Month: December 2013

Segunda Division was terra incognita to the world. Apart from England, France, West Germany, and Italy, no second division attracted attention, but considering the traditional strength and focus on Spanish football, it is a bit strange that it looked like nothing else than Primera Division existed. It did exist of course – tough, big second division of 20 clubs. Occasionally well known names went down there, but largely the league consisted of smaller clubs, moving up for a few years, then down for a few more. A smaller group of clubs never even lusting after promotion among the ‘big guys’ also played there – some old, faded long ago, clubs like Real Jaen; some without grand history, like Terassa. Some names are familiar today, but not back in the 1970s – clubs like Deportivo La Coruna, Getafe, Tenerife. A cursory look at any second division table from the 1970s tells that most of the clubs were no strangers of first division football, but never made big impression. Competition was fierce, though. It was not an easy league. CF Calvo Sotelo was the pariah this season, finishing last – a good 6 points behind the nearest club. Two other teams, much better known by names, also ended a bit distant from the real fight for safety – CD Tenerife, 19th with 31 points, and Cordoba CF, 18th with 32 points. The race for escaping the last relegation place was cruel – 4 clubs ended with 35 points. Goal-difference played no role – it looks like the final standings were decided by the results between the unlucky competitors. Real Oviedo went down, placed 17th, although they had the best goal-difference. It was even very unusual one – 40:42. Minus two goals was the goal-difference often found in solid mid-table – but not in Spain. Two more clubs of the bottom group had similar goal-difference as well: Real Jaen, 15th , was mines 4, and CD Castellon, 14th – minus 2. The 6th and 7th placed teams, Sabadell and Real Valladolid, finished with minus 4 – worse than those fearing relegation. But the group was tough – 5 points divided the relegated Real Oviedo from 5th finisher Real Murcia. Four clubs competed for the three promotional spots at the top. At the end, the unknown outside Spain Barakaldo CF failed – they ended 4th with 44 points. Celta Vigo and Recreativo Huelva finished with 46 points each – goal-difference did not count, and Celta took the 3rd place, although having better one than Recreativo. Did not matter at all, for both teams went up.

Champions – and comfortably at that – were Real Zaragoza. 50 points, best scoring record, most wins in the league – 20, not so great defense, but Zaragoza had no match in Segunda. It was good season for the champions, but for only one reason: they were relegated the previous year, a great disgrace for one of normally strongest Spanish clubs, who not long ago won the Spanish cup. Luckily, Real Zaragoza returned quickly to their normal place. It was a return of a kind for Celta too. The third promoted club was another story.

 

Recreativo is the oldest club in Spain – with them, Spanish football was born in 1889. Naturally, it was done with British help – two Scottish doctors, Alexander Mackay and Robert Russell Ross, working at the Rio Tinto mines (in passing, Rio Tinto is still one the world’s mining giants in the 21st century), found the club in order of providing the miners with physical recreation. The original name was Huelva Recreation Club, eventually becoming Recreativo. Locally, the club was successful, but that was long, long ago. Spanish football centralized into national league championship relatively late and by mid-1930s Recreativo was hardly a big club. Their biggest success was in 1940, when earned promotion to Second division. Where they lasted a single season. Huelva waited for another ascend 17 more years – Recreativo managed to go up again in 1957. This time they stayed in the second league, a constant member, although nothing more. Until 1977-78, when finally they gathered strenght and had their best season – they finished 2nd and got promoted to Primera Division for the first time in their history. Great and strange – it is quite unusual the oldest club of a country to reach top flight after 80 years of existence.

As a second division club, Recreativo had no team worth mentioning. The strength of the team was in the feet of two Uruguayans – the 25-years old defender Eduardo Gerolami, who played for Nacional (Montevideo) before moving to Spain, but without becoming a star. The midfielder Victor Esparrago was much better known, if only for playing for Uruguay at the 1974 World Cup. He was in Spain since the ban on foreigners was lifted, and was already 32-years old. Well past his prime, therefore no longer interesting for bigger and stronger clubs. But suitable for Recreativo and with them – returning to first division football. There was one more Uruguayan in the team – the much younger brother of Victor Esparrago, Ricardo, only 19 years old. Young, but not really talented… Ricardo Esparrago played a single match this season, which proved to be his total contribution to the club during his 2-year spell. Modest squad, perhaps too modest for Primera Division, but that was a concern for the next year. Presently, it was just fantastic – Recreativo finally promoted to the top league. Becoming for the oldest club? Very much so.

Big names were, of course, rare in Secunda Division, but still there were imports. The great, rich Spanish clubs, robing the rest of the world of the best players… the myth and the reality: CD Malag a finished 13th with the help of man playing for the national team of his native country.

Standing from left: Aráez, Vara, Vilanova, Nacho, Palomo, Macías

Crouching: Quevedo, Jantunen, Orozco, Migueli, Adolfo Benítez

Here is Pertti Jantunen, 25-years old centreforward. Snatched from… Finland. Yes, he was part of the strong Reipas Lahti team. Yes, he was a national team player. But… a player from Finland. Not exactly the kind of player able to lift up Malaga. In all fairness to the player, Jantunen was a good professional – after his spell in Spain, he also played in England and Sweden. Not for big clubs, but still he was among the early imports in England, which means quite a lot, given the critical attitude of the English towards ‘continentals’ in the 1980s. As for Spain, Jantunen was more typical than exceptional foreign player. More like Jantunen? Deportivo Alaves had one too, also a guy, who already donned the shirt of the national team of his home country.

Alaves attraced no attention – they finished a bit better than Malaga, 11th. The first crouching on the left is young Argentine, named Jorge Valdano. 22-years old by now, he already debuted for Argentina. Then he left to play for Spain, awarded with second division football. Obviously, not a great prospect… Menotti quickly forgot about him. Alaves was not taking the road up either. One more obscure player in Spain… the greatest thing about Valdano was his rolled down socks and no shin pads. Nothing suggesting stardom. Hard to imagine a future world champion in 1977-78. Even harder to imagine Alaves playing in Primera Division.

Spain was news and no news – some of the fears and expectations faded away already. With them – the hype. Back in 1973, the big fear was rich Spanish clubs quickly buying the greatest world stars and establishing dominance on club level. By 1977 it was no longer the case – no Spanish club won anything. The most they did was playing two European finals, which they lost, but most importantly, the finalists were not Real Madrid and Barcelona. Not a single Spanish club was a trend setter in the 1970s. Nor was the Spanish national team, which continued to struggle. At last, Spain was going to the World Cup finals – for the first time since 1966 – but it was not an exciting team. The big transfers, depleting other countries from the best talent, became rare. By 1977, Spain was hardly the preferred destination for the best players – Germany was more attractive, at least for the Europeans. Spanish clubs made impressive transfers still, but the not many – Real Madrid bought Uli Stielike in 1977, but that was all. It was interesting pattern, somewhat confirming the fears: Real bought once again a high-profile player from Borussia Moenchengladbach, the third already, after Netzer and Henning Jensen. Add Breitner, and the picture was complete – Real chose Germans, products of the most advanced football system in the world (Jensen was Danish, but became a star while playing in the Bundesliga). Barcelona preferred Dutch school, but no new transfer was made since 1974 – Cruyff and Neeskens were in the club and Rinus Michels returned to coach. Big names were playing Spain, but most of them arrived years ago – 1974 was more or less the benchmark. Ayala, Luis Pereira, and Leivinha in Atletico Madrid, Mario Kempes in Valencia… pretty much, that was the whole list of great stars. Old hands by now and, unfortunately, most of them already reached their peak and were no longer the same. Cruyff was hinting retirement. Netzer already retired. Breitner was gone. Only Mario Kempes was still going up. As for Stielike, going to Real Madird playing cruel joke on him – he missed the 1978 World Cup, thanks to funny decision of the West German Federation to include only German-based players in the national team. Funny, because Uli Stielike was the only candidate (Beckenbauer moved to USA, but he did not want to play for the national team anymore – and his decision was known well before his relocation) – it was counter-productive rule, judging by the pitiful German performance in Argentina. Back in Spain Stielike was strong, but… most of the ‘stars’ flocking to Spain were hardly known players, predominantly from Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

The advantages were obvious: skilful South Americans, Spanish speaking, cheap, and easy to naturalize. Cheap, because the exodus of troubled countries under heavy-handed dictatorships was massive – for both political and economic reasons. The political part benefited Spanish clubs – it was easy to naturalize exiles, especially when the old ‘oriundi’ rule was unchanged. Whoever wanted to look deeply quickly found a cypher: Spanish rules allowed for 2 foreign players on the field. Yet, most clubs had plenty of foreigners and more than 2 were often fielded. Real Madird had 5 in 1977-78 – Stielike (b. 1954), Jensen (b. 1949), Enrique Wolff (Argentina, b. 1949, defender, played at 1974 World Cup), Roberto Martinez (Argentina, b. 1946, forward), and Carlos Guerini (Argentina, b. 1949, forward). Stielike, Jensen, Wolff, and Roberto Martinez were often on the pitch at the same time. Barcelona had one player more than the arch-rivals: Cruyff (b. 1947), Neeskens (b.1951), Heredia (Argentina, b. 1952, midfielder), Rafael Zuviria (Argentina, b. 1951, forward), Alfredo Amarillo (Uruguay, b. 1953, defender), and at the end of the season a Brazilian striker was added – Bio (full name: Williams Silvio Modesto Verisimo, b. 1953). Bio came not from abroad, but for the second-division club Terrasa, where he played for awhile, after playing in Portugal before. And Cruyff, Neeskens, and Heredia were almost always together on the pitch. No problem adding Bio too… why? At least his case was clear – he married Spanish woman and naturalized on the strength of marriage. So he was Spanish citizen. Spanish clubs kept more foreigners than allowed from the very moment the ban on foreigners was lifted – it was ‘wise’ to have reserves in case the prime stars were injured, out of form, or suspended. The extras stayed unhappily on the bench most of the time… the Peruvian star Hugo Sotil was the biggest, and somewhat tragic, example. But oriundi had no problems playing – and just how many, on what criteria, and when they were considered ‘oriundi’, was something never discussed – at least outside Spain. Well, ‘Wolff’ is hardly Spanish name, but enough Spanish blood was ‘found’ in the former Argentinian national team defender to become ‘oriundo’ and play along with Stielike and Jensen, who, together, exhausted the limit of foreigners.

Yet, the big clubs were not the biggest offenders – the small fry excelled. Real Zaragoza proudly pictured their four strikers from South America:

From left, three Paraguayans, Felipe Ocampos, Carlos ‘Loko’ Diarte, Saturnino ‘Nino’ Arrua, and the Argentine Adolfo Soto. Because of them, the team was cunningly nicknamed ‘Los Zaraguyaos’ and thanks to them Real Zaragoza won the Spanish Cup in 1974. The big ‘-guayan’ group confused the issue – Soto is often thought Paraguayan, but the ending is right – along with these four the Uruguayan defender (World Cup 1974) Juan Blanco (b. 1946) also played. By 1977 the group was cut down – Diarte moved to Valencia for the new season and only Blanco and Arrua (b. 1949) remained. From the ‘Zaraguayos’ – yes – but in general two more Paraguayans were at hand in midfield: Celso Mendieta (b. 1949) and Jorge Insfran (b. 1950). And Real Zaragoza was, in a sense, modest consumer of South American feet – Elche had 10 foreigners in 1977-78. Six Argentines, 2 Paraguyans, an Uruguayan, and one ‘exotic’ player from Honduras. Just because Honduras is unlikely producer of classy players – and even more so in the 1970s – his name: Gilberto Yearwood, a defender born in 1956. From the whole group the only known name is the midfielder Marcelo Trobbiani (b. 1955) – he came in 1976 from the successful Boca Juniors vintage winning left and right this year. Almost a whole team of foreigners did not help Elche a bit, but this is so far first division. How many foreigners played in the lower division would be anybody’s guess. Birthdates are given here, because most of the foreigners were not very young – let say, mature players, often working already for years in Spain. This was alarming: Spanish clubs did not buy current foreign stars, but preferred the same players they got in the first rush of open doors – 1973-74. Which was not exactly a formula for improvement of the game – the bulk of oldish and not at all famous Argentines and Paraguayans were no longer trend-setters, if they were ever. Thus, Spanish football remained pretty much what had been about 10 years ago – tough, physical, and hopelessly out of touch with modern football. No wonder the Spanish clubs had zero international success.

Apart from rather inflated hype over summer transfers and unrealized foreign fears that the Spanish will rob yet another nation of her stars, there was another news – the Spanish federation introduced a new league in place of Third Division. Third Division remained , under the same name, but between it and the Second Division now a 2-group league was inserted – Segunda Division B, or Second Division B. It was made of freshly relegated second division clubs plus the highest positioned third division clubs. All together about 40 clubs, previously playing 3rd level football anyway. Hard to tell what was the reason – may be financial, for everywhere in the world there is a problem at some point of the structure – professional clubs mingling with semi-professional and outright amateur. West Germany organized her second division precisely to put together the remaining professional clubs outside the Bundesliga and thus to elevate the general level of the game. Anyway, Spain started their new league. Nothing fancy there… just for curiosity sake, a picture:

Levante was hardly heard of club back in the 1970s and third level was their usual hunting grounds. As for the players down in Segunda Division B… let say that the photo is wrong. This is Levante of 1978-79 – Lorant (full name Julio Cesar Lorant Vazquez), an Uruguyan defender, played for Elche in 1977-78, freshly acquired from Sevilla. He joined Levante in 1978, but since the club finished in mid-table and remained in the new league, the photo is relatively right. If only to illustrate the unsolvable mysteries of the ‘oriundi’ – Lorant is just a little reminder that they were everywhere in Spain.

Moments from the 1977-78 Italian season.

Juventus – Pescara 2-0. Zoff and Co. is down and hopelessly so. But Bertarelli missed.

Juventus – Milan 1-1. Bettega is robbed by Albertosi.

Napoli – Juventus 1-2. This time Mattolini catches the ball.

Milan – Lanerossi Vicenza 2-1. Milan claims an off-side.

Lanerossi Vicenza – Fiorentina 1-0. No off-side here – Paolo Rossi, almost entirely hidden behind the defenders, scores. Enough for 2 points.

Roman derby, ending 0-0 of course. Roma’s Manchini blocks a shot, Giordano alert for deflection and second chance – but nothing.

Milano’s derby – Inter – Milan 1-3. Albertosi saves and another attack of Inter is in vain.

Inter – Lazio 1-1. Altobelli’s header.

Foggia – Torino 1-0. A rare victory for Foggia. Pirazzini scores, but at the end his club was relegated and Torino got bronze medals.

Verona – Roma. A goal? No. The match ended 0-0, the beloved Italian result.

Verona – Bologna 1-1. Experienced Bologna getting a point at away match.

Easier at home? Not at all: Bologna – Verona 0-3. Gori scores.

Perugia – Napoli 2-0. Grassi saves, robbing Napoli from a chance.

And that is why we love football:

Because it is beautiful and dramatic. Like ballet sometimes. Lazio – Foggia 1-1.