The New Jersey Americans were a professional soccer club that played for four seasons in the 2nd Division American Soccer League during the late 1970’s. The Americans won the 1977 ASL championship and later gained some fleeting press attention for signing former Benfica and Portuguese National Team stars Eusebio and Tony Simoes.
New York Apollo were a 2nd Division pro soccer club in the American Soccer League that languished in the shadow of the far more popular New York Cosmos of the NASL during the mid-to-late 1970’s.
The New England Sharks were an obscure 2nd Division American Soccer League (1933-1983) club that folded midway through their only season of existence in the summer of 1981. The Sharks started out in New Bedford, Massachusetts but moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in July 1981 in a cost-saving effort.
This 2nd Division soccer team from the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania is something of a cult classic. There’s the Pennsylvania Stoners name, of course – reputedly a nod to the “Keystone State” rather than an endorsement of other recreational pursuits. The 1979 Stoners featured not one but two future NFL placekickers on their roster, Matt Bahr and Florian Kempf. And in 1980, while other American Soccer League clubs attempted to fill their program books with quarter-page ads, the Stoners sold one of the first jersey sponsorships in American pro soccer to ALPO dog food.
American Soccer League (1980) Born: 1980 – The New Jersey Americans relocate to Miami, FL Folded: Postseason 1980 First Game: April 20, 1980 (L 1-0
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