The third American Soccer League was formed at a time of rapid flux in U.S.
Soccer League makeup. Just before the demise of the United Soccer League in
1985, there was formed the Western Soccer Alliance (Changed to the Western
Soccer League in 1989), followed two years later by the Lone Star Soccer
Association (itself formed as a direct result of the collapse of the United
Soccer League), and the American Soccer League III in 1988. In 1990, the
ASL III and the WSA merged to form the American Professional Soccer League,
known in 1995 as the A-League. The league standings for the WSA/WSL and
APSL can be found on their separate homepages. The ASL III information was
obtained by Chris Allen (callen@uga.cc.uga.edu) from the APSL media guide.
1988
G W L GF GA PTS
Northern Division
New Jersey Eagles 20 15 5 39 24 45
Maryland Bays 20 12 8 32 31 36
Washington Stars 20 11 9 31 28 33
Boston Bolts 20 9 11 31 33 27
Albany Capitals 20 7 13 26 35 21
Southern Division
Ft. Lauderdale Strikers 20 14 6 46 25 42
Washington Diplomats 20 10 10 27 30 30
Tampa Bay Rowdies 20 10 10 23 21 30
Orlando Lions 20 8 12 21 31 24
Miami Sharks 20 4 16 24 42 12
Semifinals: Ft. Lauderdale 5 defeated Maryland 5-2, 6-0
Washington defeated New Jersey, 4-1, 0-1, 4-1 (MG)
FINALS: Washington defeated Ft. Lauderdale 4-3, 3-2
1989
G W TW L TL GF GA PTS
Northern Division
Washington Stars 20 14 7 6 2 19 14 37
Boston Bolts 20 13 5 7 3 27 19 37
Albany Capitals 20 11 1 9 4 29 19 36
Maryland Bays 20 9 5 11 5 28 32 27
New Jersey Eagles 20 6 1 14 4 21 35 21
Southern Division
Tampa Bay Rowdies 20 12 3 8 2 32 25 35
Ft. Lauderdale Strikers 20 12 2 8 1 33 25 35
Washington Diplomats 20 11 3 9 3 32 26 33
Orlando Lions 20 9 0 11 3 25 20 30
Miami Sharks 20 3 2 17 2 20 51 9
Semifinals: Ft. Lauderdale defeated Washington, 3-1, 3-1
Boston defeated Tampa Bay, 2-0, 2-1
FINALS: Ft. Lauderdale defeated Boston, 1-0, 0-2, 1-0 (MG)
WSL-ASL II "National" Championship: Ft. Lauderdale defeated San Diego.
TW = Tie-breaking win. TL = Tie-breaking loss.
Scoring System: 3 points for a regulation win, 2 for a penalty-kick win, 1 for a penalty-kick loss, 0 for a regulation loss.
After the season, Sacramento folded.
At the end of 1989, the ASL III and the WSL merged into a new entity known as the American Professional Soccer League. For 1990, they remained separate conferences which played independent schedules with different rules and scoring systems, but the two conference champions met for a league championship title game.
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