Wednesday, July 9, 2014




At the bottom of football hierarchy, Luxembourg was not a big news:

Spora Luxembourg and
Stade Dudelange won promotions from Second Division – both clubs were relegated the previous year and came back right away.
One of the newcomers to First Division finished hopelessly last.
Young Boys (Diekirch) earned only 8 points – 9 less then the team just above last place. Even in the weakest divisions there were especially weak clubs...
11th place was dreaded by 5 teams, almost half the league.
Alliance (Dudelange) were the second unlucky club – 17 points relegated them, exchanging divisions with their city rivals Stade.
Up the league four clubs fought for bronze medals – Union Luxembourg got them with 25 points, but they were far away from the title. The contenders were two and they went head to head to the very end, both finishing with 34 points. Goal difference decided the title: Red Boys (Differdange) had better one and won. They, however, were not to finish with one trophy – Red Boys reached the Cup final.
Aris (Bonnevoie) were the other finalists and the final was not without drama – regular time produced no winner. Red Boys excelled in extra time – the aggregate result was 4-1. A double and the interesting thing was that both trophies were won by a hair – on goal-difference and in extra time. All or nothing, but everything at the end.
13th Cup and 6th title for Red Boys – an excellent season, but little they knew of the future... this was the last title in the history of the club.
The unlucky ones were the champions of the previous year.
Progres lost just one match this season – Red Boys lost 2 – and scored the most goals in the league. Defense betrayed them though and they finished second. The consolation was a visit to Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid – a visit, for playing against Real Madrid in the first round of the European Champions Cup was doomed affair. So they photographed themselves at the famous venue for posterity.