Month: January 2014

Second Division played standard champion – no innoventions and experiments here, which was odd, since the leagues above and below played under different rules. The championship brought little enthusiasm and lots of critical observations. It was the season when least away games were won in the history of the league: only 54. Ties were not predominant results, yet, attacking football was not the aim either – most teams depended on home victories, played carefully and without hazard. ‘Fear of mistakes’, was noticed – the players preferred quickly to pass the ball to somebody else, just to avoid risks. The games were dull, ambition was entirely lacking. Another historic ‘first’ happened – 11 points divided the 4th and 5th placed clubs at the end. So big divide was seen only as massive interest in safe, uneventful existence in second division. Most clubs were accused for a long time of that. Same with individual players – the number of noticeable ones was tiny. Most just kicked the ball around year after year. Zhalgiris (Kaunas) distinguished themselves with seasonal record of 19 ties – that is, exactly 50% of their total championship matches. This kind of football paid off… Zhalgiris finished 7th. Far away of relegation fears and in the upper half of the final table – good season! Most clubs were just like that: here is Kuban (Krasnodar), 6th in the final table – a place above Zhalgiris thanks to more wins, but behind Terek (Grozny) because Terek had better head-to-head record (the three clubs finished with 41 points each, 11 less than the 4th placed Karpaty).

Third row, from left: V. N. Sereda – team director, V. Vassiliev, A. Bagapov, V. Shitikov, A. Semenyukov, V. Zhivotikov, V. Lavolin, M. Mironov, A. Artemenko, V. A. Grokhovsky – coach.

Middle row: ?, K. Rzhepishevky, S. Andreychenko, V. G. Korolkov – head coach, V. Batarin, A. Chugunov, A. Rybak.

First row: V. Kazakov, A. Ploshnik, Yu. Chebotarev, V. Fursa, V. Koretzky, Yu. Ter-Oganessyantz, E. Polovinko, Yu. Semin, V. Korovkin.

Of course, not big names here, but few players used to play in top division. Chugunov, Rybak, and the future top Russian coach Yury Semin exemplified the typical case: good players, perhaps capable of much more than playing second tier football, but lacking any desire to do so. Quite satisfied to be big fish in a small pond and not to be troubled with anything else.

Down the table things only became more pathetic. Feeling safe, Kusbass practically lost interest and got 0 points in their last 6 championship games. They finished 16th, sharing points with Uralmash. Why bother, since nobody was to be relegated this year? The last three were known in advance – the suddenly plummeting Spartak (Ordzhonikidze – today Spartak Vladikavkaz) was 18th, Dinamo (Leningrad), once upon a time strong first division club, but already ailing for years, 19th, and the miserable Kolkhozchy (Ashkhabad) dead last. No surprise at all – Dinamo played with relegation for years, and finally doomsday arrived. Kolkhozchy meandered between second and third division constantly and when in second was practically subscribed for the last place. Now they were in heaven… last, but staying in the league. A luxury, serving no purpose at all.

At the end only four clubs were interested in something different than sedentary life, but even they were nothing special. Freshly relegated from first division Karpaty (Lvov) ended 4th. It was the only team introducing young talent – S. Yurchishin, A. Bal, G. Batich, and Ya. Dumansky, but it was not enough. Sergey Yurchishin was considered almost the most promising young player at the time, but instead he became one of the biggest failures of Soviet football. Andrey Bal went in the opposite direction, becoming one of the great players in the 1980’s Dinamo Kiev and USSR. Presently, the quartet was too young, inconsistent, and inexperienced and Karpaty was unable to earn promotion. In fact, it was not the team as such, but just these four players impressing observers and they were only future promise.

Dinamo (Minsk) finished 3rd. Inconsistency plagued them – the team wasted too much time going up and down the league and when finally decided to attack the top, they just lucky there was no competition. Dinamo Minsk changed the coach and the climb was due to the new one – Eduard Malofeev, at the beginning of his career. Under him, Dinamo improved, but too late for anything better than third place. Going up only because the Federation decided on three promotions this year. Lucky Dinamo.

Second ended SKA Rostov, usually a top flight club. More or less, expected candidate for promotion. Not an interesting team – perhaps only more ambitious than the usual league members. If they had anything, this was young and exciting forward and prolific scorer – Sergey Andreev. He was just becoming known, but soon he was to play for the national team. As for this year, he was the top second division scorer with 20 goals.

SKA Rostov – happily returning to first division. Not very promising in 1978, but eventually they improved later.

Krylya Sovetov (Kyubishev) were the champions. Not overwhelming ones, finishing with 56 points. Two more than SKA, earned from 21 wins and 14 ties. As true champions, they did not lose many games – only 3. Perhaps defense was their strongest line. Like SKA Rostov, they failed to impress. Commentators were skeptical – both winners historically played badly the next year, Particularly Krylya Sovetov, which were typical ‘unsettled’ club – too strong for second level, too weak for top flight.

Proud champions! Sitting from left: Yu. Kutuzov – team doctor, V. Kirsh – coach, G. Fridlyand – team director, V. Solovyov – assistant coach, S. Yarkin – masseur.

Middle row: A. Rotenko, A. Blokhin, Yu. Pilipko, N. Shtukin, A. Bytkin, G. Lisenchuk, V. Mazalov, V. Abramov, V. Losev.

Third row: V. Panfilov, A. Kupriyanov, A. Arutyunyan, R. Sibgatullin, Yu. Elisseev, V. Kuznetzov, A. Fetissov, A. Galiulov.

Mostly fading players, who already failed to survive in First Division. Perhaps the top name was Yury Elisseev – in 1972 he won the Soviet title with Zarya (Voroshilovgrad) and was included in the national team for a short time. By now, getting old and not at all great… able to score goals in second division, but as far as first was considered… Krylya Sovetov actually appeared weaker then Dinamo and SKA Rostov. Winners of the league, promoted, but most likely only to come back after a year or two.

None of the promoted was seen as up and coming team. None was seen as any meaningful addition, improving the top league. All three were found short of talent. They were just slightly better and livelier than the bulk of dour and dull second league clubs.

USSR next, almost by default. 1978 was miserable year – the national team once again failed to qualify for the World Cup finals, the clubs participating in the European club tournaments were eliminated early and ingloriously – this applies largely for the 1977-78 cups, for the one-year season USSR had by necessity included the next year European cups in the evaluation of their own season. Domestic football was not all that lively and was criticized on every level. Special wrath was reserved for Lobanovsky and his whining: he was once again immuned from sense of guilt. Dinamo Kiev was eliminated by Malmo FF (Sweden), an easy opponent in theory, after the ‘guru of attacking football’ fielded 6 defenders! Nothing wrong with his tactics, said Lobanovsky – what was wrong was a long list of guilty parties in the Federation. Wrong calendar, reluctant to permit his team to train abroad in the spring administrators, bad climate, too many domestic games, the list was wrong – and Lobanovsky wright, but getting no understanding and help. Observers did not agree with him at all and accused him of nepotism. Third division clubs were accused of scheming and ignoring the rules – Soviet Federation never stopped changing the rules in the 1970s and now third league had an age limit: their squads had to be mainly made of young products of their youth systems and only a few players over 25 years were allowed in the squads. The clubs bitterly opposed that – on one hand, if going up to second division they had to start entirely new team, for the youths would be too weak among older players; on the other , those were smaller provincial clubs and hardly had enough talent at hand for competitive football. The clubs schemed, asked for ‘incidental’ permissions to use more players of older age – critics found the practices corrupt, irresponsible, and sabotaging the rules. Second division was found not only of low quality, but almost entirely disinterested in more than just playing there, a chronic problem, which in tern affected negatively first division football – few talents were to be found in the lower league. First division was not great either, scoring low as ever, most clubs hardly improving, concerned only with keeping their place among the top 16 clubs. Most of all that was not new at all, but there were positive changes too, almost for the first time since 1970.

The new rule, limiting draws seemingly worked – for the first time ties were not the dominant result. The new rule gave points only for 8 ties – above that nothing. The clubs quickly found a way to avoid the rule, but still the number of ties diminished: only 5 clubs ended with more than 8 ties and measly 3 clubs finished with 10 or more. One club fell victim of the rule and was relegated, but as a whole the limit of ties benefited more attacking football and the old mentality of securing a point cracked a bit. A bunch of young talents appeared, largely in Dinamo (Kiev), and they were different, modern players. Lastly, the country ended with new champion and it was the most attractive team – another crack at the dominant dullness. The positive changes were present, not overwhelmingly, but present nevertheless and they promised better future. The wind was turning.

The mammoth third division contributed in its own, however small, way to the positive changes. 135 clubs divided in 6 Zones, the smallest of 21 teams and the Zones with 24 each. By far, these were the championships with most matches per season, but so far they hardly helped the development of Soviet football – the three promoted clubs most often came back to third level in short time. And nothing really promising in this year winners – Fakel (Voronezh), Metalist (Kharkov), Spartak (Nalchik), Zvezda (Perm), Alga (Frunze), and Traktor (Pavlodar). All played a bit – and unsuccessfully – in the second division before. Looked like familiar fodder, only in bigger quantity, for the second division was enlarged to 24 clubs for 1979 and all 6 were promoted. But it was not so – Fakel and Metalist were at the beginning of their ascent. Both clubs soon reached First Division. Metalist not only was to stay firmly in top flight, but was to become one the best Soviet clubs in the 1980s. Did not look like that in 1978, but it was fine news for many that one old clubs was climbing up a bit.

Metalist (Kharkov), champions of Ukraine and Third Division – Zone II. First row, from left: Vladimir Zhuravchak, Nodar Bachiashvili, Victor Shalenko, Leonid Tkachenko, Stanislav Bernikov, Genady Likhachev, Valentin Kryachko, Nikolay Aleshin, Vladimir Linke.

Standing: Robert Mkrtchan – team director, Roman Shpodarunok – administrator, Vladimir Bulgakov – assistant coach, Mikhail Tzybrivsky, Sergey Malko, Sergey Sapeshko, Rostislav Potochnyak, Aleksandr Nikishin, Vyacheslav Dvurechensky, Genady Degtyarev, Evgeny Lemeshko – coach, Aleksandr Kossolapov, Mark Pisarenko – team doctor.

Metalist won perhaps the toughest Third Division Zone, where most of the club were Ukrainian easily – the second best, Kolos (Nikopol), lagged 8 points behind. The winners won 29 matches, tied 12, and lost 3. Scoring was not their strongest side – 66 goals in 44 matches – but their defense was excellent – they received only 20 goals. Of course, third division teams never attract much interest, but the seeds of the future were planted: the coach Lemeshko and Sergey Malko were to become very well known in a few years time. In 1978 their aim was still going to Second Division – and they succeeded.

The Cup of France was also surprising – none of the bigger clubs reached the final. It was contested between Nancy and Nice. Mid-table clubs really, complimenting the unusual championship to a point. And it was really the year of the small guys – Nancy won the Cup, clinching 1-0 victory. Michel Platini scored the golden goal and his club triumphed.

OGC Nice was the favourite on paper – as far as finals can be argued in advance, Nice was stronger.

Giullou, Huck, J. Jouve, Toko, the two Yugoslavian stars Katalinski and Bjekovic, and Baratelli still the first choice of France between the goalposts – admirable names, to which Nancy had a single response, Platini. History also favoured Nice – 4 times French champions and twice Cup winners. On the negative side, Nice was gradually fading club. The great years were in already distant past – all trophies were won in the 1950s. In the next decade Nice went into violent convulsions and was relegated twice. Came back in 1970 and since then stayed in first division, but slowly declining: the club had much better team in the early 1970s, almost with champion’s potential. By 1977-78 there were few left and they were aging. In a way, Nice was fascinating club: it was quite clear that they were not great and had no money for grand ambitions. But they maintained a number of top players, including foreigners of high status. May be status was the real aim at Cote d’Azur, not playing – the names not always justified themselves with performance. May be beach life was more tempting, but it looked like that Nice was the end for foreign stars. Nice was coming near victory at best – and the cup final was no exception: they reached it, had better chance, and lost the Cup. Not by much, but lost it. The steady decline continued just like that – not very obvious, not by much, but going on.

Nancy was different story. First of all, it was new club.

Association Sportive Nancy-Lorraine, as the full name hardly ever used is, was formed in 1967. Back than FC Nancy collapsed and the new club had to replace the expired. There was nothing ambitious in the new creation – a modest club, which had no money for big plans. Second Division was most likely place for Nancy and there they stayed quite often. Naturally, an young club would not have time to collect trophies, but modest club was not expected to triumph anyway. And they had nothing until 1974-75, when Nancy won the Second Division – their first trophy, not ranking very high by any standard. Their first real trophy came in the spring of 1978 – and it remains the only one today. Very likely nothing will change in the future, so 1978 stays as the most outstanding year in the club’s history. Hats down to the small club!

 

The boys did not look like winners – Rouyer was a national team player, yet, not a regular; may be Curbelo was above average; the ‘obligatory’ African player, without which no French team seemed like French team, Pokou. The centre-forward Laurent Pokou N’Dri, from Cote d’Ivoir, joined Nancy in the summer of 1977, but was no newcomer to French football – he played for Rennes before. Like most Nancy’s players, hardly a star… Nancy had very little to oppose to Nice or any other club. But this little was very special: Michel Platini, already hailed as a great European star. With him Nancy won the second division, with him the club performed well and actually climbed the ladder of first division to respectful 6th place in this very season. With him Nancy reached the Cup final. And he put the finishing touch as well, scoring the winning goal at the final. Platini was Nancy – it was already very rare in the 1970s a single player to win matches and elevate his club, but it happened with Nancy. It was painfully clear that Platini deserved better teammates, stronger club, and Nancy was not able to surround him with worthy teammates, and therefore, would not be able to keep him, but so far his presence was more than sufficient. A winning presence. It was great for the club and may be more for Platini – it was his first trophy too.