Category: 1984

The Bundesliga. In the 20th season of the league only 9 from the original members were still playing in it and some of them already spent at least one season the lower divisions. That is probably just a curious note, for there is no way clubs to stay strong for ever and the original members were invited, they did not qualify. Presently, the picture was very different from the one 20 years ago, but almost as a tribute to the anniversary the championship was incredibly intriguing and competitive – not at the bottom, but at the top: 5 teams fought tremendous battle for the title, three of them finishing by equal points and the championship was decided by goal-difference. Whatever the quality of football was, such a championship was big rarity and big thrill. At the bottom the picture was different. Two teams were hopeless outsiders.

1. FC Nurnberg was dead last with 14 points – nothing surprising. The team distinguished itself, though – they lost all 17 away games. At least in West Germany, it was not at all normal a team to be so weak away from home turf. Hard to believe that players like Kargus, Burgsmuller, the Swiss star Botteron could be that weak.

Kickers (Offenbach) ended 19th with 19 points – also not a surprise.

Eintracht (Frankfurt), in decline by now, finished 16th with 27 points. They were involved in a at least 7-team battle for survival and got the short stick. However, they still had a chance to keep their place in the league – if winning the promotion/relegation play-off with the 3rd placed team in the second division. This Eintracht did, beating MSV Duisburg at its home 5-0, thus making the second leg meaningless – it ended 1-1 in Frankfurt, but no matter.

VfL Bochum finished safely at 15th place with 28 points. Barely surviving, but they were specialists at that – Bochum was amazing team: never having even relatively strong squad, as names go, but able to year after year to avoid relegation, sometimes even climbing to the first half of the final table. One looks at their squad this year and like every year before wonders how come this team is not last.

By now, Fortuna (Dusseldorf) was like Eintracht (Frankfurt) – in decline. For the same reason: the club failed to start rebuilding on time, players aged without young talent pushing forward. And current efforts seemingly were not in the right direction: aging Kleff and Zewe were hardly the players to build a team around. Their best years were well in the past, retirement was the future. Well, survived relegation this season – 14th with 29 points.

A year or two ago Borussia (Dortmund) was bright, ascending team, expected to grew stronger. But no… somehow the team stuck and now it looked like they were not going to be the next German wonder. Still, the team was too good to be in the relegation zone – it may have been just a temporary slip, but even so it was clear that they were not on the road to glory any more. 13th with 30 points.

1. FC Kaiserslautern finished 12th with 30 points. Nothing really surprising, for this club was never stable – one year great, the next a failure. Escaped relegation, which was not that bad after all.

SV 07 Waldhof also managed to escape relegation – that was pretty much the most this club could dream of, but thanks to the weaknesses of the competition, they finished 11th with 31 points. From their standpoint – very good season.

Bayer (Uerdingen) – 10th with 31 points. Also managed to escape relegation – that they finished quite high was just a bonus. May be at this time Bayer focused on the other Bayer in the league and Uerdingen became the second-team of the giant firm. That largely meant difficulties in keeping descent squad, but this was possible only in Germany: two teams with one owner playing in the same league. May be Uerdingen was getting less money, but there was no doubt both teams played fair – no fixing, no helping the ‘first’ team. Same name, but the clubs operated as entirely independent entities.

Eintracht (Braunschweig) finished 9th with 32 points. High place for them, but hardly strong season – they only escaped relegation, quite the typical performance.

Arminia (Bielefeld) ended 8th with 33 points. Pretty much the same as Braunschweig – well placed, but nothing promising and generally concerned with avoiding relegation. Good coach, though.

Bayer (Leverkusen) – 7th with 34 points. Not a great record, but this was up and coming team, gradually getting respect and climbing up. Still in the building period, but it was serious project – Detmar Cramer was at the helm with purpose.

1. FC Koln – 6th with 38 points. Not to be underestimated, but this was team able only to stay high in the league. Not a title contender, that was clear for some time – just maintaining strong position. Hard to tell what did not work, but Rinus Michels was not able to push otherwise talented squad up – it looked stuck at one place.

The top 5 teams were involved in the tremendous battle for the title, quite above the rest of the league – the 6th ended with 38 points, the 5th – with 45. Big difference, immediately telling that the top five were different breed. The whole difference between them 3 points between the 1st and the 5th. All five were high scorers too – Koln was the closest to them with 70 goals, but the lowest scorers of the top five managed 75. Perhaps the top teams were equal this season and only misfortune divided them. Perhaps they were strong teams – certainly stronger than anybody else – but there was no great team among them: they were equal because of weaknesses. Something missing, not quite well rounded squads, something needed badly to make difference, but unavailable.

Werder took 5th place with 45 points. And here was exactly this problem suggested just before: bright, talented, rapidly ascending young coach Otto Rehhagel, making the best of strong squad, but based on old hands – Fichtel, Sidka, Okudera, Burdenski. Not enough younger talent – only Voller and to a point Reinders. Not enough classy players for a well rounded squad. Rehhagel could compensate with excellent coaching only to a certain point.

Bayern – 4th with 47 points. Udo Lattek was back at the helm. But he was no longer young climbing up coach – he reached the limits of his potential and the driving force now was not inspiration, but experience. Good team, but not really great, with some shaky positions. Durnberger, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Dieter Hoeness already reached the top of their potential and were only getting older. Del’Haye was in the same situation too. This was a moment of great reshaping, it was clear – this was not a great squad and it was no going further. Oh, they lost the championship by the tiniest of margins -1 point – but in battles like that, this was the big difference between loser and winner and there was little something missing to Bayern’s peril: 4th place. Still, the highest scoring team this season – 84 goals.

Borussia (Moenchengladbach) took 3rd place on worse goal-difference – they finished with the same points as the winners, 48. Looked like revival and there were high hopes that Borussia would build a great squad again – there was a good group of players and excellent young coach. Perhaps the sensation of the year was the coaching of Heynckes. Rarely great players transform into great coaches, but Heynckes was obvious talent in this field too. And he had a good mix of old, current, and future talent – Mill, Hannes, Matthaus, Kamps, Rahn, Ringels, Frontzeck, Bruns. The skeleton was at hand, even at his stage the team proved to be a winner, perhaps with few careful additions there will be another great and unstoppable Borussia. But the potential was endangered by traditional problem: Borussia never had money, so it was also clear that key players will be sold. And soon. That was objective danger, but it was not new and the club, in the same circumstances, managed to stay at the very top of Europe for the most of the previous decade. So, it looked like Borussia was ready to have another great team – and may be dominate the Bundesliga in the following years. Unlucky this year, but nothing tragic – just the opposite. But they needed a player or two.

Hamburger SV – 48 points, of course, having better goal-difference than Borussia, but not goodenough for the title. Unfortunately, 2nd place for them. Led by Happel, so nothing wrong there, but this was not a squad stronger than the one they had two or three years before. Stuck to a point… and in need of few players too. One thing was becoming clear by now – HSV was able to replace leading players, but was unable to recruit great players for the few relatively shaky positions. Hard to point a finger, but may be the problem was that HSV, having Magath and Kaltz, was unable to add another player of similar class to the team. No problem getting players at the level of Rolff, Hartwig, Hieronymus, Milewski – problem with getting players of higher class than those. Thus, winning the title became chancy – and eventually lost by very little, but lost.

It went to VfB Stuttgart and the boys were incredibly happy. Well, what could be said – given the rivals, it was great to prevail. But it was only on goal-difference… in some sense, even better than winning on points, in another sense – may be just lucky.

There was doubt that VfB Stuttgart built a wonderful team and said team reached its peak. It was noticed already, great things were expected from this squad and the victory justified expectations. However… it was a squad with some shaky points, it was not great on big scale. It was more or less equal to the squads of the rivals. Post by post, Stuttgart hardly had the best players – at almost every position the top player belonged to another club. There was also dark danger lurking nearby: it was almost certain that Stuttgart was going to lose some of the stars to Italian or domestic clubs: the Foster brothers and the Swede Corneliusson were the prime targets. Replacing them would be quite a challenge, so it was highly unlikely the club would be able to reinforce: it was a matter of keeping the already reached level. From this perspective, it was great they won the championship.

Second Division – 2. Bundesliga. 20 teams, 4 going down, 2 directly going up, and the 3rd placed going to promotion/relegation play-off against the 16th in the Bundesliga. As the season went, there was one outsider and two favourites. Some clubs were settling in rather weak positions, apparently for long time to come. One decline was huge and the club somehow never find a way out. The candidates for promotion were quite expected, though – they have been Bundesliga members for many years, two of them played in the very first year of Bundesliga.

BV 08 Luttringhausen was unable to make a miracle – they were the outsider, last with 18 points.

VfL Osnabruck – 19th with 29 points. A losers of dramatic battle between 7 clubs for survival.

Same fate for SC Charlottenburg – 18th with 29 points.

Rot-Weiss (Essen) was the 4th relegated this season – 17th with 29 points. After 1975 the club went into decline, steadily sinking further and further down – relegated from 1st Division, now from the 2nd Division. And, to this very day, there is no coming back.

Rot-Weiss (Oberhausen) survived – 16th with 31 points. It was almost entirely home effort – only two teams had worse away record than RW.

There was time when Wattenscheid 09 played in the top league, but right now it was all about survival in the second division. A huge relief at the end of the championship – 15th with 32 points. They were one of the teams having quite famous name, but it was past glory at best – the Yugoslav defender Dzoni was old and not exactly in the news for many years.

Hannover 96 – a weak season, but their ups and downs were well known. However, that low in second division, merely trying to escape relegation… that was quite bad. 14th with 32 points.

SSV Ulm 1846 were in their expected part of the table – escaped relegation and that was pretty much the most they could do. 13th with 32 points.

Darmstadt 98 – not their year, but at least not in particular danger: 12th with 35 points.

Hertha BSC – 11th with 37 points. Looked like Hertha was settling for mid-table second division club. It was strange, but West Berlin for some reason was unable to make strong and leading club. And still is – Hertha had occasional strong spells, but normally was nothing special. Still, their current situation was particularly low – seemingly, top league was no longer an option for the club. Rainer Bonhof, even no longer the great player he was only a few years earlier, was probably quite unhappy.

1.FC Saarbrucken – 10th with 38 points.

Fortuna (Koln) – 9th with 38 points. Expected – mid-table was the zone of clubs like Fortuna, which established themselves as firm second-division clubs. Solid enough to stay in the middle – no going up, no going down. The typical second-division clubs.

Stuttgarter Kickers – like Fortuna (Koln), thus, nearby in the table: 8th with 39 points. Klinsmann was still the young promising player and that was all.

SC Freiburg – one more of the solid second-division constants. 7th with 43 points.

Alemannia (Aachen) – same thing. 6th with 44 points.

Union (Solingen) – 5th with 44 points. Good season for them and it looked like Union was aiming to join the ‘solid’ clubs as a permanent member of the league. So far, so good.

Hessen (Kassel) – one of the solid members of the league, but this season they were aiming higher, fighting for 3rd place. However, ended 4th with 48 points.

That MSV Duisburg will try to return to the top division was expected, but the team was not so good. So they managed only to clinch 3rd place with 50 points – no direct promotion, but still possible – if winning the promotion/relegation paly-off against the 16th in the Bundesliga.

Schalke 04 fought for the 1st place, finished 2nd with 55 points. Measures were taken and the teams was too strong for second level football – but no more than that. It did not look like real rebuilding, but rather patch-up work, just enough to assure promotion. The troubles of Schalke 04 were not over, a lot of word had to be done and quickly too, for this squad most likely was not strong enough to stay in the Bundesliga.

Karlsruher SC won the 2. Bundesliga championship, 2 points ahead of Schalke 04. 25 wins, 7 ties, 6 losses, 94-45 goal-difference, 57 points. Going up again, but was it a team good enough for the highest level? Hard to tell – unlike Schalke 04, there were no famous veterans here. This could be a weakness, but could be also a blessing, for who can guarantee that old players would be able to perform? Good for the champions, but there was also a sense that the club should add a few players in the summer.

After the season was over MSV Duisburg met with Entracht (Frankfurt) in the promotion/relegation play-off. All ended quickly in Duisburg – Eintracht entirely destroyed MSV: 5-0. The second leg was mere protocol – 1-1. Thus, only 2 teams were promoted this year – Karlsruher SC and Schalke 04.

West Germany. The Bundesliga was in its 20th season. Time flies, it was becoming a league of maturity. The occasion celebrated, of course, and there was the team of the Bundesliga Stars.

Not everything was a venerable veteran, though – Udo Lattek was still active coach. Was it the best of the best? There is never such team, for one or another reason – one can object to the inclusion of Bernard, Konietzka, and Volkert, for instance. Netzer isn’t here. But no matter, one can easily see what kind of players graced the Bundesliga and if some huge German names were not included, the reason is that had little or no impact on the Bundesliga, for they were either too old to play in it (Fritz Walter, for example), or spent their careers elsewhere (Haller and Schnelinger played mostly in Italy). But celebration is a momentary occasion, the season is the long and important reality.

Down in the semi-professional third level, the vast world of regional leagues had its winners and they went to the play-offs for promotion to Second Division. 4 teams going up and they were at the end:

 

VfR Burstadt,

Blau-Weiss,

FC St. Pauli, and

FC Homburg.

The Cup. Barcelona – Athletic Bilbao. A chance for Barcelona to win a trophy, but the opposition was not to be underestimated. It was tough final, decided by tiny margin, just like the championship was – Athletic prevailed 1-0.

Empty-handed…the previous season Barcelona at least won the Cup. This year – nothing. Coming close and losing at the end, a tragedy. Which pretty much spelled out the end of Maradona: he was brought to win and he was not winning. It was just a matter of time to dispose him. If there is anything to be said about this season, perhaps this is – Maradona was not going to play for Barcelona much longer.

Athletic Bilbao finished with a double. The boys fought bravely and triumphed at the end. This was the 23rd Cup for Athletic, their first since 1973 and their first double after 1956. One may argue that the club had greater periods, but still this season could be considered their greatest ever, for things had changed dramatically after 1956: until then Bilbao was more or less equal to Madrid and Barcelona. Political pressure was applied in order to repress regional separatism, but it was equally disposed against Catalans and Basques and it did not always work. But after 1956 everything was different: Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid had huge amounts of money and left the other clubs far behind. To a point, Athletic Bilbao lost its position and became second-tier club. After 1956 they had to wait for a title until 1983. In this period – between 1956 and 1983 – only 2 clubs not from Madrid and Barcelona won the championship: Valencia in 1971 and Real Sociedad in 1981 and 1982. All the other years it was just Real, Barcelona, and Atletico. So, the double Athletic won in 1984 had historic significance: neither Valencia, nor Real Sociedad managed a double. Frankly, it looked impossible for a smaller club – there was no way to match the megastars of the big three clubs from 1956 on: it was mighty line from Di Stefano to Maradona. Thus, it was far more difficult to end with a double now than it was before 1956. Of course, it is not an absolute conclusion and can be argued against. It hardly matters for Athletic Bilbao, though – especially after the end of this season.

Primera Division. Nothing much at the bottom – the outsiders were clear almost from the start of the championship and nobody else had to worry. At the top: high drama. Three teams competed for the title , 1 point divided the winner from the 3rd and the champions clinched the victory by the tiniest margin – 1 goal better goal-difference. The top three were also way above the rest of the league, which, as whole had rather sedated season – not able to compete for the title, but not in danger of relegation either. As the names go, no surprises at all – the expected outsiders were at the bottom, the usual favourites at the top.

UD Salamanca – last with 20 points. Nothing new – this club had great difficulties to keep a place in the top league.

RCD Mallorca – 17th with 21 points. Going down was more or less expected from this club too.

Cadiz CF – one more club which usually went down as immediately after climbing up to first division. 16th with 22 points.

Atletico Osasuna – 15th, but out of trouble: 28 points.

Real Valladolid – 14th with 29 points. The leakiest defense – 60 goal – but otherwise no troubles. Standing from left: Moré, López, Aracil, Gail, Richard, Fenoy.

First row: Eusebio, Jorge, Da Silva, Yáñez, GªNavajas.

Sporting Gijon – 13th with 30 points. Did better in the previous seasons, but it was not a club financially able to keep strong team for long.

Valencia – 12th with 32 points. The only team really dropping down, but, to a point, it was predictable event: Valencia failed to reinforce its strong, but not great team of around 1980, the key players aged and some were in obvious decline for one or another reason – Mario Kempes was the greatest example.

Real Murcia – 11th with 32 points. Not bad for them, but nothing special either.

RCD Espanol – 10th with 33 points. Middle of the road, as usual.

CD Malaga – 9th with 33 points. Since usually Malaga was an outsider, this season was almost great.

Sevilla FC – 8th with 34 points. Rather typical season.

Real Zaragoza – 7th with 35 point. Like Sevilla, they had typical season – steadily mid-table team.

Real Sociedad – 6th with 37 points. Quite predictably, Real Sociedad was no longer title contender, their great days were over. Predictably, because the team was short to start with and the club had no means to buy additional great players.

Real Betis – 5th with 38 points. They did well this year, but such jumps up were nothing new – Betis was quite capable of suddenly going up for a short time. A team with spirit surely.

Atletico Madrid – 4th with 42 points. Of course, Atletico was not to plummet down – there was no problem to stay ahead of the most of the league, but this squad was not a title contender.

Any club losing the title by a single point will be frustrated, but for Barcelona it was a disaster. A new one, added to quite long list of disasters… what else could be? Menotti was hired to lead them glory, they had Maradona, Schuster, and plethora of Spanish national team players, and 3rd place. True, they fought to the end and came very close to winning, but ended with 48 points instead of 49. Scored most goals (62), received the least (28)… did not matter: no title, the only thing which counts at Camp Nou.

It could be said that the biggest Spanish derby was enacted in entirely negative terms this season: which club was unhappier? May be Real Madrid won this one: they finished 2nd , having the same points as the champions – 49 – and pretty much the same goal-difference. They lost the title only because of 1 goal. And this may have been huge disappointment for Alfredo Di Stefano: very likely he will remain the greatest Real’s player forever, but failed to establish his name as a great coach – not the greatest, just one among the top. The team was perhaps stronger than the one winning the championship, but second best never makes sense in Madrid. Not even when it seems to be a freakish accident – losing the title on one goal worse goal-difference. And in the light of this loss coming ahead of Barcelona was no consolation at all.

One may say Athletic Bilbao was just lucky, but they won the championship and that was that. Did they deserve it? Not a fair question, for it was battle between equal teams, going shoulder to shoulder all the time, the pressure was huge, and it was not a matter of winning the title, but clinching the title. Athletic came 1 point ahead of Barcelona and had 1 goal better goal-difference than Real Madrid – who can blame them? It was typical Basque victory – they did not have megastars like Maradona, Schuster, Stielike, and so on. Traditionally, they had difficulties keeping strong players from the clutches of Real and Barcelona. The rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona left the rivalry between said regions and the Basques well behind – Athletic was technically the underdog, so it was so wonderful to be ahead of the mega-clubs. And Athletic built a great team and enjoyed revival – that in its own terms by now, for the biggest names were in Madrid and Barcelona for many years. True, Clemente built and trained strong team, but it was typical Basque team – tough, gritty fighters, nothing fancy. Soldiers, fighting a war. All the way with the full knowledge that the key players may not be wearing red-and-white shirts next year, so it was now or never. It was now, though, becoming one of the greatest campaign Athletic ever had – this was the 8th title for the club. It was also the second time they had 2 titles in a row – the first time was in the dawn of the Spanish league: the consecutive titles in 1930 and 1931. And there was something more, which may make this season Athletic’s greatest ever – they won a double.

Segunda Division. Requires a note – a reminder, actually, of the rules. Since the second teams of 1st Division members were allowed to play in the second level, promotion was an issue: the second teams were prohibited of climbing up to top level. The reason is obvious: the second team would lose the games against the first team and fight tremendously against the key opponents of its first team. Not exactly match-fixing, but unfair advantage. This reminder is important when talking about 1983-84 season of Segunda Division: the top 2 teams were ineligible for promotion, so lower placed teams went up. Apart from that, business as usual,with all its quirks, ups, and downs. Four teams relegated, three teams promoted at the end of the championship.

Rayo Vallecano – last with 29 points. Notoriously shaky club, so nothing particularly unusual – yes, Rayo could play top league one year and drop to third level the next. It was dropping time this year.

Palencia CF – 19th with 29 points and relegated.

Algeciras CF – 18th with 32 points and out.

Linares CF – 17th with 32 points. The top placed of the unfortunate – 3rd Division next season.

Cartagena FC barely survived – 16th with 33 points.

CD Tenerife also managed to escape relegation – 15th with 34 points. Ruben Cano – by now the controversy about his playing for Spain all but forgotten – almost went to play third level football. Standing from left: Ordoki, Aguirreoa, Mini, Eizmendi, Gilberto, Paco.

Crouching: Lasaosa, Alberto, Ruben Cano, Azkargorta, Abad.

Atletico Madrileno – the second team of Atletico Madrid – 14th with 34 points.

Real Oviedo – 13th with 35 points.

Recreativo Huelva – 12th with 36 points.

UD Las Palmas – 11th with 36 points.

CD Castellon – 10th with 37 points.

Deportivo La Coruna – 9th with 39 points.

Granada CF – 8th with 40 points.

Barcelona Atletico – the second team of Barcelona – 7th with 40 points.

Celta – 6th with 42 points. Standing from left: Capó, Atilano, Mina, Sánchez, Lemos, Canosa.

Crouching: Rubén, Gómez, Andrés, Mercader, Amoros.

Elche – 5th with 43 points. Lucky guys, Elche – they were promoted to first division. Elche was nothing special this season and they were hopelessly out of the promotion race. But it was not normal season and they got lucky as a result.

Racing Santander – 4th with 44 points. Tried to finish in the promotion zone, but failed by a point. But, like Elche, circumstances favoured them and they were also promoted.

Hercules Alicante – they clinched the 3rd place with 45 points. 1 points ahead of Racing, 2 points better than Elche. No hope for higher place, but they promoted fair and square.

Bilbao Athletic – the second team of Athletic Bilbao – finished 2nd with 50 points. The top two teams finished not only with equal point, but with equal goal-difference, so final places were decided by the team with higher scoring record. Bilbao failed a bit short here and took second position. It was understandable – the club was enjoying great period and the reserves were also good. Too good for Second Division – 5 points ahead of the 3rd placed team. But… second teams were ineligible for promotion, rules said. Deserved to go up by performance, but much weaker Elche was going up instead.

Castilla CF clinched the first place – they scored 69 goals, 8 more than Bilbao Athletic, and that gave them the final victory. But had to be happy with Second Division title… since Castilla was the second team of Real Madrid, absolutely clear by now, they could not be promoted. Racing Santander went up in their place. Fair, unfair… hard to tell. Hard to tell, because Castilla and Bilbao Athletic were much stronger than the rest of the league, had no rivals whatsoever this season, but much weaker teams got promoted. Standing from left: Juanito, Ochotorena, Francis, Pérez Durán, Martín González, Michel

First row: Butragueño, Martín Vázquez, De las Heras, Sanchís, Pardeza.

Familiar names? Well, they were not famous stars yet.

And because of the confusion with ineligible teams finishing at the top, let repeat the promoted ones: Hercules Alicante, Racing Santander, and Elche. All were returning to top flight. Did they deserve it was another matter, mostly to be mulled over in the next season.

 

Third Division – Segunda Division B. Two groups of 20 teams each. The top 2 of each group promoted to Second Division, the last three relegated to 4th Division.

Group II: Last in the table and relegated were CD Antequerano, Cordoba CF, and SD Ibiza. This season was not good for the better known clubs: Real Jaen was 3rd, CD Badajoz – 4th, Albacete Balompe – 5th,

Xerez CD – 6th. Thus, the winners were surprising, particularly the group champion.

CF Calvo Sotelo finished 2nd with 48 points.

CF Lorca Deportiva was the champion of this group with 49 points. A historic victory for the small club – champions and going to play second division football next year.

Group I. If anything, one footnote should be made – here were playing teams from Andorra. Andorra FC ended 10th and CD Endesa Andorra was 12th. The tiny country did not have a championship of its own and did not appear in UEFA championships of any kind. Barakaldo FC, SD Huesca, and Racing Ferrol were relegated.

Deportivo Alaves tried to go up, but failed to achieve it by a point difference – 3rd with 50 points. Both promoted teams had 51 points. They also had the same goal-difference: +42. The teams which scored more goals won the championship.

CD Logrones lost the title, but achieved the more important promotion to second level. No tears because of finishing 2nd.

CA Sabadell FC triumphed with the group title. Perhaps the title itself mattered little – the team was returning to second level, winning promotion after tough race against similarly aimed rivals.

Spain. Forth Division – 14 Groups played the regular season and then 16 top teams proceeded to play-offs in two rounds. Since the promotional spots were 6, the criteria for participation was rather unclear – the 14 groups winners, of course, but the other 10 teams? Second placed teams, but there was also one 3rd placed. Not every 2nd placed could go to the next round, so perhaps those with higher points? Not really – there were a few left out and teams with fewer points played. Anyhow, the first round eliminated 12 teams and the rest played the second round, the winners going up to third level. Naturally, few better known clubs played at this level.

Burgos reached them, but was eliminated in the first round by FC Barcelona Aficionados.

Eibar was eliminated in the final round – by Pontevedra: 0-3 and 0-0.

Levante was the only familiar name getting promoted – they won the final round against Ourense 1-0 and 1-1. Not exactly a piece of cake for a team having Cruijff quite recently. Struggling to climb to Third Division… At least, they climbed.

The other winners were:

Pontevedra – beating Eibar, as already mentioned.

Orihuela, after beating Caudal 1-0 and 2-0.

Atletico Marbella prevailing over Siero 3-0 and 0-1.

Manacor, eliminating Pegaso 4-0 and 2-1, and

Barcelona Aficionados, beating Cultural Leonesa 1-1 and 2-0.

 

Well, good luck to the promoted next season.

 

The Cup final opposed Verona to Roma – and there was no winner: 1-1. In the replay Roma prevailed 1-0.

This was the best season of Hellas Verona so far – 6th in the championship and Cup finalists. They did their best to win, but the opponent was classier. Too bad the underdog lost, but Verona had nothing to be ashamed of.

Sitting from left: Boldorini (?) – masseur, Oddi, Baldieri (?), Conti, Alicicco – doctor, Giannini, Ancelotti, Vincenzi, Rossi – masseur.

Middle row: Tessari – assistant coach, Maldera, Falcao, Righetti, Liedholm – coach, Toninho Cerezo, Graziani, Bonetti, Colucci.

Top row: Di Bartolomei, Nela, Strucheli (?), Malggolio (?), Tancredi, Superchi, Chierico, Pruzzo, Nappi.

Roma won the Cup with difficulty, but it was tremendously tough season for the team – they fought on three fronts and against mighty opposition. This team was at its peak and would have been a shame to end the season empty-handed. It also made Roma something like a cup specialist – this was their 5th , all won in the recent years.

Serie A. Was it really the top championship of Europe? Hard to measure – on one hand, Italy was the reigning World Champion. The best players of the world were moving to play in Italy. At least two clubs were just wonderfully strong – Roma and especially Juventus. Traditionally, Serie A was one of the toughest league in the world. On the other hand – despite the foreign talent, there were outsiders, one particularly weak this season. A whole bunch of clubs were either shaky (Milan, Torino, Inter), or painfully trying to rebuild (Lazio), or just stuck and unable to improve (Fiorentina, Sampdoria). Only 2 teams competed for the title, leaving the rest of the league far behind. Scoring was still low and the tie still ruled – only 5 teams finished with less than 10 ties after 30 games played. Only the champions scored more than 50 goals – no other team reached the mark – and even they were unable to achieve an average of 2 goals per game. The only really positive thing was largely unnoticed: the improvement of Hellas Verona – or simply Verona at that time.

Catania was hopeless – they won one match during the whole season. They lost 14 out of 15 away games. They scored less than half-a-goal per game: 14 goals. Absolute outsiders, ending with 12 points.

Standing from left: Ranieri, Sorrentino, Fortunato, Mosti, Cantarutti, Pedrinho. First row: Giovannelli, Luvanor, Morra, Mastalli, Crialesi.

Pisa was 15th with 22 points. Not as weak as Catania, but still very weak.

Genoa ended 14th with 25 points.

Lazio managed to escape the relegation zone only on better goal-difference than Genoa’s – 25 points and 13th place. Perhaps that was enough for the moment – securing the next season. Things were shaky and controvercial at the club, which suffered tremedous decline and relegation to Serie B. Rebuilding? There were players suggesting a core at least: Giordano, Manfredonia, D’Amico and the bright very young Dane Michael Laudrup. Giorgio Chinaglia was back from New York and a president. There was light at the end of the tunel… on paper. Chinaglia’s reign was not exactly enjoyed by the fans.

Napoli finished 12th with 26 points. Classy foreigners were not enough to propel the club higher – looked like Napoli was going in the opposite direction: down. Barely escaping relegation, that was the reality.

Avellino – 11th with 26 points. Not a bad season for them – after all, Avellino traditionally aimed only to avoid relegation and succeeding in that equaled good season.

Ascoli – a club like Avellino, so 10th place with 29 points was fine.

Udinese – 9th with 31 points. Not bad. Also a point in case: Italian clubs ruled the world – a relatively lowly club like Udinese had Zico in the squad. True, even with him the best was mid-table position, but attracting players of such class and reputation? That was Italy at this time and no matter who grumbled about the travesty of wasted talent, great players had no second thought in chosing smaller Italian sides than big names paying pittance. Mind, it was not just Zico here – there was one more Brazilian national team star – Edinho, there was the aging Juventus’ star Causio, there was bright and talented De Agostini. Not a bad team, in fact – thus, giving weight to the argument that the top football was played in Italy: such a team managed only mid-table position, so imagine what kind of teams other clubs had! Imagination is one thing, reality – quite another: Italian clubs were spending money around, that was all.

Milan finished 8th with 32 points. Not a great season at all – rather shaky, in fact. But the club was trying to resurface from its own disasters, so this was a time for rebuilding and titles were not a goal. A major point was cleaning the club’s image and that was partly going against rebuilding: Eric Gerets was just bought and soon after that the Belgian bribing scandal hit the news. Gerets was involved… and Milan let him go. Not a great move in terms of rebuilding.

Front row from left: Piotti, Gerets, Baresi, Castagner – coach, Farina (?) – chairman, Galbiati – assistant coach, Battistini, Blissett, Nuciari.

Middle row: Ribolzi – masseur, Carotti, Tacconi, Mendo (?), Incocciati, Facchini – conditioning coahc, Evani, Icardi, Vallori (?), Damiani, Mariconti.

Top row: Verza, Russo, Paciocco, Galli, Tassotti, Spinosi, D’Este, Manzo, Di Marco (?), Mariani.

Sampdoria – 7th with 32 points. Should have been better, but was not. On the other hand – Sampdoria was not traditional powerhouse, so all looked like climbing up and establishing itself as a strong club. Take it as you like.

Verona was a bit neglected – they finished 6th, which was fantastic achievement for the club, but it was seen as one-time wonder. First, the final position was not particularly impressive in terms of numbers: Verona finished withj 32 points, like Milan and Sampdoria, and was above them only on better goal-difference. It was more a result of the weakness of others than anything. The foreign stars at the moment were great names – Joe Jordan and Wladislaw Zmuda – but they were aging dangerously and it was impossible to consider them as a big asset for the future. The rest of the players were not yet stars, not even very promissing. Verona was on the right track, though, and really improving.

Torino – 5th with 33 points. Torino was holding up, but decline was noticed already – the number of strong players was diminishing and the club was unable to get big talent. The golden period ended and it was highly unlikely to be repeated.

Inter – 4th with 35 points. New coach – Radice, new foreign star – the Belgian Ludo Coeck, not a bad squad at all, but somewhat still in a building process, still unfinished, looking more to the future than to the present (Bordon was aging, but Zenga was still too young). Hansi Muller, Baresi, Collovati, Altobelli, Oriali, Gori, Ferri, Bini, Serena, Marini, Bagni… if names tell enough, Inter should have been title contender. The fact that it was not suggests only one thing: unfinished product.

Front row from left: Raveggi – masseur, Bortolazzi, A. Bertoni, Carobbi, Passarella, Merendi (?), Cecarini (?), F. Rossi, Graniti – masseur.

Middle row: Massaro, Pecci, Ferroni, Onesti – assistant coach, De Sisti – coach, Secci (?) – assistant coach, Costagliola, Oriali, Sala.

Standing: Morichi – administrator, Landucci, Cuccureddu, D. Bertoni, Antognoni, Pin, Galli, Iachini, Miani, Pulici, Monelli, Alessandrelli, Baccani – doctor.

Fiorentina – 3rd with 36 points. Nice squad, perhaps at its peak, but also there was something else: a good squad Fiorentina was able to build a great one – no. Thus, bronze was the most this vintage could get – not a title contender, somewhat too limited for that.

Roma was at its best and run for the title from start to end of the season, but failed to win and make it two in a row. Perhaps trying to win three tournaments in one season took its tall, but still one cannot be critical of this team – they did their best, but faced very strong rival.

It was boring for many, but it was Juventus once again. Giovanni Trapattoni shaped its squad perfectly – Platini and Boniek adjusted to each other and their highly talented teammates, everything clicked right. As every great team in history, the key players were not many – practically 14 players were used in the championship, suggesting great form of the regulars and well oiled squad, delivering weak after weak. Veterans were effectively replaced by current talent – Furino appeared only once this season. Juventus proved its worth in a battle against equally strong Roma, having advantage for the future, for it was younger team. The team was ready, there was no need of new key players to fill any gaps. Juventus was also successful internationaly, so there was no doubt – this was a team to shape Europeam football in the following years. The strongest in Italy? For sure.