Montreal Olympique

The Montreal Olympique were a Canadian soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1971 to 1973. The team was based in Montreal and played its 1971 and 1973 home matches at Autostade and at the Universite de Montreal Stadium for the 1972 season. Future Liverpool and Scotland national team star Graeme Souness appeared in ten games for the club on loan from Tottenham Hotspur F.C. in 1972 and future National Hockey League player Jim Corsi also played for the Olympique. During the team's three years of competition it failed to qualify for the post season and never had a winning record. History The Montreal Olympique were founded on 5 January 1971 with the announcement by Montreal Alouettes owner Sam Berger and North American Soccer League (NASL) chairman Lamar Hunt of Montreal as the ninth, and second Canadian, team for the upcoming 1971 season. In late February 1971 the team hired Italian coach Renato Tofani, who coached Taranto F.C. in Italy's second division the previous season, with Mike Campo named as his assistant. After starting the season with three consecutive losses without scoring a single goal, Tofani resigned as head coach and was replaced on an interim basis by Campo. A month later, with the team having only won a single game, the Olympiques named Sebastiano Buzzin head coach. The Olympiques' 8 August 1971 game against the Rochester Lancers was ended after 65 minutes of play when around 200 Montreal fans stormed the field of play at the Autostade after the Lancer's Francisco Escos scored his team's fourth goal of the match. The fans were angry Escos was not ruled offsides and attempted to attack the referee and linesman. Fans who remained in the stands reportedly threw chairs, one of which hit referee Peter Johnson, knocking him unconscious and requiring stitches. Throughout the season, the team hosted a total of five friendlies against international opponents Heart of Midlothian F.C. from Scotland, Italian club L.R. Vicenza, Shimshon Tel Aviv F.C. from Israel, Greek team Apollon Smyrnis F.C., and Bangu Atlético Clube from Brazil. The team lost four of the matches, only winning the game against Shimshon FC. The Olympiques finished the 1971 NASL season with a league worst record of four wins, five draws and fifteen losses and averaging only 2,440 attendance, also a league worst. In February 1972, the Olympiques hired former Wycombe Wanderers F.C. and South Korea coach Graham Adams to manage the team.