USSR II Division

 

Second Division. The very first season of this league was strange in its make. Different aims collided: purely sporting aims and ideological/political ones, each aggrivated by geography. Combining both was not easy or satisfactory, in the long term the third level suffered most, but the new Second Level was to suffer too, at least the next season. No problem with 4 teams: Kayrat, Lokomotiv (Moscow), Krylya Sovetov, and Uralmash – these were relegated from First Division. The rest... there was no good reason , from sporting point of view, for most teams to be here at all. There was no good reason for those relegated at the end of the season either. Ideology stepped in to void reason: all republics had to be represented. This happened to be both unpractical and impossible... first of all, Baltic republics and the far East republics had weak football and fewer clubs than Russia and Ukraine. At the end five republics had no team in the new division. If Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan had teams in the First Divisionand that served as excuse for not including more teams in the Second Division, Estonia was entirely out of the two top leagues. Ideology is fine as long as reality bites on it: 18 clubs of the new league were selected from the 4 groups of former Second Level (which now was Third Level) and there was no Estonian club playing there in 1969. It wasn't fair to include a team from even lower level... fine, but it wasn't fair to include in the Second Division teams from lower half of 1969 final table of Group 4, which combined clubs from the weakest football regions of USSR – Stroitel (Ashgabat, 5^th in 1969), Alga (Frunze, 9^th), Daugava (Riga, 12^th), Moldova (Kishinev, 6^th). Add those who qualified normally: Zhalgiris (Vilnius, 1^st) Shakter (Karaganda, 2^nd), Lokomotiv (Tbilisi, 3^rd), and Energetik (Dushanbe). The teams coming from the other three groups were more or less normally included: from Group 1 – the winner won promotion to First Division under the old system, so those bellow it joined Second Division: Dinamo (Leningrad, 2^nd), Kuban (Krasnodar, 3^rd), Tekstilshtik (Ivanovo, 4^th). From Group 2: SKA (Khabarovsk, 1^st), Rubin (Kazan, 2^nd), Volgar (Astrakhan, 4^th). Why Volgar was included instead of the third-placed team in the group? Never mind... From Group 3: Dnepr (Dnepropetrovsk, 1^st), SKA (Kiev, 2^nd), Metallist (Kharkov, 3^rd), and Karpaty (Lvov, 6^th). The reason Karpaty was included was kind of plausible – they sensationally won the Soviet Cup in 1969 and in 1970 played in the Cup Winners Cup. Anyhow, the new league was formed, championship was played and predictably at the bottom of the table were the weak teams from former Group 4. And as long as ideology ruled, they were not relegated – instead, the lowest placed teams from Ukraine and Russia plus the only representative of Georgia went down: SKA (Khabarovsk, Russia, 21^st), SKA (Kiev, Ukraine, 19^th), Kuban (Krasnodar, Russia, 16^th), and Lokomotiv (Tbilisi, Georgia, 15^th).

Class A - First Group (Second Level)

 1.Karpaty Lvov                  42  26 11  5  70-22  63  Promoted     [UKR]            
 2.Kayrat Alma-Ata               42  25 11  6  71-29  61  Promoted [-] [KAZ] 
--------------------------------------------------------
 3.Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk          42  26  9  7  58-25  61           [UKR]    
Sitting from left: Anatoly Napreev, Dmitry Dimitriadi, Zoltan Miles, Viktor Marenko – coach, Valery Sheludko, Vladimir Vaskovsky, Nikolay Goncharov, Vladimir Derkach. Top row: Anatoly Komkov, Vyacheslav Naumov, Aleksandr Kochetov, Vladimir Bassalaev, Aleksey Kuznetzov, Vladimir Belyakov, Yury Karnakhin, Vladimir Shalashov, Viktor Davidov, Mikhail Ermolaev, Viktor Kaplatzky, Rudolf Atamalyan, Yury Ivanov, Boris Podkorytov, Vladimir Zotikov, administrator. 
 4.Lokomotiv Moskva              42  20 10 12  53-39  50  [-]      [RUS] 
 5.Metallist Kharkov             42  15 19  8  43-26  49           [UKR]           
 6.Dinamo Leningrad              42  19  9 14  62-49  47           [RUS]               
 7.Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev      42  17 13 12  43-32  47  [-]      [RUS] 
 8.Rubin Kazan                   42  18 10 14  36-42  46           [RUS]   
 9.Shakhtyor Karaganda           42  15 15 12  49-43  45           [KAZ]             
10.Žalgiris Vilnius              42  15 11 16  46-40  41           [LTU] 
11.Moldova Kishinev              42  13 15 14  40-34  41           [MDA]   
12.Textilshchik Ivanovo          42  13 14 15  36-51  40           [RUS]     
13.Volgar Astrakhan              42  14 11 17  38-45  39           [RUS]  
14.UralMash Sverdlovsk           42  13 12 17  37-49  38  [-]      [RUS] 
15.Lokomotiv Tbilisi             42  14  9 19  36-43  37           [GEO]          
16.Kuban Krasnodar               42  11 15 16  27-45  37           [RUS]     
17.Daugava Riga                  42  11 11 20  36-50  33           [LVA] 
18.Pamir Dushanbe                42  12  9 21  41-62  33           [TJK]
19.SKA Kiev                      42  11 10 21  39-50  32           [UKR]  
20.Alga Frunze                   42  10 12 20  34-45  32           [KGZ]             
21.SKA Khabarovsk                42   8 16 18  22-41  32           [RUS]            
22.Stroitel Ashkhabad            42   6  8 28  22-77  20           [TKM]             

Note: Energetik Dushanbe changed name to Pamir. 

Karpaty (Lvov) – first champion of Second Division. From left: Miklosh, Yust, Gabovda, Vayda, Sirov, Potochnyak, Savka, Sarabin, Bulgakov, Pokora, Danilchuk, Likhachov.

What a story – Karpaty won the Soviet Cup in 1969 and was champion of Second Division, thus earning promotion to the top league in 1970. And in the fall of 1970 they represented USSR in the Cup Winners Gup – the photo is from their clash with Steaua (Bucharest).

USSR I Division

 

USSR. Reorganization and to be continued. Class A, made of 2 leagues was announced, the former top level championship reduced to 17 teams and to be made of 16 teams from 1971. Second Division was organized, still belonging to Class A, but actrually a second level championship made of 22 teams. The former zonal championships were no longer second level, but third level. The First Level – the First Division, called Supreme Group, was easy to understand, but bellow there were complications eventually to be changed further. Curiously, very similar reorganization at the same time happened in the ice hockey championships and structure – to a point, the aim was to create more compact top leagues and increase the competitiveness and quality of the game. There will be more about the second level bellow; as for the top league the last three teams were relegated and replaced by the top two teams from the Second Division. The calendar was made with consideration for the coming World Cup, which somewhat affected performance. The championship was intriguing enough - two teams finished with same point and 'Golden Match', a final play-off, was staged to decide the champion. One match was not enough and a second match was played the next day, both scheduled in far-away city of Tashkent.

Class A - Supreme Group (First Level)

 1.CSKA Moskva               32  20  5  7  46-17  45  Golden Match [RUS] 
   Dinamo Moskva             32  19  7  6  50-22  45  Golden Match [RUS]
 3.Spartak Moskva            32  12 14  6  43-25  38             [RUS] 
 4.Dinamo Tbilisi            32  14  8 10  43-30  36             [GEO] 
 5.Zarya Voroshilovgrad      32  10 14  8  27-25  34             [UKR] 
 6.Torpedo Moskva            32  12 10 10  36-38  34             [RUS] 
 7.Dinamo Kiev               32  14  5 13  36-32  33             [UKR] 
 8.SKA Rostov-na-Donu        32   9 15  8  28-29  33             [RUS] 
 9.Dinamo Minsk              32  11 10 11  33-29  32             [BLR] 
10.Shakhtyor Donetsk         32  11  8 13  35-50  30             [UKR] 
11.Neftchi Baku              32   9 11 12  27-28  29             [AZE] 
12.Ararat Yerevan            32  10  9 13  31-34  29             [ARM] 
13.Pahtakor Tashkent         32   8 12 12  28-46  28             [UZB] 
14.Zenit Leningrad           32  10  7 15  30-40  27             [RUS] 
----------------------------------------------------
15.Chernomorets Odessa       32   8 10 14  25-38  26  Relegated  [UKR] 
16.Torpedo Kutaisi           32   6 11 15  24-42  23  Relegated  [GEO] 
17.Spartak Orjonikidze       32   7  8 17  31-48  22  Relegated [+] [RUS]   

Note: Lugansk City were renamed as Voroshilovgrad. 

Championship Play-Off [Dec 5, Tashkent; Att: 60,000] 
CSKA Moskva  0-0  Dinamo Moskva 

Replay [Dec 6, Tashkent; Att: 40,000] 
CSKA Moskva  4-3  Dinamo Moskva 
  [Vladimir Dudarenko 11, Vladimir Fedotov 71, 84, Vladimir Polikarpov 75 pen – 
   Yevgeniy Zhukov 22, Gennadiy Yevryuzhikhin 24, Valeriy Maslov 28] 
Dinamo (Moscow) finished with silver medals. Perhaps the most significant about this season was that great Lev Yashin was nearing retirement: he was mere reserve in Mexico and didn't play in the decissive play-offs. The time of his talented replacement Pilguy was coming. Standing from left: V. Anichkin, V. Maslov, Yu. Avrutzky, V. Pilguy, V. Smirnov, V. Zykov, V. Utkin. Crouching: V. Kozlov, G. Evryuzhikhin, E. Zhukov, V. Eshtrekov, Yu. Semin. 
CSKA (Moscow) – the dramatic champions. Crouching from left: Yu. Istomin, V. Fedotov, A. Kuznetzov, V. Dudarenko, V. Starkov, V. Utkin, N. Dolgov. Standing: V. Kaplichny, V. A. Nikolaev – coach, M. Plakhetko, A. Shesternev, Yu. Pshenichnikov, A. I. Mamykin – assistant coach, B. Kopeykin, I. M. Bodnaruk – doctor, V. Polikarpov, V. Afonin. 
The Army team celebrated in their military uniforms the title they waited for almost 20 years – it was their 5th, but the 4th was won in 1951. In fact, CSKA didn't win a trophy since 1955, when they won their 4th Cup. So, a great moment, but... Who would had known what will follow: not only another 20 years of drought, but a terrible decline sunking the club to Second Division. Whatever praise the champions got, it was quite predictable if one took a closer look at the squad. Only 4 players were included in the national team for the 1970 World Cup – since the World Cup happened practically in the middle of the Soviet championship, one expects more players from the leading team to go to the World's finals. Dinamo (Kiev) had 5 players in Mexico and Dinamo (Tbilisi) also had 5 – perhaps that was why both teams were not title contenders this season and CSKA benefited from their weakening. Spartak (Moscow) had 4 players in Mexico, so it was weakened as well. As a whole, CSKA wasn't a great squad: the defensive line – Istomin, Shesternev, Kaplichny, Afonin – was the best line of the team . Except Istomin, all of them went to Mexico. The star in midfield was Vladimir Fedotov, often playing for the national team and having strong season, yet, he was not in World Cup national team, which questions his quality. The rest of the line was not at all national team candidates. CSKA played with only two frowards with hardly any back-up – both Boris Kopeykin and Vladimir Dudarenko were talented, but hardly first class players. Dudarenko was moody player, inconsistent, and generally not very dependable. There was nobody else – the only other striker was Vladimir Starkov, who shined in the second team, but failed to impress whenever was tried in the first. Misfortune hit CSKA the whole season – they had to use 3 goalkeepers. Yury Pshenichnikov practically missed the 1969 and half of 1970 season because of heavy injury. A national team player since 1966, he played only 15 games in 1970 (including the decissive play-offs against Dinamo Moscow for the title). He was dropped from the first team in 1971, which depressed him greatly and he disappeared for 2 months, only to come back and ask to be freed from the club. Amazingly, the very coach who dropped him from the squad asked him to play a game for the second team and see what happens. Pshenichnikov agreed, played well and was returned to first team. But he was done man and left CSKA in 1972 to join his original club Pakhtakor (Tashkent), where he played a little and quit due to injuries. Without injured Pshnichnikov the time of his back-up arrived: Leonid Shmutz, aged 22, yet with the team since 1967, was so far almost without first team appearances (and jumping ahead, for almost 10 years with CSKA, he played only 54 games), playing regularly for the second team. Now he had a chance and used it so well, he was included in the World Cup squad. He didn't play in Mexico and his only 2 national team appearances were in 1971, but his frist season as a starter was going great... until he got injured after 14 games and missed the rest. 1971 was practically the end for him – he made atrocious mistake during a game, scoring stupid own goal. He was unable to overcome mentally this moment, became shaky, lost form and never recovered, eventually disapperaing in the lower divisions. His injury in 1970 left CSKA with only one goalkeeper – untried to this moment. Vladimir Astapovsky joined CSKA in 1969, but so far had no chance to play for neither first, nor second team – Pshenichnikov and Shmutz were regulars in each formation. So, Astapovsky got his chance out of the blue and played 9 games, performing well enough. However, he was lacking experience and when Pshenichnikov got better, Astapovsky was benched again, Of the three he proved best – with time not only he established himself as regular, but became a national team player in 1975 and remained in it until 1977. Fortune-misfortune. Usually teams suffer such string of goalkeeper's injuries, but CSKA somehow survived and the three keepers played well – which may have been due to strong and stable defensive line. Yet, such changes and particularly the fate of  both Pshenichnikov and Shmutz was perhaps strong indication that CSKA was not exactly a team to last and their victory was more or less incidental. In general, the Moscow domination ended already and CSKA's victory should be seen rather chancy. 

England the Cups

 

FA Cup

        Final
 11 Apr Chelsea                  2  2  Leeds                    [aet][Wembley]
        
        Final Replay
 29 Apr Chelsea                  2  1  Leeds                    [aet][Manchester U]

Losing finalists: Leeds United

Dramatic FA Cup winners: Chelsea

League Cup
Final (Wembley, 7 March 1970):

Manchester City(1)          - West Bromwich Albion(1)     2-1
Losing finalist: West Bromwich Albion
League Cup Winners: Manchester City.

England IV Division

 

League Division 4
                              P   W  D  L   F   A   W  D  L   F   A  Pts
 1. CHESTERFIELD             46  19  1  3  55  12   8  9  6  22  20   64
 2. WREXHAM                  46  17  6  0  56  16   9  3 11  28  33   61
 3. SWANSEA CITY             46  14  8  1  43  14   7 10  6  23  31   60
 4. PORT VALE                46  13  9  1  39  10   7 10  6  22  23   59
 5. Brentford                46  14  8  1  36  11   6  8  9  22  28   56
 6. Aldershot                46  16  5  2  52  22   4  8 11  26  43   53
 7. Notts County             46  14  4  5  44  21   8  4 11  29  41   52
 8. Lincoln City             46  11  8  4  38  20   6  8  9  28  32   50
 9. Peterborough United      46  13  8  2  51  21   4  6 13  26  48   48
10. Colchester United        46  14  5  4  38  22   3  9 11  26  41   48
11. Chester City             46  14  3  6  39  23   7  3 13  19  43   48
12. Scunthorpe United        46  11  6  6  34  23   7  4 12  33  42   46
13. York City                46  14  7  2  38  16   2  7 14  17  46   46
14. Northampton              46  11  7  5  41  19   5  5 13  23  36   44
15. Crewe Alexandra          46  12  6  5  37  18   4  6 13  14  33   44
16. Grimsby Town             46   9  9  5  33  24   5  6 12  21  34   43
17. Southend United          46  12  8  3  40  28   3  2 18  19  57   40
18. Exeter City              46  13  5  5  48  20   1  6 16   9  39   39
19. Oldham Athletic          46  11  4  8  45  28   2  9 12  15  37   39
20. Workington               46   9  9  5  31  21   3  5 15  15  43   38
21. Newport County           46  12  3  8  39  24   1  8 14  14  50   37
22. Darlington               46   8  7  8  31  27   5  3 15  22  46   36
23. Hartlepool United        46   7  7  9  31  30   3  3 17  11  52   30
24. BRADFORD PARK AVENUE     46   6  5 12  23  32   0  6 17  18  64   23