The game on August 7 in 1971 between Ottawa Tigers and Toronto Croatia, had many of the cool twists that often occurred in the National Soccer League. Not only was this a regular league game, but it was also a second round NSL Cup game. To add another twist the league game counted for four points for a win.
The strong Toronto Croatia club had won the National Soccer League championship in the 1970 season and were considered to be the favorites to secure the four points and advance to the next round in the NSL Cup.
400 soccer fans attended the NSL match at St. Joseph’s High School Field in Ottawa. With the match being scoreless after 90 minutes the match went into two periods of 15 minutes of overtime.
10 minutes into the first overtime period Ottawa Tigers’ forward Stefano Giovannetti scored the only goal of the match. Tigers’ goalkeeper Johnny Piques posted the shutout.
The overtime win advanced Ottawa Tigers to the semi-finals of the National Soccer League cup competition. The 0-0 draw after 90 minutes of play gave each team two points…
The match was described by local newspaper The Ottawa Citizen as “one of the finest soccer matches played this year”.