Bolivia. Two-phased championship – fist, standard league championship, all 15 teams playing twice against each other. The top 8 teams moved to the second phase and the rest ended the season. Three teams relegated and three promoted from the Second Division.
The best second level teams, ending with promotion this year were:
Universitario (Sucre),
Litoral (La Paz). Standing from left: Hugo A. Zitta, Ricardo Almeida, Carlos Urizar, Reynaldo Zambrana, Ramiro Vargas, Edgar Bautista.
First row: Mario Portugal, Jaime Soria, Néstor Orellana, Ramiro Eguez, Eloy Vargas.
The third promoted club was Bamin (Potosi), but they merged with Real (Potosi) after the season and played in the 1986 championship under their new name Real Bamin (Potosi).
After 28 rounds the bottom of the First Division was decided, but what could be South American championship without some mystery? The last three in the first stage final table should have been relegated. Well…
Magisterio (Sucre) was last with 12 points and out. Municipal (La Paz) – 14th with 15 points and out.
Ciclon (Tarija) was 13th with 19 points and… stayed in the league.
Wilstermann Cooperativas (Potosi) finished 12th with 20 points and was relegated for no apparent reason. Unless they were in financial troubles, there was no explanation why they relegated instead of Ciclon.
San Jose (Oruro) – 11th with 20 points. Chaco Petrolero (La Paz) – 10th with 25 points, and Aurora (Cochabamba) – 9th with 29 points. Aurora was unlucky – they missed the next phased on worse goal-difference.
Since the next phase started from scratch, the only aim at the first phase was to qualify to the second – that is, to finish among top 8. One can ever argue that clever teams played only to qualify no matter in what first-phase position, saving their strength for the real thing. Bolivar (La Paz) finished 7th with 30 points. At the top, Jorge Wilstermann and The Strongest battled for first place and although The Strongest excelled in scoring goal (70), J. Wilstermann won this phase by 2-point margin. They won 20 games and had iron defense, but what did it matter when everybody started with no points the second phase?
The second phase started with the 8 teams divided into 2 groups, the top 2 teams of each went to the semi-finals. In Group A Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) finished last with 3 points and
Jorge Wilstermann (Cochabamba) was 3rd also with 3 points. They did not a single match at this stage, apparently spending all their strength in the first phase. Standing from left: Jhonny Villaroel, Víctor Aragón, Ronald Campos, Hugo Wagner Rodríguez, Víctor Villalón, Hernán Santibáñez.
First row: Alfredo Almada, Julio C. Zárate (paraguayan), Jorge Panozo, Sergio Luna, Freddy Salguero.
Bolivar (La Paz) was second with 9 points and qualified to the semi-finals. Stupid Jorge Wilstermann, clever Bolivar… looks like that. Real (Santa Cruz) won the group with 9 points and better goal-difference than Bolivar’s and also qualified to the semifinals.
Group B. Destroyers (Santa Fe) finished last with 5 points. Like Jorge Wilstermann, they seemingly spent all they got in the first phase, where they finished 3rd.
Blooming (Santa Cruz) also ended here – they were 3rd with 5 points.
The Strongest (La Paz) was 2nd with 7 points and Petrolero (Cochabamba), also with 7 points, took top position on better goal-difference. No matter, both teams qualified.
In the semi-finals Petrolero (Cochabamba) was eliminated by Bolivar – 2-1 and 0-4. The other semi-final, though… Real won their home leg 2-1, then lost the second leg in La Paz 2-4. The Strongest was clearly the winner, but it was Real qualifying to the final. Why? Unless the record is wrong.
Thus, Bolivar and Real met at the final to decide the champion of Bolivia. Looked like everything was done in the opening leg in La Paz – Bolivar won 6-1. But Real came back and won at home 3-1. Goal-difference did not count and there was a third match in which both candidates fought equally and nobody scored: 0-0. The penalty shoot-out favoured Bolivar – 6-5. High drama to the very end.
Real (Santa Cruz) was both lucky and unlucky. They had strong and even season – 4th in the first phase, then winning their second phase group, then… curiously qualifying to the final, then looked like losing it without a fight, then coming back and only unfortunate shot denied them the title.
Bolivar (La Paz) was a case-study how to play a championship organized like the Bolivian one: nothing at first, just enough to qualify to the second phase (7th with 30 points, losing 10 games). Then stepping into another gear and getting stronger from one match to the next – 2nd in Group B, then leaving little doubt who was strongest: beating Petrolero 4-0 in the semis and Real 6-1 in the final. Their final win may look chancy, but Bolivar was really focused and in top form – chance most often helps the better team.
Their coach Moises Barack deserves full credit for the triumph; he was the mastermind of the campaign .
Nothing new and out of ordinary, though – Bolivar won its 7th title (that’s counting only the professional record, started in 1958). Only Jorge Wilstermann was more successful so far – 8 titles.