North American SOccer League (NASL)

North American Soccer League

The North American Soccer League was one of the most remarkable and fascinating competitions in the history of the game. The dream of bringing top-class professional soccer to the United states and Canada began in 1966 and, after teething problems in the infant competition grew until it appeared that the ultimate goal had been reached. In the latter half of the 1970's, crowds of 70,000 packed into Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands outside New York to watch the Cosmos and it seemed that everything was fine. Alas, those great days were relatively short-lived and early in 1985, the NASL officially collapsed, after 19 years of existence.

While it lasted, however, the NASL played an important part in the development of soccer and some of its original ideas found their way into the world-wide game. It was important, too, for the careers of many players, both those whose names had been made elsewhere and those whose reputations owed everything to their involvement of the NASL (taken from NASL: A Complete Record of the North American Soccer League by Colin Jose).