Month: September 2022

Primera Division. In a nut shell, Real Madird completely dominated the season and Barcelona had a weak one. Furious battle for survival involving 8 teams. John Toshack was thriving in Spain and Terry Venables not so.

Las Palmas – last and relegated with 29 points. Top row from left: Chano Lozano, Pedro Luis, Oscar, Almeida, Saavedra, René Hansen, Félix, Pepote, Manolo López.
Middle row: Ernesto Aparicio (masseur), Verona, Sito, Andrés González, Paco Castellano (assistant coach), Germán Dévora (coach), Ruiz Caballero (condition coach), José, Mayé, Julio Durán, Emilio Tomé (doctor).
Front: Alexis Trujillo, Koke Contreras, Javi Campos, Chinea, Manolín Perola, Narciso, Félix Oramas, Antonio Padrón, Yoyo.
Sabadell – 19th with 29 points and relegated.
Mallorca – 18th with 30 points. Lost the promotion/relegation play-off against Real Oviedo and was relegated.
Murcia – 17th with 31 points. Won the promotion/relegation play-off against Rayo Vallecano 3-0 and 0-0 and kept its place in Primera.
Real Betis – survived: 16th with 33 points.
Espanol – great European campaign, but at home… 15th with 33 points.
Hard times for Valencia – 14th with 33 points.

Logrones – 13th with 33 points.
Cadiz – 12th with 35 points.
Real Zaragoza – 11th with 36 points. Frank Rijkard spent some time with them – a clash with Cruijff was the motivation for leaving Ajax, although his real destination was Milan.
Sevilla – 10th with 37 points.
Sporting Gijon – 9th with 38 points.
Real Valladolid – 8th with 38 points.
Celta Vigo – 7th with 39 points.
Barcelona – 6th with 39 points. Terrible season – competing with Celta…
Wonderful season for Osasuna – 5th with 40 points. No European spot, but ahead of Barcelona!
Athletic Bilbao – 4th with 46 points. Too strong for those bellow, too weak for more than that.
Atletico Madrid – very good squad with Futre and Alemao, not to mention the Spanish stars, Menotti coaching, yet, only bronze – 3rd with 48 points.

Real Sociedad – 2nd with 51 points. Running strong, but not a title contender. Standing from left: Arconada,Górriz,Gajate,López Recarte,Larrañaga,Santiago Bakero. First row: Zúñiga,José Mari Bakero,Loren,Zamora,Beguiristain. Two players will achieve much more with Cruijff eventually.
Real Madird – with Leo Beenhakker at the helm, they were superior by far. Excellent squad, of course – and no need even mentioning the key stars: too many, but let say Hugo Sanchez and Butragueno were lethal. 28 wins, 6 ties, 4 losses, 95-26, 62 points. If there was some need, it was a better goalkeeper, but even without star keeper they were too strong for anybody. Aimed to beat their own records – 3rd consecutive title, opening hopes for more – perhaps beating the record of 5 titles in a row, achieved between 1961 and 1965, and may be restoring its old glory with another European Champion Cup? All that was hopes for bright future, but the present nurished such hopes.

Second Division. 20 teams. The last 4 relegated to Segunda B, the top 2 directly promoted to First Division, the 3rd and 4th going to promotion/relegation play-offs against the 17th and 18th in Primera Division. Traditionally, second teams of top-league clubs played here – they could not play in the same league with their first team, so the rules stipulated that in case of second team finished in the promotion zone they were by-passed and the next in the table should go up – either directly or at least to the promotion/relegation play-offs. Second team finished at the top of the table before and so again this season. Nothing new. There was considerable battle for survival at the bottom – one team gave up rather early, but 7 teams fought to the end. At the top 5 teams contested 4 promotional spots – somewhat divided into 2 groups: two teams fought for 1st place and 3 for 2 play-off spots. Well, that was largely theoretical, as it turned out.
Cartagena – last with 24 points. Relegated.
Granada – 19th with 27 points. Relegated.
Hercules (Alicante) – 18th with 29th points. Relegated.
Bilbao Athletic – the second team of Athletic Bilbao – 17th with 31 points. Relegated.
Deportivo La Coruna – 16th with 31 points. Survived on better head-to-head record against Bilbao Athletic.
Recreativo (Huelva) – 15th with 33 points.
Racing (Santander) – 14th with 33 points.

Real Burgos – 13th with 34 points.
CD Tenerife – 12th with 36 points.
CD Castellon – 11th with 37 points. Top row from left: González, López, Javi, Botubot, Casuco, Fontana, Emilio.
Middle row: Felices, Ximet, Salva, García Hernández, Dunai, Totó, Manchado, Alfredo, Tonín.
Sitting: Carrillo, Alcañiz, Ibeas, Pastor, Marqués, Viña, Saura, Víctor.
Sestao – 10th with 37 points.
Xerez CD – 9th with 41 points.
Barcelona Athletic – the second team of Barcelona – 8th with 41 points.
UE Figueres – 7th with 42 points.
UE Lleida – or Lerida – 6th with 42 points.
Rayo Vallecano – 5th with 45 points. Trying to climb back to Primera Division and, under normal circumstance, failing to do so on worse goal-difference. But they reached the promotion/relegation play-offs anyway – and lost to Murcia 0-3 and 1-1.

Real Oviedo – 4th with 45 points. Clinched play-off spot no matter the circumstances.
And won promotion after besting First Division Mallorca 2-1 and 0-0. Back to Primera next season.
Castilla CF – the second team of Real Madrid – 3rd with 48 points. They were illegible for promotion and thus did not go the promotion/relegation play-offs, which benefited Rayo Vallecano.
Elche CF – 2nd with 50 points and directly promoted to the top league. Standing from left: Sanchez, Robi, Cartagena, Javi, Miguel, Del Barrio.
Crouching: Bracun, Rodriguez, Sixto, Claudio, Isidro.
One more try to first division football, one of many… hoping they will stay up there.
CD Malaga – Second Division champions this season with 54 points from 22 wins, 10 ties, 6 losses, and 74-39 goal-difference. Strong season and, like Elche, once again they were going to play top-league football. To what result will be ssen next season – for the moment, it was great.