Soccer Bowl '80
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| Event | Soccer Bowl | ||||||
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| Date | September 21, 1980 | ||||||
| Venue | RFK Stadium, Washington, DC | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Giorgio Chinaglia | ||||||
| Referee | Paul Avis (Canada) | ||||||
| Attendance | 50,768 | ||||||
Soccer Bowl '80 was the championship final of the 1980 NASL season. The New York Cosmos took on the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. The match was played on September 21, 1980 at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. The Cosmos won, 3–0, for their fourth championship overall and third in four years.
The New York Cosmos qualified for the playoffs by virtue of winning the Eastern Division of the National Conference with 213 points. The Cosmos defeated the Tulsa Roughnecks in a first round series, two games to none. The first game was played on August 29, 1980 in Tulsa before a crowd of 22,890. The Cosmos won the match, 3–1. The return leg was played at Giants Stadium on August 31, 1980 before 40,285 fans. Not only did the home side win in convincing fashion, 8–1, but Giorgio Chinaglia added to his already impressive résumé by netting a record breaking 7 goals in the contest. In the conference semifinal series they went up against the Central Division champion Dallas Tornado. Game 1 of the series saw the Cosmos win on the road, 3–2. Dallas would return the favor 4 days later on September 7, 1980 by the convincing score of 3–0. After a 10-minute intermission, the teams returned to the pitch to play a mini-game tie breaker. New York left no doubt this time, thrice scoring in the 30-minute extra session, to the delight of the 45,153 partisans assembled. The, 3–0, tie-breaker score propelled them into the National Conference finals. Their opponent, the Los Angeles Aztecs featured Brazilian stand-out Luis Fernando, who had netted 28 goals in his first 28 NASL regular season contests. Instead of Fernando, it was Chinaglia who again shined, earning 4 goals and 1 assist in a Cosmos' sweep of the series by the scores of 2–1 at the Rose Bowl and 3–1 at home, respectively. With the National Conference title wrapped up it was on to Washington, D.C. and a place in the Soccer Bowl for the third time in four years.
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