Team Hawaii became the Tulsa Roughnecks,[15] the Las Vegas Quicksilver became the San Diego Sockers, the Connecticut Bicentennials became the Oakland Stompers and the St. Louis Stars moved to Anaheim to become the California Surf.
The first round and the Soccer Bowl were single games, while the conference semifinals and championships were two-game series.
The Cosmos beat the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers, 7–0, on opening day[18] and never looked back, scoring 88 times while losing just three games in regulation.
That award went to New England's Mike Flanagan, who scored 30 goals and 68 points while leading the Tea Men to an unlikely ASC East title.
The resulting mini-game went to a shootout, and Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer scored goals to keep the Cosmos alive.
[21] The Portland Timbers were shut out over both games of the National Conference final,[22] and the Tampa Bay Rowdies were beaten before 74,901 fans at Giants Stadium in the Soccer Bowl.
[25] The Stompers had drawn over 32,000 for their opening game at the Oakland Coliseum,[26] but were drawing crowds under 10,000 by the end of the season.
GP = Games Played, G = Goals (worth 2 points), A = Assists (worth 1 point), Pts = Points Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; SO = Shutouts The first round and the Soccer Bowl were single game match ups, while the conference semifinals and championships were all two-game series.
[28] 1978 NASL Champions: Cosmos Mini-games are not counted as games played when compiling individual statistics.