One thing about the Bundesliga – German football maintained the attacking philosophy and winning mattered most. Only 5 teams finished the season with 10 or more ties and every team scored higher than 1 goal-per-game average. But it was no longer the league to be in… Bundesliga was losing its charms – perhaps the reason the return of Franz Beckenbauer was not a bomb of a news. The Kaiser did not came back to Bayern, but joined Hamburger SV for what looked like his final season. He did not play much, yet he was not ready for retirement yet and had one last try across the ocean before quitting. On the pitch it was business as usual. Almost that. Two outsiders and two rivals for the title.
MSV Duisburg was last with 19 points. Fantastically weak season, but not a big surprise – they were going down quite steadily for some years. With their relegation, the original members of Bundesliga were further reduced by one.
With 21 points, Darmstadt 98 was 17th, thus ending its brief encounter with top level football. Nothing surprising and unlike MSV Dusiburg, with practically no chances for a return. A small club with no money for strong players – that was the bitter truth. Darmstadt was the team winning least matches this season – only 5.
Bayer (Leverkusen) was 16th with 25 points, ending in the relegation zone on worse goal-difference. So far, the Aspirins were only trying to keep a place in the Bundesliga, a far cry from the reputation they have today. Still in the building phase, so their low finish was hardly a news. But they were not out yet – the newly introduced promotion/relegation play-off was their last chance and they grabbed the opportunity by beating the 3rd in the 2. Bundesliga, Kickers (Offenbach), twice – 1-0 and 2-1. Barely survived, but survived.
Fortuna (Dusseldorf) finished above Bayer on better goal-difference – safe at 15th position. But there was little to celebrate: the peak of the team was obviously gone and one thing the club failed to do was to add new classy players when they were running high. Never a squad of stars, now they were sinking – their best players were aging and there was not a single great player behind Seel and Zewe. Relegation was looming in the future, perhaps very near future.
Karlsruher SC – 14th with 27 points. Expected… one of the clubs destined to inhabit the lower half of the table and fear relegation.
1. FC Nurnberg – 13th with 28 points. One of the ‘unsettled’ clubs, they were one of the usual candidates for relegation and escaping that, likely had a great season by their own counts. Remaining in the league was a success.
Same for Arminia (Bielefeld), the ‘double’ of Nurnberg – they were happy 12th with 30 points. No relegation – great!
Eintracht (Braunschweig) – 11th with 32 points. Like Nurnberg and Arminia and, therefore, quite happy to be out of relegation troubles.
VfL Bochum continued its rugged survival story – 10th with 32 points. Their usual place in the lower half of the table – a brave battle for survival against the odds, for they never had any stars and it could be said about them that Bochum was constantly counted among the relegation candidates. Since there was nothing really new about their team, the only news worth a note was the slight change of colours: usually, they used dark blue.
9th with 35 points, VfB Stuttgart. Hailed as one of the up and coming teams, full of stars in every line, Stuttgart was supposed to be a title candidate. Mid-table position was more than disappointment. But let say the team was still in the building process, not near its peak, so a sudden slip would not have been unusual.
Eintracht (Frankfurt) – 8th with 37 points and with second highest scoring record in the league – 83 goals. But atrocious defense – 72 goals scored in their net, only 5 teams had equal or worse defensive record, all of them in the relegation zone. Still counted among the leading clubs, but few were fooled: Eintracht was no longer really strong, they were running on inertia, slowly sinking. The good days was over, now decline settled. Joachim Low in the picture – he played this season for Eintracht, perhaps the pinnacle of his career as a player. 25 matches and 4 goals. Apparently, not very impressive, for he was back in second division the next year.
Borussia (Moenchengladbach) – in the exactly same situation as Eintracht (Frankfurt). One look at the squad is enough: hardly any stars left. Kleff and Mill getting older and only Lothar Matthaus a bright young player. Who was not going to stay for sure… down on the slippery slope, but inertia was still holding them – 7th with 40 points.
If Moenchengladbach was going down, the other Borussia was moving up – 6th with 41 points was not too impressive, but the team ended with the second strongest defensive record in the championship and definitely was a team considered promising. So far, everything was set right: a leading coach, Branko Zebec, and a good variety of players – well established veterans, Russmann, Abramczik, Votava, Sobieray, Geyer, bringing confidence to and aiding a group of local highly talented players: Burgsmuller, Freund, Immel, Tenhagen, Zorc. A team with a future, still not finished and polished, but going to be stronger and stronger for sure.
Werder (Bremen), not long ago down in the second division, obviously learned its lesson and was running high again – 5th with 42 points. A strange squad, really – largely dependent on oldish stars, who made their names elsewhere – Fichtel, Kostedde, and perhaps the Japanese Okudera, who established himself in West Germany, but it was already clear he was not going to be a major star. Just fine for Werder, though. Since the squad was particularly great, the coach was mostly responsible for the strong performance: Otto Rehhagel. Still young, but obviously knowing what to do, what kind of players he needed and how to utilize best the squad he had.
The enigmatic 1. FC Kaiserslautern had a fine season – 4th, thanks to better goal-difference, but with much promising squad than Werder. And a good coach too – Feldkamp. And an Asian player – the South Korean centre-forward Jong-Won Park. Unlike the Japanese Okudera and his compatriot Cha, Park left no memories: he was fielded at all.
Bayern – 3rd with 43 points. One more than Kaiserslautern and Werder. The real problem seemingly was defense – Bayern lost 11 matches, the most of all seven top teams. But they also won the most games in the league – 20 , having only 3 ties. It was all or nothing, quite a hazardous approach, considering the leaky defense. Since bronze medals does not really count in Munchen, alarm went off: goalkeeping in particular was unsatisfying and a remedy had to be discovered fast. It was – after the world cup – but this vintage, although strong and successful, never reached the great reputation of the squad from the first half of the 1970s.
Second – 1. FC Koln with 45 points. The championship race had a very strong tulip flavour: Rinus Michels vs Ernst Happel. Who of the great coaches, leading Holland to two consecutive silver medals at the World Cup would be stronger? But that was practically all to it – no Dutch player was involved in the battle. There were other stars and since World Cup is mentioned, champions – not silver medalists – were involved. Bonhof joyned Koln after returning from his spell with Valencia (Spain). No longer national team player, but big name still – and with him Koln had 2 1974 world champions: the other was Culmann. Add the plethora of national team players – Fischer, Schumacger, Allofs, Littbarski, Konopka, Woodcock (England), Botteron (Switzerland) – and Koln had stronger team than the one which won the West German championship in 1978. Since most stars were midfielders and strikers, one could expect weakness in defense, but precisely there Koln excelled with the best defensive record in the championship, allowing only 38 goals. Unfortunately, this team was facing a rival at its peak with longer and deeper squad. Michels lost to old familiar foe, battles going back to the beginning of the 1970s, when, however, Michels got the upper hand. Now he lost.
Bright new champions with 48 points, gathered from 18 wins and 12 ties. Only 4 matches were lost. 95 goals scored, 45 received. Ernst Happel did his magic again. Players did not like his methods before and there was no difference now, but the boozing since early morning Austrian made them winners and who can complain of that? Hamburger SV earned its 5th title. Franz Beckenbauer also won his 5th title. His move was a bit surprising, for he was always associated with Bayern – but he joined Hamburger SV, which at first was seen only as a last move of a guy too old to contribute to really big club, but perhaps able to help a weaker one. But HSV was not weak at all. Kaiser Franz was old, though… he played only 10 games and went back to finish his career in the USA. With him or without him, HSV were the team at the moment, almost at their peak. The other veteran – Peter Hidien – appeared only twice this season, the Yugoslav import Borisa Djordjevic, not a spring chicken either, played just 7 times. Nothing sentimental about Happel – his regulars were a tight group of current stars, not old over the hill veterans. “Young” perhaps is a wrong word – Hrubesch, Kaltz, Stein, Memering, Magath were not young at all – but all were at their peak as players and the rest of the regulars were younger: Lars Bastrup (Denmark), Jurgen Groh, William Hartwig, Holger Hieronymus, Dietmar Jakobs, Jurgen Milewski, Thomas von Heesen, and Bernd Wehmeyer. Young or old, all were experienced players and Happel utilized them more than well. However, it was no the best of this team yet – they lost the UEFA Cup. But never mind.
Here are the champions again: perhaps the first truly solid German team after 1976, a team of the kind Bayern and Borussia Moenchengladbach had.
Precious moment for posterity.