Second Division. Competitive season with surprising outcome – one expects familiar from years in the Bundesliga clubs to go up, but it was different. Upside-down, in a way.
MSV Duisburg was only last, but was hopeless outsider as well, ending with only 15 points. Such sharp decline…
Tennis Borussia (West Berlin) finished 19th with 29 points. Just came back from the regional leagues and relegated right away.
SpVgg Bayreuth – 18th with 31 points and out of second level again.
Hertha BSC (West Berlin) – 17th with 31 points. Another disaster… May be that was the way to build character – a future national team goalkeeper was going to taste regional football. The horrors of the 1960s came back, but this time there was a barrier between regional leagues and Bundesliga: now Hertha had first to try a return to second level.
SC Freiburg survived – 16th with 33 points.
SG Union Solingen – 15th with 34 points.
VfL Osnabruck – 14th with 35 points.
Viktoria Aschaffenburg – 13th with 35 points. May be nothing for other clubs, but for this one – a great season: Hertha and Duisburg relegated and Viktoria safe.
Miserable season for Eintracht Braunschweig – 12th with 36 points.
Rot-Weiss Oberhausen – Bundesliga was clearly out of reach for years already, now avoiding relegation to the regional leagues was prime concern. 11th with 37 points.
SV Darmstadt 98 – 10th with 41 points.
SG Wattenscheid 09 – 9th with 43 points. With them ends – or begins the groups of teams trying to reach promotion. 6 points was the final difference between Wattenscheid and the league champion and they won as many games as the 2nd placed in the final table – 17.
Alemannia Aachen – 8th with 43 points, ahead of Wattenscheid on better goal-difference.
Karlsruher SC – 7th with 43 points.
Stuttgarter Kickers – 6th with 43 points. The best goal-difference among those with 43 points placed them the highest.
KSV Hessen Kassel – 5th with 44 points. There was always something preventing them from getting promotion – coming close, but unable to reach the top.
Arminia Bielefeld – 4th with 45 points. Return to Bundesliga was postponed.
Fortuna Koln – one of the most stable members of Second Division, which seemingly had particularly good period and thus really aiming to get promoted up. Not easy in tough and relatively equal league, but they clinched 3rd place with 46 points. Which was not enough for direct promotion, but for a promotion/relegation play-off against the 16th in the Bundesliga. A good chance.
Now, that was a big surprise – Blau-Weiss 90 (West Berlin) was historically well bellow Hertha and even Tennis Borussia, but those two were relegated and the brave Blau-Weiss, quite a newcomer to second-level football, was suddenly going even higher – 2nd with 47 points. True, it was a bit chancy success, given the tough race, but Blau-Weiss earned its promotion. Going to play in the mighty Bundesliga – what fantastic success!
FC Homburg 08 – winners of the championship with 49 points. 20 wins, 9 ties, 9 losses and 75-42 goal-difference gave them the title. Hardly dominating – rather more determined than the competition – but they won. Not an expected winner, though, and the reason for the success not just of them, but of those immediately bellow them may have been the absence of well-known names in the whole league. Famous players were always few in the second level, but this season was very dry, which made various teams similarly strong or weak. Even for a second division champions, Homburg had quite an anonymous squad – the American Dooley will make his name in the future and that was everything. But it was sweet to win even like that, for after all, the competition was similar and that did not make it easy. After all, it only matters who would finish first – Homburg did it, who could blame them for getting promoted?
After the end of the regular championship Fortuna Koln went to the promotion/relegation play-off against Borussia Dortmund. They won their home leg 2-0, but in Dortmund the hosts came back with 3-1 win and a third match was scheduled. And in it, unfortunately, Fortuna collapsed… they lost 0-8! Too bad.
Thus, only 2 clubs got promoted to the Bundesliga: Blau-Weiss and Homburg. Great for them, but the terrible loss of Fortuna in the play-off was ominous sign… looked like the gap between first and second division teams was too wide at the moment.