Messi of the arena and soap opera whodunnit showings were staple of forgotten American league

The Major Indoor Soccer League ran for only 14 years but it has a legacy which took in goals, soap opera whodunnit screenings and a Messi-like superstar.

Not enough goals and a lack of grandiose spectacle: two often-cited reasons for why soccer has never been fully embraced by the wider American sports audience.

The Major Indoor Soccer League sought to address those issues emphatically. Between its foundation in 1978 and its final game in 1992, goals rained by the bucketload and pomp and pageantry were central to the viewing and playing experience.

“The Americans loved it because it was very similar to ice hockey or basketball, with action all the time, lots of goals, power plays and music playing – lots of razzamatazz,” says Tony Whelan, the long-time Manchester United academy coach who played – indoor and outdoor – in the Unites States in the 1970s and 80s.

“It was ideal for the American market. But I’m not sure it was for the purists. You had sin bins. If you had a player down, you’d have to change your tactics. It was very much like ice hockey but with a football.

The Americans were brilliant at marketing it. It was never my cup of tea, but as a spectacle, you got your money’s worth if you paid to watch it.”

For the players, the MISL was a necessary concept. The North American Soccer League season typically ended in late August. With the exception of the league’s superstar imports such as Franz Beckenbauer, George Best and Pele, most of its players were not earning vast amounts; playing in the MISL could sustain them through the winter. And with basketball and ice hockey arenas in most major cities, the infrastructure was already in place.

The first match kicked off on December 22, 1978, with the New York Arrows hosting the Cincinnati Kids in front of 10,386 fans at the Nassau Coliseum. Baseball icon Pete Rose, a part-owner of the Kids, kicked out the ceremonial first ball before watching his side fall to a 7-2 drubbing. The league began with just six teams in its first season but would expand to encompass 14 at its peak.

Like the Masters series that used broadcast on Sky Sports in the mid-2000s, with veteran retired players representing their former clubs in short-sided tournaments, MISL matches were played on carpeted ice hockey rinks. Games were fast-paced, high-scoring and the unfamiliar elements of wall passes and rolling substitutions made for exciting, end-to-end play.

“I only scored one goal in outdoor football but indoor I got loads of goals and assists,” says former England assistant manager John Gorman, who played in the MISL for the Phoenix Inferno. “Even as a full-back, you could get really involved in the attack because it was a smaller pitch.”

“Tactically, I learned a lot playing indoor soccer,” Whelan adds. “For me to cope physically, I had to adapt the way I played. I had to be sound tactically because half a yard was 10 yards. You couldn’t afford to make a mistake. You could be three or four goals up, they could get that back within four minutes. You had to be 10-0 up before you felt like you would win the game.”

In addition to its employment of cheerleading crews and pre- and post-game musical performances, the MISL would piggyback on popular culture to squeeze every drop of attention it could glean from its receptive and substantial fanbase. When, in 1980, the soap opera Dallas was set to reveal the culprit behind one of television’s most famous whodunnits – who shot JR Ewing? – Whelan remembers the episode being broadcast inside the arena post-match.

“To give you an idea of how popular indoor soccer was in Atlanta, we played Tampa on a Friday night,” he says. “In order to attract people to the game and not stay home watching Dallas, they advertised that they would put Dallas on the big screen after the match.

“So we played that night and it was a sell-out – at least 10,000 people in the arena. We won the game and I remember we didn’t leave the field. We all stayed in the dugout, watching Dallas with everybody else to find out who shot JR.”

(Twenty-four-year-old spoiler alert: it was Kristin Shepard.)

For all its glitz, glamour and on-pitch action, however, the MISL needed a star. And in Slavisa “Steve” Zungul, it had the “Lord of all Indoors”.

Zungul was a former Yugoslav international striker who set MISL records for goals (652), assists (471), regular-season MVP awards (six) and play-off MVP awards (three), while winning multiple titles with the New York Arrows and the San Diego Sockers.

“Zungul was absolutely amazing,” says Gorman. “He had lovely technique and skills and he could score. With his back to goal, he’d do all these flicks, back heels and tricks.”

Zungul scored four goals for the Arrows as they smashed the Kids in the MISL debut game, announcing himself in style to the US indoor soccer circuit. And he arrived with a scarcely believable backstory.

A prolific 24-year-old striker with Hajduk Split, he’d decided to defect to the US to pursue a Stateside soccer career under the pretence that he was only planning to visit the country with his popstar/glamour model girlfriend Moni Kovacic.

Branded a traitor back home, the Yugoslav sporting authorities enlisted FIFA to issue a global ban on Zungal. But as the MISL did not fall under FIFA affiliation, he was free to represent the Arrows. After a court ruling cleared him to play outdoor soccer in the mid-80s, he enjoyed a brief yet typically prolific spell with the Golden Bay Earthquakes in the NASL, twice being named an All-Star and voted the league’s MVP in 1984. He returned to the MISL for the final years of his career, playing for the Sockers and the Tacoma Stars before retiring in 1990.

“Steve Zungul is the Lord of all Indoors, a serious goalscorer,” says Chris Dangerfield, an English forward who played in the NASL and the MISL in the 1980s. “He’ll score goals anywhere on the planet. He was a fantastic footballer.

“All of his records will never be broken. He wanted to play outdoor soccer again, and when he did for the Earthquakes he scored 19, 20 goals every season he played. Steve Zungul was special. He was a natural goalscorer. He could play with both feet and he’d find a way to get the ball in the back of the net.”

“He was a superstar when I was there,” Whelan adds. “Indoors, he was phenomenal. He’d be like Messi back then.

“You couldn’t afford to make mistakes. If you lost the ball – bang – it was a goal. That’s where Zungul was magnificent. You couldn’t give him the width of your feet – bang, goal.”

Despite its in-arena popularity – attendances averaged well over 7,000 throughout the league’s existence – the MISL battled near-constant financial hardship and eventually folded in 1992.

Four of the league’s franchises mustered on for a while and arena soccer, more as an avenue for players who fall short of the professional standards in the US, continues to this day.

But for its ballyhoo, bombast and sheer entertainment value, the glory years of the MISL still represent the unmatched peak of the indoor game.