Aug. 26 (1972)

The St. Louis Stars lose, 2-1, to the New York Cosmos in the NASL championship game on the rain-soaked artificial turf at Hofstra Stadium on Long Island. Two of the three goals are questionable, and another that would have tied the match in its waning moments is ruled offsides. There is no doubt about the opening goal. Randy Horton, the league’s leading scorer, heads a corner kick off the crossbar and across the goal line to give the Cosmos the lead in the fifth minute. The score stays that way until the 52nd minute when Stars player-coach Casey Frankiewicz drives a pass from John Sewell past goalkeeper Richard Blackmore. Referee Roger Schott waves off the goal for offsides. The Stars protest vociferously. Schott consults linesman Bill Maxwell, who rules the play onsides. As the deadlocked game enters the final five minutes of regulation, Schott calls Stars defender Gary Rensing for roughing Johnny Kerr in the St. Louis penalty area, although Kerr does not have the ball. Josef Jelinek converts the penalty kick for a 2-1 New York lead. But the fireworks are far from over. Werner Roth is ejected for deliberately kicking the Stars’ Willy Roy while Roy lies on the turf. With a man advantage, the Stars attack furiously. Roy, a future U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer, apparently levels the score with 13 seconds left, but Schott calls the play offsides. “The game was our most determined effort under adverse playing conditions,” Frankiewicz tells St. Louis Post-Dispatch sportswriter Harold Flachsbart. “We felt not many things were going our way. I feel we should still be playing overtime.” The questionable officiating aside, the weather and the field go neither team’s way. Hard rain falls for 90 minutes before and 10 minutes into the match, leaving puddles down the middle of the field from goal to goal. Lightning knocks out the stadium lights, delaying the start of the match for five minutes. The field itself is only 55 yards wide, 15 yards narrower than the Stars’ home field at Busch Stadium. The game marks the only time that the Stars will reach the league championship match during their 11 seasons in St. Louis.