 | |||||||
| Event | Soccer Bowl | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Date | August 27, 1978 | ||||||
| Venue | Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Dennis Tueart | ||||||
| Referee | Jim Highet (Canada) | ||||||
| Attendance | 74,901 | ||||||
Soccer Bowl '78 was the North American Soccer League's championship final for the 1978 season. It was the fourth NASL championship under the Soccer Bowl name.[1][2]
The match was played at Giants Stadium in the New York City suburb of East Rutherford, New Jersey on August 27 between the American Conference champion Tampa Bay Rowdies and the National Conference champion and defending Soccer Bowl champion New York Cosmos (who had dropped "New York" from their name to simply "Cosmos" for only the 1977–78 seasons).
Seeing the large home crowds the Cosmos had drawn during the 1977 NASL season, the league awarded Soccer Bowl hosting duties to the club.[3] The match drew a Soccer Bowl-record 74,901 fans, more than doubling the previous year's attendance at Portland's Civic Stadium. To date, it remains the largest crowd for a professional club soccer championship game in North America.
The Cosmos won the match by a 3–1 score, capturing their third league title and becoming the first repeat champion in NASL history.
- ^ NASL. "NASLSoccerBowl – History – Past Winner". North American Soccer League.
- ^ NASL. "NASL 1968-1984 - Yearly Result". North American Soccer League.
- ^ Tierney, Mike (January 10, 1978). "Rowdies, Strikers Mates – But Not Cosmos". St. Petersburg Times. p. 1C. Retrieved June 18, 2012.