First Division. Sparta (Prague) dominated the 1980s, so little surprise they were alone and far away from all the rest at the top. More interesting was the strong performance of recent newcomer DAC Dunajska Streda, now among the best teams. At the bottom it was rather familiar: two outsiders, often finding themselves in the same situation.
Tatran (Presov) – terrible season: last with 10 points. They won only 3 games this season. Relegated.
TJ ZVL Zilina – 15th with 21 points. Not as bad as Tatran, but still an outsider – 15th with 21 points and relegated. The story of these Slovak clubs… up and down, down and up. Would be interesting to count how many times they were relegated from the top league and how many times promoted to it. Never ending meandering between the two divisions.
Spartak (Hradec Kralove) – 14th, but with 27 points they were hardly in danger of relegation well before the end of the season.
FK Inter (Bratislava) – 13th with 27 points. Came back from Second Division the year before and doing quite poorly, but still the best of Bratislava at the moment – even Slovan was in the Second Division and the smaller clubs were naturally bellow Slovan, Petrzalka already in Third Division.
FC Bohemians – or Bohemians CKD (Prague). Good years were evidently over – 12th with 29 points.
Ruda hvezda (Cheb) – 11th with 29 points.
FC Spartak (Trnava) – on the left before the match against DAC Dunajska Streda. Struggling and not coming back to leading position for sure. 10th with 29 points.
FK Dukla (Banska Bystrica) – 9th with 29 points.
FC Vitkovice – or TJ Vitkovice – 8th with 29 points. The champions of 1986, as expected, were unable to stay at the top – mid-table position was their proper place.
Plastika (Nitra) – or TJ Plastika – 7th with 30 points. Doing quite well for generally modest club.
Slavia (Prague) – or Slavia Praha IPS – 6th with 31 points. Lubos Kubik, Ivo Knoflicek… but nothing special. Somewhat Slavia was unable to build a winning team.
SK Sigma (Olomouc) – 5th with 32 points. Slowly and somewhat quietly rising up.
FC Banik (Ostrava) – 4th with 34 points. Keeping themselves among the top teams, but a far cry from the great team of the 1970s-early80s.
DAC 1904 (Dunajska Streda) – now, that was a pleasing team. They came from nowhere only a few years ago and so far were doing exceptionally well in the First Division. Part of the name used in Second Division was lost somehow and there was no longer ‘Pol’nohospodar’ in it – it was just DAC, sometimes DAC 1904, but mostly plain Dunajska Streda, the name of their small hometown. Darlings.
Dukla (Prague) – 2nd with 39 points. If one looks only at the final table, Dukla appeared fine – perhaps losing a bitter battle against city rivals Sparta, and next year… there was no going to be next year, for there was no bitter battle – Dukla ended 10 points behind Sparta and what they did was only coming ahead of DAC Dunajska Streda, their real rival at least this season. Very few top class players here and that spelled out not only the present, but also the future. To a point, Dukla was lucky to finish that high.
Sparta (Prague) – or Sparta CKD – were unchallenged champions: 22 wins, 5 ties, 3 losses, 82-22, 49 points. Note their scoring record – 82 goals! A rare number in Czechoslovak football. Apart from that – nothing new, one more success for the dominant Czechoslovak team of this decade. No surprise at all: the best players were here coached by Vaclav Jezek.
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