Philip Gyau 67' Report Ted Eck (87:38)
Taifour Diané (104:50)
Robert Lipp 110' (Diané)
Attendance: 10,743

Points leaders

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Rank Scorer Club Goals Assists Points
1 Brazil Paulinho Los Angeles Salsa 15 7 37
2 United States Paul Wright Los Angeles Salsa 13 7 30
3 England Paul Dougherty Tampa Bay Rowdies 8 11 27
4 Liberia Zico Doe Fort Lauderdale Strikers 12 2 26
Canada Hector Marinaro Toronto Blizzard 7 12 26
6 Guinea Taifour Diané Colorado Foxes 10 5 25
France Pierre Morice Tampa Bay Rowdies 9 7 25
8 Canada Domenic Mobilio Vancouver 86ers 10 3 23
9 United States Scott Benedetti Colorado Foxes 10 1 21
10 Canada Fernando Aguiar Toronto Blizzard 9 1 19
United States Ted Eck Colorado Foxes 8 2 19
Canada Carlo Corazzin Vancouver 86ers 7 5 19
13 Jamaica Alvin James Fort Lauderdale Strikers 7 4 18
United States Steve Trittschuh Tampa Bay Rowdies 7 4 18
15 United States Jean Harbor Tampa Bay Rowdies 5 7 17
16 United States Brad Smith Tampa Bay Rowdies 6 4 16
Fiji Ivor Evans Vancouver 86ers 4 8 16
Canada Dale Mitchell Vancouver 86ers 4 8 16
Argentina Amadeo Gasparini Toronto Blizzard 4 8 16
20 Canada Grant Needham Montreal Impact 6 3 15
21 Canada Eddy Berdusco Toronto Blizzard 5 3 13

Honors

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References

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  1. ↑ "Foxes become road warriors in title defense". The Denver Post. October 2, 1993. p. 2D.
  2. ↑ Pearce, Alan (September 21, 1993). "Homeless Foxes hit road for final". Rocky Mountain News. p. 17B.
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