Italy II Division

Second division, 20 teams strong, was tough and resistant to changes: the single point was king. Not even one club finished with less than 10 ties. As for the record: Pistoiese tied 22 of their 38 champiosnhip fixtures. Sampdoria followed with 21, and Bari was third with 20. Scoring was not just low – it was fantastically low. Only four teams had better record than 1 goal per game average – but how better? Vicenza was the highest scoring team – 49 goals. Monza was second with 40, and Brescia and Cesena followed with 39… All the rest had lesser than 1 goal per game average… Fortify the back, preserve 0-0 , get a point – the dominant philosophy of Italian football since the 1960s. Slight variations and may be pure luck made the final table, which ideally should have been 20 teams with 38 points from 38 ties each, and 0-0 goal-difference. But the ideal is impossible, so there were winners and losers.

Matera finished last, doomed long before the final stage of the championship. Third division was more familiar level for them anyway.

Parma finished 19th. This may sound strange today, but not at the time – Parma was practically insignificant and unknown club, meandering between third and second division.

Ternana was 18th – they finished 4 points ahead of Parma, but there was any comfort in that. The club was fading away since the 1960s, sinking lower and lower. Nothing surprising by 1979-80.

Sambenedettese was 17th. In itself, nothing unusual – the small club had been fighting for mere survival during the 1970s. Yet, too bad they lost the fight this year – by a single point – just because they were too small even by the measures of second division. This was the relegated group at the bottom of the table. Up the scale all clubs played at one or another time top level football – similar clubs with similar fate: not rich enough to make and keep strong teams, going up now and then, going back to second division, some eventually going into permanent decline. From today’s perspective the most interesting name in the league was Sampdoria.

Sampdoria finished 7th, but make no mistake about it: although Genoa ended bellow them, Sampdoria was still the second and lesser club of teh city. And first division football was not exactly familiar to them yet. More likely the club was slowly building strength.

The club going down was L. R. Vicenza – they finished 5th, but they were Italian bronze medalists just two years earlier! Relegated the next season, now played again in the painfully familiar second division.

There was no mystery – Vicenza climbed up from second division to bronze medals thanks to Paolo Rossi. But he was no longer here: a messy dispute between Juventus and Vicenza left him Vicenza’s property, but since the club was relegated – and spent huge amount of money to beat Juventus – was loaned to Perugia. Vicenza, rattled by the problems surrounding his ownership, sunk to their familiar status – the eternal fate of any small club: success, if any, was temporary and almost entirely due to a great player, impossible to keep for long. Once he moved, the club sunk. Vicenza was among the best second division clubs and came close to promotion, but finished 5th at the end.

Same was Cesena – they ended 4th, losing the promotional race by 2 points. Small differences divided winners from losers. Brescia clinched 3rd place with 17 wins, 11 ties, and 10 losses.

More aggressive approach paid off: Brescia was the only club among the top 5 which attempted to break the deadly 0-0 philosophy – they went for victory and that carried them to the third place. Hardly exciting, but promoted – and that is all what mattered.

A point ahead of Brescia finished the ultra-conservative Pistoiese, as if to mock any attempt for more open and attacking football. 12 wins, 22 ties, and only 4 losses. Not winning, not losing, point by point to promotion.

The Italian second league hardly had any known names – Pistoiese had two, however, different. Mario Frustalupi, never a great star, but well enough known, was playing his last years here. As for Marcello Lippi – he is famous nowadays, not back then as a player. Pistoiese was seen, especially abroad, almost as a surprise – the Arancioni (Oranges) were found in 1921, but were shaky and went through two refoundings – in 1937 and 1945. Arguably, their strongest years were the late 1970s, when the club climbed to second division and finally – won promotion to Serie A.

The champions of Serie B were balanced – well fortified defense, but keeping an eye for a scoring opportunity. Looking for 1-0 instead for 0-0. It worked – 16 wins, 16 ties, 6 losses. 33-17 goal-difference. Obviously, the emphasis was on defense. Como finished 2 points ahead of Pistoiese.

The champions were a bit similar to Pistoiese – they were rising by the end of the 1970s after almost 20 years of insignificant moving between second and third division. So far, the best years of Como were distant memory – they played first division football between 1949 and 1953. Going up again at last. As for the team – nobody famous, but one bright young defender, who soon will be world-famous: Pietro Wierchowod. He is often given as the most important player, the mover and shaker, bringing Como up, but this is post-factum assessment: Pyetro Ivanovich Vekhovod, the son of Ukrainian Red Army soldier, was only 21 at the end of the successful season and years away from becoming nick-named ‘the Tzar’ and considered by Maradona and Lineker their toughest opponent. Talent is talent, though – Vierchowod was with the first team of Como since 1976, when he was just 17 years old.

So, the happily promoted clubs were Como, Pistoiese, and Brescia. From the perspective of first division – hardly very dangerous team. Most likely easy pray…

And one last note on this season – changes of kit’s designs. New fashion was making room for itself – it started a few years earlier, but perhaps became well pronounced in 1979-80. The new designs were questionable, but they were to become a norm in the 1980s.

Palermo’s kit is an excellent sample – a more playful design of few hoops and sleeves coloured differently. Sometimes the design worked, sometimes not. Palermo’s seems fine may be because the club colours – pink, black, and white – can be combined in smart contrasts. Or, well, 10 years later such kits will be great, compared to the extremes of the early 1990s.