Month: December 2014

Up to Third Division or Serie C1. Two groups of 18 teams each, the top two promoted and the last four – relegated. Group A and Group B – or properly aid Girone A and Girone B. More familair names pop up here, but names of smallish Italian clubs, which even playing in first division ocassionally, never did more than that. Empoli, Catania, Livorno, Cremonese, Triestina – such clubs. Last four from each group went down, and the top two – up.

Girone B. Paganese last and the three other unfortunates : Lucchese, Latina, and Barletta. Barletta lost the fight for survival on goal-difference. Turris escaped relegation. Up the table :

Livorno ended 9th with 32 points – four other clubs finished also with 32. Livorno was just in the middle of the final table, but relegation was actually a matter of a point or two – 16th Latina had 30 and 15th Barletta – 31. Danger was very near this season for a club which played among the best of the country once.

Salernitana finished 6th – nothing special. Years will pass before traditonally small club soars. Same with the team just above them :

Reggina, just like Salernitana, most often played in 3rd division. At 3rd place finished a club of different history – Catania.

Not a big name, of course, but Catania used to play first division football. Now they were down and tried hard to restore their former place in Italian football. They came close, but 42 points were not good enough. Promotion required 44 points this season – the two best teams ended with equal points.

Pisa took 2nd place on worse goal-difference, but promotion was secured. With this season the little known club started its ascent – all the was to top flight in few years. Nothing hinted of future succes, though – they were second th even less known club :

Matera – champions of Girone B of Serie C1. Great success for the boys and just about the best possible outcome.

Tough life for some former members of the top division in Girone A :

Mantova finished 13th – with 30 points, it was lucky esacpe : 2 points less and 4th division was all theirs. Playing against Juventus and Milan was a distant memory by now… and so was for Modena.

Dead last with 25 points. Modena sunk even deeper than Mantova – they were disappering from sight.

The other releagated were Spezia, Padova, and Trento. Up the table were clubs like Modena and Mantova – with better past than present : Lecco (12th), Alessandria (10th),

Novara (6th). First division was only a memory for them – presently, they were reduced to competing with clubs, whose best achievement was third level. And former top flight members were losing the battle…

Losing the battle to clubs like Biellese – 7th this year.

As for the winners, they were also modest : Parma was 2nd with 44 points, edging Triestina on goal-difference and moving up to second division. Nobody heard of Parma yet – promotion to second division was a big success for this club in 1979. Winning European cups ? It was beyond the wildest dreams.

Como were champions with 50 points – comfortable winner, and perhaps expected one. Not a big club, but not belonging to third division. The upper league was their habitat. More or less.

Italy had her own suprises this season and although football was not very exciting, the crisis of the mid-1970s seemingly was over. 1978 World Cup breezed frsh optimism, young players were popping up. Of course, Italian foorball scene is vast and only the tip of the iceberg internationally visible – the top league and the big clubs. Deep down was terra incognita, populated by unheard of teams. Clubs like

Sulmona. About them – just a note of their existence, for after all football to this day is mostly played by such anonymous clubs everywhere in the world – a true mixture of love and hopes. Love of the game is the prime motivator, and individual hopes for making it to the professional level. Amateur teams mostly.

Above them come the lower leagues, fancied by no one. Serie C2, in the Italian football pyramid, corresponding to 4th division. Nothing exciting, of course, but at least here the first recognizable names appear – a few, playing in the higher levels for a while, like

Messina, or faded clubs, which once upon a time played prominent rôle, like Pro Patria and Pro Vercelli. Serie C2 consisted of four leagues – Group A, Group B, C, and D. 18 teams competed in each group – the top two won promotions. Relegation numbers differed, perhaps depending on money (the lack of it, actually) and infringement of tules by some teams more than actual playing. Two clubs were relegated from Group D, but three in Group C – the last two plus Gallipoli, who were 15th and should not have been relegated on sporting reasons, so it was something else. In Group B 4 teams were relegated – the last three in the table plus Vigevano, 13th and thus sharing the fate of Gallipoli, for it was not performance the reason for going down. In Group A it was normal – the last three were relegated, but it is still strange – three down in this group, but only two in Group D. But who really cares about 4th division ? Pro Vercelli went further down after this season, but the rest of the releagated were not even vaguely familiar. The fate of, say, Ragusa mattered only at home.

Ragusa barely survived – they finished 16th in Group D, four points ahead of the poor relegated teams, and above them thanks to better goal-difference perhaps were Nuova Igea.

Nuova Igea, safe from danger and besting Ragusa this season – 15th.

Few thrills down there, so the best is to mention the winners then ? Well… no fun again : Sanremese and Montevarchi won promotions in Group A, Bergocrema and Sant’Angelo in Group B, Fano and Anconitana in Group C, and finally – Rende and Siracusa in group D. Only Siracusa rings a bell – once upon a time, they played in much higher division. Anonymous winners, but winners.

Rende – proud winners of Group 4 and going all the way up to play in 3rd Division next season. A small success, but success – and local joy. What could be better ?

And a few glimpses of the surprising season :

Paris SG – Strasbourg. Carlos Bianchi and Raymond Domenech.

Angers – Marseille. Patrick Brulez vs Marc Berdoll.

Angers – Nice

Angers – Strasbourg. Patrick Augustin tackled by Leonard Specht.

Nantes – St. Etienne 3-1. Pecout shoots, both teams lose…

Bordeaux – Angers. The Yugoslav Amersek runs away with the ball. Giresse watching… not famous yet.

Marseille – St. Etienne. Didier Six watching Janvion clears the ball – names of champions… who were not champions…

Lyon – Angers : 3-0. The drama of the game… from left : Maroc – Janin – Felci – Valadier – Osman – Chiesa – Le Lamer.

The surpises seemingly had no end in France this season. Strasbourg, Gueugnon… the amateurs not only won the second division, but reached high levels at the Cup tournament, eliminating mighty St. Etienne. Bellow them in Group A of Second Division finished a club nobody knew about – AJ Auxerre. The nobodies finished 4th in Group A, but did better than Gueugnon in the cup – they reached the final. The other finalists were FC Nantes and looked like the big boys would have a walkover…

Standing, from left :Maryan Szeja, Olivier Borel, Lucien Denis, Christian Roque, Gérard Hallet, Jean-Paul Noël, Dominique Cuperly

First row: Philippe Delancray, Jean-Marc Schaer, Serge Mesonès, Paul Brot, André Truffaut, Josef Klose.

Well, anonimous team… Only two players are worth a note – both Polish. Maryan Szeja, aging former national team player, and Josef Close, who not only never played for Poland, but did not even play for a strong club – he arrived from Odra (Opole) in 1978, tha same year his son was born. This, of course, was not a news in real time… the whole fame of Josef Close is in that he is the father of Miroslav Close. As a player, Josef Close perhaps had his best season exactly in his first season with Auxerre – playing at the Cup final. The anonimous team with two not so great Poles tried hard – Nantes was unable to best them. The final went to overtime – and only then the stars of Nantes overcome Auxerre : 4-1.

This was the first real sign of rising AJ Auxerre – not yet ready for anything big, but making their first mark in French football. It looked accidental at the time.

As for the winners, it was more than salvaging the season – FC Nantes never won the Cup before. Their very first.

This is not the winning team, but still a picture of the solid squad Nantes had at the time – Hugo Bargas was clearly stepping down. But it was a team with a future and winning the cup boosted their spirits. They were not going down, no way.

And that was that : new champion, new cup winner, new second division winner, although unallowed to play in first division, rising club, previously unknown – the season of surprises.