Author: Vesselin

Albania remained remote and obscure – hardly anything survived from 1979-80 championship. Only three clubs showed some class in the second division. Traktori Lushnje had no rival at all in Group A and won it with 6 points advantage – huge gap, considering that only 8 clubs participated. Group B was more competitive – tow clubs contested first place. Besëlidhja Lezhë prevailed by 2 points. Entirely unknown club – Dajti Kamëz – finished second, but 7 points ahead of the 3rd placed. As it was, former members of first division dominated the second level and got promoted.

First division was not much fun either. Apolonia Fier ended last without winning even a single match. Absolute outsiders, earning just 5 points during the season. Shkëndija Tiranë finished 13th – 14 points ahead of poor Apolonia, but 4 points behind Tomori Berat, which finished safely 12th. Apolonia and Shkëndija went down.

The rest of the league was seemingly fairly equal – 9 points divided silver medalists from 12th placed. Point or two difference decided higher or lower place. Vllaznia Shkodër finished 3rd and 17 Nëntori Tiranë second – neither club challenged the solitary leader.

Which was familiar name – Dinamo Tiranë. This season they were head and shoulders above the rest, finishing 5 points ahead of 17 Nëntori.

Dinamo easily won their 13th title, but how strong they were is hard to say – it was rather that their rivals were weak, especially Partizani Tiranë, which ended 4th and only because of better goal-differemce.

Partizani did not close the season empty-handed, though. Weak in the championship, they won the Cup. It was not easy victory, although their opponent was not a strong team. Labinoti Elbasan was a typical mid-table club, this year was no different – they finished 9th in the championship – but cup final is another matter. Labinoti kept Partizani at 1-1 tie and a second match was scheduled. It was also equal game, but Partizani managed to score a goal and thus to win the Cup. 1-1 and 1-0 – Partizani not only were not superior, but had really hard time winning the trophy.

Partizani saved the season by winning the Cup, but as a whole nothing changed in Albania – weak or strong, the top clubs Partizani and Dinamo got the trophies, as ever. Well, even if one of them failed, it would have been 17 Nentori winning… the three clubs from the capital Tirana dominated Albanian football.

By 1980 Icelandic football got some notice, but this was because of players making good impressions abroad. Domestic leagues continued to be weak.

Reynir Arskogsstrond won the 3rd division championship. Good for the team looking largely like bunch of teenagers, but otherwise the winners had only a novelty value. Promoted to second level, though.

KA and Thor, both from Akureyri, finished 1st and 2nd in the second division and promoted to top league. Both clubs were familiar with first division football and clearly above the rest of the second league. There is nothing more to say – half of the second division members were entirely unknown, only three clubs, apart from the winners, played in a minor role if first division occasionally.

First division was 50% Reykjavík clubs. Of them the smallest one, Trottur, was the league outsider, sinking to the bottom early in the championship and never moving from the last 10th spot. IB Keflavik, usually stronger, had a bad season and finished 9th. These were the relegated. On the brighter side was UB Kopavogur – unlikely first division member, but they finished 5th , seemingly determined to establish themselves among the best.

Four clubs at the top were more or less familiar to foreign public names, for those were usually stronger and played in the European tournaments. But there was no competitive race for the title. IA Akranes and Vikingur Reykjavik were comfortably above the rest of the league, yet, fought between themselves for the bronze medals. Both finished with 20 points and IA Akranes got the medals thanks to superior goal-difference. Way above them were Fram and Valur, but there was no much of the clash between them either: Fram ended 5 points ahead of IA Akranes, but 3 points behind the champions. In a small league of only 10 members, 3 points was rather big advantage.

Valur Reykjavík finished with one more title – their 17th and 3rd since 1975. Valur, traditionally one of the best clubs in the country, was seemingly the current strongest club.

The Cup final opposed Fram Reykjavík to ÍB Vestmannæyjar. IB were stronger in the first half of the 1970s, but sunk to the lower half of the table after 1975. Fram prevailed 2-1. Thus, the strongest Icelandic clubs at the moment won the trophies.

Fram won their 4th Cup. Although one of the most successful clubs, with 15 titles by 1980, Fram was well bellow their arch-rival Valur in recent times: since 1947 they won only 2 titles – one in 1962 and one in 1972. On the other hand, they excelled at last in the Cup tournament, winning their very first Cup in 1970 and steadily adding more during the 70s.

A strange play-off was staged between IA Akranes and Vikingur – strange, because the final table shows IA at third place. The play-off decided who will represent Iceland in the UEFA Cup and Vikingur won 2-1. Still, it looks weird, for if IA Akranes was awarded 3rd place, they automatically deserved the European spot. What the play-off did was just cementing the supremacy of the clubs from the capital – all three Icelandic representatives in the European tournaments hailed from Reykjavik.

The Cup final opposed one of the losers in the championship and a club which perhaps had bigger ambitions, but was down on its luck in the championship. Haka Valkeakoski, traditional strong clubs in Finland, lost the title by a single point. Winning the Cup would have been good… KTP Kotka had typical midtable season – 5th in the preliminary stage, far behind the top 4 teams, but also far ahead of the rest the league; and 5th in the final stage, once again far behind from the top four. The final was tightly contested. At the end KTP Kotka clinched 3-2 victory.

Happy winners. KTP Kotka were not exactly a great traditional powerhouse, but happened to win something from time to time. This was one such occasion – well done for obviously inferior club, but also a good example of football in the lower European regions: teams were relatively equal in strength and without real stars and relatively few good players, everything was possible. KTP Kotka had anonymous players to jaded outsider’s eye – but OPS Oulu were anonymous just as much.

Finland established complicated championship formula, seemingly suitable for the level of the game in the country: two-phased championship. At first standard league format was played. The second phase continued with the top 8 clubs of the league playing mini-league final tournament for the title. Every team carried half of their first-stage points to the final. The bottom 4 clubs plus the top 4 clubs of the second league proceeded to relegation/promotion tournament. Bonus points were given, depending on each club’s place in the opening stage – 4 points for the highest placed, going down to 1 point for the lowest. This combination worked fine for sifting out inferior teams, but in the same canceled winners of lower divisions and up and down movements were not guaranteed. OTP Oulu, Reipas Lahti, KTP Kuopio, and KPV Kokkola were the bottom 4 in the first stage of top division. MP Mikkeli, RoPS Rovaniemi, MiPK Mikkeli, and Kuusysi Lahti were at the top of the second division preliminary stage. The 8 clubs made the relegation/promotion group, which proved second division members better – at this moment – than the top flight teams. Only KTP Kuopio finished among the top 4, going to play first division football next year. KTP Kuopio finished 1st, but places are a bit misleading – all four teams finished with 11 points, a combined record of earned and bonus points. RoPS Rovaniemi, MP Mikkeli, and MiPK Mikkeli were promoted.

The final tournament for the title mirrored the preliminary stage – OPS Oulu, TPS Turku, HJK Helsinki, and Haka Valkeakoski were well above the rest of the league. With 30 points, HJK Helsinki and Haka Valkeakoski ended 6 points ahead of the 5th placed KTP Kotka. The original superiority brought instant advantage before the second stage started: the top clubs kept the gap by carrying more points. The top 4 were tightly packed in the first stage and went also together in the second – there was no outstanding favourite in neither phase. At the end, TPS Turku finished 4th with 23 points, HJK Helsinki got bronze medals with 24 points, Haka Valkeakoski clinched silver with 25, OPS Oulu were champions with 26 points.

OPS Oulu won a consecutive title, repeating their success in 1979. They did not dominate the championship at all, prevailing by a single point, but in itself their record is remarkable: OPS lost only one match this season. Their only loss came during the preliminary tournament – nobody managed to beat them in the final stage. But the champions did not depend on defensive tactics: they attacked and scored a lot. With 70 goals, they outscored the second best, Haka Valkeakoski, by 13 goals.

Arguably, those were the best years of the club, but on a larger scale, they were unknown. It was a team best measured only by Finnish standards: about 15 players were used in the campaign, mostly young. Among the regular substitutes were 21, 19, and 16 years olds. Two national team players and 2 Olympic team players, whose performance at the Moscow Olympic Games left no memory. More or less, the typical Finnish squad… perhaps what made difference was the employment of two foreigners:

Hugh Smith, 23-old Scottish midfielder, and

Keith Armstrong, 23-years old English forward. The duo came together from Hong Kong, where they played previously, after failing to impress English and Scottish clubs. They shined in Finland, however, and both cherished hopes of breaking into British professional football. Given their age and evident success abroad, their hopes were perhaps plausible, but there is no escape from measuring Finnish football against top European leagues: Smith and Armstrong instantly elevated the class of OPS Oulu and helped the club to a second title – the foreign stars, however, failed to establish themselves in Heart of Midlothian and Workington…

But let not judge OPS Oulu harshly: they were happy champions, prevailing over close and equal pursuers.

Luxembourg. Little worth mentioning.

Olympique Eischen and

Alliance Dudelange won promotions to first division.

One club was hopeless outsider in first division – US Rumelange. Last with 11 points. Half of the league fought for escaping relegation. Chiers Rodange was the looser, finishing 11th with 16 points. At the top of the table 4 teams were above the rest – Union Luxembourg finished 4th, 7 points ahead of the 5th placed. Progres Niedercorn got bronze medals with 30 points. Jeunesse Esch/Alzette and Red Boys Differdange fought the title and single point decided the winner. Red Boys finished 2nd.

Jeunesse won their 17th title – not a surprise at all, since the club was already the strongest club in the small country. As a whole, the top 4 were the usual better clubs at that tine.

Progres Niedercorn reached the Cup final and tried to win a trophy compensating for the lost title. But their opposition was also ambitious – Spora Luxembourg fought for survival this year and at the end finished 7th. However, Spora was one of the historically most successful clubs. The final ended without a winner. Spora prevailed in overtime 3-2.

A great ending of the season – Spora ensured another season in the first division and won the Cup. This was their 8th Cup and first trophy since 1965-66, when they won their 7th Cup. As for champions, Spora did not win the league since 1960-61. The club was declining – the best years were already in very distant past before the Second World War. Few trophies were added after the war, but may be a revival was beginning at last?

Standing from left: FIEDLER Jean, WÜNSCH Romain, HOSCHEID Pierre, BERCKES Louis, SAUBER Paul, PETRY Dirk, PLETSCH Gérard, BAUMERT Alain, ZENDER Raymond, LORANG Roger (Trainer).

First row: ZEUTZIUS Fernand, MOLITOR Marcel, MANNON Jean-Louis, MOUSEL José, URBING Gérard, ROB Pascal, MANNON Alain, FIEDLER Carlo.

Well done, but the names mean nothing outside Luxembourg.

 

After sinking to the bottom of international football, let’s continue from there. Which country was at the very bottom in Europe hardly matters – Malta and Luxembourg were pretty much the only countries which seemingly did not move in any direction during the 1970s, Malta perhaps even more stagnated than Luxembourg. The previous season a complicated championship formula was used, but it was back to standard championship in 1979-80. The league was going to be reduced to 8 teams the next season, so 3 teams were relegated and only one promoted.

Zurrieq was the winner of second division, going up. Locally, good for them, but the newcomers were not going to make any impact on the top league. Like many Maltese clubs Zurrieq did not have a stadium of its own and played at the national stadium in Valletta. Thus, home and away games fixtures were such only statistically.

Given the reduction of first division, the fight for survival was to be very important and bitter this season. In theory. In practice, what happened only justified the reduction: Zebbug Rangers, Qormi, and St. George’s were clearly much weaker than the other clubs and finished at the bottom: St. George’s last with 5 points, Qormi – 9th with 7, and Zebbug Rangers – 8th with 8 points. Marsa, the club which ended 7th, had 13 points – hardly in danger at any time during the championship. To illustrate the pitiful performance of the relegated clubs: their combined record would have been good for 6th place, bellow Hamrun Spartans on worse goal-difference.

At the top of the league the title was not exactly a big contest. Hibernians, Floriana, and Sliema Wanderers fought large for silver and bronze. Hibernians lost the race and finished 4th with 26 points. The other two finished with 28 points each and Sliema Wanderers clinched silver medals on better goal-difference. Floriana ended with best defensive record in the league – they allowed only 6 goals.

The favourites were all the usual suspects and the winner was the most usual of them. Valletta lost only match this season and won 14 out of 18 total matches. They scored much more goals than any other club – 59. The second highest scorers were Sliema Wanderers with 47. At the end Valleta finished 3 points above Sliema Wanderers and Floriana, which seems a small lead, but this is only because the league was small and therefore the number of matches was not big enough to provide for building big lead. It was easy sailing for Valletta and they added one more title.

Nothing new… once again Valletta triumphed.

If there was a disappointment this season, it could be Hamrun Spartans.

They finished 5th with 20 points. 6 points behind Hibernians and 6 points ahead of Birkirkara. But Hamrun Spartans should have been one of the favourites… well, according to tradition.

The Cup did not produce big surprises either: the traditionally stronger clubs dominated. Valletta was unable to reach the final. Hibernians and Sliema Wanderers were the finalists, both determined to win and compensate for the not very successful championship.

Hibernians (Paola) won 2-1. The Peacocks won their 4th Cup after a long weight: their 3rd was won in 1971.

 

The third big international championship of 1980 ended months before the European Championship and the Olympic Games – the 12th African Nations Cup started and ended unnoticed by the world. It was not because it was dwarfed by bigger events – African football still did not count. Nigeria was hosting the final stage: 8 finalists playing in 2 round-robin groups, followed by the semi-finals and final. Nigeria qualified directly as hosts and Ghana – as holders of the title. For the remaining 6 places qualification stages were – as ever – many. And just ever many teams declined to play one after another – Niger in the preliminary round, Burundi, Tunisia, Uganda, and Somalia in the first round. Only in the second round all scheduled matches were played. There were no qualification groups, but standard cup format of direct elimination. The only drama happened in the first round – Guinea and Cameroon exchanged 3-0 wins, went into overtime and penalty shoot-out, won by Guinea. Cameroon was eliminated at home. At the end Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, and Guinea qualified – no major surprises really. May be Zaire and Tunisia were a bit of surprising absentees, but Tunisia refused to play and Zaire was declining, relatively speaking, for in Africa there was no real classy team, but fairly equal in their undeveloped stages teams.

Group A, which played in Lagos produced no upsets and surprises – the hosts were favourites by the virtue of hosting, and Egypt was traditionally a favourite.

1.NIGERIA 3 2 1 0 4- 1 5

2.EGYPT 3 2 0 1 4- 3 4

3.Ivory Coast 3 0 2 1 2- 3 2

4.Tanzania 3 0 1 2 3- 6 1

Group B, played in Ibadan, was tougher: Guinea, which judging by strong years at international club level, must have been good as a national team too, Ghana – not only the reigning African champion, but more or less considered to be the strongest African country in football, and Algeria and Morocco – which, along with Egypt, had old and better organized football than the rest of the continent. North prevailed over South – not really a ground-braking news.

1.ALGERIA 3 2 1 0 4- 2 5

2.MOROCCO 3 1 1 1 2- 2 3

3.Ghana 3 1 1 1 1- 1 3

4.Guinea 3 0 1 2 3- 5 1

In the semi-finals Nigeria eliminated Morocco thanks to early goal – Owolabi scored in the 9th minute and that was enough. Hosts have their privileges… no matter where, no matter when, hosts get easy draws. Nigeria played only in Lagos – which means huge support.

In Ibadan Egypt and Algeria dominated half of the match each and ended in 2-2 tie. Egypt had a 2-0 lead by the 47th minute, but the Algerians scored two goals in the 55th and 62nd minute. The winner was decided by penalty shoot-out – Algeria prevailed 4-2.

The last two matches were played in Lagos. Morocco won bronze after beating Egypt 2-0. Labied scored both goals – the first early in the game, in the 9th minute; the second – near the end, in the 78th minute.

The final was attended by 80 000! Even if the numbers were inflated by creative accounting, they were huge. So little attention was paid to African football, that something important was missed: the sport was very popular. Facilities were not great, clubs were poor, training was not even amateurish, but the popularity of the game meant that sooner or later African football will go up. So far quality was low… and the final testifies to that. Some footage can be seen today and it makes it clear how far behind European and South American football the Africans were: technical skills were there, but the teams were still naïve, tactically poor, physically weak. The last few minutes of the game are particularly impressive: the Nigerians killed time by sheer technical ability, but walking. As for why the Algerians were not able to win the ball… well, the only possible explanation could be that African players were good with the ball in their feet – without it, they were kind of lost, lacking defensive skills. But no matter – in front of jubilant home crowd, Nigeria scored 3 goals. Algeria – nil. With the final whistle, the happy crowd poured on the pitch.

Final (Lagos, National stadium; att: 80,000)

22- 3-80 Nigeria 3-0 Algeria

[Segun Odegbami 2, 42, Muda Lawal 50]

[Nigeria: Best Ogedengbe, David Adiele, Christian Chukwu,

Babatunde Bamidele, Alloysius Atuegbu, Godwin Odiye

(Ikhana Kadiri), Felix Owolabi, Okey Isima, Segun

Odegbami, Muda Lawal, Adokie Amiesemeka;

Algeria: Mehdi Cerbah, Chaabane Merzekane, Abdelkader Horr,

Mohammed Khedis, Mustapha Kouici, Bouzid Mahyouz, Ali

Fergani, Lakhdar Belloumi (Guemri), Salah Assad, Tdej

Bensaoula (Rabah Madjer), Benmiloudi;

referee: Gebreyesus Tesfaye (Ethiopia)

Nigeria won her first trophy!

Missing here is the only famous member of the African champions: their coach.

The Brazilian Otto Gloria had – and has – great reputation. It is based largely on his work with Benfica (Lisbon), but his CV is impressive by all accounts. At 63, he was not exactly ‘hot’ and perhaps not up to modern football – Gloria is associated largely with football in the 1950-s and 1960s, already outdated – but still was good: he made Nigeria African champions and perhaps his presence laid strong foundation for Nigeria becoming a top team since 1990. As for the coach himself – one more trophy added to his impressive collection of 4 Portuguese titles, 5 Portuguese Cups, 2 Brazilian titles – one Carioca, and one Paulista, and bronze World Cup medals with Portugal. In terms of teams coached, perhaps Nigeria ranks at the bottom, along with CF Monterrey (Mexico), but he conquered Africa with group of players nobody heard of.

And that is the trouble with the champions: not a single one became really famous. They have local importance and even that is arguable. The already mentioned Segun Odegbami was big Nigerian star at the time, but he played only a single season outside his home country and it was not even in the top North American league. Winners usually become instant legends and no doubt most of the African champions are in Nigeria, but in global terms they remain anonymous. It is hard to compare Odegbami to, say, Jay-jay Okocha.

The captain of the champions Christian Chukwu is often considered the best Nigerian defender ever, but it seems mostly historic recognition of first winner. Chukwu never played outside Nigeria – compared to Celestine Babayaro’s career, this is nothing. No European club rushed to hire any of the new African champions – the Nigerians suffered the fate of the previous African champions: Ghana, Zaire, etc. More than mere football was at play, of course, but compared to losing finalists Nigerian remained anonymous. Lakhdar Belloumi was wanted by Barcelona and only Algerian rules prevented him from going to Spain. Rabah Madjer won the European Champions Cup with FC Porto and his goal at the final is remembered to this very day. Circumstances were against the Nigerians surely – at that time only France, Belgium, and Portugal were interested in African players, but only from their former colonies – Nigeria was not among them, Algeria was… No matter what, it was great success for Nigeria, a historic victory, important for long-term development of football in the country and the whole continent.

 

The ‘small’ final for the third place. Instead of playing for gold, USSR and Yugoslavia met for bronze. The Yugoslavs made few changes, the Russians stuck to their usual team. Nothing new, nothing exciting… both teams made many mistakes, the Russians possessed the ball more, the Yugoslavs depended on wingers. Nothing exciting and no goals in the first half. In the break Beskov replaced Gazzaev with Oganesyan and the change invigorated the Russians.

Oganesyan attacking. In the 67th minute he scored. Andreev scored second goal in the 82nd minute. Dassaev saved one or two dangerous Yugoslavian shots and that was all: USSR 2 – Yugoslavia 0. Toplak was a bit dismissive of the last game – he said that Yugoslavia traditionally loses from USSR, his players were tired after having no vacation during the summer, but preparing for the Olympic, and that matches for 3rd place ‘have their own logic’ – a veiled nonsense, hiding the obvious fact that Yugoslavia was not interested in this match, even the coach. Beskov said what Soviet coaches said for years after one more failure: that Soviet players as a whole – not just his selection – must increase physical preparation, must work on tactics, learn to fight for possession of the ball, and work hard on organizing attacks. Long lasting platitudes, familiar to everybody in USSR. His real criticism, if not hot anger, was addressed to his strikers: he said their finishing shots evoked only sadness in him. With this comments stopped and the team was forgotten – so much so, that even a picture of the bronze medalists seemingly does not exist. One more failure, marking the end of terrible decade.

Perhaps the closest to the Olympic team photo is from June 1980 of the team who played against Brazil at Maracana: standing from left: K. Beskov – coach, O. Romantzev, V. Bessonov, A. Chivadze, R. Dassaev, V. Pilguy, Yu. Gavrilov, S. Shavlo, T. Sulakvelidze, S. Borovsky.

Crouching: V. Khidiatulin, V. Evtushenko, R. Chelebadze, S. Rodionov, Kh. Oganesyan, S. Andreev, F. Cherenkov.

Borovsky, Evtushenko, and Rodionov were not in the team for the Olympics; Gazzaev, Baltacha, Nikulin, and Prokopenko were not in the squad above, but were included in the team which finished with bronze medals.

And the great final at last. As the whole Olympic tournament, the culmination was more gray than great. DDR depended on its athletic, physical collective kind of football – and this team was visibly not capable of anything else. Czechoslovakia was careful, slower, also with strong emphasis on collectivity. The opponents clashed in unpleasant way: the Germans were rough, the Czechoslovakians responded in kind, both teams committed many fouls, and eventually 6 cards were shown – 4 yellow and 2 red. Berger (Czechoslovakia) and Steinbach (DDR) were sent off. The best moments of the game were curiously provoked by the heavy rain which started 10 minutes before the end of the match. If there is something to sum the final, it was the single goal – it saved the viewers from suffering extra time under the pouring rain. The ball deflected from the chest of the German goalkeepr Rudwaleit towards Svoboda and kicked it in the net in the 77th minute.

Ball in the net – the whole difference between winning and losing. There is something in this photo… Czechoslovakian relief and German resignation. As if both teams knew this is the end and nothing else can be done: the whites lucky, the blacks unlucky.

Final: Moscow, Lenin Stadium.

Czechoslovakia: 1. Stanislav SEMAN, 2. Ludek MACELA, 3. Josef MAZURA, 4. Libor RADIMEC, 5. Zdenek RYGEL, 7. Ladislav VIZEK, 8. Jan BERGER, 10. Lubos POKLUDA (63′ – 6. Petr NEMEC), 11. Werner LICKA (73′ – 9. Jindrich SVOBODA), 14. Oldrich ROTT, 16. Frantisek STAMBACHER.

DDR: 1.Bodo RUDWALEIT, 2. Artur ULLRICH, 3. Lothar HAUSE (81′ – 14.Mathias LIEBERS), 5. Frank BAUM, 6. Ruediger SCHNUPHASE, 7. Frank TERLETZKI, 8. Wolfgang STEINBACH, 11. Dieter KUHN (58′ – 10. Werner PETER), 12. Norbert TRIELOFF, 13. Matthias MULLER, 17. Wolf-Reudiger NETZ.

Goal: Svoboda, 77′

DDR – silver medalists. Their coach Krause was happy after the final – he stressed on the positive: the team was new, but managed to prevail over USSR (in a friendly before the games), the top team of 1979 – Yugoslavia (although the Olympic team Yugoslavia had little to do with the A team of the same country), and it was not a shame to lose by a single goal by the bronze medalist of the 1980 European championship (although the A team of Czechoslovakia had little resemblance to their Olympic squad). Krause modestly pointed out that his team was the least experienced of the top four teams (although his own team list said otherwise) and expressed his satisfaction that his boys followed his ideas during the tournament (that much was true, although the ideas were torturous to watch). Now it was time to look to the future, that was all. The East Germans were right to be happy – they were Olympic champions in 1976, now got silver – success is success.

The new Olympic champions: first row from left: Zdenek Sreiner, Petr Nemec, Oldrich Roth, Frantisek Stambachr, Werner Licka, Zdenek Rygel, Michalko (?) – team doctor.

Standing: Rostislav Vaclavicek, Libor Radimec, Ludek Macela, Josef Mazura, Frantisek Kunzo, Stanislav Seman, Jindrich Svoboda, Jaroslav Netolicka, Zigel (?) – masseur, Knecht (?) – team’s chief.

Missing on the photo: Ladislav Vizek, Jan Berger, Lubomir Pokluda, and coach Frantisek Havranek.

Havranek was happy – Czechoslovakia won Olympic gold for the first time – but commented less than the East German coach: he praised the East Germans for their athleticism and expressed satisfaction that he was able to prepare few good strikers during the years working with the Olympic team. As for the future, he echoed the German coach – it was too early to say, he was going to talk in length with Czechoslovakian national team coach, but he thought some players will become first players in the coming qualification campaign for the 1982 World Cup. Modesty was understandable – apart from the expected politeness after Olympic final, there was not much to say about football: the tournament was obviously weak and getting weaker. Olympic football was rapidly losing ground. The teams were not exciting, very few players impressed and among them were hardly any discoveries. The boycott changes almost half of the participants in the last minute: Nigeria played instead of Ghana, Zambia replaced Egypt, Iraq instead of Malaysia, Syria instead of Iran, Cuba instead of USA, Venezuela instead of Argentina, and Finland instead of Norway. It was not substantial change, though – those boycotting were hardly better than their replacements. What was clear, but the time was right to say, was that Olympic football needed big change if wanting to attract some attention: change of players’ eligibility. Allowing professionals to participate. But such a change required change of eligibility rules for all sports – the direction was clear and in a way sad, but needed time. For the game of football itself, the 1980 Olympics contributed absolutely nothing – Olympic football was declining into obscurity, into not even second-rate, but into utterly unimportant competition.

 

The Moscow Olympics got another evaluation – not everyone was happy with the games. Many years later one of the Nigerian players recollected his time in Moscow.

Segun Odegbami was one of the biggest Nigerian stars of the 1970s, playing for Shooting Stars and for Pensylvania Stoners of ASL – American Soccer League, one of the lower North American leagues, in 1980. He was a member of the Nigeria Olympic football team that traveled to North America for the Montreal Summer Games in 1976 but ending up boycotting the athletic event at the last minute. The player known as “Mathematical” because of his formal university training as an engineer in addition to a high technical level of skill counted two goals when Nigeria blanked Algeria 3-0 in the Final of the African Cup of Nations in March of 1980, just four months ahead of the Moscow Summer Games. The Green Eagles goal-scorer recalled his time in the Soviet Union in an article, “My Olympic Moment – Segun Odegbami”, appearing at the official website of the Nigeria Olympic Committee: “ Montreal was very different from communist Russia (the Soviet Union). The atmosphere was totally different. Where you eat, sleep and feel freedom in Montreal, Moscow was so secretive everything was done in fear. You didn’t know who was watching you.

In Canada you could move freely but in Moscow even to get in the Games village (for athletes) there was all kinds of gadgets and security gates.

Even within your room there were all kinds of restrictions as to what you could do. You couldn’t plug your tape recorder into the light socket. We were told everyone was being seriously watched.

It really was like being in prison …” It was not only football, which was kind of bland in USSR, it seems.

 

Group B was the closest to surprise:

Czechoslovakia and Nigeria ended 1-1. African success. Czechoslovakia was unable to beat Kuwait too – 0-0. But they won 3-0 against Colombia, a team which Kuwait was unable to beat. Nigeria lost to Colombia 0-1 and to Kuwait 1-3. Obviously, Czechoslovakia underperformed, but at the end everything was just as expected to be:

1. Czechoslovakia 1 2 0 4-1 4

2. Kuwait 1 2 0 4-2 4

3. Colombia 1 1 1 2-4 3

4. Nigeria 0 1 2 2-5 1

Group 3 went as expected.

The Spanish captain Francisco Buyo blocks East German attack. The future Real Madid goalkeeper played with number 3. The match ended 1-1. DDR won their other games – 1-0 vs Algeria and 5-0 vs Syria. The young Spaniards were not exactly a revelation… they were unble to win a match, finishing with 3 ties. Algeria prevailed over Syria 3-0 and finished above Spain on better goal-difference.

1. DDR 2 1 0 7-1 5

2. Algeria 1 1 1 4-2 3

3. Spain 0 3 0 2-2 3

4. Syria 0 1 2 0-8 1

Group 4 also went as expected, except for one thing – here was the only coach who was openly critical of his team, going against the grain: coaches, journalist, Olympic and FIFA observers generally spoke benevolently of the tournament. Teams were weak, football was of low quality, everybody knew that and there was no point to criticize. Ivan Toplak was the only one who abandoned the good-natured evasive platitudes, usually quickly moving from commenting a match or a team to the safe grounds of praising facilities and hospitality. Yugoslavia clearly did not take the group matches seriously – the notoriously moody Yugoslavs, knowing that the opposition is too weak, did not put much of an effort. They finished 1-1 with Iraq, 2-0 with Finland, and 2-1 with Costa Rica. It was the match with Costa Rica enraging their coach.

Yugoslavia was too strong for the other teams – even the photo suggests it. Looks like another Yugoslavian goal in the net of the helpless Costa Rica. But no… The Yugoslavs played just enough to win – they scored an opening goal and went to sleep. Then put a little effort to restore their advantage after Costa Rica equalized and went back to sleep. ‘It is shameful to play like that at the Olympics. Zlatko Vujovic alone ought to score 6 goals at least. All teams must be respected and my boys did not do this’, fumed Toplak after the game. Iraq ended 0-0 with Finland and won 3-0 against Costa Rica. Costa Rica lost 0-3 to Finland.

1. Yugoslavia 2 1 0 6-2 5

2. Iraq 1 2 0 4-1 4

3. Finland 1 1 1 3-2 3

4. Costa Rica 0 0 3 1-9 0

The group stage ended exactly as expected, which more or less voided the ¼ finals – no favourites were to meet each other at this stage. Skip this and go right to the semi-finals… Carlos Parreira spelled it out: ‘We have no chance against USSR. We can only try to put obstacles to their attacks.’ The defensive concept worked – USSR won, but not impressively.

Gavrilov scores the winning goal in the 61st minute. Two minutes earlier Kuwait equalized… USSR had great difficulties against Kuwait – a match which was supposed to be a walk-over. The unfortunate goalkeeper was anonymous… the world learned his name a couple of years later: Eltarabulsi was between the goalposts of the pleasant Kuwaiti team at the 1982 World Cup. And it was thanks to 1982 World Cup his name was properly established – the 33-yearls old in 1980 Ahmed Al-Tarabulsi was written Eltarabulsi and it did not seem to matter, for he was obviously destined to obscurity.

DDR vs Iraq – no contest here. Physically superior Germans crushed Iraq from the start. In the 22th minute they scored their 4th goal. Which practically finished the match for both teams. 4-0 was the final result.

Schnuphase scoring from a penalty the first goal for DDR in the 4th minute. Wait a second: by the rules, players participating in the World Cup matches were not allowed to play at the Olympics? Think again… Schnuphase was not the only ‘exception’.

Czechoslovakia – Cuba. No surprises either – even the Cubans thought they outdid themselves by qualifying to the ¼ finals. Czechoslovakia won 3-0.

A contest? What contest? Cubans were generally looking at the backs of the Czechoslovakians – Pereira here is not even close to Mazura.

Yugoslavia – Algeria. May be the only quarter-final with some intrigue. Toplak took Algerian team seriously on two accounts: first, he knew it, because both countries met the previous year. Algerian midfield was quite good and Toplak took measures to neutralize it. Second, Yugoslavia played leisurely so far – the players did not take the opposition seriously enough, which was dangerous. One of the Yugoslavian commentators used a single word to describe the team’s performance so far: ‘criminal’. At the end, it was not at all the possible strength of Algeria, but the ‘criminal’ attitude of the Yugoslav players the biggest danger for their advance. However, this time they played. A bit.

One more Yugoslavian goal. The difference was huge – Algeria looks entirely helpless and clumsy. The only Algerian player showing some skill was Rabah Madjer – he will be a hero in mid-1980s. As for Yugoslavia, the ‘Plavi’ still did not play at the top of their abilities, but even pulling a bit of class was enough not only to win easily, but to impress. Yet, they carelessly missed many scoring opportunities.

And at last real matches… the semi-finals opposed USSR to DDR and Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia. The Soviets were supposed to win. DDR played defensive and physical football – nothing impressive. But the Russians were not impressive either. It was not a pleasant game. In the 16th minute DDR had a corner kick, Dassaev made a mistake, and Netz scored.

Khidiatulin – number 4 – going into attack. The Soviets dominated the match and DDR were largely concerned with defending, but, as the picture shows, the Russians were rather chaotic. The match ended 1-0 DDR. USSR was eliminated… and curiously there was no critical outrage. The reaction was quite ambivalent: Genady Radchuk wrote that ‘in today’s football results are needed today, not tomorrow. We expected victory, not just a promise for the future.’ Yet, he continued in the same paragraph, that it will be very dangerous to criticize the team…

The other semi-final reminded the European finals: nobody considered Czechoslovakia a favourite, the team was not impressive compared to the other top teams, expectations even of the Czechoslovaks were modest, and the team did not play great football, but only disciplined tactical one. And it worked… perhaps because of the Yugoslavian attitude: not taking seriously the opposition so far and playing leisurely, the Yugoslavs had great difficulty to change gears. It took them 30 minutes to organize their game. Key players – Mirocevic and Cukrov – underperformed and had to be substituted. Yugoslavia found its game only in the second half and started very powerful attacks, but Czechoslovakia was prepared and their defensive tactics never failed. They were leading 2-0 since the 18th minute and essentially had only to keep breaking the Yugoslavian attacks, which, as time was running out, were increasingly frustrated and therefore lacking precision. After the match Toplak bitterly commented that in the second half he realized that his team can score a goal only by accident. Heavy prize was paid for not taking seriously the tournament from start. Pantelic, considered the best and most famous among all Olympic goalkeepers, made two terrible mistakes early in the match – the Czechoslovaks did not miss his net both times. Modest Czechoslovakia reached the Olympic final.

The Olympic tournament attracted little attention – Russians went to see the games, of course, but internationally and especially in terms of discoveries and innovations, nobody expected anything and rightly so. There were only 4 serious teams, who are not to meet each other before the semifinals. Every group had a strong favourite and the rest were too weak for any surprise or upset. The groups were: Group A – USSR, Cuba, Venezuela, Zambia. Group B – Czechoslovakia, Kuwait, Colombia, Nigeria. Group C – DDR, Algeria, Spain, Syria. Group D – Yugoslavia, Iraq, Finland, Costa Rica. No need to points out the obvious favourites. The rest, including Spain, were nobodies by all accounts – in every group the battle was going to be for the 2nd place and it was unpredictable. Momentary form would decide half of the teams proceeding to the ¼ finals. There were no famous players, so it was no wonder coaches attracted most attention, for they were the most famous members of the finalists: Ivan Toplak was at the helm of Yugoslavia – one of the well respected Yugoslav coaches in the 1970s, his task obviously was to test and prepare players for the A team, going through rebuilding. Jose Santamaria lead Spain – the Uruguayan star of the great years of Real Madrid had not similar role to Toplak’s, only not so urgent. Spain was very young team, clearly testing promising youngsters, who may become leading players after 4-5 years. Otto Gloria was at the helm of Nigeria. The man who made Benfica top team in the early 1960s had a different role now: to bring some professionalism into talented, but ill-trained Africans. Kuwait had Brazilian coach for the same purpose – one Carlos Parreira. At the time, he was not famous yet, but at 37 years of age, he had vast experienced – the African championship, beating Algeria at the final. More or less, that was all, so really only team USSR needs closer scrutiny.

USSR was the biggest favourite – hosting the Olympics put special expectations on Soviet sportsmen in every sport, including football. The political aim was to show the world the supremacy of the Communist way of life via sporting victories. Under the general aim there was a more specific one: USSR badly needed victory – the whole decade was full of frustrations and disappointments. By 1980 USSR was at very low point, not even able to qualify to major international tournaments. They missed 2 World Cups, they missed 2 European finals, they lost 2 Olympic tournaments. Olympics were frustrating for separate reasons as well – they belonged to Eastern Europe, therefore to USSR as a flagman of the Communist world. Yet, team USSR not only did not win Olympics since 1956, but did not reached even the final since this same year. Mere ‘vassals’ eliminated the ‘masters’ in 1972 and 1976. Now, on home turf, it was time to win at last – and hardly anybody doubted Soviet victory, for they were the only team which was pretty much the A national team of the country. It was also expected that orders not to play hard against USSR will be given to at least Czechoslovakia and DDR. Yet, the mood in USSR was strange – there was little criticism after lowly Greece eliminated USSR and went to the 1980 Euro finals. Beskov was not sacked for the failure. Instead, the page was closed and new goal was elevated in 1979 – preparation for the Olympics was the most important and to hell with secondary distractions like European finals. May be reasonable approach, if it was followed to the letter – Beskov’s A team was a bit rag-tag during the European qualifications and remained so for the Olympics. Dynamo Kiev players were not in favour – the team was based on Spartak Moscow, which Beskov also coached. There were only 2 players from Kiev – Baltacha and Bessonov. In itself, it was not the most important thing – the really important thing was that it was still shapeless team. The aim was clearly building a new national team and the base of it was already in place – most of the Olympic players were soon to become world famous and the stars of the exciting Soviet team of the 1980s – but they were still inexperienced and clearly the whole team was still in the stage of searching the right combination before even tuning a regular squad. Since this team came under the name of Olympic team, no particular attention was paid to its shortcomings: it was supposed to be ‘different’ team than the A national team. So, there were players, who were considered as national team material at the time, but clearly part of ‘trying’ stage: Prokopenko (Dynamo Minsk), Gazzaev (Dynamo Moscow), Nikulin (Dynamo Moscow). The back-up goalkeeper on the other hand showed fear: Vladimir Pilguy (Dynamo Moscow) was good, but at 32 he was also on his way out of the national team, where he never established himself anyway. In and out for years, he played only 12 matches for USSR to this moment , most of them friendlies. Seemingly, Beskov wanted insurance… he was uncertain of his own discovery Rinat Dassaev. Dassaev, although with 7 caps for USSR already, was still unknown even in USSR – everybody knows his name today: Rinat Dassaev. Right? Well, in 1980 he was listed Renat – even officials in USSR were not yet aware of the correct spelling of his name. Since only 17 players per team were permitted at the 1980 Olympics, team USSR was suddenly suspect – 4 players were not exactly promising great future, the rest had little experience and there was no certainty that they will became regulars and make a strong national team, and in the same time various promising youngsters were out. So were established stars – the biggest absentee was Oleg Blokhin. It was curious approach – it did not look serious enough. It did not look like Beskov was the right man to ensure victory. It was a team neither here, nor there – not the A team in full force, yet not entirely different Olympic team. It was not entirely team for the future, but not a team based on former respectable players getting last chance to succeed internationally either. One really expected the Soviets to put their very best for a home victory, which politics demanded. But even with such misgivings, team USSR looked much stronger than any other – DDR, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia had clearly weaker teams than their A national teams. Team USSR deserves to be given in full not that much because of its strangeness, but because most names will ring a bell – most players will become very familiar soon after 1980.

1. Rinat Dassaev (Spartak Moscow) 2. Tengiz Sulakvelidze (Dinamo Tbillisi) 3. Aleksander Chivadze (Dinamo Tbillisi) 4. Vagiz Khidiatulin (Spartak Moscow) 5. Oleg Romantzev (Spartak Moscow) 6. Sergey Shavlo (Spartak Moscow) 7. Sergey Andreev (SKA Rostov) 8. Vladimir Bessonov (Dinamo Kiev) 9. Yury Gavrilov (Spartak Moscow) 10. Fyodor Cherenkov (Spartak Moscow) 11. Valery Gazzaev (Dinamo Moscow) 12. Vladimir Pilguy (Dinamo Moscow) 13. Sergey Baltacha (Dinamo Kiev) 14. Sergey Nikulin (Dinamo Moscow) 15. Khoren Oganesyan (Ararat) 16. Aleksander Prokopenko (Dinamo Minsk) 17. Revaz Chelebadze (Dinamo Tbillisi).

Genady Radchuk, one of the best Soviet football commentators, casually mentioned that the rules for European and South American teams forbade using players who played at World Cup matches. Who exactly made the rule is unclear and was it really followed is also unclear, but in the Soviet case it was easy to follow it: the last qualification match for the World Cup USSR played in the first half of 1977. Almost all of the participants in it were not called to the national team for a long time already. The Olympic team was the new national team, which did not start the next World Cup campaign yet.

USSR opened their Olympic campaign against Venezuela – captains Romantzev and Sanchez shaking hands with mutual puzzlement, for neither team knew much about the opposition. The Soviets played pretty much the same team which appeared as the A team less then a month before against Denmark. It was an easy sailing – 4-0. Zambia was no more difficult either – 3-1. Cuba was even weaker than the previous opponents – 8-0. There was no much to comment… so vast was the difference between USSR and the anonymous teams. In the second half against Cuba Beskov replaced Dassaev with Pilguy, giving a chance to the back-up goalie to play a little.

Cuba won the other two matches and finished 2nd in the group, thus going to the ¼ finals.

1. USSR 3 0 0 15-1 6

2. Cuba 2 0 1 3-9 4

3. Venezuela 1 0 2 3-7 2

4. Zambia 0 0 3 2-6 0

Nothing worth mentioning… Cuba got a bit of praise, for ‘overachieving’, but if another team finished second, it would have been the same.

A moment from the match between Cuba and Zambia – the players are quite surprised by… the ball.