The Cup final opposed two of the best clubs this year: Malmo FF and Kalmar FF.
Kalmar FF never won a trophy. They were quite modest for years, no strangers to second division football, and hardly the club easily coming to mind.
Now they had more than a chance – local business consortium decided to help the club with some cash and thanks to that Kalmar FF bought Lars Roger ‘Benno’ Magnusson from Hertha (West Berlin). A big transfer surely – no Swedish club was buying players from the big West European leagues. It was the other way around: Swedish clubs losing easily players to others. Magnusson, still 24 when he came back to Sweden, was one of the great youngsters who made Atvodabergs FF champions. He, like the others, quickly left to play abroad. Like Edstrom he came back to play in Sweden, and like his former teammate, it was not for his original club. There was no more great talent in the squad – perhaps only the local legend Johnny Erlandsson – but it was enough to propel Kalmar FF high. A unusually strong period for the club started – and now trophy was possible. No doubt, the club wanted to win. They had a chance and ambition, played a second consecutive strong season.
But it was not enough – Malmo FF won the final 2-0.
It may have been a case of ambition vs experience, but Malmo FF were the steadiest and most successful Swedish club in the decade. May be this year they were not good enough for a title, but ending without a trophy was not like them. It was their 9 since 1970! Five titles and now 4th Cup. There was one more motivating factor: so far Malmo FF won the Cup 9th times. A round 10 was much desired – a record, why not? They made it.
As for the squad, it was familiar recitation of names since 1970. Including the coach Bob Houghton – he was very young when he took the reins of Malmo FF. He was still young… a feature so familiar, that his age was even surprising: Houghton looked like he will retire with Malmo. Eternal coach… equals ancient coach. Houghton was only 40 in 1978. Thanks to him, another young Englishman arrived in Sweden – Houghton helped his friend, someone called Roy Hodgson, to take over Halmstads BK in 1976.