October 3: NASL’s Last Game

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After year’s of struggling, the North American Soccer League folded in 1985 and it was on this day in soccer history in 1984 that the last NASL match was played. The Chicago Sting defeated the Toronto Blizzard 3-2 at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

With the win, the Sting completed a sweep of the two game series having defeated the Blizzard 2-1 in Chicago two days earlier.

The matches in Chicago and Toronto drew 8,352 and 16,821, respectively.

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The run completed a good year for the Sting, which was named after the 1973 film by the same name, as they lead the league in points as well. The Sting also won the 1981 Soccer Bowl title.

The victory was hardly news in the sports crazy town on Chicago, however. With the Chicago Cubs playing the San Diego Padres in the second game of the National League Championship Series the story was relegated to Page 7 of the following days Chicago Tribune.

Soccer Birthdays

1945 – Tony Brown, English footballer
1968 – Paul Crichton, English footballer
1978 – Gerald Asamoah, German footballer
1978 – Neil Clement, English footballer
1978 – Claudio Pizarro, Peruvian footballer
1981 – Danny Coid, English footballer
1981 – Zlatan Ibrahimović, Swedish footballer
1981 – Andreas Isaksson, Swedish footballer
1983 – Frederico Chaves Guedes, Brazilian footballer