At the final of the 1981 European Cup, Uli Stielike (below) in the Real Madrid jersey clears Liverpool’s David Johnson.
Photo: afp/Dominique Faget
Uli Stielike just turned 70. Some people will remember the jacket he once wore as co-coach of the German national team, a piece of exquisite hideousness. In view of this fashion disaster, it has been somewhat forgotten that Stielike was also an extraordinarily good and successful football player. European champion, runner-up world champion, twice UEFA Cup winner, three times each German and Spanish champion.
The only thing that never worked out was the Champions League, which at the time was still called the European Cup. He was in the final twice. Both times he left the field as a loser, most recently in May 1981 with Real Madrid against Liverpool FC. Stielike has just said that this defeat was harder on him than the one in the World Cup final against Italy a year later. This Wednesday the game between Liverpool and Real will be played again, as a belated gift for Stielike’s 70th birthday, albeit only in the preliminary round of the European football circuit.
Circus Europe
Photo: Private
Previously simply the national champions’ cup, today the Champions League: a staged spectacle and football’s money-printing machine. Sven Goldmann looks ahead to the coming matchday.
The duel 43 years ago in the Parc des Princes in Paris was the first ever between the two European heavyweights. That means: Real wasn’t a real heavyweight back then. The last victory in the national championship cup was 15 years ago, and since then it has not been enough to take part in the final. Perhaps that was the reason for the strange tactics that Real chose in Paris, if what the great center forward Carlos Santillana later revealed is true: “The plan was to play 0-0 and go to penalties.”
That wasn’t a particularly good idea, and what Real brought onto the pitch didn’t look particularly nice either. The Spaniards retreated deep into their own half and left the design to the visibly surprised English, who had already had their heyday and had only finished fifth in the championship. Real created a single chance. This was miserably missed by José Antonio Camacho, whose core competence as a defender was already responsible for preventing goals.
On the other side, Alan Kennedy, also a defender, about whom Liverpool coach Bob Paisley once said: “I think they shot the wrong Kennedy!” showed that there could be another way. Luckily for the Reds, he stayed for a few more minutes afterwards years at Anfield and scored the decisive goal in two European Cup finals. When the ball jumped at his feet shortly before the end in Paris, the supposedly wrong Kennedy took advantage of the moment, weaved his way between two Spaniards and hit the ball into the net from an acute angle with his left foot to make it 1-0.
Uli Stielike had the best view of the disaster at the corner of the penalty area and immediately put his hands above his head. He stayed in Madrid for four more years and won the UEFA Cup in 1985. But he would never come close to a triumph in the big football circus again.