Politcis aside, First Division experienced change of guard – it started earlier in the decade, but now it was explicitely pronounced. Stal (Mielec) finished 13th. Ruch (Chorzow) – 11th. A few years back those were leading clubs, but their stars left to play abroad and decline quickly followed. Most of the league was seemingly the same as ever – depending on momentary strength or weakness, especially of one or two key players. Arka (Gdynia) is a typical Polish club:
Adam Musial and Janusz Kupcewicz are the big names here – espacially the hero of 1974 Musial. The rest are ordinary players. This season they finished 8th – but the final position meant little: just as well the same team could end near the top, or relegated. Relative parity in the league, but there was one much weaker club than most:
Polonia (Bytom) won just 3 matches this year and tied 10. This gave them 16 points… 5 less then the nearest team and last. Usually, Polonia dwelled in the middle of the league, but a team which is never any special sooner or later is doomed to failure. However, the name should be kept in mind for a moment.
GKS Katowice finished 15th – not all that surprising, since the club was nothing much during the 1970s and no stranger to second division football. Now they were going down again along with Polonia.
Since Stal and Ruch were in decline, and Wisla, Gornik, and Legia – not too strong, more or less the favourite should have been Slask (Wroclaw) – they enjoyed good years recently, winning both the league and the cup, and had the most balanced team and may be the biggest group of talented players at the moment. But they were not great team and this season showed exactly that. Slask started well and was steady almost to the end of the championship, leading the league twice. Most of the time they were second, expected to come on top at the end. Until he 28th round their lowest position was 3rd place – in the 1st round and once more later! Then they suddenly colapsed, dropping in the last three matches out of the race for the title and to final… either 3rd or 4th place, depending on which table one looks at. Slask finished with 36 points, but Legia and Widzew also had 36. Widzew is allways placed 2nd, suggesting that goal-difference determined final positions. Slask had the worst goal-difference of the three clubs, yet, sometimes is given at 3rd place, sometime – 4th, behind Legia. Face to face record favours Slask, goal-difference – Legia. Which method was actually applied is unclear -even today different sources show different final tables. But the sure thing is that Slask lost the title, which is a bit surprising.
Widzew (Lodz) finished 2nd – perhaps the club ending just right on the spot coresponding to their relative strength. Widzew was steadily climbing up in the recent years. They were 2nd in 1976-77, second in 1978-79, and once again – second. Obviously, strong period of a club, which has been insignificant so far in their quite long history. The prime reason is easy to see today – they had Zbigniew Boniek. The climb of Widzew goes along with the climb of Boniek to stardom – he was almost the only Polish player noticed at the 1978 World Cup. But he was not at his prime yet, and so Widzew was not at its prime – and had to wait a little bit for real success. Silver medals were just right at the moment.
With Widzew not ready yet, and Slask not trully great, the title was left open… and Poland got the most surpirsing champion. Nothing at all suggested a title when the championship started in the fall of 1979 – the team was last after the opening round, and expected to stay in the bottom region, where they usually belonged. But this lowly team climbed to 1st place after the 6th round and after that they were 2nd only once. Szombierki (Bytom) finished 3 points ahead of all pursuers.
The club was old – founded in 1919 – but hardly heard of outside Poland: they were not playing first division football often, let alone finishing in the upper half of the table. Even in their home town they were not top – supporters were divided, but the bigger club was Polonia (Bytom), which at least played more or less regularly in first division. Szombierki was expected to excape relegation, if lucky, and perhaps the only pride of their presense in the league was providing a local derby – this season only Lodz and Bytom had 2 teams in the top league. It was very unusual for Europe lesser cities to provide derbies and not the capital, but that was the peculiarity of Polish football. However, Bytom was not expected to keep two clubs in the league – and it did not, but not as thought: Szombierki finished number one; Polonia – just the opposite: dead last. Half of the city was smiling, the other half was crying. As local rivalries go, Szombierki had a lot to brag about: they were smaller than Polonia, but brought the first success to the city in the very year Polonia hit the bottom.
Here are the new champions – a historic squad for three reasons: first, they won the very first trophy in the history of the club. Second, they were and still are the most surprising Polish champions. Third, Szombierki is considered the weakest Polish champion ever. Jumping ahead, this title is not only the only trophy won by the club, but a second one is highly unlikely: the club exists, but currently plays in 3rd Division and has not been heard of… well, almost since 1980. The extreme rarity of the club’s success deserves one more picture of the champions:
Well, nothing special as a team… the most famous of the squad is the coach: Hubert Kostka, the best Polish goalkeeper in the 1960s and long time national team regular. But that is the player – the coach never became big name: as for the club, this is the biggest achievement of coach Kostka. Among the players Roman Ogaza was the only star and that with a question mark. The winger was in and out of the national team for years, but never really a first choice. He belonged to the 1974 generation, but… he was part of the 1972 team, which won the Olympic games, yet, only a member, not a starter. This was his highest achievement with the national team – in 1974 he was not in the squad. For many, he was underrated. For others – he was not really top class, for he was slow for a winger. There was always a better option than him. And seemingly the critics were right – by 1980 Ogaza was already 28 years old and unlike his peers foreign clubs were not really after him. He played abroad eventually, but after a few years, when he was already nearing the end of his career. It tells volumes when the only recognizable player of the new champions is a player like Ogaza: it was not a strong team and it was not a team to develop further, let alone build a dynasty. What usually is said about this squad is that they were experienced players – journeymen, moving from club to club often. Ogaza himself played for variety of clubs. A good run this season, but the team largely took advantage of the weaknesses of opposition. Ruch and Stal in decline, Gornik and Wisla shaky, Widzew not ready yet, Legia attacking top places too late in the season and unable to compensate sloppy earlier performance, and Slask suddenly colapsing at the end. The record of Szombierki with their immediate pursuers is telling: they lost badly all away matches with the next three clubs in the final table, not scoring even a goal. Legia beat the champions at their home turf. True, Szombierki destroyed at home both Widzev (3-0) and Slask (5-0), but head-to-head total was 2 wins and 4 losses – every other team of the top 4 did better. Szombierki took advantage of sloppy performance of the others against lesser teams, steadiness, no flops, and a bit of trickery. Yers later the goalkeeper W. Surlit told what tactic was used this year: Szombierki used two stadiums at home. Their regular one was small, English-type stadium, where the fans were too close to the field. When Szombierki hosted big club with a huge home stadium, they played at their small stadium – the fans were too close, packed, and intimidating. Against clubs with similar small stadiums, they used the big stadium in the city – this time the visitors were in disadvantage: their fans were too far away and unable to form a compact group. The scheme worked may be because of the strikes and economic-political problems: football was not really in the mind of most people and fewer were travelling to other cities to support their club. Thus, Szombierki managed to have a compact crowd bigger or at least equal to the opposition’s and able to intimidate the visiting players. This helped, but such tactic helps only ones. Szombierki took advantage of the circumstances, did the best they could, and won. Which was great – a victory of the underdog. Kings of the city. Historic moment to be cherished forever – and still better than their home rivals: Polonia so far did not win anything.