Month: August 2018

Metropolitano First Division. A note on relegation is in order: point average of the last two seasons determined the two relegated teams, according to relegation table. Racing Club and Nueva Chicago were at the bottom of this table and were relegated to the second division.

19 teams played in the top league at this time standard two-legged championship. After 38 rounds, the final table was a bit unusual – largely reflecting financial situation of some clubs.

Atletico Racing (Cordoba) was last with 27 points.

River Plate (Buenos Aires) – 18th with 29 points. Standing from left: Saporiti, Jorge García, Olarticoechea, Gallego, Puentedura, Nieto.

Crouching: Bica, Messina, Francescoli, Tapia, De Vicente.

Very lean and troublesome season for the mighty club – the squad reflects the problems, although a team featuring Francescoli, Olarticoechea, Gallego, and Tapia seemed able to perform stronger.

Racing Club (Avellaneda) – 17th with 30 points. Their lowly position was less surprising – the club was ailing ever since they conquered the world back in the 1960s, but this year they were relegated and that was shocking – one of the ‘big five’ was going to second division.

Rosario Central (Rosario) – 16th with 30 points. Very weak season, unusually weak. A season club and fans wanted to forget as quickly as possible.

Nueva Chicago (Buenos Aires) – 15th with 32 points. Standing from left: Erba, Loyarte, Traverso, Lucca, Larramendi.

First row: Galván, Bina, Acuña, Vera Benítez, Hermosilla Flores, Vega.

Actually, not a bad season for the smallish club – especially when their performance in the other championship is added – but they were relegated. Unfortunate.

Huracan (Buenos Aires) 14th with 32 points. Standing from left: Carlos Martínez, Christian Angeletti, Enrique Vidallé, Marcelo Bottari, Osvaldo Cortés, Jorge Romero.

First row: Claudio García, Rubén Carrá, Néstor Di Luca, Jorge J. Gutiérrez, Dante Sanabria.

Another big club down in the table. Disastrous season for traditional leaders.

Talleres (Cordoba) – 13th with 33 points. Not bad, when one looks who is behind them.

Temperley (Temperley) – 12th with 33 points. Looks rather insignificant place, but this was arguably one of the strongest seasons of the club – when the whole season is looked at.

Platense (Vicente Lopez) – 11th with 34 points. Standing from left: Sánchez Sotelo, Biasutto, Pavón, Ginanni, Scigliano, Roldán.

First row: Cabral, Magalhaes, Petti, Grimoldi, Anzarda.

Not bad at the first glance, but they were 17th in the relegation table. This season helped little and the next one seemed to be crucial – avoiding relegation was the only concern.

Instituto (Cordoba) – 10th with 35 points. Their usual… and nothing to brag about.

Newell’s Old Boys (Rosario) – 9th with 35 points. Modest season, but safe and much better than local rivals Rosario Central.

Argentinos Juniors (Buenos Aires) – 8th with 36 points. Their rise was explained mostly by the presence of Maradona – once he left, the normally modest club was expected to plummet down immediately. But so much was focused on the superstar, that the rest of the squad was overlooked – it was not bad and most amazingly the club managed to keep its decent players. And quietly a star was added too. So, they continued their rather good spell.

Boca Juniors (Buenos Aires) – 7th with 37 points. Standing from left: Mouzo, Ruggeri, Berta, Gatti, Mendoza, Córdoba.

Crouching: Gareca, Juan J. López, Jorge Domínguez, Pasucci, Alves.

Frankly, a disappointment. It may have been the leaving of Maradona, but still the squad was better than most – on paper.

Estudiantes (La Plata) – 6th with 38 points. If one takes only this championship – solid, but nothing special. If both championships are looked at – another story.

Union (Santa Fe) – 5th with 38 points. Strong season for them.

Velez Sarsfield (Buenos Aires) – 4th with 44 points. Standing from left: Bujedo, Moralejo, Jorge, Pumpido, Cuciuffo, Larraquy.

First row: Nannini, Bianchi, Norberto Alonso, Vanemerak, Comas.

Good season and no surprise, given the squad – Carlos Bianchi back from France and still the deadly scorer (2nd in the league with 22 goals), Norberto Alonso, and up and coming future world champions Pumpido and Cuciuffo.

Ferro Carril Oeste (Buenos Aires) – 3rd with 46 points. If only this season is looked at, may be surprising performance – the team hardly had any big names in its squad. But as modest as they were, these boys were one of the strongest ever squads of the club and enjoyed the strongest period in the club’s history. Third place was just great.

San Lorenzo de Almagro (Buenos Aires) missed the previous season, but came back with vengeance and almost won the championship. Second with 47 points at the end – one point behind the champions. Not a squad bursting with big names, but ambitious and promising. Well, big clubs cannot stay down for long.

By now the champions should be known to everybody – Independiente (Avellaneda) was not mentioned so far. It was not overwhelming victory – the team really had to fight for it, prvailing by a single point – but still it was the most deserving team. 16 wins, 16 ties, only 4 lost games, 54-38, and 48 points. Third ranking in number of victories, most ties in the league, and least losses – rather defensive approach. Four teams scored more goals than them, the defense was second best – but a distant second (Ferro Carril Oeste allowed only 27 goals in their net). Nothing outstanding, but the squad was food for thought: not just the most solid in the league, but also with a future – Bochini, Burruchaga, Calderon, Killer, Olguin, Clausen… add Villaverde and Percudani. It looked like a new great squad was almost ready and quite at par with the wonderful teams of the first half of the 1970s. No other club had similar squad at the moment and there was every reason to believe that Independiente will dominate Argentinian football in the next years. If they were able to keep their players and add a few more – which was quite questionable. But why worry yet – enjoy the fresh title.

Argentina. Two championships with different formats and Second Division belonging to Metropolitano championship. Not without peculiarities and mysteries, typical for South American football… Second Division – Primera B – was divided into 2 Zones this year, each with 11 teams. Every participant ended with 42 games, which means the schedule was interzonal – if the teams played solely with zonal members, the number is impossible. Two teams were relegated to Third Division, but relegation was not because of this season results – it was combined record of this and earlier championships, so final tables do not tell precisely who and why went down. Two teams were promoted – one should think the zonal champions, but only one of them went up directly. The other participated in promotional play-offs with 7 other clubs. Looks like the team with most points among all was directly promoted, which renders the zonal division meaningless: all teams played against each other and still there was something like combined final table – otherwise there would be no reason for the winner with more points to get direct promotion.

Promoted from Third Division were:

Talleres (Buenos Aires). Standing from left: Javier González, José Logatto, Derlis Giménez, Néstor Iglesias, Juan De Angelis, Osvaldo Diez.

First row: Juan José Laszlo, Gabriel Marrone, Jorge Franzoni, Marcelo Pérez Álvarez, Alberto Petorrosi.

Argentino (Rosario).

Relegated to Third Division were Central Cordoba (Rosario) and Villa Dalmine (Buenos Aires). Villa Dalmine was no mystery – they finished last in Zona B. Central Cordoba, however, was 8th in Zona A. Not only Arsenal (Sarandi), Deportivo Espanol (Buenos Aires), and Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) were bellow Central Cordoba, but ever one of them finished with worst record than Villa Dalmine – the only reason for relegation could be combined record of several championships, nothing else makes any sense.

The season was not good for some better known clubs.

Lanus was 9th in Zona B with 39 points. Banfield was just before Lanus – 8th. Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) was last in Zona A and the team with the worst final record in both zones – 31 points. Arsenal was unheard of club at this time, but Colon, often playing first division football, was only 6th in Zona A.

The top 4 teams in Zona A proceeded to the promotional play-offs: Tigre, 1st with 50 points, Almirante Brown, 2nd with 44, Los Andes, 3rd with 44, and Chacarita Juniors, 4th with 43 points.

Sarmiento was unlucky – 5th with 43 points. Worse goal-difference by a single goal placed them bellow Chacarita Juniors.

In Zona B the team going to promotional play-offs were: Estudiantes (Buenos Aires), 5th with 46 points, Quilmes, 4th with 46 points, All Boys, 3rd with 46 points, and Deportivo Italiano (Buenos Aires) – 2nd with 48 points.

Atlanta (Buenos Aires) won Zona B with 53 points – the best record in the whole Second Division this year. Standing from left: Raúl Domínguez, Rubén D. Gómez, Adrián Bianchi, Verón, Bernardis, Luis Díaz, Millicay. First row: Villagra, Graciani, Alfredo Torres y Milano.

Well, combine table makes Atlanta Second Division champions and so they were. Directly promoted because of that. Well done.

The play-offs proceeded in standard cup format – two-leg ¼ finals, ½ finals, final. Tigre was eliminated right away – it took penalty shoot-out, but still the champions of Zona A lost.

Quilmes finished in the semi-finals, where they were eliminated by Los Andes. Meantime Chacarita Juniors eliminated Deportivo Espanol.

All Boys vs Chacarita Juniors was the last clash. Chacarita won the home leg 2-0 and tied the away leg 3-3.

Los Andes failed to reach first division – not a bad campaign, but they really pushed to the limit at the play-offs. Curiously, the final was between the 3rd – Los Andes – and the 4th – Chacarita Juniors – in Zona A. Was it just a single table, neither team would have been dreaming of promotion… so the end was better even for losers at the final.

Chacarita Juniors had every reason for joy – if it was a single final table, they would have been 10th. Thanks to the peculiar rules, they not only had a chance to get promoted, but actually did it. A return to first division was wonderful, especially because their neighbours and rivals Atlanta won the direct promotion – now the rivals would not laugh at more popular Chacarita Juniors from above. Well done.

Taca de Ouro. 40 teams started the marathon and after the first phase they were reduced to 32 – 12 teams were out, continuing in Taca de Prata and 4 teams joined the tournament, qualifying from Taca de Prata, 8 groups of 4 teams each, the top two qualifying to the next round and the lower two done with competition for this season. Out were:

Cruzeiro, Comercial (Campo Grande), Ponte Preta,

Internacional, Uberaba,

Vila Nova,

Campo Grande,

Bahia, Americano,

Tiradentes,

Sergipe,

Botafogo (Rio de Janeiro), America (Natal), Botafogo (Ribeirao Preto), Rio Negro.

Fluminense.

Third phase – same structure: 4 groups of 4 teams each, the top two qualifying to the ¼ finals. Eliminated at this stage were:

Palmeiras, Nautico, Colorado, America (Rio de Janeiro),

Gremio,

Ferroviaria, Guarani, and

Corinthians.

Quarter-finals. Here the messy rules played a role… away goals did not count, but earlier record qualified one team at this stage:

Sao Paulo was eliminated by Atletico Paranaense after 1-2 and 1-0. What made Atletico the winner is simply a mystery…

Goias was out on ‘earlier record’ – their clash with Santos resulted in two ties: 0-0 and 2-2. Goias scored 2 away goals – and was out. Santos had better record in the previous phase. No controversy in the other two quarter-finals.

Vasco da Gama was out after 1-2 and 1-1 against Flamengo, and

Sport was most clearly outplayed by Atletico Mineiro – 0-0 and 1-4.

Semi-finals and rules again… combined goal-difference was not decisive factor in case the opponents won one leg each and tie-breaker had to be played. Sometimes… at least, that was the case in the final of Taca de Prata – but not here.

Atletico Paranaense lost the first leg against Flamengo 0-3, but won 2-0 at home. And was out – which is easily understood, but since they reached this stage thanks to some other rule and generally combined goal-difference did not matter… why at this stage and, seemingly, at this stage only? At least the other semi-final was plain.

Atletico Mineiro lost the first leg to Santos 1-2 and was unable to win at home – 0-0.

Thus, Santos and Flamengo reached the final of the championship. Weird rules to the end… two-legged final, but here combined goal-difference counted. Did not count in Taca de Prata, but here it did. As for the finalists, one can wonder too – Santos participated in the tournament only because of ‘historic ranking’. By administrative fiat, not on merit. They qualified to the semi-finals thanks on ‘better record in the previous stage’. Again, not on merit. Flamengo reached the final on combined goal-difference, which did not always apply as a tie-breaker, but even so, Flamengo reached the final fairly. Fair, but since a final table was made after each tournament, there was still something strange: Santos accumulated more points than Flamengo during the season. Flamengo had a chance to get ahead, of course – Santos had only 1 point more – but did not.

Santos won the home leg 2-1 – Pita and Serginho scored for them and Baltazar for Flamengo. The second leg in Rio de Janeiro was all Flamengo, however – 3-0. Zico, Leandro, and Adilio scored. One victory to each finalist… which led to third match in Copa Libertadores, Taca de Prata, and sometimes in Taca de Ouro in the past. But not this year – Flamengo won on the combined goal-difference: 4-2.

Santos lost the final and remained uncrowned – so far, unable to win the national championship. Hard to judge, though… on one hand, Santos was ‘helped’ and it was good to see justice restored at last. On the other hand, they were the best team during the long weird championship – at least the most successful, finishing with most points – 36 – from 13 wins, 10 ties, and losing only 3 matches. With Paulo Isidoro, Serginho, Marcio, and Pita they had strong team – as strong as any other of the leading Brazilian teams, for none had more than 4-5 big stars in their roster. Good as any, for Corinthians with Socrates, Sao Paulo with Renato and Careca, and Gremio, currently at the top of the world, did not go very far. Overall, Santos did very well – very well, but lost the title.

Flamengo won its 3rd title. Thus, the most popular Brazilian club climbed on top, equalizing the record of Internacional (Porto Alegre). But Inter lost its edge a few year ago and now was the true time of Flamengo – they won their first Brazilian title in 1980, the second in 1982, and continued their strong spell in 1983. Most likely they had the best squad at this time – Zico, Junior, Leandro, Mozer, Raul, Baltazar. They did not need outside help like Santos, yet… Santos ended with more points than them this year. One can always doubt Brazilian football… that was the time when all talk was about Corinthians, led by Socrates. All talk, but Flamengo was winning and Corinthians was not reaching even semi-finals. Zico was true king and it was nice to see him champion. Cold statistics were in favour of the ‘White Pele’ – 3 titles. The real Pele had 0. Socrates – 0. Garrincha – 0. It was different at the bench, though – Flamego won three titles in 4 years, but with 3 different coaches. So far, the most successful coaches were not at the helm of Flamengo – Minelli was leading with three consecutive titles (1975 and 1976 with Inter and 1977 with Sao Paulo), followed by Brandao (twice with Palmeiras – 1972 and 1973) and Andrade (1979 with Inter and 1981 with Gremio). None of the Flamengo winning coaches repeated his success – neither with Flamengo, nor with any other club (Coutinho – 1980, Torres – 1982, Parreira – 1983). It looked like the players were the real driving force. Zico. Unfortunately, money was elsewhere… and the stars were going to Europe. Soon Zico was going to play for Italian Udinese. What a predicament… not worth playing for champions, better join rather lowly Italian club.