League president: Joe Piccininni
League secretary: Ivan Habus
Clubs and players
With the suspension of Zeljko Bilecki for the whole season Toronto Croatia added two new goalkeepers in Zeljko Poleto and Darko Grisbaher. Poleto was a former Dinamo Zagreb youth player. Croatia also signed Miralem Fazlic and Alberto Altarac from the Sloboda club in Yugoslavia. Ibrahim Arslanovic returned to boss the midfield and Goran Peric again led the attack.
Homer was a largely Greek team, featuring three national team players from Greece. Goalkeeper Nikos Christidis was signed from Aris. From 1964 to 1978 he played in 29 international games for Greece. Themis Rigas was signed from A.O. Kavalas. They also signed Athanasios Intzoglou, formerly of Ethnikos and Panionios, who had just been banned for life after having taken a bribe not to play well in a cup game in Greece.
Toronto Italia hired Franco Gallina, formerly of Montreal Cantalia, as player-coach before the start of the season. In addition they signed experienced players like Pedro Kozak from Serbian White Eagles and Francisco Montero from Toronto Croatia. They also had young Canadian players like Robert Iarusci, Carmine Marcontonio and 18-year old Carmilo Barbieri.
Before the season started Montreal Cantalia failed to come to terms with 1974 coach Franco Gallina. Instead they hired Ottavio Cucuraghi as player-coach. After a disastrous start to the season, with just five points from 11 matches, Cucuraghi was replaced by Salvatore Italiano. Italiano had been coaching local Montreal teams for the past years. The directors also brought in four players from an Italian third-division team. In addition, they signed former Toronto Metros player Felix Angel. Returning players included Aldo DeSimone and Paolo Ferrante.
In January 1974 the Quebec Soccer Federation decided to field a team in the NSL for the 1974 season. The team was called the Quebec Football Club but was commonly known as the Quebec Selects. The team was made up the best amateur players in Quebec and was coached by former Montreal Olympique (NASL) coach Graham Adams. Adams had previously also coached in South Korea and Bermuda. The team was supposed to play at Marquette Stadium but due to the poor facilities there ended up playing at Jarry Park. The players were borrowed from their parent clubs and played for both, meaning they often played two games a day. Key players were Guy Lefebvre, Jim Corsi, Zach Bregansky and Chris Horrocks. Late in August they were strengthened by the addition of Gordon Wallace who had been playing for the Toronto Metros in the NASL.
Toronto Hungaria used the name Canadian-Hungarians this season. They were coached by Tom Boljkovac. Hungarian-born players Imre Kily and Tibor Molnar were key players, as was veteran NSL-player Dave Thomson. John Fahy did much of the goalscoring before he was sold to Toronto Italia.
Results and standings
GP W L T GF GA Pts Serbian White Eagles 36 28 1 7 118 16 63 Homer 36 26 5 5 89 41 57 Toronto Croatia 36 23 8 5 78 32 54 Toronto Italia 36 21 6 9 99 36 51 Macedonia 36 22 7 7 102 42 51 Hamilton Croatia 36 20 7 9 84 43 49 First Portuguese 36 23 11 2 78 39 48 London City 36 20 7 9 89 45 47 Hamilton City 36 17 11 8 67 58 42 Hamilton Italo-Canadians 36 16 12 8 39 38 40 Quebec Selects 36 13 19 4 44 78 30 Canadian-Hungarians 36 12 19 5 70 83 29 Montreal Cantalia 36 9 20 7 42 65 25 St. Catharines Heidelberg 36 9 20 7 39 67 25 Melita 36 7 20 9 41 80 23 Ukraina 36 6 25 5 43 94 17 Polonia 36 4 28 4 27 96 12 Srbija Kitchener 36 4 28 4 49 150 12 Ottawa Tigers 36 4 31 1 31 126 9
Leading goalscorer Gls Ass Pts 1. Momcilo Stojanovic (White Eagles) 54 12 120
Top goalkeeper Min. Svs GA SO GAA. 1. Blajoe Tamindzic (White Eagles) 28
Playoffs quarter-finals
October 6, 1974
Serbian White Eagles 3 (Momcilo Stojanovic 2, John Fahy)
Macedonia 0
October 7, 1974 C.N.E. Stadium, Toronto
Homer 6 (Gus Hatoupis 4, ????)
Hamilton Croatia 0
October 8, 1974 C.N.E. Stadium, Toronto
Toronto Croatia 1 (Marijan Bilic)
First Portuguese 0
after overtime
October 9, 1974
Toronto Italia
Playoffs semi-finals
October 10, 1974 C.N.E. Stadium, Toronto
Toronto Croatia 1 (Alija Solak)
Serbian White Eagles 0
October 15, 1974 C.N.E. Stadium, Toronto
Toronto Italia 1
Homer 2
Playoff final
October 20, 1974 C.N.E. Stadium, Toronto (att: 2,149)
Toronto Croatia 1 (Boris Psaker)
Homer 0
NSL Cup Final
October 4, 1974
CNE Stadium
First Portuguese 1 (Jorge Felix)
Toronto Italia 0
October 6, 1974
C.N.E. Stadium, Toronto
Toronto Italia 2 (Carmelo Barbieri, Saban Romanovic)
First Portuguese 0
Italia won the two-game total-points series 3-1.
