The
1985/86 season started with me once again living in a different country (USA).
The
1985 America was vastly different than the USA of today in Football coverage
terms. While to this day, Soccer is still not a major sport in this country;
there is some coverage of the sport, as minimal as it is.
In
1985, Football or Soccer, as it was called here, was virtually non-existent in
the land of Grid-iron Football, Baseball and Basketball.
If
you were lucky the Spanish Language Channel Univision (or SIN (Spanish
International Network) as it was called then), would once a week show an
International or European Club match on the weekends. That is if you were lucky
enough to have Cable (which I didn’t at the time, initially).
The
print coverage was even more invisible when we entered the country (I was still
unaware of any US soccer magazines, but more about that later).
It
was due to these reasons that the 1985/86 season is the lost season for me, as
I did not get the experience it firsthand. I was only later able to go back and
catch up with the events of this season, through older magazines/books and
highlights.
However,
before arriving in United States in August of 1985, most of the transfer
activity had already been established and I was aware of most of the personnel
changes of the teams.
This
was the season that three of Brazil’s glorious 1982 stars departed home.
Falcao’s injury the previous season forced him out of Roma. Zico and specially
Socrates jumped at the chance to go back to Brazil after their difficulties at
Udinese and Fiorentina.
West
German midfielder Hansi Muller also left Italy and joined Austria’s Tirol
Innsbruck.
Defending
Champions Verona and Manager Osvaldo Bagnoli soon learned that winning a title
is not enough to change one’s standing in the hierarchy. In fact during the
previous winning season, while the League race was still going on,
Internazionale Milano had approached two of their key players: Pietro Fanna and
Luciano Marangon. The lure of Champions
Cup was not enough to keep them at Verona and they both signed for Inter.
Starting
goalkeeper Claudio Garella also left and joined an ambitious Napoli.
As
a result Verona started the season with a handicap, though they were able to
hang on to their foreign duo of Briegel and Elkjaer. The additions of former
Como goalkeeper Giuliano Giulliani, Juventus’ Beniamino Vignola and AC Milan’s
Vinicio Verza were hardly significant acquisitions.
They
finished the season in a dismal tenth place.
After
the debacle of the previous season, the Agnelli family and Giampiero Boniperti
realized Juventus needed a facelift to replace ageing stars.
Marco
Tardelli, Paolo Rossi and Zbigniew Boniek were transferred to Inter, AC Milan
and AS Roma respectively.
 |
Photo
From: Mondial, new series, issue 73, May 1986
(Juventus’ Michel Platini and former teammate AS
Roma’s Zbigniew Boniek) |
In
their place came many new younger players. Denmark’s young star Michael Laudrup
arrived to replace Boniek after a two-season loan at Lazio.
Midfielders
Massimo Mauro (Udinese), Gabriele Pin (Parma), Ivano Bonetti (Genoa) and former
International Lionello Manfredonia (Lazio) arrived to give more options in the
middle.
 |
Photo
From: World, Soccer, March 1986
(Paolo Rossi with AC Milan) |
Strikers
Aldo Serena (Torino) and Marco Pacione (Atalanta) arrived to form a younger
strike force that Juventus had been used to in years.
Aldo
Serena was actually an Inter player, who had been on loan to Torino the
previous season. Boniperti arranged a deal to have him loaned to Juventus for
that season, which eased Tardelli’s transfer to Inter.
 |
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 118, October 1985
(Marco Tardelli at Inter) |
The
veterans Stefano Tacconi, Gaetano Scirea, Antonio Cabrini, Sergio Brio, Massimo
Bonini and French star Michel Platini still remained to add some experience to
a rebuilding side.
 |
Photo
From: Mondial, new series, issue 68, November 1985
(Juventus’ Aldo Serena playing vs. his former
club Torino) |
AS
Roma with Sven-Goran Eriksson in charge for his second season, had to deal with
Falcao’s loss. Although Boniek was a significant purchase and was money well
spent. After years of League inconsistency in contrast to his European
exploits, under Eriksson he was able to perform in the League.
Eriksson
could also still count upon veterans such as Toninho Cerezo, Bruno Conti and
Roberto Pruzzo.
Inter
in addition to the acquisitions of Fanna, Marangon and Tardelli, also acquired
former International Franco Selvaggi from Udinese. They had held onto their
foreign duo of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Liam Brady, but had transferred
Veteran Franco Causio to Lecce and Antonio Sabato to Torino. Many regarded
Ilario Castagner’s Inter as title favorites, however, after a poor start he was
sacked after 10 matches and replaced with former star Mario Corso, who did
enough to achieve UEFA Cup qualification.
Nils
Liedholm’s AC Milan had also still held onto their English duo of Ray Wilkins
and Mark Hateley. Paolo Rossi’s addition did not turn out to be the success
they had hoped for, however, 17-year-old Paolo Maldini showed signs of things
to come. During the season, their controversial President Giuseppe Farina fled
to South Africa for fear of prosecution. This paved the way for Silvio
Berlusconi to purchase the club and the rest is history.
Diego
Maradona’s Napoli made many ambitious signings. In addition to the arrival of
Verona goalkeeper Garella, Former Internationals Eraldo Pecci, Ruben Buriani
and Bruno Giordano arrived from Fiorentina, Roma and Lazio, along with defender
Alessandro Renica from Sampdoria
 |
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 123, March 1986
(Diego Maradona) |
Argentine
International Daniel Bertoni was still around along with International
midfielder Salvatore Bagni.
For
Fiorentina, Argentina’s Daniel Passarella was ever present. The good news was
the return of Captain Giancarlo Antognoni after over a year out injured.
They
had acquired former International Sergio Battistini from AC Milan and made
double signings of future Internationals Roberto Baggio (Vicenza) and Nicola
Berti (Parma). UEFA Cup qualification at the end of the season was just
rewards.
 |
Photo
From: Mondial, new series, issue 69, December 1985
(Fiorentina’s Giancarlo Antognoni) |
Sampdoria
had also retained their foreign duo of Graeme Souness and Trevor Francis and
had high hopes for striking duo of Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini. They
had surprisingly spent the most for the transfer of midfielder Gianfranco
Mateolli from Como.
Torino,
despite the loss of Serena, were mostly an unchanged side with Brazilian Junior
and Austrian Walter Schachner still in the side, as well as Giuseppe Dossena.
The
new foreign player acquisitions were made by newly promoted sides. Lecce
acquired Argentineans Pedro Pasculli (Argentinos Juniors) and Juan Barbas (Real
Zaragoza), while Bari acquired English and Aston Villa duo of Gordon Cowans and
Paul Rideout.
Pisa
had retained their foreign duo of Dutchman Wim Kieft and Denmark’s Klaus
Berggreen. All of the promoted sides were relegated at the end of the season.
As
far as action on the field, Juventus started the season in irresistible fashion
and won their first eight matches. None of the other teams could match
Juventus’ early pace. Juventus just dropped four points in the first half of
the season.
Their
first loss was on their ninth match on November 3rd vs. Napoli.
Napoli won this match 1-0 with a Maradona free kick.
Along
the way Juventus also won the Intercontinental Cup vs. Argentinos Juniors in
Japan in December. At this point the outcome of the League seemed like a
foregone conclusion.
 |
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 121, January 1986
(Michael Laudrup, December 8, 1985,
Intercontinental Cup, Juventus 2-Aregntinos Juniors 2 ) |
However,
in the second half of the season, Juventus started to lose ground and AS Roma
started to move up the table and reduce the deficit with six consecutive wins.
By
Matchday 21, only 3 points separated the squads. Roma lost some points in the
following couple of weeks, however a heavy 3-0 win vs. Juventus on March 16th,
reduced the deficit to once again to 3 points with five matches to go.
By
Matchday 28 with two rounds to go, the teams were even with 41 points each,
after another Juventus loss vs. Fiorentina (0-2) and a scoreless tie with
Sampdoria on Matchdays 27 and 28, coupled with Roma wins.
 |
Photo
From: Mondial, new series, issue 68, November 1985
(Juventus’ Michel Platini and Inter’s Karl-Heinz
Rummenigge) |
At
this point the momentum was with Roma, however the penultimate round on April
20th decided the title destination.
Roma
were surprisingly defeated at home by last place team Lecce (2-3), while
Juventus won 1-0 vs. AC Milan and jumped two points ahead.
A
demoralized Roma lost its final match as well, while another Juventus win gave
them a point-winning margin of four points.
A
much-improved Diego Maradona inspired Napoli finished in third place.
AS
Roma’s consolation was in winning the Coppa Italia in June (While the World Cup
was going on!!!). Roma’s veteran striker Roberto Pruzzo was also the League’s
top goalscorer with 19 goals, for the third time in his career.
Even
though Juventus did win the title, there was a feeling that the once great team
was still in decline. Had they not started the season in emphatic fashion they
most likely would not have been able to retain their lead in the end against a
rampant AS Roma side. Little did they know that they would not win another
title for nine years.
Giovanni
Trappatoni left Juventus after a glorious decade, which hastened their decline.
That
season was also the end of Enzo Bearzot’s generation at International level and
the World Cup in Mexico showed that Scirea, Cabrini, Conti, Tardelli and the other
mainstays were living on borrowed time.
It
is a shame I did not get to experience such an exciting League campaign with a
nail biting finish.
One
day by luck in May 1986, I was walking in a Mall, where there was a Soccer
shop. There I discovered a magazine called ‘Soccer America’.
By
reading that issue, I learned that Liverpool had just won the double and Real
Madrid had won the UEFA Cup.
While
one cannot compare this magazine with other European Soccer publications, it
was nevertheless a very informative magazine all things considered. In a way it
was a glimmer of hope, now that at least I could read about the events of my
favorite Sport, if not see it first hand. (Remember, still no TV coverage).
That
magazine sustained me with all the relevant Football information for nearly a
decade. It is still around and being published all in color.
That summer ended with Diego Maradona winning
the World Cup almost single handedly with Argentina and setting his sights on
the next season’s Scudetto as the undisputed King of Football (1986/87 season,
to be continued…..) |
Photo
From: Onze, Issue 118, October 1985
(Juventus squad, top, left to right: Gaetano
Scirea, Michel Platini, Michael Laudrup, Sergio Brio, Aldo Serena, Stefano Tacconi , Bottom, left to right: Lionello
Manfredonia, Antonio Cabrini, Gabriele Pin, Luciano Favero, Massimo Mauro,
September 8, 1985, Juventus 1-Avellino 0) |
