Poland the Cup

If the championship produced unlikely winner, the Cup dwarfed that with bigger surprise: the finalist came from Second and Third Division! The final itself was played in unlikely town – Piotkrow. Piast (Gliwice) and Lechia (Gdansk) clashed there and Lechia prevailed 2-1.

Well, how to evaluate that? A Third Division winner was something outside the reach even of English football. It was unique victory, perhaps a triumph of the spirit of the sport. Yes, at that time lower level teams playing national cup finals and even winning popped around Europe, but not third division teams. So, great victory of the underdog, something always endearing. On the other hand… Cup Winners Cup was sinking, rapidly becoming a second division tournament, losing fans’ attention.

Piast (Gliwice) had their biggest chance since foundation – a small club, they played second division at best, where they finished 4th this season, entirely out of the race for promotion. Winning the Cup, however, appeared more than reasonable bet: the gap in class between second and third division teams was usually greater than between first and second. Yet, they lost.

The unlikely victors were unusual club, certainly unheard of outside Poland. Lechia was a refugee club – officially, they were founded in 1945, but on the base of older club originally from the city of Lwow. Lwow was swallowed by USSR in 1939 and today is in Ukraine – Poles left it during the Second World War and immediately after it and the settlers in Gdansk formed Lechia. So far, the only claim to fame of the club was losing the Cup final in 1955. After that Lechia sunk to complete obscurity and third division. No wonder why – a refugee club could be looked upon with suspicion from the Communist regime on one hand and Gdansk had its own old local club – LKS – to support and to identify with. Quite possibly the political clash in Poland after 1979 helped the club to resurface.

Lechia with their first trophy ever – and so far their last.

Naturally, the Cup winners had no recognizable players, but great period started this year. They won promotion to second division in the championship. And won the Cup, thus going to play in Europe. Nobody knew it yet, but this was not a one-time wonder: on the wings of this successful season, Lechia moved up and up and eventually played well in the top league. But that was still in the unknown future – for the moment they enjoyed their best season ever. And Poland added two new names to the list of champions.