Author and Soccer Historian, Stephen Brandt, returns to Protagonist to share the second installment of the story of the NASL Atlanta Chiefs.

Some clubs who have about the same amount of history as the teams in Atlanta during the classic NASL years, don’t have as many great matches as the Atlanta franchise has. To back it up a bit, yes there’s not many in Atlanta. When great matches involve Atlanta, they definitely hit it out of the park. They did have one famous international series of matches that is still talked about to this day.

As we have said in the previous edition, one of the most influential people in NASL history was player-manager Phil Woosnam, a Welshman. In fact, four more Welshmen came over as well; Vic Rouse, who had turned out for Palace, Oxford, and Leyton Orient, Brian Hughes, Vic Crow, and Brian Bedford, a 200 plus goal sorcerer mostly with Queens Park Rangers. They did get to play in 1968, though Bedford did go back to England before the season kicked off. They had to wait to play their second match in 1968, because MLK was murdered in Memphis. They eventually got the campaign back, the Chiefs won against the St. Louis Stars, and a draw against the San Diego Toros. Vic Crow in a defeat against Chicago became the first NASL Welsh goalscorer in the 4-1 loss.

Vic Crowe was one of many Welshman who came across the pond and did well in the NASL.

Between May 1st and June 6th, the Chiefs had a nine match unbeaten run. There was two wins over Manchester City. But more on those games later. The Chiefs lost just four matches in the final 18 sealing the Atlantic Division Title. They played in the end of season playoffs against the Washington Whips, where they won 1-0 on a goal from Graham Newton. The Chiefs finished the season with a record of 18 wins, six draws, and seven losses. They also had the highest winning percentage in NASL with 58%.

In the playoffs the defense would save the Chiefs, since they only conceded two goals in their four matches. Up first was the Cleveland Stokers, now just an American team, not one with Stoke City backing them. The away leg ended in a 1-1 draw, but back at Fulton County Stadium, where they won 2-1. In the final they met the San Diego Toros, who had defeated the Kansas City Spurs. In San Diego, there was a 0-0 draw, before coming home to Atlanta, to clinch the title 3-0. Peter McFarland, Kaizer Motaung, and Delroy Scott all hammered home the goals. Rouse, Hughes, and Crowe, the remaining Welsh players featured in both legs of the final.

Delroy Scott on the ball, working a give and go with Brian Hughes.

The Chiefs, despite winning the title, did not have any players on the All-Star team. Kaizer Motaung picked up Rookie of the Year, and Phil Woosnam was the coach of the year. Woosnam, left the Chiefs to coach the US NAtional team, and become the Commissioner, a position he would hold until the early 1980s. Vic Rouse replaced Woosnam as the coach of the Chiefs. He led the team to second place the following year, and kept the job until 1972. Vic Crowe went back to Aston Villa as manager, before coming back to become the Portland Timbers coach.

The actual most famous set of matches in Atlanta, was when the champion of England, Manchester City came over in 1968. Just as it is today, the Atlanta media billed the Chiefs as playing an international match against the number one team in England, and one of the best teams in the world. Some could argue that City hasn’t been one of the best, but just a very good team. This was one of many matches that City was going to play in America at the time. City went up early in the match, but Atlanta leveled the match before half. The match finished 3-2 to the home team, with Francis Lee getting the second goal for City. The story should have ended there, but the management team of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison, requested another match before they flew back to the UK. In my book about Crystal Palace I chat a lot about this team, to set the stage for Allison going to Palace.

Of course the local newspapers said that the Chiefs would lose massively. As Paul Harvey once said, “And now the rest of the story”. City lost the last match 2-1, with Francis Lee saying that Atlanta played well. A very young, Kartik Krishnaiyer was sitting in the stands for the games, and this was what made him the soccer media icon that he is today.

by Stephen Brandt