Scotland Championship and Cup

The Premier league was mostly about survival too. 10 clubs playing against each other 4 times during the season did one thing for sure: the worse teams fell far behind, having to play too many games against teams too strong for them. Whatever talent remained in Scotland was concentrated in two clubs – by now, there was not enough talent even for them. Aberdeen, still in the making, inevitably dropped a bit after a great 1977-78 season; Dundee United was able to keep strong enough team for comfortable third place – not capable to challenge the big two clubs, but far better than the rest of the league. Hibernian was slowly declining. The rest of the league just made the numbers… Adjustment to the small league format was not easy for many smaller clubs, but Heart of Midlothian suffered the most: one of the better Scottish clubs no long ago, they were in dire straits since the top league was reduced. The Hearts were relegated in 1977. Came back right away in 1978 – only to be relegated again in 1979.

Hearts finished 9th, but it was not bad luck – they were hopeless outsiders. With 23 points, they were 11 points behind the 8th placed Partick Thistle. Down to second league football again… once upon champions, now the Hearts were seemingly becoming ‘unsettled’ club: too strong for second division, yet, too weak for top flight.

Motherwell were even worse.

Dead last with 17 points. Unable even to fight for 9th place. A typical mid-table club in the old big league, they were steadily going down since the new format was introduced – and finally sunk right to the bottom.

Greenock Morton had strong season on the other hand – strong, by their standards anyway.

They were relegated in the last ‘bid league’ season – 1974-75 – when they finished 17th. Did not really matter, since half the league was demoted anyway. 1975-76 was shaky – 11th in second division, three points above relegation. In 1976-77 they finished 4th, but were not contenders. In 1977-78 they were second league champions on goal-difference and one point better than third placed Dundee FC. Nothing much was expected from them – certainly less than Heart of Midlothian – but Greenock Morton played surprisingly well and finished at 7th place. A success, when compared to the fate of the Hearts. As for lasting… it was doubtful. May be playing hide and seek with relegation a season or two.

Hibernian finished 5th, but the decline was detectable. The only interesting thing about them was that they were still the only Scottish club using shirt adds. Did not appear helpful…

Dundee United were on their own: much better than most of the league and not a match for the best two clubs, they were steadily… third. Back in the first season of the reduced league, 1975-76, they stumbled and escaped relegation only on better goal-difference, but after that… it looked like the new format was the best for them. No worries about relegation – constantly finishing with medals instead. Fewer teams meant fewer options for better players – those not good enough for Celtic and Rangers were easily going to Dundee United, making a stronger squad than most of the league had. Stronger, yet, not excellent… but collecting medals in a league traditionally dominated by two clubs was sweet, almost big success. Dundee United finished 4 points ahead of promising, but still shaky Aberdeen of young Alex Ferguson.

Before the start of the season Glasgow Rangers was a sure bet – Celtic had disastrous previous season, when Rangers won every trophy. They had better squad than Celtic. Expectations were confirmed quickly: Rangers had surprisingly strong European performance, going up to the ¼ finals of the European Champions Cup – no Scottish club played so well at international stage recently. Meantime Celtic had a new young and inexperienced coach and no great additions to the roster… May be Rangers was too concentrated on international games; may be Celtic was spurred by shame and boosted by new coach – it was not another triumphal year for Rangers at all. Yes, they added two more trophies, but lost the championship. Not an easy wins either – the F.A. Cup final against Hibernian was undecided at first – 0-0. The replay ended again 0-0 after extra-time. A third match was played, also going to overtime, when finally Rangers prevailed 3-2. Big drama, sturdy Hibernian, but… not confident Rangers too. The League Cup final opposed them to Aberdeen and again it was difficult victory by small margin:2-1.

Two cups, but without a title… good team, but not exceptional. And by Rangers’ standards… may be a poor season: here they pose with three cups won in 1977-78. Now – one less. Title lost to arch-enemy…

Which was not supposed to win. The year before Celtic finished 5th, almost 20 points behind Rangers. The only real fight they did was at the League Cup final, yet, they lost it. The legendary Jock Stein was ‘sacked’, or ‘retired’, or whatever. The former club’s star Billy McNeil was hired to manage the team – a radical change: McNeil was very young coach with minimal experience – just a few month with Aberdeen, not as head coach on top of it. The team was not greatly improved with new recruits: yes, there were decent players like Danny McGrain, the Icelandic international Johannes Edvaldsson, Roy Aitken, Ronnie Glavin, the promising George McCluskey and Peter Latchford, but it was a lesser team than Rangers’, perhaps best defined by Alfie Conn – a huge promise a few years back, but a failure with Tottenham Hotspur, and back to Celtic. Where he did not last very long… Patrick Bonner, a future Scottish national team regular, was very young and neither well known, nor a potential starter. Celtic did not appear potential champion at first – and certainly was not a great team yet: it was perhaps more enthusiasm than real quality. But it worked – McNeil obviously was a great find, the risk paid off. Celtic was not overwhelming, but won the title – three points ahead of Rangers.

Nothing new at the end… one more title for Celtic. Very promising beginning for McNeil, but real fruits could be expected after a year or two, it seemed. A great team this one was not – well, Celtic fans beg to differ. They are right about one thing, though: the wings of Rangers were clipped for quite a long time. Nobody knew it yet, but perhaps this season really was the end for this Rangers’ vintage. The time of new crop of managers started and Rangers did not see it coming.

Scotland II Division

With practically all outstanding players in England, Scotland had little to offer. Struggle was firmly setting in – most pronounced in the Second Division, where a handful of clubs tried to recover top flight status, but had in the same time difficulties coming in terms with new realities. Mostly financial ones… Thus, unlike the English Second Division, the Scottish one was not competitive – since the reform in 1975, two or three clubs were obviously above the rest. Pretty much was the situation at the bottom of the table. As for the leaders, they were former first division clubs – recently relegated too. Third Division – called Division 2 now – was no different: three clubs fought for 2 promotions. Falkirk lost by 2 points. Second finished Dunfermline Athletic with 52 points and the champions were Berwick Rangers with 54 points.

Up in Division 1 – the second division of Scotland – most clubs had no worries: they were not going neither up or down. At the bottom, Queen of the South and Montrose were hopeless outsiders, saving the other clubs fears of relegation. The combined record of the bottom club gave 49 points – good enough for 4th place without coming even close to the top three… The only real intrigue was about promotion: a battle between three clubs. Clydebank was relegated the previous season and wanted to climb back. Kilmarnock was relegated in 1977 and also wanted back among the best. As for Dundee FC, they were ‘old-timers’ – relegated in 1976. They finished 3rd two years in a row, missing promotion by a point the previous season. The most distinguished club playing second-tier football, they desperately wanted to return to the top league. But it was not easy… ambition is one thing, reality – quite another. No club had outstanding squad, so the race was tight – and exciting because of that – decided at the end of the season by tiny differences. Clydebank and Kilmarnock ended with 54 points each. Clydebank had the best strikers in the league, but leaky, if not atrocious defense. Kilmarnock had the best defense this season – and that was the whole difference: with better, much better goal-difference ( +37 to Clydebank’s +28) they clinched second place and promotion.

Victory for Kilmarnock, however chancy.

The champions were no different – Dundee fretted to the end. They won 24 matches – but so did Clydebank too. Kilmarnock lost one less game than Dundee. Their attack was 5th in the league; their defense – second. Dundee did not excel in anything, but they squirreled 55 points – one more than rivals.

Champions by a single point – Dundee FC coming back to top flight after three years of second division misery. Hail the winners, but nobody saw the newcomers as sensation, going to challenge the status quo. Both Dundee FC and Kilmarnock were pretty much fodder… if they survived the next season would be just great.

Switzerland I Division and Cup

The top group ended as suspected: the bottom three clubs took it easy, Basel more than any other team. They sunk to 6th place after winning 2 matches, tying one, and losing 7. Young Boys did not care much either – they won only one match in the final round and scored the least number of goals – 5. Basel on the other hand scored 18! St. Gallen ended 4th, as disinterested as Basel and Young Boys.

Grasshopper finished third, just as they were in the first stage – slightly better than the lower clubs, slightly worse than the best two, 3 points ahead of St. Gallen, 6 points behind the silver medalists.

Perhaps more was expected from the 1977-78 champions, but they were not yet the really strongest team in Switzerland. National team players are usual indication of strength in a country with small pool of talent: Grasshopper had fewer national team players than the competition and not really big stars. Raimondo Ponte was perhaps the most promising name, added to Sulser and Egli… third place was seemingly the best they can do.

FC Zurich was a bit difficult to measure. They were perhaps the strongest Swiss club of the 1970s and the one which started hopes for a renaissance after playing well in the European club tournaments, but it was clear they reached their peak in 1975-76. No Swiss club was really able to keep big talent and the stars were leaving to play abroad one after another. Yet, it was not a club falling into a crisis. Zurich were the best in the league during the first stage, building a lead of 2 points. It was clear they were going for the title. But they hardly added more strength in the second phase – at best, they looked the same as in the first stage. At the same time Servette really stepped on the pedals… Zurich ended second after losing 1/3 of their final decisive games. They did not even challenge Servette… finishing 6 points behind.

FC Zurich got two important additions before the season – the famous coach Zlatko Cajkovski arrived from AEK (Athens) and Jurica Jerkovic from Hajduk (Split). Jerkovic was voted the best foreign player of the season, but his excellent form was not enough. Nor was the vast experience of Cajkovski – the teams lost steam when it mattered most. With Botteron, Risi, Grob, it was still one of the best Swiss teams, but not exactly a winner.

Clearly divided into two tournaments season invites scrutiny: FC Zurich won the first phase and it looked like that at least two teams would compete for the title, if not the whole six of the final stage. Servette trailed by two points in the opening part. They lost one more game than FC Zurich. It was impossible to predict the final outcome – to a point, it was like entirely new championship, to a point erasing all efforts done during 22 matches, to a point all that mattered were the last ten games. To a point, only the spring matches mattered. Which made five teams looking like fools… only one club was precisely trained to reach the peak of their form in the spring. Servette. They were overwhelming. They won every match they played in the final stage – 10 wins! Scored 23 goals, allowing only 5. They had no rival – FC Zurich lost three matches and finished with 13 points. 7 less than Servette. By rules every team opened the final campaign carrying half of the points they had in the first tournament – this already reduced the lead of FC Zurich from 2 points to one… practically equal start, after which Servette was not even challenged. Total supremacy.

It was the 14th title for the popular club, but the first since 1962 – a big relief, executed in grand manner , but it was not all. Servette was one of the consistently well performing Swiss clubs during the 1970s and finally their time had come. First they won the Swiss Cup in 1977-78, now they did better. And reached the cup final again.

Young Boys (Bern) also reached the final.

The old Young Boys mainly settled to mid-table existence, but occasionally had a good run. Since their means were modest, all depended largely on one player. They had the star Odermatt at the end of his career a few years back – and it was enough for a good season. Now they had another veteran:

Kudi Muller joined the club in 1977. 30-years old, he was already fading, but still a strong addition to otherwise anonymous squad. His presence was not enough for impressive season in the league, but cup format was more suitable and Young Boys reached the final. And had a chance of winning a trophy. The final ended undecided – 1-1 after overtime. The replay was a bit too much for Young Boys – they fought, but at the end the classier opponent won – 3-2. Servette got the Cup for a second consecutive year.

The selection for the final, from left: Gérald Coutaz, Guy Dutoit, Yves Mauron, Jean-Claude Milani, Gianfranco Seramondi, Jean-Luc Martin, Hanspeter Weber, Hansjörg “Joko” Pfister, Umberto Barberis, Piet Hamberg, Marc Schnyder, Jean-Yves Valentini, Franz Peterhans, Lucio Bizzini, Claude “Didi” Andrey, Serge Trinchero, Karl Engel, Gilbert Guyot.

A double! Great triumph for Servette, which looked like establishing a period of dominance. The team was ripe and, at the moment, much better than any other in Switzerland – Basel already aged and was trying to build a new team; FC Zurich was reaching the point of crisis – aging or departing stars, without much new blood. Grasshopper appeared a bit plain and unfinished. Servette was just right : the current Swiss stars were here – Pfister, Barberis, Guyot, Engel, Weber, plus up and coming talent like Seramondi and well respected players like Bizzini. The team was boosted by the presence of Martin Chivers the previous year, which ended with winning the cup. Now the English veteran star was gone, but the squad was very strong. The foreign addition was not bad – Piet Hamberg was unknown Dutch player, acquired from FC Utrecht, but Dutch players were dependable representatives of the most advanced modern football. The striker played well – well enough to attract the interest of Ajax, where he went to play in 1980. Perhaps the real honour should be atributed to the coach. Peter Pazmandy, born 1938, was the apparent maker of the team – a relatively unknown name, able to outdo the bulk of foreign coaches working with Swiss clubs (Zlatko Cajkovski – FC Zurich, the German Helmuth Johannsen – Grasshopper, Miroslav Blazevic – Lausanne-Sports, Timo Konietzka, also German – Young Boys). Pazmandy was not a Swiss too – at least not by birth. Back in 1956 a 20-years player of Vasas (Budapest) run away from supressed Hungary like many of his compatriots, including footballers. He settled and played in Switzerland and after retirement became a coach. Hungarians made good coaches and he was not exception: he lead Servette to glory – winning the cup in 1978 and now a double. It really looked like Pazmandy made a team going to dominate Swiss football – and the era seemingly already began. The final run of 10 wins in the second stage of the championship was more than impressive – he future belonged to Geneva. So were the signs in the spring of 1979. Signs happened to be false ones, but for the moment it was excellent: a double, crowning two very strong seasons.

 

Switzerland II Division & Promotion/Relegation

Switzerland – changing the format of the championship again. The formula of the last two seasons was played for the last time and the first division was scheduled to increase the next year to 14 clubs. Thus, only one team was relegated this season from the top and three clubs were going up from second tier. The change hardly spurred most second-league clubs’ ambition: four clubs left the other 12 teams far behind, but 4 clubs were one too many. They finished tightly packed:

FC La Chaux-de-Fonds ended first with 43 points.

FC Luzern was second also with 43 points, but worse goal-difference.

Pastoral picture of FC Luzern, so indifferently peaceful, it was hard to believe these boys were going up – but they did, perhaps determined to prove the area was not just cows and grass. Returning to top flight, but not a team going the play a major role.

Third and forth were FC Lugano and FC Winterthur, both with 41 points. Winterthur had better goal-difference, but it did not count. Play-off match was scheduled instead. The regular time did not change anything and only in the extra-time Lugano scored a single golden goal. They went up at the expense of Winterthur.

Nothing new about the promoted clubs: all of them played first division football for years and were merely returning to their usual league.

Nationalliga A was another matter. Still the formula was of two-parts: a standard two-legged phase at first, followed by second stage when the top 6 of the first part played round robin championship for the title and the bottom 6 – the same, deciding relegation. All clubs carried half of the points they earned in the first stage to the second. The negative side of such formula was already observed – most clubs put a big effort in the first phase, trying to secure position among the top six. Then took it easy, just going through the motions. The relegation group was no different: at least two clubs started with too many points to really worry and at least had too few to really had a chance for escape. The idea of more competitive and exciting championship did not materialize, but it was difficult to run long championship with only 12 clubs – standard formula provided only 22 games a season. The 10 matches played in the second stage added games, but since most clubs were disinterested it was meaningless effort. Classic championship between 14 teams provided 26 matches, which was acceptable option. At hand was the current formula, though, and some things became clear in the first stage – four clubs sunk to the bottom early: Lausanne-Sports, Chiasso, Nordstern, and Sion. Chenois ended 8th, 7 points ahead of Lausanne-Sports, and Xamax was 7th, 2 points ahead of Chenois. Since only one team would be relegated, it was clear that not 6, but 4 clubs were to play seriously in the final stage.

The upper half was not different, only there the fight was to be for the title. Looked like Basel, Young Boys, and St. Gallen were not interested. Grasshopper disappointed a bit during the first stage – they were 3rd, but 3 points bellow the second. Servette finished second, with the best scoring record so far, but still trailing Zurich by 2 points. It looked like the final race will be between 2 and a half clubs… Zurich and Servette for sure and may be Grasshopper. There was illusion for more competitive final, though: entering with half of first stage points made all six quite equal starters: Zurich ended with 6 points more than the last three clubs in the first stage, but the difference was reduced to three for the start of second phase. Zurich entered with 16 points, Servette with 15, Grasshopper with 14 (benefiting by the rule of rounding to the higher number – they finished with 27 points the first stage), and the rest – with 13 points each. Everybody had a chance… on paper.

The relegation group proceeded as expected… the endangered clubs played seriously, those starting with vast advantage went through the motions, and one team proved too weak to last. Chenois did not lose a single match, but 7 of their 10 games ended tied. Lausanne-Sports, Chiasso, and Sion pulled themselves together and secured their safety.

Perhaps the most intriguing about these clubs was Jose Altafini – the 1958 World champion, now 40 years old, was leading the attack of Chiasso. May be that was why the modest club was able to stay in first division. The veteran arrived in 1976 from Juventus and still was not thinking of retirement: he stayed one more year with Chiasso, then moved to another Swiss club to play 2 more years.

Xamax did not care… they earned only 5 points and finished next to last. Not for a second they were in danger – they started with 12 points, which was twice the points Nordstern carried from the first stage.

First division football was too much for the small club from Basel. The city had not the size and the culture to support two strong clubs and inevitably Nordstern was a pariah. They did their best during the first stage and their best was good only for 11th place. No strength was left for the final stage… Nordstern managed to win a single match and tie one more. Three points… 9 in total. Xamax really did not have to get even a point to stay above. The brief encounter with top flight football ended miserably for Nordstern – they were going back to second league after a single season in first.

Hungary the Cup

To a point, the Cup final showed the precarious state of the Ujpesti Dosza – supreme in the championship, they did not reach the final. Raba Eto and Ferencvaros did – the rising clubs. For Ferencvaros, winning the cup was of prime importance: not that much to show they were not just ‘also runs’, but to get a trophy, as their tradition demanded. Save the season by winning the Cup.

They had the argument – much stronger squad full of current members of the national team, Nyilasi – a star of European caliber. The provincials had no chance at all… But Ferencvaros did not score and the provincials did. They scored only once, yet, it was enough – 1-0 and the Cup went to Raba ETO. Otto Szabo was the goal-scoring hero of the final.

A great victory, of course – Raba ETO had lukewarm season, finishing 6th thanks only to better goal-difference and far behind the 5th placed Honved. They did not count as a force for a long time too. Raba ETO had few trophies – historically, not even a slight match for Ferencvaros. But they won and left Ferencvaros entirely emptyhanded.

Standing from left: Józsa Zoltán – coach, Palla Antal, Pozsgai Lajos, Pásztor Ferenc, Horváth Dénes, Magyar Lajos, Horváth László, Koós pályaedző, Kovács Imre – assistant coach.

Crouching: Pénzes Mihály, Szabó Ottó, Füzi Géza, Szíjártó László, Onhausz Tibor, Glázer Róbert, Pölöskei Gábor, Lipót Gyula.

Proudly posing with the Cup. It was the 4th Cup and 5th trophy for Raba ETO. It was also a sign of revival – so far, the best period in the club’s history was the 1960s, when they won the title in 1963 and added three cups – 1965, 1966, and 1967. But nothing after that – the club, until roughly 1975, was just typical mid-table provincial team. After 1975 they were slowly getting better, becoming one of the rising provincial clubs, although not as promising as Videoton was. Now they won a trophy after 10 years of drought. And it did not look like accidental victory – the squad was good and promissing: Pozsgai, Pasztor, Szabo, Szijarto, Onhausz, Poloskei were more than noticed. If the club was able to keep the best players and add some more for fine tuning, it would be something. Exactly this happened – with the 1979 Cup victory started arguably the best ever period of the club.

Hungary I Division

First division seemingly settled into old pattern this season – the outsiders firmly took the last three places, endangering nobody else. Then 10 clubs were packed closely – 6 points was the difference between the 6th and the 15th – satisfied with easy life, and five clubs stayed on top of the pyramid. High above the bulk of the league, but also divided into three groups – three clubs scrambled for the bronze medals, then lone candidate for silver, but unable to put a fight for the title. Boring division really, but only on the surface – there were few interesting things: first of them, in the relegation zone. The last place was taken by Vasas Izzo (Budapest), modest newcomers, clearly not up to the challenge of first division footballs. No surprise… with 14 points they ended not only last, but 9 points behind the 17th placed Haladas VSE. Not much of a surprise in their relegation either – one of the modest clubs, Haladas played hide and seek with relegation almost every year. Two points better than Haladas and 16th were Csepel SC.

Now this was a news: old, strong and successful in the past, Csepel sunk to 6th place in the ranking Budapest clubs long time ago too. A real mid-table club for years and without chances for anything else – but never really weak. Nobody expected them to win a title, but nobody was expecting them to sunk either. Well, they sunk this season and badly too – it was not a matter of bad luck, losing by a point or two. Their relegation was even unpleasant news, registering a deep and may be irreversible crisis. Sad to see old revered club going to the dogs. It was not the only dangerous sign – MTK (Budapest) finished 14th. Looked like there were no enough players, or money, or both, to keep all big Budapest clubs strong – and the first victims or new reality appeared. Another club finished at lower place than their usual – Videoton ended 9th.

Looked like they were not going to challenge the status quo and giving up the ghost after few promising seasons. Typical provincials, one may say… but it was not really that. Videoton was only a point behind the 6th placed team and if they were not among the top, they were not really going down either – rather, taking a brake… their climb was going to continue and reach its peak in the 1980s.

Tatabanya finiched 7th – a rare strong season for uneven club.

Third row, from left: Magyar György edző, Csepecz, Dupai, Monostori Tivadar vezetőedző, Nagy I., Szabó György csapatkapitány, Dombai, Sándor Imre gyúró.

Middle row: Lakatos, Arany, Udvardi, Néder, Csapó, Gálhidi.

Bottom row: Schmidt, Zsidó, Barabás, Tamás, Kisteleki, Knapik, Hegyi.

The only interesting thing about this team was the picture itself: nice in the snow.

Honved was at 5th place.

Standing: TICHY LAJOS – coach,PÁJER, PÁL, PARÓCZAI, KOCSIS, LUKÁCS, WEIMPER, VARGA II, VARGA I, NAGY ANTAL, GUJDÁR, TÁRNOK ISTVÁN – assistant coach.

Crouching: GYIMESI, BODONYI, GEIGER, KARALYOS, FEJES, HORVÁTH, PINTÉR, PÓCZIK.

Honved was still not capable to run for the title. It was coming back, like Dukla in Czechoslovakia, but not ready yet.

A place above finished Vasas.

A little bit of decline was sensed – Vasas was trying to keep its place, but it was mostly on inertia. Good squad, but the core players were with the team for years and getting past their peak.

Honved and Vasas fought for third place, but the winners were Diósgyőri VTK (Miskolc).

An old club, always associated with Diosgyor Ironworks, but as most provincial clubs, winning nothing. Regular member of first division, but mid-table club. Did not give any signs of improvement in the recent years, so they were a bit of a surprise.

No stars here – second-stringers at best – but they contributed to the trend of rising provinsial clubs: proved to be at equal footing with the top clubs and players, and holded their ground. The title was out of their reach, but they edged Hoved and Vasas, taking bronze medals. 2 points ahead of Vasas, second-best defence in the league (only Raba ETO received fewer goals), and 4th best striking line. Not bad, overall, but in local terms it was something else: the best season to date was 1976-77, when DVTK won the Cup for the first time. It was their only trophy… They preserved the winning squad and the boys continued to play well. The third place was of historic proportions – it was the highest place of the club in the league. Highest ever, it turned out: DVTK never reached such hights. Thus, the team is legendary and also the season. And the coach Geza Szabo is rigthtly creditid with the success – he made the greatest team in the history of the club, guiding it to success between 1974 and 1981. Significant season in every aspect – the club scored its 1000th goal in first division; played its 800th match in the league. A season to remember.

As good as Diosgyor were, they were not a match for Ferencvaros. Yes, the obvious suspect, but also the club wnich was somewhat unable to master a great team during the 1970s.

Full of national team players, lead by Laszlo Balint and Tibor Nyilasi, younger than aging Ujpesti Dosza , but there was a little something missing… Ofr course, Fradi stayed at the top, but… not really winning. And this year they were firmly second – above the rest of the league, and bellow the arch-rivals. Quite bellow – 5 points behind at the end. Silver medals do not count for Ferencvaros.

Ujpesti Dosza won their 18th title. Easily, judging by the final standings.

It was a victory true to the club’s style in the 1970s – attacking and high scoring football. It also looked like Lilak managed to avoid the dreadful slump usually coming with inevitably aging squad – since 1975 the team was clearly over the hill, and change of generations was expected to make trouble – but Ujpesti Dosza managed to stay on top and continued winning. Looked like they were dodging crisis and the critical moment was over by now. Looked like…

The champions still had 9 players of the squad reaching its peak around 1975. Some were getting old (Zambo, Rothermel, Dunai), others already had reached their potential and were no longer promising material (Kolar, Kellner, Fekete). New stars emerged and by now were top Hungarian players – Torocsik, Kerekes, Kardos – but still the team was dominated by the old guard. To a point, the case of Ujpesti Dosza illuminated the state of Hungarian football in the 1970s: talent was scarce and no matter what, the older generation was getting the upper hand at least domestically. Pal Varhidi was very good coach and managed not only to outfox the rest of the league, but to keep his boys well above anybody else. Looked like… looked like Ujpesti Dosza would be constant winner. The future had a bitter surprise for the club and its fans – this title was their last for the next 10 years.

Hungary II Division

To a point, Hungary had surprising season – surprising, because the expected fall of Ujpesti Dosza did not happen again. It looked like that Lilak was going to survive a change of generations without suffering and no worthy rival was going to rise in the meantime. Which made for a familiar season… somewhat. Down in the Second Division life was mysterious to outsiders: 60 clubs divided geographically into three leagues of 20 teams each. Rather big for for a country with small population and also entirely exotic, for many clubs were second and third clubs of not so large towns, having no chance of ever reaching top flight. The conditions favoured former first league members, that depending on their current form. Yet, small population means small pool of talent and very few clubs were strong enough to look higher than their current place – in fact, there was practically no race for the promotional spot in any second division group. Debreceni VSK won most comfortably their group – leaving their nearest rival 7 points behind.

DVSK was more likely than not to be found in first division and although never impressive, they seemingly belonged there. So, a return and without trouble. The squad was not much, but still much stronger than the competition. The boys from Debrecen were going up in the free style of the 1970s: mixing Puma and Adidas gear. As a side note, Hungarian clubs were the best dressed in Eastern Europe – almost every club, big or small, was fashionably clad. Other countries were not like that at the time.

The second group was full of Budapest clubs – almost halve of the total. They varied widely – from faded old clubs established at the beginning of the century, like BVSK, to clearly industrial clubs, formed by factories after 1945, like Vasas Ikarus SK, belonging to Ikarus, bus making plant. A club with strange name took the lead and won the league with 5 points advantage:

Volan SC was hardly heard of outside Hungary and rightly so: Budapest had so many clubs, Volan would be ranked in the city alone 8th or 9th at best. The name is pure exotica – immediately refers to something automotive, very likely representing some automotive industry, but it is a name suitable for a motoring club, not for a football one – what exactly they steer? Going up was a rare luxury for the boys – they never played first division before. As for surviving among the best, it was a worry for the next year.

The third group was perhaps the only one with something like a competition for the first place.

Komloi Banyasz, a former member of first division, appeared to be dreaming of returning there, and fought better than any second-placed club in second division. Yet, they finished 4 points short of success. The winners were long forgotten club – Pecsi VSK.

Not a young club at all, judging by their shield, but already forgotten one: the known represent of the city of Pecs for many years was Pecsi Munkas SC. It was coming almost as a big surprise that there was another club in the same city. Pecsi MSK was not much and Pecsi VSK was clearly less… most likely trying to stay in first division for a season or two, but at least Pecs was going to have a local derby the next year.

Austria I Division

First Division was entirely undramatic – clear outsider and clear leader. The rest was relatively equal and unimpressive. Wacker (Innsbuck) already fading away, paid heavy prize for the departure of Bruno Pezzey. The club plummeted and sunk at the bottom. Curiously, they had still some bite left and won the Cup. They won 1-0 the first leg against Admira Wacker and preserved a 1-1 tie in the second. A Hungarian final… Baroti won over Illovszky, but the Cup did not save the job of the coach – Baroti was let go. Wacker was to play in the second division the next year.

Grazer AK finished 9th , but the club was hardly ever in danger of relegation – they finished 5 points ahead of Wacker. Up the table – nothing interesting, except as a novelty.

Austria (Salzburg) ended 6th – a typical place for them at that time. Nothing like the last 20 years, when Salzburg – under the name of either Austria or Red Bull – is the strongest Austrian club. Three West Germans, Franz Roth included, and a Czechoslovakian defector (Jaroslav Pirnus) were good only for mid-table position.

So was the case of VOEST (Linz) – 5th place.

The champions of few years back were no longer any threat.

Sturm (Graz) was 4th, no better or worse than usual.

Rapid (Vienna) obviously suffered by the absence of Hans Krankl – instead of going up, the club suddenly went down.

Bronze medals nominally were not all that bad, but it was the club expected to run for the title. The title was 16 points away…

Surprisingly Wiener Sport-Club finished second – their glory days were long gone and in the 1970s nothing was expected from them. But they managed to end high – perhaps thanks to the respected coach Erich Hof and the bunch of strong veterans Norbert Hof (b. 1944), August Starek (b. 1945), Alberto Martinez and Jorge Doval. Enough for silver, but not even dreaming of gold – Wiener Sport-Club finished 14 points behind the champions!

And if something was familiar, it was the winners… Austria (Vienna), for a third consecutive season.

Austria playing a friendly with Sturm (Statzendorf, green shirts) before the start of the season. The newcomer Carlos Sintas was introduced to Austrian village life. But even playing next to fields did not bother the boys from Vienna – they had no rival this year. Unlike Rapid and Wacker they had kept their greatest star Prohaska and the absence of the two departed Uruguayans was not negatively felt: Austria had the best squad in Austria. Although they lost 6 matches – the same number Wiener Sport-Club lost – Austria steadily built their advance. They ended with 25 wins from 36 championship games, scored 88 goals. One more well deserved title for the best team of the time.

Austria – changes and II Division

Austria was clearly at its best, and it was also the country’s undoing to a point: international success brought closer attention to the top players from foreign clubs. Exodus of talent was nothing new, but it was affecting negatively domestic football. Two of the three greatest Austrian players moved to other countries right after the 1978 World Cup – Hans Krankl to Barcelona and Bruno Pezzey to Eintracht Frankfurt. There was nobody capable of replacing them in Rapid and Wacker (Innsburck). The other big change occurred in Austria (Vienna), but without getting much journalistic hype: the long-lasting Uruguayans, instrumental in the rise of the club, moved away – Julio Morales returned to his homeland and joined Nacional (Montevideo); Alberto Martinez stayed in Austria and Vienna, but in another club – Wiener Sport-Club. Austria tried to replace the Uruguayans with another Uruguayan: Carlos Alberto Sintas, 26-years old striker was brought from Nublense (Chile).

Sintas was not famous at all, but his career was solid – he was champion of Chile with Huachipato a few years back (and the picture here is from this season). It was hoped that he will be suitable replacement of Moralez and Martinez, but, in general, he was typical foreigner playing in Austria: not a star at all. Foreign coaches were another matter: two former coaches of the Hungarian national team were now working with Austrian clubs – Rudolf Illovszky coached Admira Wacker (Vienna), and Lajos Baroti took charge of Wacker (Innsbruck) for this season. As a whole, the foreign legion in Austrian football was modest: Yugoslavians, West Germans, Danes. One Argentinian arrived in Wiener Sport-Club (Jorge Doval, b. 1949), one Mexican in Admira Wacker (Juan Carlos Lasanta), one French in Sturm (Marcel Boyron, b. 1951)… the best known names were: Zenon Kasztelan, b. 1946, who played a few times for Poland – he moved from Pogon (Szczecin) to Admira Wacker; Bernd Lorenz, b.1947, who was part of the strong Eintracht (Frankfurt) of the mid-1970s, but he arrived to First Vienna from lowly Augsburg (West Germany); and Franz Roth, b. 1946, who was no longer needed by Bayern (Munich) and joined Austria (Salzburg). That was all the buzz…

The standard sized Second Division was nothing to talk about – three anonymous clubs ended in the relegation zone: FC Dornbirn (14th), ASV Kittsee (15th), and USV Anif (16th). At the top, practically without opposition finished familiar name: Linzer ASK.

LASK finished 5 points ahead of Austria (Klagenfurt) and secured the single promotional spot. The club returned to first division – and at least judging by the squad, it was a team more suitable for top flight than second tier – four foreigners: two West Germans, Wolfgang Gayer and Raimund Bincsik; two Yugoslavians, Nebojsa Vuckovic and Miroslav Vukasinovic; and two Austrian stars, the veteran Helmut Koglberger and the rapidly rising young goalkeeper Klaus Linderberger. Half of the top league was of similar make.

Czechoslovakia – champion and cup

As for the best of Czechoslovakian football, it was expected and familiar group – Banik (Ostrava), Zbrojovka (Brno), and Dukla (Prague). Zbrojovka, the champions of the previous season, were expected to be among the favourites, although it was hard to see them champions again. The club was strong and steady for some time, but lacked depth. No quality players were recruited between the seasons, so it was the same squad which won the 1977-78 championship, for good or bad. They still played well, but were not contenders this time: comfortably getting 3rd place, but 6 points behind the top two. Banik was one of the strongest and most consistent clubs during the 1970s and continued to be so – once again they aimed at the title and fought bravely to the very end. However, they were similar to Zbrojovka – with some aging stars and without influx of new blood, they had shortcomings and short bench of reserves. Yet, Banik had plenty of experience and ambition too. It was especially hard to best them – Banik finished with only 5 losses this year, nobody had a better record. Scoring was not their forte, but they collected enough points – 41. Again, no one bested that… so it came to goal-difference and the superior scoring power of Dukla won. Banik ended with +22, Dukla with +41!

It looked like Dukla fully recovered and was going to be the dominant Czechoslovakian club again. They had the best squad in the league by far and more importantly, it was not based on aging stars. Dukla practically had the ‘next’ generation of Czechoslovakian football – as a whole, about 17 players played for the national team, but the core of them were those defining the next strong period of Czechoslovak football: 1980-1984. Vizek, Stambachr, Barmos, Berger – no longer promising youngsters, no longer in the shadow of the great players of the first half of the 1970s, but rapidly becoming the stars of the country and the key players of the national team. Vejvoda continued to lead his squad to victory. It was still a time of transition, and the old guard was strong enough to compete with the younger players of Dukla, but the future belonged to the boys in yellow. The team already had depth and no doubt new talent was to be added, given the advantage the army club had: not only located in Prague, but benefiting from the universal military service – they were able to get whoever player they wanted as soon as he had to serve in the army. Dukla perhaps was not quite ripe – they clinched the title only because of better goal-difference, but their dominance was clearly visible: every other club was more or less either over the hill, or already in decline – Dukla was the only team rising, not yet reaching its full potential.

Older feet were still running strong, though. Banik (Ostrava) reached the Cup final. The other finalist was not Dukla, but Lokomotiva (Kosice). They were perhaps the best Slovak team at the time, enjoying their peak. Which was not all that much: Lokomotiva never had more than 2-3 real stars and even in their best years – perhaps no more than 6-7 solid players. Not bad for a small club, but hardly enough for major impact. Inconsistency was the result – one year strong, not so in the next. Lokomotiva finished third in the 1977-78 championship. In 1978-79 they were down at 11th place. But a squad like theirs was better suitable for cup tournaments. Lokomotiva won the Cup in 1977 – now they were playing at the final again. To a point, they had it easier than Banik – the national cup was played between the winners of the Czech and Slovak cups, and with Slovak clubs in sharp decline, Lokomotiva had weaker opposition. But never mind, the Cup final was another matter. Lokomotiva prevailed 2-1 and won their second cup!

It was great success – how many small clubs win the national cup twice in three years? It was the best period in the history of the club: the Cup in 1977, then bronze medals from the championship in 1978, and the Cup was theirs again in 1979. Before 1977 they had only one star – Moder. Now there were more – Seman, Kozak, Josza, Biros. Pavol Biros, formerly of Inter (Bratislava), was more than valuable recruit – he was already a national team player. Yet, Lokomotiva hardly had a chance of becoming a big force in the league: it was compact team, belonging to a modest club. Not much growth was possible – which made winning the Cup even sweeter: it was against the odds.