1982-83 MISL Season

By Dave Litterer of The US Soccer History Archives, with supplemental materials by Steve Holroyd and Paul Reeths

This season, the MISL welcomed three teams from the NASL, which had suspended its indoor season. The Chicago Sting, San Diego Sockers and Golden Bay Earthquakes provided some major market exposure for the league, as well as some competitive teams, with San Diego promptly taking the Western Division title. Originally the MISL had planned to also add a team in Los Angeles, but the Philadelphia Fever, suffering from dwindling support at home, moved west to become the Lazers. The league was up to fourteen teams, and expanded its schedule to 48 games.

A major change was the trade of Steve Zungul from the New York Arrows to the Golden bay Earthquakes. This had an immediate impact on the Arrows who finished at .500 this season. Zungul, despite again leading the league in scoring could not help the Earthquakes much and they finished next to last in the west, ahead of only the hapless Los Angeles Lazers. The Eastern Division was a three way race between the veteran Cleveland Force, the up and coming Baltimore Blast and the transplanted Chicago Sting. Cleveland had the scoring firepower, headed by Craig Allen, Keith Furphy and Kai Haaskivi, but Baltimore had the defensive mettle. Led by all-star Heinz Wirtz, Baltimore allowed only 224 goals, third best in the league, and won a narrow race by a single game. In the West, San Diego took the division rather easily, but there was a hot battle for second place and coveted playoff spots between Wichita, St. Louis, Kansas City and Phoenix. All of these were teams finally reaching their stride, and the growing rivalry between Intrastate foes Kansas City and St. Louis would provide many memorable matches in coming seasons.

Close races notwithstanding, the final standings provided a psychic-quality guide to the postseason. The top two teams from each division advanced to the next round. In the semi-finals, Baltimore defeated Cleveland in a tough five-game series to reach their first final series, as did the interloping San Diego Sockers, who made quick work of the Wichita Wings. The Championship series was the most lopsided ever, and showed the superior depth of the NASL talent base, despite its recent losses in the salary war. The Sockers blanked Baltimore 6-0 and 7-0 in the first two games before losing a pair of close games, with the second going into overtime and a 6-7 loss. They took the final 3-1 to claim the crown, the first MISL championship awarded to a NASL team. Ironically, the three NASL teams all withdrew from the MISL, anticipating that the NASL would return to the arenas the following year. But San Diego would return in the future, and become the dominating team for the rest of the MISL's existence.

The MISL enjoyed its most successful season yet, as attendance climbed to 2,652,613, for an average of 7,895 per game. In another first, the MISL made its network television debut as CBS broadcast a Cleveland-Baltimore playoff game on May 7, seen by an estimated four million viewers. During the offseason, the league announced the awarding of new franchises in Tacoma for 1983-84 and Dallas for 1984-85.