Month: September 2016

Yugoslavia – 15th for 1981 and 11th overall by UEFA. That is club level, nothing spectacular, but consistent. The domestic season was pretty much the same. The Eastern Group of Second Division was , at a glance, more competitive – 9 points were the whole difference between the winner and the second to last. Fairly equal league, alas, not very strong – none of the former first division teams was impressive, according to their history: Radnicki (Kragujevac) was perhaps best known and they finished 5th. At the bottom were never heard of outside Yugoslavia clubs: Vlaznimi (Djakovica) was last with 15 points, Rabotnicki (Skopje) – 15th with 28, Lovcen (Cetinje) – 14th, also with 28, and Radnicki (Pirot) – 13th with 29 points. These four teams were relegated.

Pristina (Pristina) finished 8th. Standing from left: Trajković, Lalić, Novaković, Ljota, Rama, Dalku

Crouching: Rugova, Murići, Rajčevski, Mitin, Živković.

Right behind them were Sloboda (Titovo Uzice)

Standing from left: Savić, Belojević, Jagodić, Radević, Ćuković, B.Veselinović.

First row: Krdžević, Rovčanin,Stevanović, Hodžić, I.Čančarević.

Nothing special, typical second division teams. Both ended with 30 points – like 4 other clubs. Prtistina lost only game more than the champions. Along with Rad (Belgrade), Pristina were the worst scorers this season with 27 goals. Strangely, one of the relegated – Radnicki (Pirot) – were the best scorers with 45 goals. Two of the relegated four scored more goals than the group winner – a testimony of a league of low class, where everything was possible. Rad (Belgrade) ended 3rd with 33 points, edging Sutjeska (Niksic) on goal-difference. Galenika (Zemun) was 2nd with 35 points.

Teteks (Tetovo) finished first with 37 points.

Normally, it is nice to see an underdog soaring, but this one should be taken with a grain of salt: the small Macedonian club never played top level football, so it was wonderful to see them promoted. This was their best season so far. But! Teteks won a so-so league mostly on good luck and persistence than actual class: the only reason they topped the league was they won more matches than anybody else – 15. That is, exactly half of the seasonal total. However, Teteks scored less than a goal per game on average and given their outstanding defensive record – only 18 goals received – their approach was going for 1-0 wins at most. It worked this year, but the real test was the next season among the big boys. It was quite easy to see Teteks among the outsiders.

 

The Cup final opposed Dukla to Bohemians, a Prague derby. No more Czech vs Slovak final, so two of the leading at the time clubs met trying to add a trophy. It was closely contested final – Dukla won the first leg 3-1, then Bohemians won the second leg 3-2. One goal difference decided the winner – Dukla.

Perhaps unlucky Bohemians, but football is about winners and losers after all. Unfortunately, Bohemians was not able to construct big squad – Dukla, Sparta, Slavia were stronger rivals, yet, Bohemians managed to scrape a strong team. Most people think Bohemians was just Antonin Panenka, but there was more than him, starting with Bicovsky. Wonderful period in the history of the club, one of their best, but trophies escaped them – so far.

Dukla won its 5th Cup – the first since 1969. Surely, they returned to the top of Czechoslovakian football and looked like a new great period, similar to the years between 1950 and 1965, appeared to be unfolding. The squad arguably the best in the country – Nehoda, Gajdusek, Samek, Stambachr, Vizek, Rada, Fiala. But times changed and Dukla, still able to get talented players almost at will, for everybody could be called to Army service, was not able to keep players after the end of required time in uniform. Most recently Jarolim, the talent snatched from Sparta, returned to his original club, for example. This placed Dukla in peculiar situation: they were getting talent, but had no stable team. With strong foes next door superiority was probably just a dream, but the team was winning, so why not dream more? Winners can always look ahead and Dukla was a winner.