A-League (American)

The original A-League (formerly the American Professional Soccer League) was a professional men's soccer league in North America. It was a FIFA sanctioned Division 2 league of soccer in the United States and Division 1 league of soccer in Canada. It existed from 1990 to 1996.

History

In 1990, the third American Soccer League merged with the Western Soccer League to form the American Professional Soccer League. However, that season, the APSL was essentially still two different leagues. The APSL had an American Soccer Conference and a Western Soccer Conference. The teams played games only within their respective conferences and it was not until the championship game, between the Maryland Bays and the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks that teams from the two conferences met in a competitive match. ^{[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DA1038F931A1575AC0A966958260]}

In 1993, after the Canadian Soccer League folded, the APSL admitted three Canadian franchises. In 1994, it became the first FIFA sanctioned Division 2 league in the United States since the third American Soccer League folded in 1983. In 1995, the league changed its name to the A-League. In 1996, it was recognized as the officially sanctioned Division 1 league for Canada. The league effectively dissolved after the 1996 season when most of its teams merged (only the New York Fever did not) into the USISL Select League which subsequently changed its name to the new Division 2 A-League.

Complete team list

Champions

*1990: Maryland Bays 1-1 (PKs) San Francisco Bay Blackhawks
*1991: San Francisco Bay Blackhawks 1-3, 2-0, 0-0 (PKs) Albany Capitals
*1992: Colorado Foxes 1-0 Tampa Bay Rowdies
*1993: Colorado Foxes 1-1 (SO) Los Angeles Salsa
*1994: Montreal Impact 1-0 Colorado Foxes
*1995: Seattle Sounders 1-1 (SO) Atlanta Ruckus
*1996: Seattle Sounders 2-0 Rochester Raging Rhinos

League average attendance

*Regular season/playoffs
*1996: 2,891/4,781
*1995: 2,740/5,280
*1994: 2,590/6,082
*1993: 2,271/2,903
*1992: 2,104/1,502
*1991: 1,827/3,106
*1990: 1,082/2,039

References