The First Division played the usual format: the league was divided into 4 groups of 5 teams at first and the top two of each group moved to the next direct-elimination stage. The two teams with least points in the first stage were to play the relegation play-off. Atlas and Tampico were the unlucky ones and their fight for survival was tight: each team won its home leg 1-0, so a third match had to be played in San Luis. Only now Atlas managed to survive, winning 3-1.
Tampico lost and was relegated. May be. There is always a big may be in Mexico.
The losers of the first stage were:
UNAM – 4th in Group 1 with 38 points.
Cruz Azul – 3rd in Group Group 2 with 43 points, unfortunately missing the play-offs on worse goal average.
The winners, going ahead were: America and UANL from Group 1, Univerisdad de Guadalajara and Deportivo Neza – Group 2, Zacatepec and Atletico Espanol – Group 3, and Atlante and Monterrey – Group 4. Was it a normal league, Atletico Espanol and Monterrey would not have been going ahead – Atletico Espanol earned only 33 points and Monterrey – 40. Cruz Azul had 43, Puebla – 41, and Atletico Potosino – also 41, which placed them 4th in the strong Group 2. But the division of the league into 4 groups often favoured otherwise weaker clubs.
In the quarter-finals earlier results did not matter, of course. Atlante eliminated Atletico Espanol.
Monterrey was eliminated by America.
Zacatepec was eliminated by Deportivo Neza, and
Universidad de Guadalajara lost to UANL. UANL was the only team not losing a leg – they went ahead with a tie and a win, all the others depended on aggregate goal difference after losing one leg and winning the other (the home one).
In the semi-finals a single goal decided the winner in the first pair:
Deportivo Neza lost the home leg 0-1 to Atlante and managed a 0-0 away, but that was the end of them.
One goal decided the other finalist too:
America lost the first leg 0-2 and won their home leg 1-0, which was not enough.
Thus, the final was between UANL and Atlante. UANL won 2-1 at home, then Atlante prevailed 1-0 and the match went into overtime. Nobody scored and the title had to be decided by penalty shoot-out. Only now UANL prevailed 3-1.
Atlante came close, but was unlucky to lose on penalties in front of home crowd. Such is life… the club had three stars,who helped, but also were disappointed at the end: the Argentinians Ruben Ayala and Ricrado La Volpe, and the Brazilian striker Cabinho, who already was a legend in Mexico.
Joy in the other camp – Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, known as Tigres.
One can say the boys were lucky, but their record during the season argues differently: if it was a normal league, Tigres would have been 4th after the first stage and only Atlante won more matches and scored more3 goals than them. They lost 10 games out of 38, but proved how shrewd and dedicated they were in the play-offs: 3 wins, 1 tie, and 2 losses. Atlante still had better record – 3-2-1, but their single loss was against UANL at the final and when it came to penalties, Lady Luck was not on their side. As a whole, UANL Tigres prevailed with the second-best record – not exactly just lucky.
Tigres delivered when mattered and won their second title. Their Uruguayan coach Carlos Miloc knew his job more than well – his career was a string of successes and he made Tigres a winning team.
Tigres may not have had players with the fame of Ayala and Cabinho, but they had major stars as well – the Peruvian striker Geronimo Barbadillo and the Mexican midfielder Tomas Boy were the leaders, the other key foreigners were experienced and helpful, although not such big names: the Urguyan defender Osvaldo Batocletti had already long strong career in Mexico and lesser known Brazilians Roberto da Silva and Geraldo Gonsalves helped as much as they could.
