Month: April 2024

Canada. Two new teams were added to the professional league – Kitchener Spirit and London Lasers. Northamerican fashion, the league was divided in Eastern and Western Divisions, but since most clubs were located in the East, the Eastern Division had 7 teams and the Western only 4. Of course, the championship was stretched and complicated – in the East every team played 3 times against the teams of its own Division and twice against those in the other Division. In the West every team played 4 times against the other clubs in the their own Division and twice. That way every teams played 26 games in the first stage, after which knock-out phase started from quarterfinals to the grand final.
Newcomers Kitchener Spirit dressed fashionably after the German team.
Vancouver 86ers and Hamilton Steelers reached the final and it was no contest – Vancouver sailed to 6-1 victory.
Hamilton Steelers. They only showed that Canadian football was concentrated in the West and even not the whole West, but just in the city of Vancouver.
The champions left no photo of themselves – at least not one in wider circulation – which was an ample testimony of the real popularity and importance of football in the country. Vancouver 86ers was clearly the best club in the country in every detail, which made them dominant – 3rd title in a row.

Costa Rica. 1990 was a great year for Costarican football – fantastic debut at the World Cup finals. The World Cup was the focus, so the championship was stopped for a long time and finished much later than usual. The success of the national team during the break very likely motivated the Federation to make changes for the next season – originally, one team was relegated from the 10-team top Division and one promoted from Second Division, but that was changed in the later stage of the championship – the top league was increased to 12 teams for the next season and the relegated team stayed plus one more team was promoted. On the other hand, there was no final of the championship and not all results managed to reach statistics. The championship was in two stages: first the normal league stage in which all teams played 3 times against the rest. The top 6 teams qualified to the second Hexagonal stage and the last was relegated. The winners of the first and second stage played the championship final – but if the same team won both stages there was no final for lack of opponent.
From second level AD Municipal Generalena was promotion. One more team was promoted by the end of the year.
AD Palmares ended last in the first stage of the championship with 16 points and was relegated. By the end of the year they were no longer relegated, because of the enlargement of First Division. AD Guanacasteca finished 9th. AD Municipal Puntarenas – 8th and AD San Carlos – 7th. For those teams the season ended early. The rest qualified to the second stage, but since no results and final table exist today one has to follow only the opening stage of the season: CS Cartagines was 6th.
CS Herediano – 5th.
AD Limonense – 4th.
CS Uruguay de Coronado – 3rd. Standing from left: William Mejía, Ronny Díaz, José Luis Guillén Gallardo, Carlos Vivó Quirós, Miguel Jasper Simpson Lacey, Rodolfo Jarret. Crouching : Juan Morales, Guillermo Guardia, ?, Franco Benavides, Ronald Salazar.
LD Alajuelense – 2nd.
CD Saprissa – 1st. Standing from left: Geovanny Ramírez, Alexis Camacho, Benjamín Mayorga, Geraldo Da Silva, Evaristo Coronado, Eddy Picado. First row: Roger Flores, José Jaikel, Vladimir Quesada, Víctor Badilla.
Saprissa left no doubt who was the strongest in this season: in the first stage they lost just 3 games and left second-placed Alajuelense 8 points behind (still 2 points for a win were given). Then won the Hexagonal second stage as well, so there was no final as such, for Saprissa won already everything. One more title for the leading Costarican club.
In view of the success of Costa Rica at the World Cup, it is perhaps interesting to see how the known squads were represented: Uruguay de Coronado had no national team player. CD Saprissa had 8 players in the national team – however, in the team above only 3 are present: Roger Flores, Jose Jaikel, and Vladimir Quesada. That means… either the club had strong and fairly equal squad, so variety was no problem, or those who impressed at the World Cup went to play abroad. Speculations, of course. Little remained from this championship other than statistical results.

Copa de Campeones y Subcampeones CONCACAF 1990. With African and Asian international tournaments becoming more orderly, CONCACAF sunk down as the foggiest: not just withdrawals, but discrepancies about participants (Juventus was listed as a team representing Belize, but since two other clubs from Belize played, this was impossible – so it was a phantom team of unknown origin) and unknown to this very day results. The tournament’s formula, dividing teams geographically into 2 sections – Northern and Central amalgamated at the end and Caribbean – clearly discriminated against the stronger teams from North and Central America, especially the Mexican participants, but perhaps there was no other way to avoid constant Mexican finals and to keep the small nations in the many islands interested in the Cup. At the end, the final was against America (Mexico City) and Pinar del Rio (Cuba) – the winners were known in advance…
Final (Feb 19 & Mar 12, 1991)
Pinar del Río Cub América Mex 2-2 0-6 2-8

First leg
February 19, 1991, La Habana, ref: Ramesh Ramdhan (TRI)
Pinar del Río 2-2 América
[Oswaldo Alonso 20, Osmín Hernández 43; Guillermo Huerta 25,
Antonio Teodoro Dos Santos “Toninho” 31]
Pinar del Río: Martínez, Torres, Osmin Hernández, Cata, Sainz, Reyes, Dacourt (43 Del Pino), Rivera, Oswaldo Alonso, Pedel, Mezquia;
América: García, J.Hernández, Rodón, Tena, De Los Santos, Farfán, Domínguez, Guillermo Huerta, Antonio Teodoro Dos Santos “Toninho”, Luis R.Alves Zague, Cristóbal Ortega.

Second leg
March 12, 1991, Ciudad de México, ref: Majid Jay (USA)
América 6-0 Pinar del Río
[Antonio Teodoro Dos Santos “Toninho” 3, 9, 84,
Luis R.Alves Zangue 68, 80, Osmín Hernández 85og]
América: García (46 Chávez), J.Hernández (70 Guillermo Huerta), Rodón, Tena, De Los Santos, Domínguez, Cristóbal Ortega, Farfán, Muinguia, Antonio Teodoro Dos Santos “Toninho”, Luis R.Alves Zague; Coach:Carlos Miloc
Pinar del Río: Martínez, Cata, Osmin Hernández, R.Torres (74 C.Torres), Sainz, Dacourt, Reyes, Pérez (62 Rivera), Mezquia, Oswaldo Alonso, R.García.

America won the final.
Pinar del Rio played a second CONCACAF final in a row and no doubt the team did their best, but the difference in class was enormous. In any case, this was perhaps the highest moment in Cuban football – two consecutive CONCACAF finals – so, nothing to be ashamed of, but the contrary.
Sure winners and perhaps America even allowed their Cuban opponent to get a draw in the first leg, but that was all grace or pity could permit. America won the continental trophy for 3rd time.