ATLANTA — Fifty years ago, when the North American Soccer League was born and a young South African named Kaizer Motaung left his continent for the first time, there was no spaceship with a retractable roof housing a soccer team smashing league attendance records, scoring goals by the buckets and promising to bring a trophy to this hard-luck sports city.
Long before Atlanta United took MLS by storm and advanced to Saturday’s final against the Portland Timbers in just its second season, the Atlanta Chiefs performed at what would later be named Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Crowds averaged just shy of 5,800, which was ahead of the NASL curve.