Month: March 2015

Bolivia had strange championship even by South American standards – it went through 3 stages before the final play-offs, and in the 3rd phase 2 clubs not members of first division were added. The season itself was the third since the Bolivian federation organized professional league. Like many other countries, professionalism did not mean introduction of or even legalizing those who played for money – professional players were nothing new and all foreigners were strictly professionals – but rather structural and other requirements: professional league made of professional clubs. Yet, it was not a classic league. It was made of 15 clubs this season, divided into 2 groups for the opening phase of the championship. One team was relegated – seemingly, combined record of 2 or more seasons determined the unfortunate club. Standard league tournament was played at first and the top 5 clubs of each group proceeded to the second stage. At the end of this phase, two things deserved notice: the first was the weak season of the one of the best known Bolivian clubs – Jorge Wilstermann finished 6th in Group A.

The boys from Cochabamba exited early the championship – a surprise.

The second note is also about a club from Cochabamba: Bata.

If the name and the logo appear familiar, it was not coincidence – it was founded in 1941 by the famous Czechoslovakian show-making firm. A factory club with various sections. Almost to the end of the 1950s Czechs were club Presidents. One may think that the fate of the company, which had to close operations at home and owners, engineers, and workers fled from Czechoslovakia when the Communists took power, would close the club in distant Bolivia – but it was not so. Bata was never leading club and even rarely played top league football, but exists to this very day. As for location, it is a bit confusing: the club is often listed representing Cochabamba. But there is not only a city, but also a province with the same name… Bata was founded and located in Quillacollo, where the shoe factory was. This city today is part of Greater Cochabamba and may be already was in the 1970s. The pride of Quillacollo made it to first division, as they did for awhile in the 1960s, but seemingly survival was their only aim. Here is the confusing part: Bata finished 5th in Group B and proceeded to the second phase. Normally, this should be the end of the story: relegation should concern the lowest 5 clubs eliminated in the first phase. But Bata was relegated… unless a combined record of the last 2 or 3 season determined relegation, nothing explains why Bata went down. Anyhow, world-famous shows do not mean strong football team.

The Bolivian league in general represented 6 cities – La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz had 4 league members each and Sucre, Potosi, and Oruro had a single team each. Small, but not unusual geography – the big clubs and their local and inter-city rivalries were concentrated in those places from the early days of the game in Bolivia. It was familiar picture, which seasonal strength varied a bit. Along with Jorge Wilstermann, San Jose (Oruro) and Always Ready (La Paz) exited the championship after the first phase. Always Ready was in a decline since the beginning of the 1970s, gradually losing their historic position. In Group B the eliminated were also old clubs – Stormers (Sucre) and Aurora (Cochabamba). The shift of power was taking place since the late 1960s: younger clubs, tied to the oil industry were pushing back historically strong clubs – Oriente Petrolero (Santa Crus) and Petrolero (Cochabamba). Both were at the top of Group A. Along with them, traditional big clubs kept their positions – The Strongest, Bolivar, and Municipal, all from La Paz, and Blooming (Santa Cruz). The rest of the best during the first phase may be just had a good season – Real (Santa Cruz), Independiente Unificada (Potosi), and Guabira (Santa Cruz). Bata was the 10th team going ahead. The group winners of the first phase got 2 bonus points to start the second phase with, and those taking 2nd and 3rd place – 1 point.

The second phase was also played in 2 groups in a standard league format. The top two teams of each group moved to the third phase . Bonus points played no role in Group A – The Strongest and Oriente Petrolero took the top places anyway. Even with their bonus point Petrolero (Cochabamba) was still only 3rd. Guabira and Bata were hopeless outsiders, Bata ending last with 3 points.

This was not the year for the teams from Cochabamba – Petrolero was the strongest, but this stage was the end of the road.

Group B was more dramatic – only Real (Santa Cruz) was out of the race, the other 4 clubs fought bitterly for the coveted top spots. Two finished with 9 points and two – with 10. Here bonus points played a role – Municipal stayed competitive thanks to their bonus point – yet, finished 4th because of worse goal-difference. Independiente Unificada were the second strongest team in the group – only they and Bolivar earned 9 points during this stage. But they had no bonus points and finished 3rd. Blooming finished 2nd thanks to their 2 bonus points. As for Bolivar, they took 1st place thanks to their bonus point, but would have qualified for the next stage even without the bonus: on goal-difference. They were the only team in the group with positive goal-difference.

Third phase next… again 2 groups of 3 teams each. Four teams going ahead to… the semi-finals.

Well, 4 clubs already went through two phases. The other two were not members of first division and were included at this stage. Strange rules. No doubt, the newcomers went through many stages to reach this level, but competing with all other clubs of the country did not automatically mean they deserved to have a chance to win the national title: the question is a simple one – what was the point of having first division when some obscure team, playing against weaker teams can win the championship?

The newcomers were both from La Paz –

Ferroviario and

31 de Octubre. Smaller clubs, to be sure, but at this stage everything was possible in theory. At least geographically there was no trouble: at this stage, the competition was reduced to 2 cities – 4 clubs from La Paz and 2 from Santa Cruz. Easy on the pocket… Bolivian clubs were not rich, travel in South America was considerable expense. As for strength, the newcomers proved to be no threat – both were just punching bags. They managed a combined record of 2 ties, scored 3 goals, and received 22. Evidently, there was no point of including such teams in the late stage of the national championship – the theoretical threat to first division was only theoretical, but why placing such teams so high anyway? There presence had nothing to do with competitive football – this phase was entirely redundant: the best four of the previous phase went to the semi-finals.

 

Torneo Finalizacion was much more complicated: at first, something close to regular league was played – 14 teams played 21 rounds. The top 8 teams moved to the second stage. Few surprises here: Tolima was still at the bottom and out – 13th. The worst team was however Deportivo Independiente Meddelin…

Standing, from left: Mario Gutiérrez, José Velásquez, Leone, Zárate, Escobar.

Crouching: Mauricio Salazar, Pérez, Londero, Hugo Sotil, Ponciano Castro, Mejía.

DIM at the very bottom. Hugo Sotil too… only three years ago Catalunians demanded from the brass of their beloved Barcelona to include Sotil in starters… in 1979 such demand seemed meaningless.

Deportivo Cucuta was 12th and also out of the race.

Standing, from left: Américo Ortiz, “ Gringo” Palacios, Rodrigo Cosme, Francisco Nieto, Rando “ Tomate” Gómez, Rogante.

Crouching: “ Burrito” Gonzalez, Manuel Rosendo Magan, Victor Nicolás Cocco, Arnoldo Iguaran, Gustavo Contreras ( Kinesiologist).

Note Contreras – South Americans were either ahead of time, or used fancy names for their medical stuff. Kinesiologists came to European teams much later. Apparently, the kinesiologist did not help much.

The biggest losers of this stage were Once Caldas, who were 3rd in Apertura. Now they plummeted down to 11th place. Curiously, they finished with positive goal-difference – 34-28.

Just the opposite happened to Deportivo Pereira – they had miserable Apertura: 12th. But in the opening stage of Finalizacion they finished 3rd. The rest of top 8 teams were pretty much the same as they were in the Apertura, taking pretty much the same positions with exactly the same leaders – Deportivo Cali was 2nd with 27 points, and America – 1st with 31 points. But points mattered no more than qualifying to the second stage, where the top 8 were divided into two round-robin groups. Well, here logic leaves us… Millonarios, 8th in the first stage was out. Once Caldas was in… why is hard to tell: perhaps Apertura was taken into account.

Millonarios – the best known to Europeans Colombian club had very weak year – twice 8th and out. Was it fair, though to exclude them from the second stage after finishing higher than Once Caldas? They were not alone:

Deportes Quindio finished 6th in the first stage. True, they were only 10th in the Apertura, but played well in the beginning of Finalizacion. Yetm they were out – Independiente Santa Fe, 9th, went ahead.

It was here when the tournament started in earnest. Two teams of each group were going ahead to the third stage. In Group A America had difficulties for the first time this year. 2 wins, 2 ties, 2 losses, negative goal-difference – 6-7. Luckily, two of the rivals ended with 5 points and America took 2nd place – and qualified. Atletico Nacional and Deportivo Pereira were the unlucky ones – they missed qualification by little, but in a sense it was fair – both clubs really played well only recently, having mediocre Torneo Apertura.

Standing, from left: Raúl Ramón Navarro Paviato, Alejandro Estanislao Semenewicz, Víctor Emilio Luna Gómez, Héctor Javier Céspedes Carrillo, Francisco Antonio Maturana García, Iván Darío Castañeda Zapata.

Crouching: Pedro Enrique Sarmiento Solís, Aldo Fernando Rodríguez, Hernán Darío Herrera Ramírez, Osvaldo Marcial Palavecino, Jorge Ortíz Jiménez.

Semenewicz was out, Maturana was out, Palavecino was out… Atletico Nacional perhaps played too carefully so far and to switch to another gear was impossible. Or may be they were not in great shape to begin with. On the other hand Atletico Junior excelled – so far, they were not impressive, seemingly satisfied with just going ahead. But now the team went full ahead and finished 1st with 8 points. They lost just one match. Group B had bigger surprise. Once Caldas, going down since the beginning of Torneo Finalizacion, finished last. Deportivo Cali, so far the second strongest team in the country, finished 3rd … 1 win, 1 loss, and 4 ties – they were suddenly out.

Deportivo Cali should have been title contenders, but were out instead. Bad luck or their form dropped just when it mattered most? Union Magdalena and Independiente Santa Fe went the opposite direction – sluggish Apertura, better first stage of Finazicaion, even better second stage. Both teams seemingly had better timing, coming to the peak of their form when it was really important. Both ended with 7 points, Union took the 1st place thanks to better goal-average.

And finally the final stage – again a round-robin tournament, with double importance: the winner, if different from America, was going to the seasonal final. However, if America won Finalizacion, then the top teams in the final group were going to Copa Libertadores. Atletico Junior proved to be the outsider – apparently, their strength lasted only until they reached the final. Once here, they lost 5 of their 6 matches. They got a single point – ironically, when visiting America. The other three clubs fought equally and goal-difference decided the winner.

Union Magdalena finished with 7 points – and took 3rd place. They outscored all others, but unfortunately earned 1 point less than their rivals.

America and Independiente Santa Fe finished with 8 points each. The ending of Torneo Apertura was repeating… this time goal-difference decided the winner and it was again America.

Excellent finish for Independiente Santa Fe, but they had to be satisfied with 2nd place. Bad luck . But they secured Copa Libertadores spot.

America won Torneo Finalizacion and since they also won Torneo Apertura, there was no final play-off to decide the title – it was theirs.

Standing, from left: Wilson Américo Quiñónez, Luis Alegría Valencia, Gabriel Chaparro, Aurelio José Pascuttini, Luis Eduardo Reyes, Carlos Alfredo Gay.

First row: Horacio Ferrín, Juan Manuel Bataglia, Gerardo González, Jorge Ramón Cáceres, Alfonso Cañon.

For America it was historic year – they won their first title! It was not overwhelming victory – America was perhaps lucky to come first in both parts of championship, but first they were both times. If anything, they were consistent – except for the shaky second stage of Finalizacion, they were at top form the whole year. Scoring was not their best side – their top scorer Jorge Ramon Caseres was 8th with 19 goals: Juan Jose Irigoyen scored 36 and his Millonarios was a mediocrity, also playing fewer games than America. Defense was the much stronger side of America, but whatever it was, they won all the way. Gabriel Ochoa Uribe must be credited with the success – he arrived this very season from Millonarios and immediately won the title. True to his reputation – he already had 7 titles as a coach. And his 8th was not the last – whatever he won with Millonarios and Santa Fe, he would double with America. Great years were just beginning for the Red Devil, as America is known.

Colombia – since there were no promotion and relegation, the only change for the new season was a name. Cristal Caldas became Once Caldas. The other changes were less visible to outsiders who rarely, if at all, glanced in the direction of that country: transfers. Big names played in Colombia since the introduction of the rogue professional league in the late 1940s. Foreign players were abundant in the 1970s thanks to lax rules and easy naturalization. In 1979 two Peruvians arrived, both well known – Jose Velasquez and Hugo Sotil. If it was European transfer, it would have been first page news… but this transfer was not even noticed, despite the strong 1978 World Cup Peru had just a few months earlier. Those two joined the massive group of foreigners playing for Colombian clubs – like Alejandro Estanislao Semenewicz, the Argentinian midfielder, who won 4 Libertadores and 1 Intercontinental Cup with Independiente in the first half of the 1970s. However, Sotil, plagued by personal problems very similar to those George Best had, had disastrous time in Colombia: he was in in and out of the line-up of Deportivo Independiente Medellin (DIM), played 33 matches in which scored 8 goals, and thought of retiring. It was not the aging and fading stars who shined in Colombia, but lesser known players – the Argentine striker Oswaldo Palavecino (Atletico Nacional) was typical example: run of the mill in Argentina, he was long-lasting big star in Colombia.

Lastly, shirt adverts were coming to South America – still an early and a bit confusing stage.

Atletico Nacional and Atletico Junior ready to clash. Junior displays uniformity – except the goalkeeper. Nacional is something else… only 4 players show adds, the others play with plain shirts. Their naturalized Argentine keeper Raul Ramon Navarro Paviato plays with strange for the time shirt with number 50. Even the kit is not uniform – another Argentine, Hector ‘Palito’ Candau uses different manufacturer. Immediately to the left of the referees Oswaldo Palavecino plays with adds, the future great coach and star Colombian defender in 1979, Francisco Maturana plays with plain shirt. Simple days… or confused days… depending on opinion.

The championship itself was the usual complicated South American formula. One champion, but two separate championships… The winners of Apertura and Finalizacion, if different, met at the end to decide the champion of the year. Torneo Apertura was simple enough: classic league championship. The 14 teams played twice against each other and after 26 rounds it ended with simple final table. Well, not so simple after all…

Deportes Tolima was the outsider this year – by far. They won only 2 matches and tied 6. 10 points – the 13th had 22!

Jumping ahead, Tolima did not improve in the second championship either – there they managed 3 points more – 13 – which were good for… 13th place. Yet, the weakest had nothing to worry about – no matter how bad they were, they were members of the closed league. No relegation.

The quality of football was not high, especially when it came to scoring and winning. 42 goals were the most scored in Apertura and the record did not belong to the leading teams, but to clubs in the middle of the table:

Millonarios, who finished 8th with 26 points, and Once Caldas – 4th.

Along with Millonarios, another traditionally strong club underperformed – DIM.

Sotil is obviously out, Velasquez – standing second from left – was not enough inspiration, Deportivo Independiente Medellin finished 6th with 27 points.

Most of the league was fairly equal – the 13th placed Cucuta Deportivo finished with 22 points.

Standing, from left: Miguel Núñez , Pitula Martínez, Francisco Nieto, Arnoldo Alberto ‘el guajiro’ Iguarán Zúñiga, Romero

Crouching: Antonio Pérez, Salvador López Quiceno, Alberto ‘el chamizo’ Cañas, Manuel Rosendo Magán, Abel Dagracca, Rodrigo Cosme.

Cucuta were weak, but not much weaker than Union Magdalena, which finished 5th with 28 points – 9 of the 14 clubs were divided at the end by 6 points.

Atletico Nacional – with plain shirts here – finished 9th.

Independiente Santa Fe – 7th.

Four clubs competed for top spots – Atletico Junior finished 4th with 32 points. Once Caldas was 3rd with 33. America and Deportivo Cali both had 34 points and exactly the same goal-difference of +10 goals. The champion of Apertura had to decided by play-off. Two matches were played and both finished 0-0. Then goal-average was used as a tie-breaker – it was still popular method at the time and not at all nowadays. The goal-average usually benefits… lower scoring teams. America was 29-19, Deportivo – 37-27. America won…

Deportivo Cali – unlucky in Torneo Apertura.

America Cali – lucky winners of Apertura. That meant they ensured at least playing for the title at the end of the season.