First division can be roughly divided into 4 groups.
KV Kortrijk was the outsider of the season, finishing last with 20 points. 5 wins, 10 ties, 19 losses, the weakest attack in the league and the second worst. A bunch fairly known players were in the squad – Attila Ladinsky, now no more stateless Hungarian, but listed as Dutch; a real Dutch, who never played in Holland – Ronny van Poucke, formerly of Anderlecht; two Yugoslavians – Salih Durkelic, who had better career in France, and the 33-years old veteran Franjo Horvat, and aging German journeyman Detlef Webers. The foreigners did not help, although their names sounded stronger than those playing for the competition.
Three teams tried to avoid relegation – Berchem Sport and RFC Liegeois managed to escape.
RAA Louvieroise, more often written just La Louviere, lost the battle – with 24 points and the worst defensive record in the league, they finished 17th, going down to second division.
The second group was the typical lower mid-table bunch of teams, usually found in the bottom half of the league year after year. From KSV Waregem, 14th, to Royal Antwerpen, 7th, they were 8 clubs divided by 6 points. Some were a bit lower may be, but nothing really surprising:
Watershei SV Thor (Genk) were typical – 11th this season, a point and place behind their city rivals FC Winterslag.
Charleroi SC were 9th – like Waterschei, sometimes they appeared briefly among the top 5-6 clubs, but mid-table was their normal environment. Agind Enver Hadziabdic were still with them, but at 34, hardly a regular starter. His best days more or less ended at the 1974 World Cup. Nico Braun was respected professional, but players from Luxembourg were and are not real stars. Alex Czerniatynski was the most promising player in the team – but he was still 19 years old hopeful.
And the upper part of the table was occupied by two groups – three teams were not strong enough to attack top positions – KSC Lokeren finished 4th with 42 points.
Lokeren played well in the 1970s, so their position was not surprising. But they were modest club, and unable to build really strong team. Their strength was largely the striking line – the Polish great Wlodzimierz Lubanski was he key figure, still very dangerous at 32. Loyal to his club too. Along him two young players were making names for themselves: one 18-years old Icelander, Arnor Gudjohnsen, and 22-years Dane, who was champion of West Germany the previous year with 1. FC Koln, but hardly ever played – one Preben Elkjaer-Larsen. Both youngsters were to become quite famous in the 1980s, especially Elkjaer-Larsen, but not with Lokeren. Still this team had better season than the European sensation of the last 3-4 years – FC Brugge. Was it the inevitable drop of form after few years of success , was it a bad choice of coach, or aging squad in need of rebuilding, is immaterial – FC Brugge struggled and finished 6th. However, it was temporary flop.
The very top was a battle between three clubs – Anderlecht, obviously, Standard Liege, seemingly recovering from decline and coming back, and a small club having perhaps the best years in their history.
Standard was perhaps the most promising team at the time – under Robert Waseige a new team emerged, based on young players: Michel Preud’homme, Eric Gerets, already captaining the squad, were the core. Experienced veterans made Standard solid – the German Erwin Kostedde (b. 1949) returned to the club for which he played back in the 1960s; there was another German, also 30-years old – Helmuth Graf, and the Austrian national team striker Alfred Riedl (b. 1949) completed the group of strong veterans. Two young foreigners also were regulars – the Icelandic talent Asgair Sigurvinsson (b. 1955), and the Turkish defender Erhan Onal (b. 1957), who came from Bayern (Munich). Standard was still unfinished and young squad, but rapidly rising – it was just not their time yet, so they were not up to winning the title. But they competed to the end, finishing third with 44 points.
Erwin Kostedde, no longer a key player, but still with second spell with Standard.
Anderlecht were favorites – well, who else? Lead by Raymond Goethals, they were one of the most talked about clubs since 1975, and compared to the rest of the Belgian league, they were superior in every aspect: great coach, great squad, money to add new players with names… It was ‘the smaller Ajax’ – Rensenbrink was the first among the Dutch playing for Anderlecht, but the Haan and Johny Dusbaba came directly from Ajax. And Ruud Geels joined them in 1978 also from Ajax. Of course, he made his name playing for FC Brugge in the early 1970s, but the speedy top scorer came to Brussels as star of Ajax. The goalkeepr Nico de Bree and Mathijs van Toorn completed the Dutch colony. Add the Dane Benny Nielsen and the Congolese Jean-Claude Bouvy, and don’t even look for Belgian players…
Standing, from left: De Bree, Van Binst, Broos, Coeck, Vanthoorn, Munaron, Thissen, Dusbaba, Beeckman.
Sitting: Goethals – coach, Bouvy, Martens, Vercauteren, Van Der Elst, Rensenbrink, Nielsen, Geels, Haan, Lippens.
Of course, there were Belgian players, and what names too – Van Binst, Broos, Coeck, Vercauteren, van der Elst – all national team regulars. And Munaron will be national team player soon… Anderlecht had so much class and talent, it was out of the question who will win the championship. But they did not – may be the team was aging: Rensenbrink, Haan, Geels were getting old certainly. The next generation had no leadership potential, unfortunately – Bouvy, Nielsen, van Toorn, Munaron, and Dusbaba as good as they were, were not big star-material. It was time Anderlecht to start building of new squad – the second place in 1978-79 was a signal. It was not that lost the title – it was to whom they lost it: it was a inferior squad and inferior by far, if names are compared. The real signal was in that Anderlecht won nothing this season with seemingly unrivaled in the league squad .
May be defense was everything, may be enthusiasm, may be the weakness of the rivals. May be this, may be that, but he champions lost only 4 matches and allowed only 24 goals in their net. They squirreled points from ties, they scored enough to win, they were not a team to rave about, but a surprise winners. Unlikely too. SK Beveren were not the usual candidates for the title, so it was fantastic season for them. To see the underdog winning is nice, of course, and it was well deserved title: at the end, Beveren left Anderlecht 4 points behind.
An interesting and not typical picture of the champions – made when nobody thought of title, even they. No world-famous names here and actually old squad, based on local players. They had the usual for Belgian club big group of foreigners, but most of them were not only unknown, but rarely played – Saul Lisazo (Argentina), Erwin Albert (West Germany), Karl-Heinz Wissmann (West Germany), Patrick Verhoosel (Holland). The coach was equally unknown – the Belgian Rik Pauwels. But was spirited team – they won the Belgian Cup in 1978 and continued their strong performance, going all the way to the very top.
It was tied, small team, mostly Belgian and old – Freddy Buyl and Jean Janssens were 35 years old. The German Heinz Schonberger was 30, his compatriot Wissmann – 32. But these veterans paled when compared to Paul van Genechten – he was 38! Local stars, at best, but sturdy still. The only younger player with real star potential was Jean-Marrie Pfaff, rapidly climbing up – he was included in the national team and was to become famous player soon. Apart from him, the Dutch youngster Wim Hofkens (b. 1958) was to achieve some fame – but much later. As a whole, curious team, perhaps with more part-timers than full professionals (one player combined football with regular work as a stevedore). Rather ordinary squad, by all accounts, without promise for the future – but thy won. Two years in a row – the Cup in 1978 and in 1979 – the title. Lovely nobodies. Surprising winners.