Soccer Bowl '77
| Event | Soccer Bowl | ||||||
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| Date | August 28, 1977 | ||||||
| Venue | Civic Stadium, Portland, Oregon | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Stephen Hunt | ||||||
| Referee | Toros Kibritjan (USA) | ||||||
| Attendance | 35,548 | ||||||
Soccer Bowl '77 was the championship final of the 1977 NASL season. The Cosmos (who had dropped "New York" from their name in the off-season) took on the Seattle Sounders. The match was played on August 28, 1977 at Civic Stadium, in Portland, Oregon. The game was also noteworthy, as it was the final competitive match for Pelé, the Brazilian footballer widely acknowledged as the sport's greatest player. The Cosmos won the match, 2–1, to claim their second North American championship.
The Cosmos qualified for the playoffs by virtue of a second-place finish in the Eastern Division of the Atlantic Conference with 140 points. The Cosmos defeated the Tampa Bay Rowdies in a first round single-match, 3–0, on August 10, 1977, before a home crowd of 57,828 fans. They then faced the Eastern Division winner and number one seed, Ft. Lauderdale Strikers in a best-of three-series. The first game of the series was witnessed by an all-time record NASL crowd of 77,691 and saw the Cosmos win convincingly, 8–3, on August 14, 1977. The second leg, played in Fort Lauderdale on August 17, 1977, finished regulation as a 2–2 draw. After 15 minutes of scoreless golden goal extra time the teams moved on to an NASL shoot-out, which the Cosmos won, 3–0. The win advanced them to the Conference finals. In the Atlantic Conference finals series the Cosmos went up against the upset-minded Rochester Lancers, who had already dispatched two higher seeded opponents. Game 1 of the series was played on August 21, 1977 in Rochester, and saw the Cosmos win a close-fought contest, 2–1. The second leg was played before another large Meadowlands crowd of 73,669 on August 24, 1977. In that game, as with the two previous home playoff games, the Cosmos proved to be a decisive winner, 4–1. By winning the series two games to none, the Cosmos won the Atlantic Conference title and advanced to the Soccer Bowl.
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