Football Journey

Kaiser Franz led his teammates to the West German title, three points above Schalke 04. Bayern scored 101 goals in the championship, 40 of which belonged to Gerd Muller. He was far above the rest of the goalscorers – Klaus Fischer (Schalke 04) was second with only 22 goals. Yet, Bayern, with their superior attack were overwhelming champions – their defense was second best. Schalke 04 had better home record than the Bavarians too. These two clubs fought for the title, leaving the rest far behind – Borussia (Moenchengladbach) finished third, but 9 points behind Schalke 04. However, their captain Gunter Netzer was voted West German footballer of the year.

Bayern were becoming superclub – the core of team, built by Zlatko Cajkovski remained, finely tuned by Udo Lattek, younger coach who was to be one of the best coaches of the 1970s. The team added young players like Hoeness and Breitner. Bayerns’s policy was also taking shape: it was somewhat between this of Ajax and the traditional superclub policies – Bayern depended on their youth system and bought, so far, relatively cheap foreign players. But unlike Ajax, players were not bought just because they were cheap – Bayern looked for players to fill in positions where the team lacked strength – the Dane Hansen came to play right back, for instance. Not to keep the bench of reserves warm. Bayern also spent money on established players – never spending outlandish amounts, though. This careful financial policy of never spending neither too much, nor too little, made soon Bayern the European giant they are still today.

Champions in 1972. This line-up remained during the glorious years of the Bavarians. With the years only fine additions were made.

Back, left to right: Krauthausen, U. Hoeness, Hansen, Roth, G. Muller, Schwarzenbeck, Beckenbauer, Udo Lattek – coach.

Front: Hoffmann, Zobel, Maier, Breitner.

No mystery in Europe – Franz Beckenbauer was voted the Player of the Year.

The great rivalry Cruiff or Beckenbauer was established… well, who was best? The attacker or the defenseman? It is futile… but really: Ajax won every possible cup in 1972. West Germany won the European title without any Dutch seen around. Club football or national teams competitions? And what is this attack versus defense? Neither Cruiff was traditional attacker, nor Beckenbauer traditional defenseman. However unjust, the choice was just – Beckenbauer was on the top world scene since 1966. Cruiff – only a club star so far. Beckenbauer was great in 1972. Was he the greatest? Who cares… voting is never truly objective. Nothing is ever really objective. Impasse.

And somehow it is clear why Beckenbauer was number one in 1972.

In 1972 South American Footballer of the Year went to Teofilo Cubillas. Cubillas is probably the best Peruvian player of all time, but still it is hard to figure out why he was awarded. Cubillas still played for Alianza (Lima), which is perhaps the biggest club in Peru, but at least internationally it was not a success. Alianza’s rival Universitario reached the Libertadores Cup final, but this is no reason for voting Cubillas. Since the event is distant now and South American football was hardly featured in early 1970s Europe, the election of Cubillas is enigma to me. It could have been inertia of the surprisingly strong performance of Peru at World Cup 1970. It could have been strong season of the player. Something does not much, though – Cubillas moved to Europe in 1973, but not to big club – he went to Switzerland. His teammate in the national squad, who is not considered the best ever Peruvian player, but a drunk – Hugo Sotil – was the very first purchase Barcelona made after the Spanish Federation lifted the ban on foreign players. The mystery remains, but it is insightfull to know that the King of Football was not worthy for this award already a second year. Something like a Brazilian crisis perhaps? Something like Uruguayan decline? Something like an Argentine wrong direction? Something like Chileans been eternal wannabes? Something like… non existent Colombians, despite having Alfredo di Stefano playing for them once upon a time?

Questions are questions, but Teofilo Cubillas was great player. Overall, if not that particular year.

Cubillas (on the ground) scoring against Morocco (I think) at World Cup 1970. Since I don’t really know why he was voted Footballer of the Year in 1972, he better stays on his bottom – I want to keep the mystery.

One last South American stop: Chile. The local powerhouse Colo-Colo from the capital Santiago de Chile won yet another title in 1972. Should this trivia be mentioned at all?

Why not? This squad was the first Chilean team I saw. Thrilled by the expansion of my football geography, I searched further and eventually learned that the club is named after famous Indian chief. So rebellion and resistance were part and parcel of the attractiveness of the club. Correspondingly, the most popular Chilean club. And again correspondingly, the most successful Chilean club – which is the point where resistance ends and shrewed business begins… In 1972 Colo-Colo were international mediocrity, but wait for later years. At the moment – go back to earlier postings and take one more look at 1974 scandals.

Here is Carlos Caszelly, one of the best ever Chilean players and committed leftist. Two years before General Pinochet ended the supposed socialist paradise for Caszelly. Two year before football made the most weird truce of political enemies – Pinochet agreeing to tolerate the Left Winger, because he is great right winger for Chile; and Caszelly agreeing to remain Left Winger playing for Right Winger dictator in the name of the same country.

And Brazil? Judging by the second national championship, the samba of the World Champions from 1970 was gone. Palmeiras (Sao Paulo) won the national title, but it was a team playing unattractive football. Unattractive to most Brazilians, that is.

Back, left to right: Eurico, Leao, Dudu, Luis Pereira, Alfredo, Zeca

Front: Edu, Leivinha, Paulo Cesar Carpegiani, Ademir da Guia, Nei

Palmeiras are one of the biggest and most successful Brazilian clubs, of course. They were not well known to Europeans – largely due to the fact that the club is from Sao Paulo and apart from Santos, best known to Europeans clubs were Rio de Janeiro ones. Naturally, people from Rio are not terribly fond of Sao Paulo clubs. On top of it Palmeiras is the club of the Italian immigrants, originally named Palestra Italia. During the Second World War the club was forced to change its name for political reasons (rather arbitrary exercise of state political correctness, because clubs with German names were not forced to change theirs) and became Palmeiras. As an ethnic club, it is seen as elitist and exclusive, although neither fan base, nor players support that – and not in the early 1970s either. The whole ethnic issue is ambiguous – fans hardly draw fine ethnic lines, but still tend to support clubs along ethnic lines. Club administration claims both ethnic pride and ethnic-blindness, often at once, so it hard to tell. Palmeiras were both lucky and unlucky, though. Their champion team was solid: Leao, the best Brazilian goalkeeper in the 1970s and most of the 1980s, Edu, Luis Pereira, Leivinha, Paulo Cesar Carpegiani (not to be confused with Paulo Cesar Lima, World champion of 1970), and the captain Ademir da Guia played for the national team. Eurico was considered a great promise. But… Eurico ended as a promise; Leivinha, proclaimed to be the next Pele never came even close; Paulo Cesar Carpegiani was never considered a real star, Edu was invited to the national team, only to be dismissed immediately, Leao refused to play for Tele Santana’s Brazil’82, Luis Pereira is not a name readily mentioned by Brazilians, and Ademir da Guia… was one of the most underappreciated players in history of football.

The trouble of Palmeiras was in part timing, and, in part, their radical tactical change. Palmeiras decided to follow European tactics and approaches – the club felt Brazilian football was no longer supreme and new concepts were to be adopted. It was not total football what they decided to coppy, but the German physical game. And Palmeiras played disciplined, tough football, where the defenseman Luis Pereira was more or less the key player. Brazilian fans did not like such bland and businesslike football. But Leao, Luis Pereira, Leivinha, Paulo Cesar Carpegiani, and Ademir da Guia were the core of the Brazilian national team for World Cup 1974, which was to play European football. It was miserable failure and as a result nobody (with the exception of Leao) was ever considered great. Not only that – again with the exception of Leao, nobody else was invited often to the national team after 1974. As for Leao, he was the only decent Brazilian goalkeeper in the 1970s, and as a goalie, he wanted strong defense in front of him. Most likely his refusal to play for Tele Santana was based on Santana’s attacking football, to which defense was secondary at best.

Paulo Cesar Carpegiani probably fell out of favour by association – he was inventive and technical midfileder, not at all dull, but been part of the terrible 1974-team, he was discarded with the rest.

Ademir da Guia is an entirely different story of ill luck. The son of legendary Domingos da Guia, one of the biggest world stars of first half of 20^th century (who are generally lost to us, because of the World War II), Ademir started his career with Bangu, the Rio-based club where the elder da Guia played most of his own career. Ademir was 17 years old in his first season, 1959. The age suggest plenty of talent – quickly noticed by the bigwigs of Palmeiras, who bought the young attacking midfielder in 1961. Ademir da Guia played for Palmeiras to the end of his career in 1977, and is perhaps the biggest club legend. He was a big star of Brazilian football as well, the world heard very little about him – Ademir da Guia fell victim of plentitude: between 1965 and 1974 he played only 9 games for the national team, most of them in the ill-fated 1974, when he was already 32 years old. Unfortunately for da Guia-son, Brazil had too many great players almost to the end of his career. He coincided with Didi, Pele, Zagallo, Jairzinho, Tostao, Gerson, Rivelino, to name but few of his competition, who either older and more experienced than him, or younger and therefore more promising than him. If Ademir da Guia played at different post, say left winger, he would have been constant feature of the national team. But he was attacking midfielder… Brazil was exceptionally rich there and Ademir da Guia most often was not even considered. He was elegant and clever player, but when finally invited in the national team, he was getting old and it was horrible team. Ademir da Guia did not impress anybody in 1974… His consolation were the two titles Palmeiras won before the horror. What consolation? The horror of 1974 was blamed on the boring ‘European’ football Palmeiras played in 1972 and 1973… or so think the fans.