The Bundesliga. Hardly a memorable season – Bayern was the only solid team. The rest betrayed various problems – problems of West German football in general. The pool of talent was seemingly smaller than before, no foreigners of big quality were coming, German stars leaving to play in lucrative Italy. Perhaps the international failure of VfB Stuttgart was the best diagnosis: it its peak, the club made no impact on European football. Of course, the championship was competitive and tough, but the level was lower and the direction was downwards.
Eintracht Braunschweig was one of the two outsiders this season and finished last with 20 points. Not a big surprise, given the club’s tradition.
Karlsruher SC – the second outsider. 17th with 22 points. Along with Braunschweig, directly relegated.
Arminia Bielefeld – 16th with 29 points. As usual, struggling to stay in the league and not succeeding. Lost safety on goal-difference – unfortunate, but not the end of the world yet. Losing the promotion/relegation play-off against the 3rd place in Second Division, 1.FC Saarbrucken was the painfully familiar end: once again down to second level football. Curious note: they had Japanese co-trainer this year. Something very exotic and as far as coaching goes… practically unique for an European club. The Japanese player Ozaki was not a news – his presence only showed increasing class of Japanese players.
Fortuna Dusseldorf – in obvious decline and only lucky to escape the rick of relegation on better goal-difference: 15th with 29 points.
Borussia Dortmund – 14th with 30 points. Only 2 or 3 years ago Borussia was seen as ascending team, possibly going to the top. Instead, it went the opposite direction and looking at the squad the reasons for the plunge are quite obvious: Russmann, Zorc, Egli, Storck were getting only older ann naturally fading. Immel was the only player with star potential and going up.
Bayer Leverkusen – 13th with 31 points. Nothing special, but nobody expected much of them – Bayer was still a suspect newcomer, perhaps happy to play a few seasons in the top division, before sinking back to obscurity. The club surely had different ideas, but they were following them rather quietly and methodically. Very good coach, few decent – but not outstanding – players, hard work. Still among the weaker teams, but keeping place in the league.
Eintracht Frankfurt – another club in decline. 12th with 32 points. Compared to the squad of 10 years ago, the current one was pitiful. Only one thing worthy of mentioning: Korbel. The sturdy defender was becoming something like eternal feature of Bundesliga.
1.FC Kaiserslautern – 11th with 33 points. Traditionally, they fluctuated widely, so low position this season fitted the pattern.
VfB Stuttgart – a big disappointment: 10th with 33 points. Not only they were at the top just a few months earlier, but this was the only squad at the moment pretty equal to Bayern’s. Such players and nothing…
Schalke 04 – 9th with 34 points. Hard to tell – the squad was not much, but Schalke was coming back from a crisis, so one cannot expect some awesome team. Compared to Stuttgart, this team was poorly, yet, they finished ahead of Stuttgart.
VfL Bochum – 8th with 34 points. The great survivors – modest squad as ever, but playing with heart and soul and doing just fine as a result.
Bayer Uerdingen – 7th with 36 points. Their finest season ever, so more about them later.
SV 07 Waldhof Mannheim – 6th with 37 points. Arguably, having their best season in history, but hardly anybody was fooled: it was one-time performance. The squad was nothing to speak of and the club was modest, so whatever better players they had (Gaudino and Walter) most likely would go elsewhere.
Hamburger SV – 5th with 37 points. The beat the accidental Waldhof only on goal-difference was quite telling: HSV already reached its peak and now was slowly going down. It was enraging to see such team unable to compete for the title – may be they were a bit weaker than Stuttgart, but must have been rubbing shoulders with Bayern, not Waldhof. Not so terrible season as Stuttgart’s, but on slippery sloap nevertheless, giving the distinct feeling that there was no climbing back to top. Short-lived greatness.
Borussia Moenchengladbach – 4th with 39 points. Their great years were over, that was clear for some time already, but Borussia was hanging on – ate least their fading away was not going to be rapid and drastic. They were also the club easily excused: everybody knew they were always short of money and to have decent squad was nothing but a miracle even in their greatest years. They still managed to keep a number of good players against the odds, but perhaps the most important reason for staying relatively strong was their new coach – Heynckes was rapidly transforming from great player into great coach. Borussia was not to be dismissed yet.
1.FC Koln – 3rd with 40 points. For some reason this club was unable to built on their now distant title in the late 1980s. The potential was there, but they, although keeping among the best, remained unfulfilled promise. Why Koln never really happened is a question without meaningful answer: may be wrong recruiting policy. The current team was very similar to their champion team – good, but short of great and in need of few strong additions. This need was not solved after winning the title, nor in the following years, and it was surely not going to be solved now. Koln somehow remained a decent, but unfinished team – hence, 3rd, but distant 3rd.
Werder – 2nd with 46 points. The shameful exile in Second Division was already fading memory, now Werder was enjoying one of their sudden and not lived strong periods. Frankly, even with Voller, already singled out as rapidly becoming a superstar, Werder was not equal to Stuttgart and Hamburger. Not even to Koln. Pezzey and Okudera were aging, the rest were just capable second-raters. Good team, but hardly a title contender – and they were not, Bayern easily left them in the dust. But Werder left far behind Koln and HSV and Stuttgart were nowhere to be seen. Hats off to Otto Rehhagel.
Bayern – one more title, apparently, easily won. 21 wins, 8 ties, 5 losses, 79-38, 50 points. Werder was left 4 points behind, the others did not even count. The only trouble was that it was always Bayern… in the 1970s the great rivalry with Borussia Moenchengldabach kept the intrigue, but now it was only Bayern. Cannot blame them – this was the only European-class squad, well rounded and deep, coached by still excellent Lattek.
Bayern had the luxury to field a team like this one: top, left to right: Klaus Aughentaler, Wolfgang Dremmler, Hans Pfleugler, Bernd Martin, Soren Lerby, Lothar Matthaus. Bottom, left to right: Norbert Nachtweith, Raimond Aumann, Norbert Eder, Michael Rummenigge, Reinhold Mathy. Or some other version, just as strong. It was a club on entirely different level, compared to the other West German clubs. And that suggested only one thing – West German football was going to be dominated by one club. Too bad for the game.
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