Paraguay. In a nut shell, the new Olimpia was in full force.
Nacional (Asuncion) earned promotion from II Division.
General Caballero (Asuncion) was last with 19 points in the top league and was relegated.
Sport Colombia (Fernando de la Mora) – 11th with 25 points.
Tembetary (Ypane) – 10th with 25 points.
San Lorenzo (San Lorenzo) – 9th with 28 points.
River Plate (Asuncion) – 8th with 29 points. Standing from left: Tranquilino Ibarra, Jorge Coronel, Benito Giménez, Freddy Frutos, Dionisio Benítez, Ortiz.
First row: Gerardo Olavarrieta, Giménez, Vicente Muñoz , Juan R. Sandoval.
Sol de America (Barrio Obrero, Asuncion) – 7th with 31 points.
Libertad (Asuncion) – 6th with 34 points.
Sportivo Luqueno (Luque) – 5th with 35 points. Back: Marcos Aquino, Cantero, Ramírez, Juan C. Ojeda, Aquino, Solís.
Front: Agustín Arrúa, Julio E. Gaona, Centurión, Merardo Robles, Nicolás Azuaga.
Colegiales (4 Mojones) – 4th with 36 points.
Cerro Porteno (Asuncion) – 3rd with 40 points. Standing from left: Gato, Rivarola, Zabala, Jacquet, Garay, Barrios
Front: Struway, Riveros, Raschle, Robson, el Zanahoria Britez Romàn.
Guarani (Asuncion) – 2nd with 44 points.
Olimpia (Asincion) – very strong season of the new team successfully built by their Uruguayan coach Luis Cubilla and still very young. In the small Paraguayan league teams 3 times against each other, so at the end 33 games were played. Olimpia won 19 times, tied 12 games and lost only 2. Scored 74 goals, permitting only 35. That made them confident champions with 50 points – 6 points ahead of Libertad. This was the 32nd title for Olimpia, second a row too, and domestic season did not prevent them from playing strong Copa Libertadores season, reaching the final and losing the trophy only at penalty shoot-out.
Deportes Valdivia finished last with 15 points. Absolute outsider and relegated.
Rangers also went down – 15th with 21 points.
Fernandez Vial was lucky – with 5 goals better goal-difference than Union San Felipe, they clinched the safe 13th place with 23 points.
Deportes Iquique – 12th with 26 points.
Everton – 11th with 28 points.
Naval – 9th with 28 points. Standing from left: Enriquez (Utilero), Mario Rodríguez, Jaime Gaete, Alejandro Gutiérrez, Héctor Roco, Nelson Figueroa, Arturo Jaúregui.
Union Espanola – 8th with 30 points.
Deportes Concepcion – 7th with 31 points.
O’Higgins – 6th with 31 points.
Deportes La Serena – 5th with 34 points.
Cobresal – 4th with 36 points.
Cobreloa – 3rd with 39 points.
Universidad Catolica – 2nd with 42 points.
Colo Colo – champions with 45 points from 20 wins, 5 ties, and 5 losses. Scored 60 goals, allowed 28 in their net.
The 1989 champions: second row from left: Marcelo Ramirez, Hugo Gonzalez, Lizardo Garrido, Reinaldo Hoffmann, Eduardo Vilches, Miguel Ramirez, Rafael Contador, Leonardo Soto, Javier Margas, Ricardo Dabrowski, Leonel Herrera, Hugo Bello, Jose Daniel Moron;
General Vasquez – last with 26 points and relegated.
Deportes Colchangua – 4th with 28 points.
Deportes Linares – 3rd with 29 points.
Deportes Temuco – 2nd with 29 points.
Lota Schwager – 1st with 34 points.
Deportes Puerto Montt – 6th with 28 points. Standing from left: Gerardo Acevedo, Leonel Barría, Nelson Villarroel, Luis Landeros, Hugo Almonacid, Alberto Torres.
Curico Unido – 5th with 30 points.
Iberia – 4th with 35 points.
Provincial Osorno – 3rd with 36 points.
Magallanes – 2nd with 38 points and going to play against the 2nd in the other zone for the promotion play-off.
Universidad de Chile – 1st with 44 points.
Magallanes finished 2nd and was directly promoted.
Santiago Wanderers most likely 3rd in the this strange stage went to promotion play-off against the 14th in the First Division – Union San Felipe. The match was played in Vina del Mar on February 24, 1990, and ended without a winner, but in the extra tile Santiago Wanderers destroyed their opponents – 4-1 – and went up. Or rather returned to First Division, which was wonderful.
Universidad de Chile won the 1989 Second Division title and was promoted of course. Quick return to top flight, after a single season in the the second level.
Soinca Bata – 3rd with 30 points.
San Luis de Quillota – 2nd with 30 points.
Coquimbo Unido – 4th with 34 points.
Deportes Ovalle – 3rd with 34 points.
Santiago Wanderers – 2nd with 37 points. Going to play against the 2nd in the other Zone for the promotion play-off.
Palestino – winners of the Zone with 38 points.
River Plate – last with 5 points. Lucky there was no relegation this season.
Central Espanol – 12th with 7 points. They distinguished themselves infamously: won only one match.
Liverpool – 11th with 8 points. They were the worst scorers this season: only 6 goals.
Huracan Buceo – 10th with 8 points.
Rentistas – 9th with 10 points. One recognizable name here – Ariel Krasouski – which is quite strange: since even Penarol and Nacional had difficulties keeping strong players, how come Krasouski played for small Rentistas?
Wanderers – 8th with 13 points.
Danubio – 7th with 13 points. They performed well in the Copa Libertadores and may be that was why they were not successful in the domestic league: no strength for two tasks. After all, the only recognizable player in the team was Kanapkis – hardly enough for more than mid-table season. What is there to say… the 1988 champions had no team for continuous success.
Defensor Sporting – 6th with 14 points.
Bella Vista – 5th with 14 points. Not bad for one of the small clubs and may be no reason to keep them in mind – but better keep them in mind: they lost only once this season. Not the only team with with such record, but keep them in mind.
Cerro – 4th with 14 points. It was all or nothing for them: 6 wins, but also 4 losses.
Penarol – 3rd with 15 points. Nothing to brag about…
Nacional – 2nd with 15 points. Hugo de Leon was back from Brazil and thus Nacional was the only team with great star, but one aging player was apparently not enough for more than besting arch0enemy Penarol on goal-difference. That was the bitter reality of Uruguayan football… even great clubs like Penarol and Nacional were unable to keep strong players and build good teams.
Progreso dominated the championship, ending with 9 wins, 2 ties, and losing only once. 18-8 was their scoring record. A total of 20 points – 5 more than Nacional and Penarol. Surely, a great season and well deserved title.
Lovely underdog, for sure. Top row from left: Gustavo Machaín, Julio Néstor Maidana, Robert Púa, Eduardo Acosta.
One may say – and with good reason – that Progreso’s victory was accidental and mostly due to the weakness of the giants. The new champion had no stars, the squad was rather ordinary, if not obscure, but they played well. It was collective effort, well sustained during the whole season. Others may have been weak, the season was surely too short for correcting mistakes and negligence, but on the other hand even great teams are rarely able to build 5-point lead in only 12 games. Progreso deserves only praise even when it was clear that they will not repeat their performance in the next year. A victory of the underdog is always wonderful. For their fans this squad was instant legend. Progreso became the 9th club in the history of Uruguayan football winning the title.
Such unusual champion deserves one more photo.
Paysandu was the champion of the interior – and this success meant very little, for there was no team located outside Montevideo in the top two divisions.
Basanez won Third Division and was promoted to Primera B. The status quo remained – one more Montevideo club won third level and went up.
Colon – last with 8 points. Interestingly, they were the 5th high scoring team with 22 goals in 18 games.
Villa Espanola – 9th with 10 points.
Fenix – 8th with 13 points. They won only once, but tied 11 games.
Sportivo Italiano – 7th with 17 points.
Miramar Misiones – 6th with 18 points.
Rampla Juniors – 5th with 19 points.
El Tanque Sisley – 4th with 19 points.
Racing – 2nd with 26 points.
Cerrito – 1st with 26 points. Apparently, placed on top on better head-to-head record against Racing, but that meant little – the championship had a final stage.
Sud America – 3rd with 2 points: 0 wins, 2 ties, 0 losses, 2-2. Total – 26 points.
Cerrito – 2nd with 27 points. Their final stage record: 0 1 1 and 1-3.
Racing (Montevideo) won the decisive match against Cerrito in the final stage and thus won the championship. Their final stage added 3 points to the 26 they earned in the regular championship: 1 1 0 and 3-1. Thus, 29 points altogether. Standing from left: Rafael Villazán, Héctor Tuja, Mario Delgado, Alberto Bica, Néstor Rosa.
Great success for the small club – they rarely played in the top division. Going up was wonderful.
Instituto (Cordoba) finished last with 31 points. In the relegation table they were 18th and were not relegated. Very poor season, but one can note a player with quite a high profile in the 1990s – Dely Valdes.
Deportivo Armenio ended 19th with 37 points. They went down – last in the relegation table.
Ferrocarril Oeste – 18th with 45 points. There great days were over, but relegation was not for them yet.
San Martin (Tucuman) – 17th with 46 points. The relegation table worked against them, as it worked against Deportivo Armenio: in it, they were last. Like Deportivo Armenio, they did not play in the top league continuously in the last 3 seasons and that was one major reason for having so bad combined record. They were relegated.
Racing (Cordoba) – 16th with 50 points.
Platense – 15th with 50 points.
Textil (Mandiyu) – 14th with 51 points. Relatively strong season kept them in the league – like San Martin (Tucuman), they were just promoted to Primera Division and their relegation record consisted only of this season’s points – but because they played well enough, they ended 15th in the relegation table. Good for one more season at least. More intriguing is their name – they are generally known as Deportivo Mandiyu and under this name appeared in magazines and so on. But not in the final table… in it they are named Textil. May be the club changed name during the season… a mystery. Textil or Deportivo, they had the league record of ties in this championship – 19 games. Of them, they won 11 in the penalty shoot-outs.
Rosario Central – 13th with 51 points.
Newell’s Old Boys – 12th with 51 points. For a team featuring Sensini, Batistuta, ‘Tata’ Martino, Dario Franco, Norberto Scoponi – quite a disappointing season. Especially when they reached the Copa Libertadores final in 1988. May be the players were still too young to be able to endure long gruelling season and the Copa Libertadores effort took they their attention away from the domestic championship. May be that, or may be the best talent was already attracted by lucrative contracts abroad. Whatever the case, it was disappointing season – perhaps the biggest slump in the league at that time.
Velez Sarsfield – 11th with 53 points. Young Diego Simeone here, but the biggest puzzlement come from the presence Gareca. In 1989 he was still a player of Colombian America (Cali). So… the photo, although from 1989, belongs to 1989-90 season – most likely, that’s the case, for Colombian season was canceled in October. Velez Sarsfield won most penalty shoot-outs in the championship: 12 out of 17 ties.
Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) – 10th with 57 points.
Racing (Avellaneda) – 9th with 59 points. Like Velez Sarsfield, it is not certain to which season the photo belongs – to 1988-89 or to 1989-90 – but in general would not matter much: Racing was going through their long convulsions, which started back in the 1960s. Bankruptcy was looming large, not success.
Estudiantes (La Plata) – 8th with 61 points. As usual, ahead of local rivals Gimnasia y Esgrima, but that was all this season.
Argentinos Juniors – 7th with 61 points. Not bad at all – they managed to stay quite strong for a small club, routinely losing their best players to other clubs.
Talleres (Cordoba) – 6th with 65 points. Good season for a good squad.
For the sake of variety, San Lorenzo de Almagro dressed in their reserve kit. 5th with 66 points. If anything, San Lorenzo knew how to stay among the strongest.
River Plate – 4th with 67 points. This squad could be considered a failure… Menotti was the coach and the selection was stellar. At least, on paper… Perhaps not entirely completed and balanced, but given the current reality of Argentine football – the stars constantly going to Europe, that is – a very impressive squad. On paper… Claudio Borghi is here, but eventually went to play in Brazil – more or less, on his way going down. Seemingly, the magic of Menotti dried up already as well.
Deportivo Espanol – 3rd with 68 points. Ahead of River Plate with their stars. Arguably, the best season of Deportivo Espanol, which is quite a modest club. In the ranks of Buenos Aires… may be a third tier club. That was their time, though, and there is nothing better than a Cinderella story. And signs of the future were present: it was not yet high fashion for players to roll their socks above the knee, so here is an early bird in times when it was fashionable to roll down the socks to the ankles.
Boca Juniors – 2nd with 76 points. Strong season of not a bad team, but they were not a title contender. Compared to River Plate, they appeared weaker, but performed better. Well, if not able to win the title, ate least they finished ahead of the arch-enemy and that was always sweet.
At the end – familiar champion. Independiente (Avallaneda) won the championship with confidence – 84 points. 8 points ahead of Boca Juniors. They won 22 games, lost only 5. Their 11 ties ended with 7 penalty shoot-out wins and 4 losses. Scored 58 goals, allowed 32. Very strong season indeed.
Their squad was perhaps more similar to Boca’s team than to River’s – a bunch of stars, but fewer and not quite as famous as River’s. A slight change of line-up – as the one here – suddenly makes the team rather ordinary on paper. But not on the field!
Standing from left: Pereira, Clausen, Monzón, Delgado, Ríos, Ludueña.
Chacarita Juniors finished last with 23 points. In the relegation table they were 20th and thus – relegated.
Temperley – 21st with 26 points. 21st in the relegation table too, so relegated. Second row from left: Medina, Capuzzi, Pereyra, Franchini, Bottari, Legaspi. Crouching: Aguilar, Morrudo, Arana, Seco, Azerrad.
Tigre – 19th with 30 points.
Estacion Quequen (Necochea) – 18th with 31 points. And the curse of the newcomer… since they were just promoted to Second Division, they had no previous record in the relegation table and had to depend only on this season – which was brave, but still lowly, and thus their average was the worst in the relegation table. They were relegated.
Los Andes – 16th with 33 points. Standing from left: Justo S. Meza, Néstor Ferraresi, Daniel Bolognese, Enrique José Alvarez, Héctor Franchoni.
Quilmes – 15th with 37 points. Back row from left: Jorge Di Gregorio, Javier Orrego, Emilio Kalujerovich, Ricardo Kergaravat, Alejandro Mulet, Guillermo Escalante.
Deportivo Maipu – 14th with 43 points. Here is the mystery… in the relegation table they were 12th. No reason to be in danger of relegation at all, yet, they were the team which went to the promotion/relegation play-off.
Central Cordoba (Santiago del Estero) – 13th with 43 points.
Banfield – 12th with 44 points.
Atletico Tucuman – 11th with 45 points.
Talleres (Renedios Escalada) – 9th with 48 points. Going to promotion play-offs.
Belgrano – 7th with 50 points. Going to promotion play-offs.
Huracan – 5th with 51 points. Going to promotion play-offs.
Almirante Brown – 4th with 51 points. Going to promotion play-offs.
Union – 3rd with 52 points. Going to promotion play-offs.
Lanus – 2nd with 53 points. Lost top place by a point. Going to promotion play-offs, but with a bit of luck they would have been champions and directly promoted up.
Chaco For Ever – clinched 1st place with 54 points from 21 wins, 12 ties, 9 losses, and 66-44 goal difference. Dramatic victory, no doubt, but well rewarded – not only champions of Second Division, but directly promoted to Primera – a rare achievement.
Atletico Rafaela lost to Huracan 3-5 and 1-2. Top row from left: Fertonani, Marino, Querini, Levrino, Berzero, Alfaro. Front: Giordano, Fuentes, López, Bernasconi, Riberi.
Olimpo (Bahia Blanca) was eliminated by Almirante Brown 2-0 and 1-3. Hard to tell why… they scored away goal.
Villa Dalmine lost to Colon 0-0 and 1-4.
So unlucky… leading at half-season, but lost the title at the end by single point. They won the promotion ½ final against Colon and yet the losers went to the final… unless Lanus was punished for some infractions, there was no reason the winning team to be eliminated.
Union (Santa Fe) won the promotion play-offs – or Torneo Reducido – and got promoted. A nice return to top flight.
It was nice for Union (Santa Fe) to earn promotion, but still the champions of Second Division were the best team – once again, Chaco For Ever. Second row from left: Di Marco, Valdéz, Freyre, Ferlatti, Sperandío, Parrado. First row: Cravero, Noremberg, Alfredo Fernández, Luis Sosa, Rosas.
Sport (Recife) tried hard to win a trophy, but it was not their year… relegation to second level and no remedy with a cup.
Gremio (Porto Alegre) kept strong position in Brazilian football – they were unable to reach the championship final, but still won the Cup.
Well done, but it was somewhat of a last hurrah of a fading team – there best years were already in the past, the current squad was not that great. Still capable of winning, though.
Vitoria – remained in Serie A
Bahia – remained in Serie A
Atletico Paranaense – relegated
Guarani – relegated
Sport – relegated
Coritiba – relegated. Did not play in the relegation tournament.
16 – Internacional (Limeira)
15 – Fluminense. Standing from left: Carlos André, Donizete, Rangel, Ricardo Pinto, Torres, Edgar;
14 – Internacional (Porto Alegre)
13- Nautico. Standing from left: Mauri, Lúcio, Ronilson, Levi, Muller, Junior.
12 – Santos
11 – Gremio
10 – Goias
9 – Flamengo
8 – Atletico Mineiro
7 – Portuguesa.
6 – Corinthians
5 – Palmeiras
4 – Botafogo
3 – Cruzeiro. Possible photo of a 1989 eleven.
2 – Sao Paulo. Standing from left: Adilson, Gilmar, Vizolli, Ricardo Rocha, Nelsinho, Zé Teodoro. First row: Hélio Santos (masseur), Mário Tilico, Bobô, Ney Bala, Raí, Edivaldo.
And the champions: Vasco da Gama. Well deserved triumph of nice squad.
Great season of a squad bursting with talent. The most detectable feature of these players was their age – they were young! Most likely that was the ‘great secret’: Flamengo, coached by Tele Santana, was impressive on paper, may be even more impressive than Vasco, but it was aging team with aging coach – tired and may be tactically outdated. Vasco was current team and they won. After 15 years Vasco da Gama won its 2nd Brazilian title.