Month: February 2020

Italy. Suffice to say who played in Italy this season: Michel Platini (Fra) and Zbigniew Boniek (Pol) – Juventus; Falcao and Toninho Cerezo (Bra) – Roma; Daniel Passarella (Arg) and Socrates (Bra) – Fiorentina; Diego Maradona and Daniel Bertoni (Arg) – Napoli; Graeme Souness (Sco) and Trevor Francis (Eng) – Sampdoria; Ray Wilkins and Mark Hateley (Eng) – Milan; Edinho and Zico (Bra) – Udinese; Hansi Muller (BRD) and Dan Cornesiusson (Swe) – Como; Hans-Peter Briegel (BRD) and Preben Ekjaer-Larsen (Den) – Verona; Ludo Coeck (Bel), Dirceu (Bra), Patricio Hernandez (Arg) and Aleksandar Trifunovic (Yug) – Ascoli; Junior (Bra) and Walter Schachner (Aus) – Torino; Geronimo Barbadillo (Peru) and Ramon Diaz (Arg) – Avellino; Batista (Bra) and Michael Laudrup (Den) – Lazio; Glenn Stromberg and Lasse Larsson (Swe) – Atalanta; Julio Uribe (Peru) – Bologna; Jan Peters (Hol) and Eloi (Bra) – Genoa; Wladyslaw Zmuda (Pol) and Juary (Bra) – Cremonese; Klaus Berggreen (Den) and Wim Kift (Hol) – Pisa; Luvanor and Pedrinho (Bra) – Catania. Let add some ‘exotic’ names too: Silvano Martina (Bosna and Herzegovina) – Torino; Richard Mapuata (Switzerland) – Lazio; Massimo Bonini (San Marino) – Juventus; Marco Macina (San Marino) -Parma; Daniele Zoratto (Luxembourg) – Brescia; Enzo Concina (Canada) – Cesena. The top championship of the whole world, even without mentioning Italian stars! Of course, invisible from the lower levels of Italian football.

Forth Division – Serie C/2. 4 groups of 18 teams each, the top 2 promoted and the lowest 3 relegated. Girone A:

Imperia – 18th with 29 points. Relegated.

Nuorese – 17th with 29 points. Relegated.

Olbia – 16th with 29 points. Relegated.

Vogherese – 15th with 29 points.

Carbonia – 14th with 29 points.

Spezia – 13th with 29 points.

Civitavecchia – 12th with 31 points.

Montevarchi – 11th with 31 points.

Savona – 10th with 31 points.

Torres – 9th with 32 points.

Massese – 8th with 33 points.

Lodigiani – 7th with 35 points.

Pontedera – 6th with 39 points.

Lucchese – 5th with 39 points.

Derthona – 4th with 39 points.

Alessandria – 3rd with 42 points. Unlucky – lost promotion not even on goal-difference, but only because scored 1 goal less than the rivals. That is, the same happened in the play-off against Prato – 2-3.

Prato – 2nd with 42 points. Lucky – even their goal-difference matched Alessandria’s, but they scored 45 goals to Alessandria’s 44. The only team without a lost match at home, but this one goal… they won the play-off against Alessandria 3-2.

Siena – champions of the group with 44 points. Promoted.

Girone B.

Mira – 18th Relegated.

Gorizia – 17th with 19 points. Relegated.

Rhodense – 16th with 23 points. Relegated.

Venezia – 15th with 31 points.

Omegna – 14th with 32 points.

Pro Patria – 13th with 33 points.

Montebelluna – 12th with 34 points.

Mestre – 11th with 35 points.

Pievigina – 10th with 35 points.

Pordenone – 9th with 35 points.

Fanfulla – 8th with 35 points.

Pro Vercelli – 7th with 36 points.

Mantova – 6th with 36 points.

Novara – 5th with 38 points.

Pergocrema – 4th with 39 points.

Ospitaletto – 3rd with 44 point. Lost promotion after tough play-off against Trento (0-0 after overtime and 4-5 in the penalty shoot-out) and amusingly low scoring team: only 29 goals in 34 games.

Trento – 2nd with 44 points. Lucky – clinched promotion after play-off.

Virascit Boccaleone – group champions with 45 points. Tough battle with strong opposition, so the victory was sweeter. Promoted, of course.

The Cup final opposed mighty Bayern to Bayer Uerdingen. For all its good form, Bayer was nothing compared to the giant, and the final was predictable: Bayer will put the good fight, but Bayern will enjoy a double. Hoeness scored in the 8th minute and everything seemed finished, fulfilling the prediction. Feilzer equalized right away, in the 9th minute, but so what? Bayern will score again – after all, Hoeness and company were not almost anonymous guys like Feilzer. He may have scored, but a second one? Now, Bayern scored and scored goals. Second goal arrived, of course, but in the second half and the scorer was neither Hoeness, nor Rummenigge Junior. Schaffer scored for Bayer in the 66th minute and to the end of the game Bayern was unable to equalize. No double.

Rather modest squad delightfully triumphed.

The Cup was theirs – what joy!

Bayern lost the final and the double, which was not a happy moment for them. This is not the team which played at the Cup final – from left to right: Augenthaler, Pfaff (practically hidden), Willmer, Lerby, Wohlfarth, Pflugler, Durnberger, Eder, Kogl, Dieter Hoeness, Mathaus. It could have been a mistake made because of the obvious superiority Bayern had over all others: with squad so deep and strong, looked like that Lattek varied the starting eleven, often mixing 2-3 reserve players with the regulars. The approach, although plausible, is also risky – it may misfire on occasion. It builds too much comfort, the team may get a bit lazy and self-assured: after all, we beat everybody even with reserves. To a point, the prize for over-comfidence was paid at the Cup final: no matter what, Bayern was facing a German opponent and German teams at least match Bayern in physicality and fighting spirit.

Great victory of the underdog! Bayer had their best year ever, crowned with winning the Cup. Feldkamp coached them excellently, but as a squad, it was a modest one. Herget, Schafer, the Icelandic import Gudmundsson… not much and understandable so: Bayer, after all, was not a big club with tons of money. They were still the better ‘Aspirins’, but whatever money the pharmaceutical giant invested in football was split between their two clubs and already looked like Leverkusen was going to be the first choice of the sponsor. Thus, the victory was priceless – against any odds, even against corporate policy, if you wish. Beating Bayern in itself may endear many to the winners. And for clubs of the caliber of Uerdingen a win is particularly cherished, for both club and supporters know down in theit hearts that success can be only occasional, most likely never to be repeated. Lovely moment.

A moment deserving to be repeated – as it was, for the photo is not from the Cup final, but a bit later – a proud display for the fans. And not only.

The Bundesliga. Hardly a memorable season – Bayern was the only solid team. The rest betrayed various problems – problems of West German football in general. The pool of talent was seemingly smaller than before, no foreigners of big quality were coming, German stars leaving to play in lucrative Italy. Perhaps the international failure of VfB Stuttgart was the best diagnosis: it its peak, the club made no impact on European football. Of course, the championship was competitive and tough, but the level was lower and the direction was downwards.

Eintracht Braunschweig was one of the two outsiders this season and finished last with 20 points. Not a big surprise, given the club’s tradition.

Karlsruher SC – the second outsider. 17th with 22 points. Along with Braunschweig, directly relegated.

Arminia Bielefeld – 16th with 29 points. As usual, struggling to stay in the league and not succeeding. Lost safety on goal-difference – unfortunate, but not the end of the world yet. Losing the promotion/relegation play-off against the 3rd place in Second Division, 1.FC Saarbrucken was the painfully familiar end: once again down to second level football. Curious note: they had Japanese co-trainer this year. Something very exotic and as far as coaching goes… practically unique for an European club. The Japanese player Ozaki was not a news – his presence only showed increasing class of Japanese players.

Fortuna Dusseldorf – in obvious decline and only lucky to escape the rick of relegation on better goal-difference: 15th with 29 points.

Borussia Dortmund – 14th with 30 points. Only 2 or 3 years ago Borussia was seen as ascending team, possibly going to the top. Instead, it went the opposite direction and looking at the squad the reasons for the plunge are quite obvious: Russmann, Zorc, Egli, Storck were getting only older ann naturally fading. Immel was the only player with star potential and going up.

Bayer Leverkusen – 13th with 31 points. Nothing special, but nobody expected much of them – Bayer was still a suspect newcomer, perhaps happy to play a few seasons in the top division, before sinking back to obscurity. The club surely had different ideas, but they were following them rather quietly and methodically. Very good coach, few decent – but not outstanding – players, hard work. Still among the weaker teams, but keeping place in the league.

Eintracht Frankfurt – another club in decline. 12th with 32 points. Compared to the squad of 10 years ago, the current one was pitiful. Only one thing worthy of mentioning: Korbel. The sturdy defender was becoming something like eternal feature of Bundesliga.

1.FC Kaiserslautern – 11th with 33 points. Traditionally, they fluctuated widely, so low position this season fitted the pattern.

VfB Stuttgart – a big disappointment: 10th with 33 points. Not only they were at the top just a few months earlier, but this was the only squad at the moment pretty equal to Bayern’s. Such players and nothing…

Schalke 04 – 9th with 34 points. Hard to tell – the squad was not much, but Schalke was coming back from a crisis, so one cannot expect some awesome team. Compared to Stuttgart, this team was poorly, yet, they finished ahead of Stuttgart.

VfL Bochum – 8th with 34 points. The great survivors – modest squad as ever, but playing with heart and soul and doing just fine as a result.

Bayer Uerdingen – 7th with 36 points. Their finest season ever, so more about them later.

SV 07 Waldhof Mannheim – 6th with 37 points. Arguably, having their best season in history, but hardly anybody was fooled: it was one-time performance. The squad was nothing to speak of and the club was modest, so whatever better players they had (Gaudino and Walter) most likely would go elsewhere.

Hamburger SV – 5th with 37 points. The beat the accidental Waldhof only on goal-difference was quite telling: HSV already reached its peak and now was slowly going down. It was enraging to see such team unable to compete for the title – may be they were a bit weaker than Stuttgart, but must have been rubbing shoulders with Bayern, not Waldhof. Not so terrible season as Stuttgart’s, but on slippery sloap nevertheless, giving the distinct feeling that there was no climbing back to top. Short-lived greatness.

Borussia Moenchengladbach – 4th with 39 points. Their great years were over, that was clear for some time already, but Borussia was hanging on – ate least their fading away was not going to be rapid and drastic. They were also the club easily excused: everybody knew they were always short of money and to have decent squad was nothing but a miracle even in their greatest years. They still managed to keep a number of good players against the odds, but perhaps the most important reason for staying relatively strong was their new coach – Heynckes was rapidly transforming from great player into great coach. Borussia was not to be dismissed yet.

1.FC Koln – 3rd with 40 points. For some reason this club was unable to built on their now distant title in the late 1980s. The potential was there, but they, although keeping among the best, remained unfulfilled promise. Why Koln never really happened is a question without meaningful answer: may be wrong recruiting policy. The current team was very similar to their champion team – good, but short of great and in need of few strong additions. This need was not solved after winning the title, nor in the following years, and it was surely not going to be solved now. Koln somehow remained a decent, but unfinished team – hence, 3rd, but distant 3rd.

Werder – 2nd with 46 points. The shameful exile in Second Division was already fading memory, now Werder was enjoying one of their sudden and not lived strong periods. Frankly, even with Voller, already singled out as rapidly becoming a superstar, Werder was not equal to Stuttgart and Hamburger. Not even to Koln. Pezzey and Okudera were aging, the rest were just capable second-raters. Good team, but hardly a title contender – and they were not, Bayern easily left them in the dust. But Werder left far behind Koln and HSV and Stuttgart were nowhere to be seen. Hats off to Otto Rehhagel.

Bayern – one more title, apparently, easily won. 21 wins, 8 ties, 5 losses, 79-38, 50 points. Werder was left 4 points behind, the others did not even count. The only trouble was that it was always Bayern… in the 1970s the great rivalry with Borussia Moenchengldabach kept the intrigue, but now it was only Bayern. Cannot blame them – this was the only European-class squad, well rounded and deep, coached by still excellent Lattek.

Bayern had the luxury to field a team like this one: top, left to right: Klaus Aughentaler, Wolfgang Dremmler, Hans Pfleugler, Bernd Martin, Soren Lerby, Lothar Matthaus. Bottom, left to right: Norbert Nachtweith, Raimond Aumann, Norbert Eder, Michael Rummenigge, Reinhold Mathy. Or some other version, just as strong. It was a club on entirely different level, compared to the other West German clubs. And that suggested only one thing – West German football was going to be dominated by one club. Too bad for the game.