1957 Season

1957 National Soccer League

General manager: Connie Leber
President: Walter Freer
Vice-presidents:

Review of the season

The National Soccer League in Ontario was now an outlawed league. This led to that the Inter-provincial final between the two Western and Eastern Division winners was not played.

Malta United joined the league from the Toronto Metro League. They paid $1,500 for their franchise rights.

The season opened in Toronto on May 4. Toronto Italia won the league and playoff championships.

There was no Inter-Provincial Final as the NSL were not affiliated to the Canadian Soccer Association. Instead two games were staged between the NSL Quebec All-Stars and the NSL Ontario All-Stars for the Labatt Trophy.

Most popular player – Mario Pizutti (Toronto Italia)

19-year old Italia fullback Mario Pizutti was voted as the most popular player in the NSL by the World Soccer magazine in Toronto. Mario joined Toronto Italia in 1953.

Leading goalscorer – Gerhard Borchert (Olympia)

Gerhard Borchert joined Olympia in May 1956. He had spent four years in a Russian prison camp before coming to Canada. In 1957 he was the leading goal scorer in the National Soccer League.

Final standings – Western Division

	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Toronto Italia	27	18	4	5	59	31	41
White Eagles	27	15	3	9	74	44	39
Olympia	27	16	7	4	74	48	36
Toronto Hungaria	27	11	9	7	51	39	29
Ulster United	27	11	10	6	55	54	28
Tridents	27	12	12	3	49	47	27
Malta United	27	8	11	8	38	52	24
Toronto Ukraina	27	8	14	5	37	48	21
East End Canadians	27	4	18	5	35	65	13
Toronto Sparta	27	2	17	8	36	80	12

Leading goalscorer

Gerhard Borchert (Olympia)

Carling Cup

October 20, 1957 Fred Hamilton Park, Toronto
Attendance: 6,200
Referee: Jack Craig
Toronto Italia 1
Toronto Hungaria 0

October 27, 1957 Fred Hamilton Park, Toronto
Toronto Italia 1
Toronto Hungaria 1

November 3, 1957 Fred Hamilton Park, Toronto
Toronto Italia 1
Toronto Hungaria 2

November 10, 1957 Fred Hamilton Park, Toronto
Toronto Italia 2
Toronto Hungaria 0

Toronto Italia won the National Soccer League playoff championship.

N.S.L. EASTERN DIVISION

President: Dr. Ernest Stastny
Vice-president: M. Nicola Schmidinghen
Secretary:

Review

Soccer in Montreal continued to prosper thanks to the involvement of Nicola Schmidinghen and Dr. Ernest Stastny. The work they put down during the 1957 season led to the top Montreal clubs involvement in an inter-provincial version of the National Soccer League in the 1958 season.

Montreal Cantalia won the 1957 league championship.

Final standings

1. Cantalia
2. Hungaria
3. Sparta
4. Vienna
5. Ukraina
6. Polonia

National Soccer League play-offs – Eastern Division

Semi-finals

September 28/29, 1957
Montreal Hungaria
Montreal Ukraina

September ??, 1957
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Final

September ??, 1957
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N.S.L. Inter-Provincial Final (East vs West)

Play-offs not held between Western and Eastern Division.

Inter-City Challenge games

October 6, 1957 Faillon Stadium, Montreal
Montreal Hungaria 1 (Tibor Stankovics)
Toronto Italia 1 (Pete Cassin)

October 20, 1957 Faillon Stadium, Montreal
Montreal Cantalia 3 (Tibor Fekete 2, Vittorio Santini)
Toronto Polish White Eagles 3 (Alf Lesz, Harold Martin, Cec McCormack)

Labatt N.S.L. Cup Finals

November 3, 1957 Toronto
Ontario National League All-Stars 1 (Alfie Lesz)
Quebec National League All-Stars 0

November 10, 1957 Faillon Stadium, Montreal
Quebec National League All-Stars 3 (Arpad Kiraly 2, Zoltan Teli)
Ontario National League All-Stars 0

Exhibition games

May 25, 1957 Varsity Stadium, Toronto
Attendance: 9,000
Referee: Ray Morgan
Ontario All-Stars 0

June 29, 1957 Hamilton, Ontario
Attendance: 2,500
Hamilton & District All-Stars 2
New York Giuliana 1

Other Leagues and Cups

1957 Toronto & District Football Association

Senior League – First Division

Teams (?):

Senior League – Second Division

Teams (?):

1957 Metro League

The league decided to operate with 18 teams in the 1957 season. The teams were divided into nine teams in the First Division and nine teams in the Second Division.

First Division

Teams (9): Belfast United, Caledonian, Croatia, Danforth, Estonia, 7000 Club, Scottish, Thistles and Victoria

Second Division

Teams (9): Avro, C.N.R.A., Danforth, Germania, Maple Leafs, Oakville Athletics, Silverthorn, Udinese and Vikings

1957 Continental League

Teams(?):

1957 Essex County Football Association

“A” Division

Teams:

Champions: Windsor Italia

“B” Division