Finally to the bright side of Italian football. The big surprise of the season was a small club just coming back from Serie B exile.
Lanerossi Vicenza finished second, their best ever achievement. Familiar name back in the 1970s, but just a name. The club was founded in 1902, but success was not really on the table. After the Second World War they played regularly in first division, just making the numbers. Then financial troubles started and in 1953 a woolen firm from Schio bought the club. The firm, called Lanerossi, included its name into the club name and for many years it was Lanerossi Vicenza. With fresh money, the club came back to first division in 1955 and steadily stayed there until 1975. They fought nobly, but were never successful – the best years were 1963-64 and 1964-55, when the club finished 6th. Not much to write about in the history book. In 1975 they found themselves in the relegation zone again. Managed to win Serie B in 1976-77 and returned to top flight. Nothing much was expected of Lanerossi Vicenza – the biggest news about them was in 1976, when they bought young player called Paolo Rossi from Juventus for a record fee of 2.6 billion lire. How much was that in more meaningful currency is not even interesting: it was a big transfer and curious one too – on one hand, Vicenza paid a lot for a second division club. On the other, it was suspect transfer: Rossi was a talent, no doubt about it, but he never played even a single match for Juventus and was already involved in another transfer and technically was not in Juventus. May be he was loaned, for Vicenza paid to Juventus. Big money were spend – but was the spending justified remained to be seen. With Rossi in the squad, Vicenza won the second division title, but nobody thought they would be very strong in first division. But what a surprise! The modest newcomers gradually established themselves at the top and competed strongly to the end. Thank to better goal-difference they finished at second place. Their best ever performance in the league. And there was more – Vicenza finished as the highest scoring team this season with 50 goals. Paolo Rossi was the prime culprit of the crime – he scored half of the goals.
There was no longer any doubt about the billions spent for Paolo Rossi – he delivered! 24 goals – not only the best scoring record this year, but best by far – the next highest scorer, Savoldi (Napoli) managed only 16! Fifth best scorers – Bettega (Juventus) and Graziani (Torino) – had only 11 goals each. During the 1970s 11 – 16 goals were normal… low scoring, defensive Italian football hardly provided opportunities for more. Natural scorers like Savoldi and Bettega were unable to find openings in the tight defenses – but Rossi did. Vicenza was hardly a trend-setter, suddenly introducing attacking style, but still it was more attacking football they played, creating opportunities for the young maverick. Rossi was included in the national team immediately. With his help, Vicenza edged Torino and got silver medals. However, the title was well out of their reach.
The surprise disturbers of the status quo – modest newcomers finishing with silver medals. A very rare event in Italian football, which may have been possible only because of the general decline. May be so, but Vicenza deserved their medals. Since this is not a club to get mentioning often, another photo is perhaps justifiable:
Apart from Paolo Rossi, nobody else was or became famous, including the coach Fabbri. Just a typical small club with players almost automatically ‘placing’ it somewhere in the lower half of the league table. Other clubs, with well known names and having a few stars in the squads, suffered, so what made Vicenza successful? Perhaps the surprise, surely the scoring talent of Paolo Rossi, but most likely collective play and determination. May be more open than usual football – 50 goals do not come by playing catenaccio. There was a little lesson in all that – Lanerossi Vicenza seemingly tried something different: trusted young talent, based its game on him. No more stiff tactics and dependance on veterans from the 1960s, who even if they wanted, were hardly able to change their crusted habits. The only change was possible with new, young players – that was the lesson of Lanerossi Vicenza. Unfortunately, they were too small of a club to remain at the top for long. And because they were small, no big attention was paid to them. May be they were not innovators, but only had a lucky year, accidentally finishing at the top… may be, but nevertheless it was great to see them above Milan, Inter, and the rest of the league. The greatest ever season of Lanerossi Vicenza!
Great season for Vicenza, but a greater one for Juventus. There was both domestic and international success. By winning the UEFA Cup in 1977, Juventus at last got an even footing with Milan and Inter, and also made their bid for real international recognition. At home ‘the Old Lady’ was quite amazing – they took the first place from Milan in the 13th round and kept it to the end, shrewdly collecting point after point and leaving everybody else in the dust. At the end, Juventus finished 5 points ahead of L.Vicenza. Ironically, their last match was against Vicenza in Torino – a grand finale of the championship. Juventus were already unreachable, but they finished in style, winning dramatically 3-2, after Vicenza equalized twice. Rossi scored his 24th goal, as if to show what a player Juventus thought unfit. Roberto Bettega, perhaps in his finest form, also distinguished himself, scoring the third and winning goal for Juventus. Perfect ending of excellent season.
Juventus’ record is not very impressive on paper – rather typical Italian: the champions tied almost half of their matches – 14. Ten of them were away games. Typically iron defense – Juventus received only 17 goals this year – but goalscoring apparently was not their forte – 46 goals in 30 matches. Third highest record in the league, but compared to English or German football it was nothing at all. Especially because Juventus won exactly ½ of their total games – 15. Looked like Juventus preferred traditional approach in the championship – measly 1-0 wins at home and preferably scoreless ties on the road. Yet, they were the club playing most modern football in Italy, so the final results most likely came from careful balance between traditional Italian football and the total football’s attacking style. Italian defenses were very difficult to play against anyway. Juventus was obviously above the rest and almost unbeatable – they lost a single match in 1977-78. Astonishing achievement in Italy. The only loss happened early – in the 4th round. Lazio won 3-0 in Rome. This was t also the only match Juventus allowed 3 goals in their net. A tragic event happened in the 6th round, when Juventus played away match against Perugia – during the game Perugia’s player Renato Curi collapsed and died of heart attack. Players were dying on the pitch in the past as well; people somehow forgot that in the recent years. All kinds of drama for Juventus, but with excellent result. Death may be affected the match, but Juventus got their point anyway from a scoreless tie. No matter what, Juventus were the best Italian club and continued to dominate the league. One more title and European cup – what could be better?
Looking at the team, it is easy to understand why Juventus dominated Italian football: all starters were national team players! Not at the same time, of course, but every single one played for Italy. It was excellent blend of grizzled veterans (Zoff, Boninsegna, Benetti, Spinosi, Morini), stars at their peak (Bettega, Causio, Furino), and young talent (Tardelli, Gentile, Cuccureddu). Cabrini was pushing his way as well. Scirea is not in the picture, but he was regular, not Spinosi. Virdis was also very promising at that time. So was Fanna. And don’t forget who was coaching them – Giovanni Trapattoni, rapidly becoming a star coach. He found the right balance between old and young players and was not afraid to push young talent ahead. Juventus was establishing itself as a great club, there was nothing incidental about it, and there was room for further development too. Unlike any other Italian club, Juventus did not keep veterans for ever and transition of generations was smooth. Every year the team appeared to be stronger – and hungrier. Already there was more than a feeling that so far Juventus was only going up, getting a taste of success, but not reaching its peak – greater things were still to come. Very, very soon.