The Football League Cup – different animal. Just to show the many-faced and competitive English football – Stoke City won the final, beating Chelsea 2-1. Stoke City were not among league’s favourites. Chelsea too were not as great as at least 5 other clubs. The beauty of cup tournaments – David wins over Goliath. One name at least was huje: Gordon Banks. Typical for that time – the superstar goalkeeper, perhaps the best in the world, played for small club. It was nice to know Banks won a cup. Soon misfortune stroke the great goalkeeper – he lost an eye in car accident, his career in England was over.
4th row, left to right: Mike Bernard, Alan Bloor, Mike Pejic
3rd row: Jimmy Greenhoff, Gordon Banks
2nd row: Tony Waddington (manager), George Eastham, John Marsh, John Mahoney
1st row: Terry Conroy, Peter Dobing, John Ritchie, Denis Smith

Well, hardly famous squad. Some fairly decent players – Conroy, Mahoney. Some promise, never fully developed – Greenhoff. And surprising national player in the near future – the guy with Yugoslavian name, Pejic, eventually played few games for England. They proudly display the FL Cup, though.

The Cup. Well, England has two cups – the F.A. Cup, the oldest tournament in the world, and the Football League Cup. Sometimes English writers place the FL Cup higher than the F.A. Cup. Sometimes it is the opposite. UEFA recognizes F.A. Cup as the national cup. Leeds met Arsenal at the final and won 1-0. Cup mattered back then. For Leeds it was also sweeter ending of the season, after losing the title by a point.

By names, much better team than Derby County. By ambitions too. By expectations also. Yet, a cup, not a title.

Bundesliga was obviously becoming exciting championship, but only claiming a place among the big European championships. England pretended nothing: just keeping its reputation of most interesting domestic football. Great competition, where no club was able to win two titles in a row and pre-season predictions hardly worked: every year – new champion. Manchester United was decaying, but with strong Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton, Tottenham, and Leeds, there were plenty of potential champions. None of which got the coveted title… Derby County finished first with 58 points, followed by Leeds, Liverpool, and Manchester City with 57 points each. Tough. Exciting. So very British. How not to love this championship?

Rams on top! One Brian Clough coached them – a name to remember.

Interesting, but hardly winning squad at first glance. Yet, the coach and some players will conquer Europe by the end of the 1970s. With different club, freshly relegated to Second Division in 1972. And one more point – Colin Todd. Perhaps the best central English central defenseman in the 1970s, but rarely included in the national team.

The West German football was in very good shape indeed – along with Borussia and Bayern, Schalke 04 was seemingly becoming a third extremely promising club: they finished second in the Bundesliga and won the Cup in 1972. Alas, the bribing scandal of 1971 cut short their challenge – investigations went well into 1972 and penalties were announced practically at the end of this season. Arminia (Bielefeld) were stripped from their points and relegated (they were to be relegated even without penalty, finishing last anyway). Players were suspended – many of them were Schalke 04 players, and although the suspensions were not long, the team was destroyed. The Cup was the last trophy Schalke 04 won for very, very long time.
Under their Yugoslavian coach Ivica Horvat the Blues were to be the third great German club. Well, no luck.

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.