SISL 1990 season

Feb. 23, 2022 |  Categories:  USL  

After the 1989-90 Southwest Independent Soccer League season, the organization signed an affiliation agreement with the indoor National Professional Soccer League. Under the agreement, the SISL would operate as a farm league for the NPSL. The NPSL could assign players to the SISL and sign players from the SISL to professional contracts.

Most teams which played in the 1989-90 indoor season played in the 1990 outdoor season. The Amarillo Challengers and Addison Arrows sat out and the North Texas United of Duncanville joined for the outdoor season. The 14 teams were split between two conferences with six in the Western Conference and eight in the Eastern Conference.

Just prior to the season start in mid-May, the Colorado Comets took part in the National Challenge Cup Region IV tournament. They lost in the semifinals 2-1 in overtime to L.A. Zamora at Artesia High School in Lakewood, Cali. In addition, the Oklahoma City Warriors could not find a home field and only played a restricted schedule eventually forfeiting games due to financial problems.

The top four clubs from each conference met in the quarterfinals. In a big upset, the fourth-place Richardson Rockets beat the first-place Tulsa Renegades in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. In the conference semifinals, Richardson again pulled an upset beating the second-place Austin Capital Sockadillos.

The Colorado Comets defeated the Tucson Amigos in the Western Conference semifinals to set up a league championship series against Richardson. But, Richardson had to declare 10 players ineligible for the final game. Richardson's roster was made up mostly of current and former Southern Methodist University players. A scheduling conflict involving the NCAA season required the players to be back at school. In order to avoid threats to their college eligibilities, both teams agreed not to play and to award the championship to Colorado.