Month: March 2014

The Cup final was more representative of the parity at the time than the standard ‘different logic’ of cup tournaments: the finalists were not among the championship leaders, but strong in their own way nevertheless. Universitatea (Craiova) was 6th this year, but they were formidable force in the 1970s, so no surprise they reached the final. The other finalist was further down the championship table – Olimpia (Satu Mare) were 13th. But they were tough opponent and once at the final, naturally wanted to win. Still, the classier team prevailed – Universitatea won 3-1.

Tired winners, not having strength left for smiles. But the Cup was theirs, in the hands of Sorin Cartu, not a star, but called ‘brilliant’ this day.

One may feel sorry for the losers – Olimpia (Satu Mare) are one of the oldest Romanian clubs, founded in 1921. But… they rarely played in First Division, especially after the Second World War. The reason was largely lack of money. They managed to get promotion in 1973-74 and more or less settled in the top division – in the lower part of it, but they stayed. 1977-78 was their finest season ever – for the first time in their history they had a chance to win a trophy. Unfortunately, they lost… and such a run was never repeated again. Thus, this counts as the best year of Olimpia and their playing at the Cup final – their biggest success.

The winners added one more trophy – their third in total. They also repeated their success of the previous year, winning the Cup for a second time, but in two consecutive years.

1970s were the best years of the club – they established themselves as steady favourites, won the championship a few years back, then the Cup in 1976-77 and now again. Along with Steaua, Dynamo, and Arges – one of the leaders of Romanian football and there were no signs of decline. Universitatea was staying strong, winning trophies, and most likely going to win more. Good for football too – this ‘students’ club established a permanent challenge to the ‘big’ clubs from Bucharest. The capital was no longer dominant, but had to share with the ‘provincials’.

Romania – may be the football played was not very good, but the championship was one of the most tightly competitive in Europe in 1977-78. No overwhelming leaders, no ‘segments’ in the table – the difference between the 3rd and the 17th was only 8 points. Goal-difference determined final places for many clubs, including those at the very top. Everything and anything was possible this season. The only exception was FCM Resita, an early outsider settled at the very bottom. They finished last. At 17th place was Petrolul (Ploesti) with 30 points – 10 more than FCM Resita, but 2 less than FC Constanta. Petrolul still won 11 matches and scored 41 goals – not bad for a club at the bottom of the table. FC Constanta took 16th place because of worse goal-difference – they and Politehnica (Iasi) had 32 points each. Unlucky, FC Constanta – 14 wins in 34 championship games was not bad at all. Their goal-difference was also not bad for a team at the bottom of the table – negative, of course, but not elsewhere clubs with similar result were more likely to be in mid-table, not in the relegation zone: 42-49. But… Politehnica (Iasi) finished with positive goal-difference – 43-39. Something extremely rare for a 15th placed club. A goal-difference better than the 9th placed CS Targoviste (28-33) and the 8th placed Corvinul (Hunedoara) (44-43), and equal to the 7th placed Jiul (Petrosani) – 53-49. And this unusual goal-difference saved them from relegation: FC Constanta, Petrolul, and FCM Resita went down.

Yet, the relative parity was just relative – the traditional leaders still stayed at the top of the table. None appeared to be in crisis, plummeting down, except Rapid (Bucharest), already in the Second Division. Universitatea (Craiova) finished 6th and Dynamo (Bucharest) – 5th, but they were not far away from the medalists – rather, they lost the race by a hair to either luckier, or more concentrated adversaries.

With 38 points, Sportul Strudentesc (Bucharest) finished 4th.

The ‘Students’ were notoriously up and down club, but they had a good spell at that time, enjoying larger role in Romanian football.

Politehnica (Timisoara) clinched bronze medals – they also finished with 38 points, but had better goal-difference than Sportul Studentesc. Also, they were the surprise story of the championship.

An old club, Politehnica traditionally played a minor role, often playing in the Second Division. Thus, they were expected to be found somewhere in the lower half of the table, most likely lucky to escape relegation, or, if having ‘strong’ season – to be in the comfort zone in mid-table. The club was established in 1921 and went through name changes – CSU, Stiinta – until their current name came along in 1966-67. It was traditionally attached – and run by – the Polytechnic Univerisity of Timisoara. A ‘students’ club – one of the 4 ‘students’ clubs playing in the Romanian First Division that year. To be among the leaders and win medals was unheard of, so they pleasant surprise not only for their fans. Their sudden rise deserves one more look:

The team was not much, but they a star – Dembrovschi. May be enthusiastic year, may be solid and experienced squad, but they played well. It was the best ever season of Politehnica. It was their their very first medal. It was great – and remained great, for so far this season was not neither bettered, nor matched. The best ever season of the club.

Arges (Pitesti) finished second with 41 points. The 1970s were perhaps the strongest years in the club’s history and there was no end of them yet. Along with Sportul Studentesc, Arges won the most matches this season – 18. But in attacking minded and tough Romanian league wins went hand in hand with losses – 11. May be this, may be their a bit weak strikers placed them second – on goal-difference.

For those following Romanian football at the time the squad was familiar for some time. Led by one the best Romanian players in the 1970s Dobrin. Tough luck… Arges lost the title just by few goals.

Exciting race to the end with two clubs finishing with equal points. Scoring – not defense, for both candidates ended with equal number of balls in their nets – 49 – clinched the title. The champions were more than familiar – Steaua (Bucharest). One more title for them.

Difficult victory, thanks to their strikers, scoring 75 goals – Arges scored 15 less! May be Steaua undererformed a bit, for certainly they had the best squad in the league with about 10 national team players – but all is well when ends well. Steaua repeated their success of the previous year – two consecutive titles and the selection pretty much was a promise for a third in a row. No major changes – the squad was the same as in the year before, but it was not an aging team. Their still young coach Emerich Jenei perhaps should be credited with the success in the last second: he was not the famous Jenei yet, but already making a difference.

The cup was won by Tatabanya. But this was not the Hungarian Cup – it was the winter cup provided by the sports magazine Kepes Sport. A novelty of that time – winter indoor tournaments were popular around Europe, largely to provide some semi-competitive football during the pause between fall and spring halves of the season, partly to help preparations for the spring.

Here are the winners – another feature of such tournaments was that otherwise weak clubs often performed well. No wonder: reserves and new players were tried and the rules varied. It was not futsal at all. With time these tournaments faded away and practically disappeared, so this note is mostly for the sake of history.

As for the real Cup, Ferencvaros and Pecsi MSC reached the final. For the ‘peoples club’ it was a chance to salvage the disastrous season. For Pecsi MSC too… they were in decline for some time, sinking to the lower half of the table. Once upon a time the club from Pecs was stronger, but not in the 1970s – so a rare opportunity to win a trophy, to restore pride. In the championship Pecsi MSC was worse than Ferencvaros – they finished 13th – and their squad was way weaker, but such things hardly matter at finals. Stakes were high – the ‘peoples club’ had to come back somewhat in a season dominated by the arch-enemies, the Army and the Police. In the same time the ‘provincials’ really wanted the noses of the hated big boys from the capital, robbing the provinces all the time. Intriguing rivalries. Perhaps they were not just on paper, perhaps the opponents were not all tha strong, but the final ended in a tie. In the overtime Ferencvaros prevailed 4-2.

One more Cup for Ferencvaros and season saved. Or may be not? The winners look not too happy…

The finalists did their best… and lost. Unfortunately, Pecs had no real argument – apart from their goalkeeper Katzirz they had no classy players. Ferencvaros had a very weak year, but still it was a squad full of former and current national team players.

This squad, led by Tibor Nyilasi, was good for a double. So the names suggest… yet, it ended only with the Cup, and the trophy was won with difficulties. It was better squad than Honved’s and probably at par with Ujpesti Dosza’s, but… lucky just to salvage this season. For some reason Ferencvaros never really soared in the 1970s. May be they were psychologically weak. May be there was always some missing key ingredient. At least they won the Cup – for the 14th time! And a real Cup, not like Tatabanya’s.

 

No joy at the bottom of First Division.

SZEOL (Szeged) dropped out from the survival race and finished last with 18 points.

Top row, from left: Himmer István – coach, Hevesi ?, Hojszák István, Forgách Jajos, Holler Ferenc, V.Tóth Mihály, Pataki Tamás – masseur.

Middle row: Kádár Lajos, Szalay István, Kozma III Zoltán, Birinyi István, Kőműves Mihály, Hágelmann Endre, Zámbori Mihály.

First row: Kozma II György, Újhelyi István, Garics György, Nagy István – captain, Jerney István.

For SZEOL relegation was hardly a surprise… a season better forgotten quickly.

The battle for escaping 17th place lasted to the end – Raba ETO and Szekesfehervari MAV Epone survived. Down went Kaposvari Rakoczi, a club rarely playing first division football anyway.

Just like Szeged, Kaposvar was not to be missed… the usual case of weak clubs. Up the table the big surpise was Ferencvaros at 9th place – the team lead by Nyilasi was supposed to be fighting for the title, not to sit indifferently in the middle of the table. Why the sudden slump is hard to tell, but Ferencvaros did not master a really strong squad in the 1970s. Always something missing.

Above them finished Tatabanya – one of the usual mid-table clubs and very unlikely company for the most popular Hungarian team, Ferencvaros.

Apart from nice picture in the snow, Tatabanya had a few good players – Csapo was included in the national team for the World Cup finals. Quite different squad than Ferencvaros with their 11 national team players (of various years). Yet, Tatabanya was bested by a team normally ranking even lower – Dunauivarosi Kohasz or just Dunaujvaros, as they were usually called outside Hungary.

Dunaujvaros finished 7th, but the real success story was another club.

The group competing for bronze medals included Vasas, MTK, and Videoton. Vasas, still running strong, finished 5th.

Not bad really – as good as Vasas were in those years, they had no chance of getting enough classy players. 5-6 was the maximum – the club had them, but they were not enough.

Videoton, the second club representing Szekesfehervar, finished 4th, missing third place by 2 points. They were the success story – only 3 years ago nobody heard of them, but Videoton not only established itself in first division, but suddenly was among the very best. And not just for a year – the club was apparently ambitious. They were still building – hence, 4th this year. It was clearly a team with a future.

Third row, from left: Kovács László, Baranyi László, Nagy III János, Garamvölgyi, Kovács József:

Middle: Burcsa Győző, Szalmássy, Fejes, Czeczeli Károly, Nagy II János.

Bottom: Végh Tibor, Májer Lajos, Csongrádi Ferenc, Jankovics Sándor, Szabó József.

No big names here and may be this was the key for their development – the big clubs not tempted to steal from them. The club name on their shirts also curtailed the general rule of no sponsor adds in Estern Europe: since ‘Videoton’ was also an industrial firm, it was advertisement witout formally advertising anything.

The old, famous MTK clinched the 3rd place. A strong season, something rare in the 1970s for the club, which was not even MTK – after a merger with another club in 1975, they were MTK-VM, or MTK-Voros Meteor.

MTK were similar to Vasas in a way – unable to recruit enough strong players. They had even smaller number of stars than Vasas, but it was a solid and experienced squad. And MTK had interesting kit too – the Adidas stripes were in the middle of the jersey.

At the end the battle for the championship was the typical East European duel between the Army and the Police – Honved vs Ujpesti Dosza. Honved, finally strong after years of decline, built an young squad and perhaps that was the whole difference: it was wise to get the players of tomorrow, but they were not consistently strong yet. Honved displayed the best defense, allowing only 22 goals in 34 matches, but they lost 6 games nevertheless. They lost the title by a single point.

A good, but not exceptional squad, still in need of few strong additions. Times changed… the biggest stars were playing for other clubs and there was no way to be ordered to join Honved, like it was in the 1950s. Pinter and may be Kozma were the leading players now, but the competition had better ones.

So Ujpesti Dosza returned to the top, winning one more title. It was not an easy victory, but still the the team lost only 2 matches and won 19. The champions scored astonishing number of goals – 95. Their defense was leaky – 46 goals received – but it was clear that attack was the weapon of choice. The rivals ended with 50 points and Ujpesti Dosza managed 51.

One more title, but this time a bit surprising success – Ujpesti Doza showed signs of decline in the previous 2 seasons. The squad was old – as a squad rather than actual age of players. Most names were around since the beginning of the 1970s and most of them reached the limits of their potential around 1975. It could be said that only Fazekas and the young star Torocsik were doing great by now. In truth, this squad should have been going down the table and fast – it managed to return back on top instead. Experience helped, of course, and it was not ‘dead’ team by no means, but it was not enough for revival. Perhaps the true reason was their coach Pal Varhidi. Perhaps it was the great form of Fazekas and Torocsik, lethal strikers. Perhaps it was because the league was relatively weak and the rivals did not have well shaped teams. No matter what and why, Ujpesti Dosza won.