Oakland Stompers

The Oakland Stompers were a soccer team in the North American Soccer League (NASL) which played the 1978 season in the NASL. The Stompers played in the Western Division of the American Conference and finished the year with a 12-18 record, in third place and out of playoff contention.

Oakland Stompers
Full nameOakland Stompers
Nickname(s)Stompers
Founded1978
Dissolved1978 (1978)
GroundOakland–Alameda County Coliseum
Capacity50,000
ChairmanMilan Mandarić
LeagueNASL

Team history

At the end of the 1977 NASL season, Silicon Valley businessman (and former owner of the San Jose Earthquakes) Milan Mandarić bought the Connecticut Bicentennials and relocated them to Oakland. The club, renamed the Stompers, moved into Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, previously home of the NASL's Oakland Clippers in 1967-68.

The club drew 32,104 in their home opener against cross-bay rival San Jose in April (at the time, the largest crowd ever to see a pro league soccer match in California), but could only break 20,000 once more, against the Cosmos in July. On the field, with ex-Cosmos goalie Shep Messing, the Stompers won four of their first five matches, and held a 8-5 record in early June, good enough for second place in the ASC Western Division. As late as June 28, Oakland still had a winning record at 10-9; they collapsed after that, losing nine of their last eleven matches (and being outscored 28-8). The Stompers, whose 34 goals on the season tied for dead last in the NASL, finished at 12-18 and out of the playoffs.

Most of their crowds were in the 8,000-to-10,000 range, and they averaged only 11,929 on the season. (The Coliseum was a lonely place in the summer of '78: the Stompers' co-tenants, baseball's Oakland Athletics, attracted just 7,218 fans per home date.) The crowds weren't that bad by NASL standards; they were good enough for ninth-best in the 24-team league (albeit less than the league average of 13,084), but they were insufficient to pay the bills. So, at the end of the 1978 season, the team on the move again, this time to Edmonton, Alberta where they was renamed the Edmonton Drillers.

Year-by-year
Year League W L T Pts Regular Season Playoffs Avg. Attend.
1978 NASL 12 18 — 103 3rd, American Conference, Western Division Did Not Qualify 11,929

Honors

U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame

Canada Soccer Hall of Fame

Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame

Roster

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK  USA Shep Messing
2 MF  YUG Joe Raduka
3 DF  ENG Alec Lindsay
4 DF  GER Volker Fass
4 DF  ENG John Rowlands
5 MF  YUG Blagoje Paunović
6 MF  GER Peter Enders
6 DF  CAN Bruce Twamley
7 FW  RSA Geoff Wegerle
8 MF  NGA Andy Atuegbu
9 FW  ISR Ehud Ben-Tovim
9 MF  YUG Miro Djordjevic
9 FW  USA Mike Flater
10 MF  GER Karl-Heinz Mrosko
No. Pos. Nation Player
11 FW  USA Mark Liveric
12 FW  ENG Andy McCulloch
13 FW  YUG Bogdan Turudija
14 MF  YUG Alex Lesh
15 DF  USA Lee Atack
16 FW  USA Tony Graham
17 MF  YUG Mike Dokich
17 DF  POL Franciszek Smuda
18 FW  YUG Božidar Ban
19 GK  USA Gene DuChateau
20 FW  USA Archie Roboostoff
21 MF  ISR Shmuel Rosenthal
22 FW  USA Johnny Moore

Coaches

References
  1. "Hall of Famers". indoorsoccerhall.com. September 1, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  2. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2202&dat=19771108&id=75syAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6egFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1759,4385750&hl=en
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-05. Retrieved 2009-08-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)


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