Football Journey

Italy – ranked number 1 in Europe. In a nut shell: the golden season of Napoli with Maradona and still too many infringements of the rules. Seven teams in the top four divisions had been penalized with point-deductions: Udinese (Serie A) – 9 points, Lazio (Serie B) – 9 points, Cagliari (Serie B) – 5 points, Triestina (Serie B) – 4 points, Foggia (Serie C/1) – 5 points, Perugia (Serie C/2) – 2 points, Cavese (Serie C/2) – 5 points, Casarano (Serie C/2) – 5 points.
Forth Division – Serie C/2. The usual 4 groups of 18 teams each, the top 2 teams promoted.
Girone A.
Alessandria – 16th with 28 points and relegated, but eventually Montebelluna withdrew and Alessandria was readmitted.
Carbonia – 14th with 32 points.
Sorso – 11th with 32 points.
Casale – 10th with 33 points.
Cuoio Pelli – 9th with 33 points.
Olbia – 7th with 34 points.
Pro Vercelli – 6th with 34 points.
Pistoiese – 4th with 41 points.
Derthona – 2nd with 47 points and promoted.
Torres – champions with 47 points and promoted.
Girone B.
Sassuolo – 13th with 31 points.

Pergocrema – 12th with 31 points.

Varese – 10th with 34 points.
Treviso – 7th with 37 points.
Venezia – 6th with 37 points.
Suzzara – 5th with 37 points.
Chievo Verona – 4th with 38 points.
Pavia – 2nd with 45 points and promoted.
Ospitaletto – champions with 47 points and promoted.
Girone C.
Matera – 16th with 25 points and relegated to 5th level.
Galatina – 15th with 25 points. Survived thanks to better head-to-head record against Matera.
Perugia – 9th with 34 points.
Casarano – 8th with 35 points.
Fidelis Andria – 5th with 41 points.
Giulianova – 4th with 45 points.
Ternana – 3rd with 45 points.
Francavilla – 2nd with 47 points and promoted.
Vis Pesaro – champions with 47 points and promoted.
Girone D.
Turris – 15th with 29 points.
Ercolanese – 14th with 29 points.
Cavese – 13th with 30 points.
Trapani – 12th with 32 points.
Lodigiani – 8th with 34 points.
Juve Stabia – 5th with 38 points.
Latina – 3rd with 42 points.
Ischia Isolaverde – 2nd with 44 points and promoted.
Frosinone – champions with 47 points and promoted.

The Cup. Stuttgarter Kickers and Hamburger SV reached the final.
The Second Division team started well and opened the result in the 13th minute after a header by Dirk Kurtenbach. But HSV was not to go down – Beiersdorfer equalized after two minutes. The game was decided in the last minutes: Kaltz made it 2-1 HSV in the 88th minute and in the 90th Schlotterbeck scored in his own net, making it 3-1.
Hamburger SV received the Cup.
Would have been great if Stuttgarter Kickers won, but they were the weaker team no matter what. Their best known player was Kazimierz Kmiecik, World Cup bronze medalist with Poland in 1974. Now, although a good new addition to the team after 2 remarkable seasons in Greece, he was too old. Still, reaching the Cup final was one of the best ever achievements of Stuttgarter Kickers. Too bad they were not able to win the trophy.
Hamburger SV won its 3rd Cup. Standing from right: Thomas von Heesen, Uli Stein, Manfred Kaltz, Ditmar Jakobs, Sascha Jusufi, Dietmar Beiersdorfer, Manfred Kastl, Thomas Kroth, Peter Lux, Tobias Homp, Miroslav Okonski.
Clearly, the stronger squad and to a point – a battle of two Polish generations – Kmiecik, representing the great 1974 generation, vs Miroslav Okonski of the current one. Younger feet won. Also, this was successful moment for the son of the Yugoslav great from the 1960s Fahrudin Jusufi – Sascha. And perhaps the last opportunity for aging German stars Kaltz, Stein, and von Heesen to add one more trophy to their achievements.
Great way to say ‘good bye’ – Ernst Happel had great last season with HSV, although his current squad was kind of short and hardly first rate – the stars were getting old and apart from Okonski there was practically no great current talent. Yet, the great coach managed to win the Cup and finish 2nd in the championship with such a team. Excellent!

Bundesliga. Bayern won its 10th title without any trouble. And set the new record of the league – lost only one match during the campaign.
Blau-Weiss 90 (West Berlin) finished last with 18 points and was relegated. No surprise.

Fortuna (Dusseldorf) – 17th with 20 points and out. Their best years were over and long road downhill to obscurity laid ahead.
FC Homburg – 16th with 21 points. Weak, but managed to prevail over FC St. Pauli in the promotion/relegation play-off and kept its place in the Bundesliga.
Eintracht (Frankfurt) – 15th with 25 points. Also a club which lost its leading position and steadily going down.
SV 07 Waldhof (Mannheim) – 14th with 28 points. Good for another year.
Schalke 04 – 13th with 32 points. Trying to reestablish itself in the top league.
VfB Stuttgart – 12th with 32 points. Hard to believe they were champions only a few years ago.
VfL Bochum – 11th with 32 points. Modest, but bravely surviving – that is, nothing new.
1. FC Koln – 10th with 35 points. Rattled by Schumacher’s book scandal, but hardly only by that. This squad – by names – should have been much higher in the table.

1. FC Nurnberg – 9th with 35 points. Not bad…
Bayer 05 (Uerdingen) – 8th with 35 points.
1. FC Kaiserslautern – 7th with 37 points.
Bayer (Leverkusen) – 6th with 39 points. Getting stronger with solid, yet not exceptional squad.
Werder (Bremen) – 5th with 40 points. Let say… coach Rehhagel.
Borussia (Dortmund) – 4th with 40 points. A miracle recovery from the terrible previous season – or may be the other way around: the previous season was accidental slip.
Borussia (Moenchengladbach) – 3rd with 43 points. Deserves to be the story of the season – started with 7 consecutive losses and seen as surely relegated team. Finished with new Bundesliga record – 10 consecutive wins. After so bad beginning, more than bronze medals was impossible, but bronze they got, scoring the most goals this season too. Jupp Heynckes delivered before saying good by.
Hamburger SV – 2nd with 47 points. Significantly weaker squad than the one they had in the early 1980s, but Ernst Happel did his magic again in his last season with the club. Unable to challenge Bayern for the title, but comfortably second.
Bayern – Udo Lattek provided the 10th title in his last season with Bayern. In grand style too: 20 wins, 13 ties, just a single loss, 67-31 goal-difference, 53 points. Six points ahead of Hamburger SV and new Bundesliga record for the least number of lost games in a championship.
Everybody happy – if happiness has to do with ever hungry for success Bayern. The strongest squad in West Germany by far, yet… there was lot of work for Jupp Heynckes, coming to replace Udo Lattek. And Dieter Hoeness announced his retirement. Nobody expected Bayern to go through some shaky period – so, records set and back to work for more.

Second Bundesliga. 20 teams, the top 2 directly promoted, the third going to promotion/relegation play-off against the 16th in the Bundesliga, the last 4 – relegated.
FSV Salmrohr – one of the outsiders this season. Last and relegated with 21 points.
KSV Hessan (Kassel) – 19th with 22 points and relegated.
Viktoria (Aschaffenburg) – 18th with 24 points. The best of the outsiders, but relegated as well.
Eintracht (Braunschweig) – 17th with 32 points. Much stronger than those bellow, even finishing with positive goal-difference (+5), but… another bites the dust. Relegated. One more former top league member going down to third level.
Rot-Weiss (Oberhausen) – lucky 16th. Escaped relegation by a point, finishing with 33.
1. FC Saarbrucken – 15th with 34 points.
Fortuna (Koln) – 14th with 35 points.
SSV Ulm 1846 – 13th with 35 points.

SG Union (Solingen) – 12th with 35 points.
SG Wattenscheid 09 – 11th with 38 points.
Rot-Weiss (Essen) – 10th with 38 points. Note Horst Hrubesch here – now a coach and rapidly gaining wait.
Arminia (Bielefeld) – 9th with 38 points.
SC Freiburg – 8th with 39 points.
Stuttgarter Kickers – 7th with 42 points.
VfL Osnabruck – 6th with 44 points.
Alemannia (Aachen) – 5th with 46 points.
Darmstadt 98 – 4th with 47 points.
FC St. Pauli (Hamburg) – 3rd with 49 points. Unfortunately, they lost the promotion/relegation play-off against FC Homburg and remained in second division.
Karlsruher SC – 2nd with 52 points. Promoted and happily returned to top flight.
Hannover 96 – champions of II Bundesliga with 56 points from 23 wins, 10 ties, 5 losses and 86-48 goal-difference. Climbing up to Bundesliga again. Would they stay there or slump back again? Well, let’s wait for the next season.

West Germany – ranked 2nd by UEFA. A season of changes and records. One can say now, that the foundations of today’s football were laid down at this season: the coaches of the top three German teams left them right after their success: Udo Lattek, Ernst Happel, and Jupp Heynckes left Bayern, Hamburger SV and Borussia (Moenchengladbach). True, all of them announced their leave well in advance, but it was new approach – at the time, it was highly unusual in the top European championships and certainly not in such numbers. Meantime two new records were set: the first was that Bayern finished with only 1 lost match. The second was set by Borussia (Moenchengladbach) – 10 wins in a row. Borussia had incredible season – it started with 7 losses in a row and it looked like they were going down to relegation, but then they did not lose a game in the next 9 rounds and won every match in the last 10 rounds of the championship, which not only set the new record, but elevated them to bronze medals. They also scored the most goals in this season, but high scoring was nothing new for them. The third news was from the dark side and rattled the national team: it was the book written by Tony Schumacher, revealing the nasty side of inside life of the national team and other dark secrets of German professional football. The book, true or false, was bitter pill to swallow and retaliation followed right away: Schumacher was expelled from the national team and, to a point, the scandalous book eventually removed him entirely from the Bundesliga. Meantime Beckenbauer was trying to build a new national team and experimented with many new players – new goalkeeper was not his goal, but he had to introduce new keeper anyway because of the ban on Schumacher. Since he was the captain of the national squad, a new captain had to be chosen as well and that immediately created a problem, for Klaus Allofs was going to play in France and thus not always available for international games, particularly for the friendlies. Behind all that Bayern dominated and was expected to lead and there was considerable gap between Bayern and the rest of the league – nothing new, but quite alarming, because German teams were losing their edge and new generations were not as talented as those from the late 1960s and 1970s. Frugality was well known feature of German football, but now it was something to think about: yes, it was great to be successful without spending fantastic amounts of cash, but the top stars were leaving for higher salaries in Italy and Spain. It was still possible to be strong and successful club with only 18 professional players (Bayern) – especially when compared to clubs with huge rosters (Manchester United had 35 players on the payroll and Aberdeen – 38) – but Bayern lost the final the European Champions Cup and Dieter Hoeness announced his retirement. Bayern, with its small roster, was seen as unquestionable leader in West Germany, but it was also because the other clubs did not have even half the stars Bayern had: it was nothing like the previous decade when Bayern not only had bigger stars, but also great competition of similarly strong teams. What remained intact was the good youth system and steady introduction of young talent from it – Bayern proudly boasted that 6 regulars were product of their youth system, which was pretty much as it was in the 60s and 70s. The mood was fairly optimistic, yet… there was Schumacher’s critical book and the need to build a new national team, and the exodus of top stars, and less competitive teams, and the fact that West Germany was no longer desired destination for foreign players.
Third level. The champions of the 9 regional semiprofessional leagues went to their promotion tournament. Let say that the negative side of the current state of West German football was perhaps most visible here – there were quite a few former Bundesliga members playing here and not very successfully: Hertha (West Berlin), MSV Duisburg, TSV 1860 (Munchen), Tennis Borussia (West Berlin), Kickers (Offenbach). Of course, teams relegated from the Bundesliga played in the regional league before, but that was when those leagues were second tier, not third. Now such teams were unable even to climb back to Second Division…
Wuppertaler SV,
TSV 1860 (Munchen),
MSV Duisburg. Top row from left: Buddeit, Dronia, Fecht, Friebel, Haremski, Kober, Meuer
Middle row: Telljohann, Notthoff, Puszamszies, Rohr, Ronden, Semlits, Struckmann, Trainer Pirsig
Front row: Zeugwart Schotte, Strunz, Müller, Vossnacke, Kellermann, Macherey, Zils, Canini, Masseur Hinkelmann.
Those three clubs failed to climb up – clubs, which used to play in the European tournaments.
The two promotion groups were divided geographically as ever and the top two teams in each went up:
Gruppe Nord.

BVL 08 (Remscheid) finished first – 3 wins, 4 ties, 1 loss, 11-5 goal-difference and 10 points. Great success for them and also something to think about: third level teams were officially considered amateur and competed for the German Amateur title. But this squad had 2 Yugoslav and 1 Japanese players – more foreigners than the Bundesliga teams had and the foreigners were hardly amateurs.
SV Meppen – 2nd and promoted with 10 points from 2 wins and 6 ties. 13-10 goal-difference – which place them bellow BVL 08.
Hertha BSC (West Berlin) – 3rd with 9 points from 3 wins, 3 ties and 2 losses. 11-10 goal-difference. Failed to climb back to Second Division, from they were relegated in the previous season.
SpVgg Erkenschwick – 4th with 6 points. 1 win, 4 ties, 3 losses, 7-12.
Arminia (Hannover) – 5th with 5 points: 1 win, 3 ties, 4 losses, 10-15 goal-difference.
Gruppe Sud:
Kickers (Offenbach) -1st and promoted with 7 points from 3 wins, 1 tie, 2 losses. 13-7 goal-difference.
SpVgg Bayreuth – 2nd and promoted. Lost top position on worse goal difference, but going back to second level from which they were relegated the previous season. 3 wins, 1 tie, 2 losses, 10-11 goal-difference, 7 points.
Eintracht (Trier) – 3rd with 6 points from 3 wins and 3 losses. 9-8 goal-difference.

SV Sandhausen – last with 4 points. 2 wins, 4 losses, 6-12 goal-difference.
So, BVL 08 Remscheid, SV Meppen, Kickers Offenbach, and SpVgg Bayreuth earned promotions and only BVL 08 did not play second level football before.

The Cup final was without Moscow team and since the game was always played in Moscow… it was like fans had 6th sense – 75 000 attended to see Dinamo (Minsk) vs Dinamo (Kiev) and were not disappointed. The final was rare show of attacking football and drama. Minsk scored first – Kondratyev in the 20th minute.
Ratz equalized in the 45th minute: 1-1 at half-time.
The next goal was scored in the first minute of the second half – Zygmantovich made it 2-1 Minsk from penalty kick.
In the 60th minute Aleynikov made it 3-1 and it was… all over? Not at all – Kiev came back. Kuznetzov scored 3 minutes later and in the very last minute of the game Zavarov equalized. 3-3. Kive’s strong come back perhaps crushed Minsk psychologically – after all, Kiev equalized twice in the last minute: made it 1-1 in the 45th and 3-3 in the 90th. But no goals were scored in the overtime and penalty shoot-out had to decide the winner. Only at this stage Minsk lost – Borovsky and Aleynikov failed to score (Aleynikov missed, Chanov saved poor shoot by Borovsky). Metlitzky and Kurnenin scored for Minsk, but Kiev players scored 4 penalties without fail (Demyanenko, Mikhailichenko, Baltacha, and Evtushenko) and the Cup was theirs.
Opposite moods after Evtushenko’s penalty: teammates Zavarov, Gorily, Bal, Kuznetzov, Demyanenko, Yakovenko, Ratz rushed to congratulate Evtushenko (number 10). At the same time disappointed Satzunkevich, Aleynikov, Metlitzky, and Kondratyev having nothing to say.
Dinamo (Kiev) won the Cup for 8th time. Apart from anything else, the battle for supremacy between Dinamo (Kiev) and Spartak (Moscow) continued: this year Spartak equalized Dinamo’s record of 11 titles. Spartak also was leading with 9 Cups, but Dinamo now was only one trophy behind.
Too bad Dinamo (Minsk) lost – they did not have many trophies and would have been great to add a Cup, but… no. Played a great game and to a point fell victims of classier squad – perhaps another team would have given up after the result was 1-3 against them. However, Minsk had nobody by themselves to blame: they permitted Kiev to equalized twice in the last minute. They also failed to close the game after scoring their third goal, so Kiev was left free to attack. Even the penalty shoot-out: it was the leaders of Minsk Borovsky and Aleynikov who did not score. Small things, but put all together…
Top row from left: Vassily Dmitrakov – doctor, Andrey Shalimo, Nikolay Shpilevsky, Sergey Omelyusik, Aleksandr Metlitzky, Gennady Lessun, Sergey Pavlyuchuk, Pavel Rodnenok, Leonid Vassilevsky – administrator.
Middle row: Sergey Borovsky, Viktor Yanushevsky, Vyacheslav Nikiforov, Yury Trukhan, Anatoly Bogovik – assistant coach, Mikhail Vergeenko – team chief, Aleksandr Gorbylev – assistant coach, Sergey Aleynikov, Lyudas Rumbutis, Sergey Gotzmanov, Sergey Shiroky.
Sitting: Yury Kurnenin, Viktor Sokol, Aleksandr Kisten, Ivan Zhekyu, Ivan Savostikov – coach, Andrey Satzunkevich, Andrey Zygmantovich, Georgy Kondratyev, Aleksandr Dozmorov.
8 times Cup winners! Not the team at the final, but that was Dinamo (Kiev) at the time – even with some injured or out of form players, it was formidable squad. Standing from left: Viktor Chanov, Aleksey Mikhailichenko, Andrey Bal, Oleg Blokhin, Pavel Yakovenko, Mikhail Mikhailov.
In the middle: Vladimir Bessonov.
Crouching: Aleksandr Zavarov, Sergey Baltacha, Igor Belanov, Vassily Ratz, Vadim Evtushenko, Anatoly Demyanenko, O. Morozov, Oleg Kuznetzov, V. Gorily.
Injured Bessonov and Belanov did not even go to Moscow for the final and Morozov was not selected even as a reserve for the final, but the rest played and prevailed. V. Evseev and V. Karataev completed the group of 16 at the final. Plus I. Yaremchuk, who replaced Blokhin in the 57th minute only to be replaced himself in the 70th minute by Gorily.
Important victory for Dinamo (Kiev) – the season was not good for them, they lost form and were not a force in the championship, had a string of injured players and some with psychological problems, so winning a trophy was important to boost confidence. Dramatic final like this one was important for moral: Dinamo showed character, did not give up when everything looked lost.

First Division. 50th championship of USSR, time for celebration, but the season was not all that festive – Dinamo (Kiev) suddenly was not a factor at all and there was practically no intriguing battle for the title: Spartak (Moscow) was first all the way. More drama unfolded at the bottom of the table, but that was not exactly positive drama. The rule limiting ties to 10 was still intact and four teams lost because of it, including the champions. Torpedo (Moscow) had the record tied games – 12 – and lost 2 points because of that, but the rule had positive effect as a whole and few teams reached the limit of ties. The crisis of CSKA continued, Dinamo (Tbilisi) was also steadily going down, but the biggest shock was the disappointing season of Zenit (Leningrad), which barely escaped relegation.
Guria (Lanchkhuti) finished last with 18 points and was relegated. The league debutantes lasted only one season… too bad and one can be really sorry for the modest club from Georgia, but reality was against them: they did not have a strong enough squad for objective reasons – the Georgian pool of players was naturally small and currently not very talented.
CSKA (Moscow) ended 15th with 24 points and was also relegated. Like Guria, they were just promoted, but sunk right away. Both newcomers failed, but CSKA’s story was different from Guria’s: first of all, they were in crisis for a long time and unable to get over it. Somehow, CSKA was unable to recruit enough good players for a solid team – true, their goalkeepers Vyacheslav Chanov and V. Novikov were former members of the national team, but apart from them there was very little (one defender Galyamin and two midfielders – Vedeneev and Broshin – were the only experienced field players and they were not first class). Second, CSKA was unlucky – if there was no limit on ties, they would have escaped relegation – 1 lost point did them, for they had worse head-to-head record against Zenit.
Zenit (Leningrad) survived at 14th place with 24 points. Lucky to finish ahead of CSKA – which they knew before the last round: they lost the last match and CSKA won theirs, but it did not matter because Zenit had better direct record against CSKA. Zenit, however, was arguably the most criticized team this season – it was ‘only yesterday’ when triumphed with the title and the squad was pretty much the same, but the coach was new and some key players were no longer around. At the end, the coach was largely blamed for the grand failure.
Dinamo (Tbilisi) ended 13th with 25 points. Also lucky to survive, but their struggle was hardly a surprise: they were going down for quite some time. The problem was that they were unable to find good enough young players – the great old guard was retiring one after another and the newcomers were not at the same level.
Kairat (Alma-ata) – 12th with 26 points. Well, nothing new.
Metallist (Kharkov) – 11th with 27 points. Their prime aim was establishing themselves in the top league – so far, so good. May be not in the first half the table, but they were becoming experienced and confident team, which was difficult to beat.
Dinamo (Moscow) -10th with 28 points. Depending of viewpoint, they were either miserable failure this season or their previous season was lucky one-time wonder – they almost won the 1986 championship. May be the previous season was unusual, not this one: Dinamo was not real factor for a long, long time – practically, since the early 1970s. Top row from left: A. Uvarov, A. Borodyuk, V. Popelnukha, B. Pozdnyakov, I. Bulanov, A. Novikov, I. Sklyarov, I. Dobrovolsky, I. Kolyvanov, A. Prudnikov.
Middle row: S. Kiryakov, A. Timoshenko, A. Gassov – masseur, A. Golodetz – assistant coach, E. Malafeev – coach, I. Mozer – team chief, M. Gershkovich – assistant coach, V. Mozalyov – doctor, A. Kobelev, S. Ushakov.
Sitting: G. Morozov, S. Stukashov, V. Lossev, ?, V. Vasilyev, V. Karataev, S. Silkin, V. Demidov.
Although the coach was blamed for the failure, the real reason was the quad – hardly very strong and balanced. Dinamo had plenty of young talent – Dobrovolsky, Borodyuk, Kolyvanov, Kiryakov – but they would come to their peak in the 1990s.
Neftchi (Baku) – 9th with 28 points. Pretty much, familiar performance – in a good year.
Ararat (Erevan) – 8th with 29 points. Hanging on…
Shakhter (Donetzk) – 7th with 30 points. Middle of road, but solid, even if the team was somewhat weaker than earlier vintages. Top row from left: Valentin Elinskas, Sergey Zolotnitzky, Oleg Morgun, Oleg Serdyuk, Sergey Ovchinnikov, Nikolay Fedyushtenko, Yury Belichenko, Viktor Grachev, Oleg Smolyaninov.
Middle row: Valery Goshkoderya, Evgeny Dragunov, Vladimir Parkhomenko, Mikhail Sokolovsky, Sergey Yashtenko, Igor Petrov, Sergey Gerasimetz, Sergey Akimenko, Sergey Khlysta.
Bottom row: Vladimir Bedny, Konstantin Vikhoronov, Mikhail Olefirenko, Anatoly Radenko, Yury Gulyaev, Aleksandr Sopko, Sergey Svistun, Vladimir Yurchenko, Viktor Onopko.
Dinamo (Kiev) – 6th with 32 points. Deja vu… 10 years ago Dinamo suddenly slumped right after winning the Cup Winners Cup. Now – the same. Both times the squads were the same as in the greatly successful previous season. Very suspect drops of form, but this time there were some objective difficulties: Bessonov and Belanov suffered heavy injuries, Blokhin was 35 years old, Demyanenko was coming back from injury and was still shaky. Yet… Dinamo had plenty of strong players – a good 10 national team members after discounting the mentioned 4.
Dinamo (Minsk) – 5th with 33 points. It was clear even when they won the title that the success will not be repeated, but Dinamo was doing well enough for a team which did not add significant players to their winning squad, inevitably aging, and on top of everything lost their great coach Malafeev, who went to coach Dinamo (Moscow).
Torpedo (Moscow) – 4th with 34 points. Great position – and against the odds. Not a bad team, but not a great one either. Young talent – Kharin, the Savichev brothers, and few worthy veterans – Shavlo, Prigoda, Kruglov, but that was all. It was pretty much middle of the road squad, so they overperformed somewhat.
Zalgiris (Vilnius) – 3rd with 36 points. The best season of Zalgiris, but hardly a surprise – by now, the team was experienced, but not old yet. The squad was somewhat short, so a title very likely was out of question, but what they had, they used well – a well knitted team of players playing together for years, serious and high-spirited boys. Since the core of the team went all the way from Third Division to success and invitations to national selections (mostly to the Olympic team of USSR), it was very pleasant story – and Zalgiris was often pointed at as shining example.

Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk) – 2nd with 39 points. The other great story of success from this period: Dnepr managed to stay on top, even to perform better than mighty Dinamo (Kiev). Perhaps the title was impossible this season – they closely pursued Spartak and finished close, but that was all – Spartak led from start to finish. Sitting from left: A. Sorokalet, O. Taran, A. Cherednik, S. Bashkirov, A. Lysenko, V. Bagmut, N. Kudritzky, V. Tishtenko, E. Shakhov.
Middle row: V. Chebanov – masseur, V. Gerashtenko, N. Cherny – doctor, V. Gorodov, I. Nadein – assistant coach, G. Zhizdik – team chief, E. Kucherevsky – coach, L. Koltun – assistant coach, S. Krakovsky, S. Puchkov, V. Maslov – administrator, N. Chernysh – doctor.
Top row: A. Tevs – deputy chairman of the club, O. Fedyukov, G. Litovchenko, I. Vishnevsky, A. Shokh, V. Lyuty, A. Sidelnikov, O. Protasov, R. Kanafotzky – administrator.
Success against the odds – ‘Perestroyka’ or not, Dnepr was in the shadow of Dinamo (Kiev) and had no way to prevent the powerful club from taking stars – Litovchenko and Protasov were in biggest danger at the moment and actually Dinamo took Oleg Protasov right after this season ended. Keeping strong squad was difficult, so Dnepr really managed to beat the odds so far – and their great years were not over yet.
As if on cue, Spartak (Moscow) won the 50th championship – almost a symbolic victory, suggesting that the original strong Moscow clubs still rule. Spartak did it in very convincing manner – they led through the whole season and finished with 16 wins, 11 ties, and only 3 lost games. 49-26 goal-difference, 42 points. Even the point lost to the tie above limit did not endanger their title – they were even theoretically unreachable two rounds before the end of the championship. Sitting from left: Oleg Kuzhlev, Almir Kayumov, Konstantin Beskov – coach, Fedor Cherenkov, Andrey Rudakov, Babkan (?) Melikyan.
Middle row: Aleksandr Hadzhi – administrator, Nikolay Starostin – team chief, Petr Shubin – assistant coach, Fedor Novikov – assistant coach, Yury Susloparov, Viktor Pasulko, Aleksandr Bubnov, Vagiz Khidiatulin, Boris Kuznetzov, Rinat Dassaev, Genady Belenky – masseur, Genady Shibler – chief of Spartak Society, Boris Ivanov – chief of Spartak Society, Daniil Khodorkovsky – doctor.
Top row: Viktor Kolyadko, Valery Shmarov, Zaur Kharda, Aleksey Eremenko, Andrey Mitin, Sergey Rodionov.
Spartak waited 8 years for this title – their 11th,which also equalized the record made by Dinamo (Kiev). This 8 years Spartak was the most stable team – always in the top 3 – but also always failing short of winning the title. In part, it was the squad – somehow always kind of short, without enough depth and dangerously depending on the health and current form of about 10-11 regular players. This time everything clicked right, although not without some difficulties: the picture above shows the squad at the beginning of the season – some starters from the second half of the season were not even in it. Four players left during the season to play elsewhere, largely for failing to satisfy Beskov (Eremenko, Melikyan, Kolyadko, and Rudakov – note, that all 4 were well established players, but not top stars, brought exactly to provide depth to the squad). Instead of them, Alekasandr Mostovoy, Mikhail Meskhi, Yury Surov, Aleksandr Boky, and Evgeny Kuznetzov were introduced – except Meskhi, all became regulars right away and eventually Mostovoy became huge international star in the 1990s. The changes in the squad practically beg for another photo of the actual champions:
The winners of the 11th title – sitting from left: E. Kuznetzov, O. Mostovoy, O. Kuzhlev, N. Starostin – team chief, K. Beskov – coach, V. Shmarov, A. Boky.
Middle row: P. Shubin – assistant coach, A. Hadzhi – admisnistrator, S. Novikov, F. Cherenkov, Yu. Surov, V. Khidiatulin, R. Dassaev, V. Pasulko, Yu. Susloparov, F. Novikov – assistant coach, G. Belenky – masseur, D. Khodorkovsky – doctor.
Top row: V. Kapustin, S. Rodionov, S. Cherchessov, B. Kuznetzov.
The solid regular team, which practically won the title in the second half of the season – standing from left: F. Cherenkov, Yu. Susloparov, Yu. Surov, R. Dassaev, S. Rodionov, A. Boky.
Crouching: E. Kuznetzov, A. Mostovoy, V. Khidiatulin, V. Novikov, V. Pasulko.
Bubnov was also regular player, but since all later additions are here, one can thing that the team uneasily shaped during the season – it was not made before. And still the version above is a bit suspect: of course, Dassaev, Khidiatulin, Cherenkov, Rodionov, Bubnov were big stars and national team regulars for many years and Mostovoy became big star in the next decade, but Susloparov, although successful addition, reached his peak in his former club, Torpedo Moscow, and even by his current teammates he was considered a guy who could no do better. Pasulko, the two Kuznetzovs, Novikov – reliable, but middle of the road players. Kuzhlev, Shmarov, Meskhi… well estabished, but it is somewhat telling that unknowns like Mostovoy, Boky and Surov kept them at the bench. As a whole, this squad was deeper than most previous ones, but still was far from perfect. The shortcomings of the team were easily detectable in the post-season introduction of the team by its captain Rinat Dassaev: he was not exactly excited about Kayumov, Shmarov, Kuzhlev, Boris Kuznetzov, Kapustin, Meskhi, Boky; cautious about Susloparov, Surov, Mostovoy.. and praising Bubnov largely for his loyalty to Spartak and great fighting spirit, but also pointing at his limited skills. Unfortunately, this makes 11 players of a squad which just won a championship after leading during the whole season – not a great recommendation for champions. But they were and it was great. Spartak maintained all-time top position in Soviet football and as for the team – well, Beskov had to continue his search and constant building.

Second Division. 22 teams, the top 2 promoted, the last 3 relegated. Long season, but without much intrigue, as usual. There was battle for survival at the bottom to the end, but no drama at the top. Chernomoretz (Odessa) domineered the championship, leading from start to end. Second place was also settled rather early and the usual suspects had their usual sedate championship, playing well enough for mid-table position, secure to stay in the league, satisfied with that, and not looking up.
Krylya Sovetov (Kuybishev) ended last with 32 points. They were just promoted and relegated right away. The club was ailing for quite some time and the persistent policy of hiring players from elsewhere was blamed for that. So… going again to dreadful third level.
Torpedo (Kutaisi) – 21st with 34 points and out. Only recently they played top league football, but now were going to third level. They differed from Krylya Sovetov, though: the reason for their decline was the general decline of Georgian football. Georgia was small and if there were not 50-60 quality players at hand, even two classy squads were problematic – but now not only there was weaker new generation, but there were 5 clubs dipping into small pool (Dinamo Tbilisi, Guria Lanchkhuti, Dinamo Batoumi, Lokomotiv Samtredia, and Torpedo) and inevitably someone would get weaker as a result: Torpedo, on this occasion.
Fakel (Voronezh) – 20th with 34 points. Like Krylya Sovetov and Torpedo, former First Division member, now going down to third level.
Dinamo (Batoumi) – 19th with 35 points. Escaping relegation was success in itself for them, but also was the strange story of ‘the battle for survival’: it was based largely on hopes that the opposition will lose their games. Dinamo lost their last two matches, and if Fakel and Torpedo got one more point each, than Dinamo most likely would have gone down. But Torpedo lost their last games and Fakel won one and tied the other, so they were unable to reach 35 points too. Meantime Krylya Sovetov lost their last game at home to the other team in danger of relegation, Spartak (Ordzhonikidze) and went down, helping Dinamo as well. A matter of luck, that was it.
Spartak (Ordzhonikidze) – 18th with 36 points. Escaped relegation in the very last round of the championship and in direct battle with equally endangered Krylya Sovetov. It was a matter of life and death, Spartak came out alive.

Rotor (Volgograd) – 17th with 36 points. They also lost their last two games, but had more points than the other teams in danger and had much better chance for survival. However, given this season it was absolutely unbelievable that Rotor would soon come to fame and success.
Zarya (Voroshilovgrad) – 16th with 38 points. Faded away long time ago and plummeting down to third level, so now they were just happy to avoid relegation and stay in Second Division. Revival was seemingly impossible.
Dinamo (Stavropol) – 15th with 38 points. Modest club modestly performing.
Shinnik (Yaroslavl) – 14th with 38 points. Perhaps weaker season than their usual, but Shinnik was one of the ‘eternal’ teams in the league: too strong to be relegated, too weak or disinterested to go for promotion. A bit up, a bit down… no matter.
Kotaik (Abovian) – 13th with 38 points. A pleasant surprise really, for the tiny Armenian club was not expected to last in the second level. They did, but may be largely on enthusiasm. For how long, though?
Geolog (Tyumen) – like Kotaik, the team from the deep North was newcomer not expected to last. Their very geographical position was against them… but even in the absence of summer, they did well: 12th with 39 points.
SKA (Rostov) – one of the many in recent years former top league clubs in sharp decline. 11th with 39 points.
Rostselmash (Rostov) – not really better than their city rivals, but unlike SKA they were not winners of the Soviet Union Cup and never played First Division football. From this perspective, coming ahead of their city rivals was sweet: 10th with 40 points.
Metallurg (Zaporozhye) – 9th with 40 points.
Kolos (Nikopol) – 8th with 40 points. May be becoming ‘eternal’ mid-table team.
Pakhtakor (Tashkent) – 7th with 44 points. The aircrash killing their whole team in 1979 had long-term consequences: Pakhtakor had to build anew and so far was not really successful.
Kuzbass (Kemerovo) – 6th with 44 points. One of the ‘eternals’, so nothing new or unusual.
SKA Karpaty (Lvov) – 5th with 46 points. Not as strong, as it was imagined when the city brass decided to amalgamate Karpaty with SKA.
Pamir (Dushanbe) – 4th with 46 points. By now, the club most criticized for their lack of ambition. Club and players denied the accusations, of course, but the full record of Pamir was rather strong evidence: they were practically always good, but not running for promotion.

Daugava (Riga) – 3rd with 50 points. Hard to tell.. on one hand, they were the big pleasant surprise of the season, looking like going for promotion. Then they dropped out from the race quite suddenly… Was it deliberate or was it just that they were not all that good? They still finished way ahead of the clubs bellow them, but they also ended far behind the second-placed team, which did not even play seriously their last games.
Lokomotiv (Moscow) – 2nd with 58 points. Strange season… in the first half of it they did not look like candidates for promotion, but gradually they squirreled points, climbed up to second place, and even looked like they may try to run for the top place. But as soon as it was sure they secured promotion… they took it easy: their last two games were at home and Lokomotiv got only 1 point from weak opposition from the lower half of the table. The squad, however, had some bone and perhaps with few additional players… but that was for the future. Presently, they were going back to First Division.
Sitting from left: Igor Konyaev, Oleg Tabunov, Evgeny Drozhzhin, Renat Ataulin, Evgeny Mileshkin, Khabib Ilyaletdinov, Valery Abramzon, Dmitry Gorkov, Vladimir Pachko.
Middle row: Rashid Gallagberov, Valery Gladilin, Yury Vasilkov – doctor, Yury Semin – coach, Aleksandr Petrashevsky – assistant coach, Vitaly Shevchenko – team chief, Nikolay Larin – masseur, Boris Udovenko – administrator, Aleksandr Kalashnikov.
Top row: Andrey Shiryaev, Sergey Gorlukovich, Aleksandr Dozmorov, Igor Terenin, Andrey Kalaychev, Sergey Bazulev, Yury Gavrilov, Vitaly Karmi, Sergey Baburin, Igor Makarov.
Chernomoretz (Odessa) – they led during the whole championship and naturally finished 1st. Won 25 games, tied 12, lost 5. 68-31 goal-difference, 62 points. Their recent relegation looked like short-term tremor, not a deep crisis – they practically got promoted right away and in domineering manner.
Thus, Chernomoretz (Odessa) and Lokomotiv (Moscow) earned promotions and returned to top flight.

USSR – ranked 3rd by UEFA. The 50th championship of USSR. There was a bit of repeating 1976 – Dinamo (Kiev) again was in bad shape right after conquering Europe. There was also a failure of restructuring the third level: for years various specialists called for bringing the best teams from the huge league into one new league of 22 teams and that was finally announced before the season, but at the end was not done and Third Division remained as it was: 9 groups of teams. What was objective, but apparently unsolvable problem was economical: in a country stretched on two continents, teams were scattered so far away that there no satisfying formula was found. Travel was expensive and time consuming and all proposals failed, for money were becoming overwhelming issue. The original intent was to increase the quality of the game, to combine the stronger teams in one league – but at the end reform was scrapped and the old formula remained: 9 groups (Zones), with different number of teams (from 27 to 15) and strength (competitive Russian-Ukrainian zones and very weak Far East groups). The winners continued to go to promotion play-offs and the 3 best teams in them were promoted to Second Division.
Here is a taste of the vast third level:
Gastello (Ufa) – actually, the name is ‘Sport Club named after N. Gastello’, weird name, so with time it was popularly shorten.

SKA (Odessa)
Torpedo (Toliatti).
Those three played in solid groups and had no chance to move up, although they played well – Gastello finished 4th in Zone II, Torpedo – 8th in the same Zone II, SKA – 5th in Zone VI. SKA had it very tough: they played in the largest Zone, where the Ukrainian teams played – that was 27 teams! A regular season of 52 games.
The winners went to play for 3 promotions and even here the candidates were uneven: some former First Division members, some former Second Division members, some unknowns. Some currently strong teams, noticed during the regular season, some trying to rebuild and come back, and some coming from weak Zones and thus not much to speak of, unless they quickly hired stronger players for the play-offs. Iskra (Smolensk) – winner of Zone I, Zvezda (Perm) – Zone II, Kuban (Krasnodar) – Zone III, SKA (Khabarovsk) – Zone IV, Nistru (Kishinev) – Zone V, Tavria (Simferopol) – Zone VI, Neftyanik (Fergana) – Zone VII, Meliorator (Chimkent) – Zone VIII, and Lokomotiv (Samtredia) – Zone IX. Iskra, Tavria, Kuban, and Zvezda, which got good press during the season, were the favourites – and at the end, they won, except Iskra.
Kuban (Krasnodar)
Tavria (Simferopol) and

Zvezda (Perm) were promoted.
Tavria and Kuban did not attract much press perhaps because they were well known names, which played top league football – it was somewhat expected from them to recover and come back. Zvezda (Perm) was seemingly the pleasant surprise, yet, observers were cautious. It was critical caution old and tired: a team assembled of relatively good and experienced players from elsewhere, instead of local guys coming from the youth system of the club. As a rule of thumb, such ‘mercenary’ teams were almost immediately relegated back to lower league they came from – Krylya Sovetov (Kuybishev) was the current scary example used, but it could have been a long list of teams from every year and cautions like that did not work so far, so the chances Zvezda (Perm) would suddenly become sensible were nil. After all, if you look around to find players for a team, it is certain you have no productive youth system to depend on. But that was for the next season – for the moment, Zvezda, Tavria, and Kuban enjoyed promotion to Second Division.

The Cup final opposed RFC Liege to KV Mechelen. Both teams had good season and were also short on trophies, but KV Mechelen perhaps was favoured. And they eventually won the final 1-0.
RFC Liege tried their best, but were the weaker team and managed only honorable loss.

KV Mechelen won its very first Cup. It was also their first trophy after very long time – in the distant past they have been Belgian champions, but in the last 50 years hardly anybody expected them to win anything. So, it was great success.
In the last few years quietly and persistently Mechelen built impressive squad and now it was time to get rewards. They fought for the title and they won the Cup, they got noticed and were at their peak. If anything, Mechelen showed that even in increasingly governed by big money football a modest club could compete. It was great story so far – after all, Mechelen was playing Second Division only a few years back – and winning the Belgian Cup was not the end of it.