No joy at the bottom of First Division.
SZEOL (Szeged) dropped out from the survival race and finished last with 18 points.
Top row, from left: Himmer István – coach, Hevesi ?, Hojszák István, Forgách Jajos, Holler Ferenc, V.Tóth Mihály, Pataki Tamás – masseur.
Middle row: Kádár Lajos, Szalay István, Kozma III Zoltán, Birinyi István, Kőműves Mihály, Hágelmann Endre, Zámbori Mihály.
First row: Kozma II György, Újhelyi István, Garics György, Nagy István – captain, Jerney István.
For SZEOL relegation was hardly a surprise… a season better forgotten quickly.
The battle for escaping 17th place lasted to the end – Raba ETO and Szekesfehervari MAV Epone survived. Down went Kaposvari Rakoczi, a club rarely playing first division football anyway.
Just like Szeged, Kaposvar was not to be missed… the usual case of weak clubs. Up the table the big surpise was Ferencvaros at 9th place – the team lead by Nyilasi was supposed to be fighting for the title, not to sit indifferently in the middle of the table. Why the sudden slump is hard to tell, but Ferencvaros did not master a really strong squad in the 1970s. Always something missing.
Above them finished Tatabanya – one of the usual mid-table clubs and very unlikely company for the most popular Hungarian team, Ferencvaros.
Apart from nice picture in the snow, Tatabanya had a few good players – Csapo was included in the national team for the World Cup finals. Quite different squad than Ferencvaros with their 11 national team players (of various years). Yet, Tatabanya was bested by a team normally ranking even lower – Dunauivarosi Kohasz or just Dunaujvaros, as they were usually called outside Hungary.
Dunaujvaros finished 7th, but the real success story was another club.
The group competing for bronze medals included Vasas, MTK, and Videoton. Vasas, still running strong, finished 5th.
Not bad really – as good as Vasas were in those years, they had no chance of getting enough classy players. 5-6 was the maximum – the club had them, but they were not enough.
Videoton, the second club representing Szekesfehervar, finished 4th, missing third place by 2 points. They were the success story – only 3 years ago nobody heard of them, but Videoton not only established itself in first division, but suddenly was among the very best. And not just for a year – the club was apparently ambitious. They were still building – hence, 4th this year. It was clearly a team with a future.
Third row, from left: Kovács László, Baranyi László, Nagy III János, Garamvölgyi, Kovács József:
Middle: Burcsa Győző, Szalmássy, Fejes, Czeczeli Károly, Nagy II János.
Bottom: Végh Tibor, Májer Lajos, Csongrádi Ferenc, Jankovics Sándor, Szabó József.
No big names here and may be this was the key for their development – the big clubs not tempted to steal from them. The club name on their shirts also curtailed the general rule of no sponsor adds in Estern Europe: since ‘Videoton’ was also an industrial firm, it was advertisement witout formally advertising anything.
The old, famous MTK clinched the 3rd place. A strong season, something rare in the 1970s for the club, which was not even MTK – after a merger with another club in 1975, they were MTK-VM, or MTK-Voros Meteor.
MTK were similar to Vasas in a way – unable to recruit enough strong players. They had even smaller number of stars than Vasas, but it was a solid and experienced squad. And MTK had interesting kit too – the Adidas stripes were in the middle of the jersey.
At the end the battle for the championship was the typical East European duel between the Army and the Police – Honved vs Ujpesti Dosza. Honved, finally strong after years of decline, built an young squad and perhaps that was the whole difference: it was wise to get the players of tomorrow, but they were not consistently strong yet. Honved displayed the best defense, allowing only 22 goals in 34 matches, but they lost 6 games nevertheless. They lost the title by a single point.
A good, but not exceptional squad, still in need of few strong additions. Times changed… the biggest stars were playing for other clubs and there was no way to be ordered to join Honved, like it was in the 1950s. Pinter and may be Kozma were the leading players now, but the competition had better ones.
So Ujpesti Dosza returned to the top, winning one more title. It was not an easy victory, but still the the team lost only 2 matches and won 19. The champions scored astonishing number of goals – 95. Their defense was leaky – 46 goals received – but it was clear that attack was the weapon of choice. The rivals ended with 50 points and Ujpesti Dosza managed 51.
One more title, but this time a bit surprising success – Ujpesti Doza showed signs of decline in the previous 2 seasons. The squad was old – as a squad rather than actual age of players. Most names were around since the beginning of the 1970s and most of them reached the limits of their potential around 1975. It could be said that only Fazekas and the young star Torocsik were doing great by now. In truth, this squad should have been going down the table and fast – it managed to return back on top instead. Experience helped, of course, and it was not ‘dead’ team by no means, but it was not enough for revival. Perhaps the true reason was their coach Pal Varhidi. Perhaps it was the great form of Fazekas and Torocsik, lethal strikers. Perhaps it was because the league was relatively weak and the rivals did not have well shaped teams. No matter what and why, Ujpesti Dosza won.