The German Cup final opposed clubs different from Bayern and Hamburger SV – both finalists reached their peak a bit back and one thing was painfully clear about them: neither was going to be stronger. Decline was not pronounce yet, but it was mostly inertia keeping them going. 1. FC Koln and Fortuna Dusseldorf. Of course, the final was competitive and neither team gave up. 2-1 was the result at the end – Fortuna won. Interesting: the finalists were the Cup winners of the last three years – Koln won the Cup in 1977 and 1978. Fortuna – in 1979 and now for a second year in a row. In 1978 Koln won over Fortuna – now it was the other way around.
Happy winners, of course.
1. FC Koln lost by a single goal – may be unlucky. Seemingly, the team had the players for success – Bernd Cullmann, Dieter Muller, Tony Schumacher, Harald Konopka. Bernd Schuster burst out this season, instantly seen as the great German player for the coming decade. And in his steps followed Pierre Littbarski. Yet, in the same time it was clear that 1. FC Koln will not build a dynasty similar to Bayern and Borussia, dominating the 1970s. The lost final kind of confirmed the suspicions: Koln enjoyed its best years in a short period – 1977 and 1978 – and although keeping strong, was not going to be a big winner. Successful occasionally, but nothing more than that.
Fortuna was peculiar. Strong for may be 5 years already, but made mostly of solid second-raters. It was hoped that they could be the next big German club in the past, but not anymore. It was even felt that Fortuna already passed its peak and was getting down – slowly, but down. Ironically, it was that time they achieved their big triumphs, winning the Cup twice in a row. The team was always made of players like Baltes – never prime stars. Zewe and Seel were getting too old. The future of the team consisted of 2 players – the brothers Klaus and Thomas Allofs. Hardly enough and it was not all that certain Fortuna could keep the brothers. In the championship the team was already slipping down. But they won the Cup again, running against logic: Fortuna’s most successful years were precisely when decline was detected.