The Pittsburgh Spirit was one of the six teams that started the Major Indoor Soccer League. In 1978-79, the league's inaugural season, they finished fifth with a 6-18 record.
In the offseason, Frank Fuhrer acquired controlling interest in the team. The Spirit replaced Bruno Schwarz as their coach with Alan Pringle and claimed that the '79-80 payroll was four times the previous year's. Jim Steele, Clive Charles, Adrian Webster, Alan Merrick, David Butler, Steve Buttle, Micky Cave, Tom Jenkins and goalie Alan Mayer all had North American Soccer League outdoor experience.
With the team off to a 5-10 start, Fuhrer fired Pringle and named Len Bilous the new coach. Bilous had coached the defunct Cincinnati Kids (named for part-owner Pete Rose). The Spirit immediately put together a league-record 13-game winning streak and, despite losing their last four games, finished second in the Atlantic Division with an 18-14 record. The MISL playoff format matched the second- and third-place teams in each division for one game, with the winner to play a two-game series against the division champion. (If that series ended tied, there would be a 15-minute minigame after Game 2 to determine a winner, then 15 minutes of sudden death, then a shootout.) The two division winners then met in a one-game championship.
So the Spirit opened the 1980 playoffs Thursday, March 12 at the Civic Arena with a game against the Buffalo Stallions, who won their last six games to earn the final playoff spot. Pittsburgh's starting goalie, Mayer, was dealing with a shoulder injury.
Bilous, who was named the MISL's co-coach of the year, along with St. Louis' Pat McBride, said that if Mayer couldn't go, Pete Mannos would be in goal, since backup keeper Bill Mishalow was still recovering from January knee surgery. He stressed that his team would need to be patient against Buffalo's counterattacking style.
Mannos did get the start, and tied the league record for fewest goals allowed in a playoff game as the Spirit won, 5-3. Scott Manning, who had been in camp with the Spirit, started for the Stallions. The club was hoping for a crowd of 10,000, but only drew 5,079, including 350 who rode buses down from Buffalo.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Marino Parascenzo, "The Spirit borrowed a bit of showmanship from the St. Louis Steamers. The pre-game introductions were made from the goal-mouth, covered with a huge Spirit banner. In the darkened Arena, disco lights flashed, disco music played, and smoke issued -- although fitfully -- from under the banner as the players trotted out.
"The whole idea so captivated the crowd that to a man it stood and cheered, and thus inflamed, actually sang the national anthem."
Buttle, the Spirit captian, opened the scoring at 1:48. As Ray Kienzl of The Pittsburgh Press put it, "Buttle's first goal was made with a bit of podiatric legerdemain. He caught a header from (Curtis) Leeper on his foot, gave it a little kick in the air, then spun around and lined it past Manning."
"Buffalo's Francisco Escos couldn't quite handle it," added Parascenzo. "But then, Escos was standing inside the goal when he was trying."
Buttle scored again at 10:24 of the first period, off a pass from Cave. The play started with a Spirit steal.
It was 2-0 after one period, and the Spirit outshot the Stallions, 13-7.
At 6:11 of the second period, Buffalo's Tony Betts took a two-minute tripping penalty. At 7:08, Jim Sinclair scored a shorthanded goal to cut the Spirit lead to 2-1. 39 seconds later, Cave took a shot from the left corner. Buttle and the Stallions' Ernie Buriano both leapt in front of the net. The ball hit Buriano's temple and went in. The goal was originally credited to Buttle, but he insisted after the game that Cave get the proper credit.
"Micky's goal was an important psychological one," said Buttle. "We had just had our lead cut to 2-1 and suddenly we were up, 3-1. It gave the momentum back to us. It turned the tide."
Dave MacKenzie was sent off for delay of game at 9:51. As Parascenzo wrote, "moments after Art Napolitano saved one with his teeth, Mannos dived and rolled to kill a diving attempt by Eusebio Ferreria, about one foot from the goal mouth." The Spirit killed the penalty, and took their 3-1 lead into halftime. Buffalo had 21 shots in the second to Pittsburgh's 9, giving the Stallions a 28-22 edge.
Mannos stayed hot in the third period. He took a knee to the chin from Iubo Petrovic as he slid to make a save. At 8:15, Joe Horvath came in alone. Parascenzo:
"Horvath slid down the left side, Mannos slid over. Horvath feinted right, Mannos came out. Horvath switched left, Mannos darted back, and Horvath booted. Mannos took the shot belt high."
Late in the period, MacKenzie sent a long pass ahead to Buttle. Manning came to cover him on the right, and Buttle kicked it back out to Leeper, who was barreling in and let fly successfully from 30 feet out at 11:16.
So the Spirit took a 4-1 lead into the final period. Buffalo outshot them in the third, 8-7.
MacKenzie set up Buttle for his third goal, which looked like his fourth at the time, at 8:24. The Stallions pulled their goalie, and Petrovic scored at 12:21 and 13:21, both assisted by Eddie Azevedo. All that did, though, was make the final score 5-3. Buffalo outshot Pittsburgh, 48-38, and Mannos was credited with 22 saves to Manning's 11.
Bilous was asked if he was surprised that his team had jumped out to a 5-1 lead.
"No," the coach replied. "We've done that before."
Buttle, who was listed at all of 5-7 and 138 pounds, said, ""It's a team game and if the team plays like that and I don't score, that's all right with me. The team performance is the main thing. We had to win.
"Mannos was brilliant, he had an outstanding performance. He showed beyond a shadow of a doubt he can play. But if you're not good enough, you won't put on that jersey in the first place."
The next two games would be against a much stiffer foe. The defending champion New York Arrows finished 27-5, including a four-game sweep of the Spirit. They were undefeated at home. Steve Zungul led the league with 90 goals in those 32 games. (The Philadelphia Fever's Fred Grgurev finished second with 64.) In the four games against Pittsburgh, Zungul scored a total of 15 goals. Juli Veee and 18-year-old Branko Segota were also offensive stars for New York, and Shep Messing, who had been the Cosmos' keeper in their outdoor heyday, was the Arrows' starting goalie.
"Any time I come to Pittsburgh, I'm scared," said Arrows coach Don Popovic. "You know -- the City of Champions."
Mayer and forward Alfie Conn remained questionable for Game 1, which was scheduled for 2:05 Sunday, March 16, at the Civic Arena. Buttle and Cave were probable. Segota was questionable with a pulled thigh muscle for New York.
Pittsburgh came out in a defensive posture, but it took Zungul all of 55 seconds to pierce it when he got behind the Spirit defense and put a wicked drive past Mannos. At 10:24, Zungul took a rebound pass from Al Trost and put it by Mannos to make it 2-0. That was how the first period ended, with the Arrows outshooting the Spirit, 18-5.
Buttle got credit for the first Pittsburgh goal when his shot slipped out of Messing's hands, hit a New York defender and caromed into the net. Webster got the assist at 7:57 of the second period.
"The first goal was important," said Bilous. "It made believers out of us.
"Everybody had doubts we could stay with them. Not the players -- the players think they can beat New York. We can, but it's no easy task -- but the Cinderella stories happen at other levels."
That made the halftime score 2-1, and the Spirit outshot the Arrows, 21-17, in the second.
At 3:01 of the third period, Zungul took a couple of shots from in close that Mannos stopped. The rebound went to Veee, who made the score 3-1. "The one I'd like to have back is the third one," said Mannos. "I'd like to have held it or hit it out to the side, not hit it out to Veee."
According to Popovic, "That was the deciding goal. If they come back and score, it's 2-2 and they stop the panic right away."
It was the only goal of the third period, and New York outshot Pittsburgh, 10-5, in the period.
Buttle took a tripping penalty at 13:43 of the third. Val Tuksa scored a power play goal 38 seconds into the fourth to make it 4-1, assisted by Luis Alberto. Buttle scored unassisted at 6:39, but Veee set up Zungul at 11:11, and Buttle closed out the scoring with an assist from Graham Fyfe at 14:19, making the final score 5-3, and tying Messsing with Mannos for fewest goals allowed in a playoff game. The Spirit outshot the Arrows in the period, 12-9.
Attendance was a disappointing 6,300. Segota, Cave and Conn didn't play.
"We missed [Segota] a lot because he can shoot from outside," explained Popovic. "When they go into a zone, he can make the shots from 10 and 15 yards. But he'll definitely be okay on Friday."
Mannos said that, "As good as Buffalo is offensively, it's not in the same class with New York. Zungul's not their whole show, although it's no accident he has scored more than 90 goals. He has a hell of a supporting cast."
And MacKenzie said of Zungul, "I stay up nights thinking about him."
Game 2 was at the Nassau Coliseum on Friday, March 21. Cave was in the Spirit lineup, and Segota played for the Arrows. In front of 8,802 on a rainy night in New York, the score was tied, 3-3, well into the third period. But the floodgates opened, and the Arrows won, 11-3.
New York scored a couple of early goals: Tuksa from Gene Strenicer at 2:34, and Zungul from Veee at 5:00. But the Spirit defense settled down, and the Arrows led, 2-0, after a period, outshooting Pittsburgh, 9-5.
In the second, Cave, who was playing on a painful heel, took a pass from Buttle on the right wing and blew it past Messing at 2:30. And when Fyfe deflected in a Leeper shot at 5:54, the game was tied, 2-2.
Unfortunately for the Spirit, both Bill McNicol and Buttle were injured in the second period. McNicol's right ankle was hurt, while Buttle took a knee to the right thigh from Veee. McNicol did manage to knock Segota out of the game before he left.
At 13:34 of the period, Mannos stopped a couple of shots, but Stenicer picked up the rebound and scored, with an assist from Veee. That gave New York a 3-2 halftime lead. Shots in the second period were 14-8, Arrows.
At 1:48 of the third, Cave put a shot just inside the post. Charles picked up the assist.
The score stayed tied until 9:22 of the period, when Veee found a loose ball in the box and put it into the net. Zungul was credited with the assist. A minute and seven seconds later, Ade Coker put the ball in front of the goal, and it went in off Charles. Tibor Molnar got the assist. And when Veee deflected a Damir Sutevski shot by Mannos at 14:52, the rout was on.
The score was 6-3 after three periods, and New York outshot Pittsburgh, 20-5.
Then in the first minute of the fourth, the Arrows scored another three goals. Tuksa passed across to Zungul, who buried it at 16 seconds. 21 seconds later, Zungul set up Veee. And 11 seconds after that, Zungul put another shot by Mannos. Mannos, who actually kept the Spirit in the game, left with an injury with 11:36 left. Mishalow came in and gave up two more goals, Sutevski at 9:21 and Zungul with one second left, making the final 11-3.
The final shots were 58-25, New York. Mannos made 24 saves to Messing's 12.
The MSG Network broadcast of the game can be found here.
"At least seven players couldn't play in the fourth quarter," said assistant coach John Kowalski.
Buttle felt that, "We weren't beaten by a better team. We're equally as good, but injuries caught up with us."
Nonetheless, two days later, Zungul's three goals and one assist led the Arrows to a 7-4 victory over Houston and their second championship.
The May 23 Press had an article looking ahead to 1980-81. It ended with, "The players were scheduled to stop off at a downtown sporting goods store on their way home yesterday. The fans were there. But none of the players showed."
The Post-Gazette didn't bother with a post mortem. Maybe they knew that Fuhrer was about to fold the club. He did, and the DeBartolo Corporation eventually acquired the franchise and brought it back to life after a year off. It lasted another five years (the Stan Terlecki era, if you like) before the DeBartolos decided they'd do better with hockey.
But there was a bit of indoor soccer excitement in March 1980.
