Month: June 2019

This was the finest season of Lech (Poznan) ever, for they not only reached the Cup final, but utterly destroyed Wisla (Krakow) – 4-0.

Wisla ended quite lowly this year – insignificant season and lost Cup final, yet, they were going to represent Poland in the Cup Winners Cup, so at least some international football was coming their way.

Lech finished with a double – their first and only double. Like Widzew (Lodz), Lech etablished itself as leading Polish club in that time – they never won a trophy before 1982, when they won the Cup. In 1984 they had 2 titles and 2 Cups. So far, they came ahead of Widzew, which won their first trophy in 1981, but now Widzew had 2 titles and Lech had 2 titles and 2 Cups.

Dramatic battle for the title, but no drama at the bottom of First Division’s table. Szombierki (Bytom), Polish champions just a few years earlier, was last with 17 points. Cracovia (Krakow) was the other outsider – 15th with 21 points. These two were relegated. LKS (Lodz) was 14th with 25 points – just to point out how weak were the two outsiders. Baltyk (Gdynia) was 13th also with 25 points.

Zaglebie (Sosnowiec) was 12th with 27 points – they usually finished in the lower half of the table, nothing new.

Wisla (Krakow) – 11th with 27 points, a weak season really, but hardly a crisis.

Motor (Lublin) – 10th with 29 points.

GKS Katowice (Katowice) – 9th with 29 points.

Slask (Wroclaw) – 8th with 30 points, Ruch (Chorzow) – 7th, also with 30 points. Slightly weaker than usual, but not really dropping down.

Gornik (Walbrzych) had wonderful season, prehaps their best ever – they finished 6th with 31 points. However, this looked like one-time wonder.

Legia (Warszawa) – 5th with 33 points. Gornik (Zabrze) – 4th with 34 points. Pogon (Szczecin) – 3rd with 38 points. Coming close to the leaders, but not quite strong enough to endure to the end. Similar to Walbrzych’s case – great season, but staying among the best was unlikely.

The top two teams battled to the very end for the title, finished with equal points and goal-difference decided the championship.

Widzew (Lodz), running strong and very difficult to beat got second place with 42 points and +18 goal-difference.

But it was Lech (Poznan) clinching the title – they had goal-difference +26. 19 wins, 4 ties, 7 lost games, 47-21 goal-difference and 42 points. Widzew had the Polish superstar Smolarek and was tough and experienced squad, but perhaps too tough – they lost only 3 games this championship, but tied 12 – more advantageous Lech benefited at the end, although having less famous players than Widzew. It was second consecutive title too, so Lech was doing great.

Poland. The championship was intriguing to its very end, but Second Division produced high drama and surprises too. Among the former top league members, the most famous of them Stal (Mielec), none succeeded to get promoted. The championship of Group 1 was the same as in the top league – 2 teams competed to the end. In Group 2 two teams also dominated the championship, but the race was decided a bit earlier than in Group 1. As for the participants, the Polish Second Division was like most second level leagues.

There were teams like Stal (Mielec), 5th in Group 2, with some fame, but down on their luck presently, but most clubs were little known.

Like Piast (Gliwice), 11th in Group 1, which is regular member of the the Polish top league now, but before 1990 they played only second-level football. However, Piast had a place in Polish football histroy – the previous year they played in the only Cup final featuring Second Division teams and lost to Lechia (Gdansk).

Yet, little known clubs won the two groups of the Second Division.

Lechia (Gdansk) was already having a good run – they won the Polish Cup the previous season and the good spell continued. Lechia, coming up from long obscurity, was entangled in dramatic race for the first place with better known Olimpia (Poznan). No other team was even remotely close to the leaders and the drama lasted to the very end – Lechia won the championship in the last round and got promoted .

If Lechia was a team noticed already and in any case a club with long history, apparently coming back, the winner of Group 2 was different.

Radomiak (Radom) never played top league football and perhaps was best known for the local derby with Bron (Radom). So, this season was great on all fronts – Bron was very weak and ended relegated to Third Division. Radomiak, on the other hand dominated Group 2 and finished first. Like Lechia, Radomiak had only one challenger, a former first division member – Polonia (Bytom). However, Radomiak outpaced its rival earlier and at least a round before the end of the championship they were unreachable champions. This was their best season ever – Second Division champions and going to play top league football for the first time in their history.

 

The Cup. Perhaps the only real football in DDR ever since the Stassi decided to run the show. Dynamo (Berlin) reached the final, yet for another try, but direct elimination was harder to fix than whole championship. Dynamo (Dresden) was the other finalist and won the final 2-1. All goals were scored in the last ten minutes – in fact, Dresden killed Berlin in two minutes. Dorner opened the score in the 81 minute and in the 82nd Hafner made it 2-0. Troppa narrowed the gap in the 85th minute, but there was no time for anything else.

With this winter match the attack of the title really started, but it did not translate into winning the Cup. Thus, Dynamo (Berlin), so supreme and heavily helped by the state remained with single Cup, won in the very distant 1959.

Dynamo (Dresden) won its 6th Cup. Only 1. FC Magdeburg won more cups than them at the moment.