FC Edmonton’s third kit pays homage to the Drillers

They have the rights to the league name and many of the old logos.

So, more and more, NASL clubs are gonna party like it’s 1979.

FC Edmonton is the latest of the NASL teams to announce that it will wear a retro third jersey. The club will wear the old orange-and-blue strip from the Edmonton Drillers’ NASL days. In 1981, the old Drillers won the NASL indoor title, in an era when the league was on its last legs and had both outdoor and indoor campaigns in an effort to boost revenues.

Dwight Lodeweges, FC Edmonton’s first coach — who left the club to take over Japanese second-division side JEF United — was a fixture in the Drillers’ starting XI, as was former Canadian national-team regular Mike Sweeney.

FC Edmonton had promised a third jersey at the start of the season.

The team will wear the kits for the July 17 home date against FC Tampa Bay, and the Aug. 14 match against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

And, of course, both of those sides will wear Rowdies and Strikers retro jerseys from the old NASL days on those dates. No word yet if players will be forced to grow moustaches, sport feathered mullets and show up to the game in Trans Ams.

The NSC Minnesota Stars have also been using an old Minnesota Kicks strip as a third kit.

Starting July 4, league games will feature a ball that’s star-filled design comes right from the glory days of the old NASL.

So, now we’re waiting on Atlanta Chiefs jerseys out of the Silverbacks and, ahem, a Montreal Manic kit out of the Impact.

The new, ahem, old, Drillers jerseys will be available for sale starting on the July 17 home game. But if you’re a longtime soccer supporter in Edmonton and have got one of the NASL originals tucked away in a closet, it’s time to rock that shirt again.

Do you think someone at the NASL was listening to The 11? (SEE HERE)