Uruguay.
Some clubs were out of sight – like Racing – and that concerning only Montevideo clubs, for there were no other in the first, second, and third division. Colon, Fenix, and Liverpool got a chance to run for promotion, but only the winner of Second Division was directly promoted:
Central Espanol finished 1st and returned to the top league.
River Plate – 13th and last in First Division was relegated. They finished with 16 points.
Rampla Juniors ended 12th with 19 points. They were safe – combined record of previous championships decided the team going to relegation/promotion play-off.
Huracan Buceo – 11th with 20 points – went to relegation/promotion play off. Standing from left: Enrique Peña , Roberto Santos , Raúl Mirabal , Andrés Ortuño , Miguel Leone, Luis Cáceres.
Front row: Juan Contreras, Victor Mastropiero, Julio Daniel Morales, Daniel Tores, Luis Paiva.
They played round-robin tournament against Liverpool, Fenix, and Colon from Second Division, won 5 and lost 1 game, finished first and preserved their place in the top league.
Miramar Misiones – 10th with 20 points.
Sud America – 9th with 20 points.
Cerro – 8th with 22 points.
Surprise, surprise… Penarol 7th with 22 points. Hard to believe, but that was the upsetting fact. Most likely the team was just too tired and unfocussed from playing too much international football, but for Penarol that could not be valid excuse.
Progreso was 6th with 24 points.
Wanderers – 5th with 25 points.
Bella Vista – 4th with 28 points.
Defensor won the bronze with 29 points. Standing from left: Ferron, “El Piti” Sarubbi, Hector Roux, “El Pete” Russo, Maeso, Eduardo Acevedo, Pablo Forlan.
Crouching: Daniel Oddine, Miguel Caillava, “El Polilla” Jorge Orosman Da Silva, Rafael Villazan, Abel Tolosa, Ganeglius. The big figure here was Pablo Forlan, old and at the very end of his long and illustrious career, but still good enough to hel a team to high position. Defensor, however, depended on ties – they tied 15 of their 24 championship games.
Wonderful season for Danubio – they may have been a bit lucky, for they finished above Defensor only because had better goal-difference by a single goal, but they got silver. Then they won the mini-tournament for the second Uruguayan spot in Copa Libertadores. Danubio was really getting recognized and establishing itself among the leading clubs of the country.
This year’s champions had no rivals whatsoever – 16 wins, 6 ties, 2 losses, 46-13, 38 points. The second in the table had 9 points less. Standing rom left: Rodolfo Rodriguez, Ferrari, Berrueta, W. Gonzalez, “Chico” Moreira, Aguirregaray.
First row: Alzamendi, Luzardo, Wilmar Cabrera, Miguel Angel Brindisi, Aguilera.
Good squad, no doubt, but did not look stronger than Penarol’s – on paper. It had a foreign star – the Argentine midfielder Miguel Brindisi. By now, his name was fading and he was getting old, but still the champion. As for the club’s name – there is no need to mention it… who else but Nacional. One more title, so routine. The only ‘new’ thing about them is perhaps the photo itself – using the less familiar second kit with red shirts. So strong Nacional was this year – or may be the opposition too weak – that they hardly ever used all their star players in the starting eleven, so some of them are missing here: Cid, Perdomo, Sosa, to name a few.