First Division. 20 teams – 2 relegated not by final position, but on worst point average in the accumulated relegation table. 14 teams were from Greater Buenos Aires (including La Plata and Avellaneda) – such is the weight of the city: so many great clubs, impossible to ignore. The rest were also concentrated in the traditional big-club cities – Rosario and Cordoba plus one from Santa Fe.
Let start with the relegated on point average: they were Union (Santa Fe) – 18th in the championship, and Banfield – 19th in the season.
The final table was:
Talleres (Cordoba) last with 27 points.
Banfield – 19th with 28 points. Relegated. Standing from left: Solari, C.Díaz, D’Angelo, Vittor, Pogany, E. Vázquez. First row: Orte, Garcia, Aquino, Molina, Andrada.
Union (Santa Fe) – 18th with 28 points. Relegated. Standing from left: Humoller, Altamirano, Mauri, Passet, Jorge García, Cárdenas. Crouching: Armando, Toresani, Marcelo López, Alí, De Avila.
Racing (Cordoba) – 17th with 31 points. Standing from left: Luis Escobedo, Pascual Noriega, Marcelo D. Quiñones, Héctor Chazarreta, José T. Serrizuela, Juan M. Ramos.
Front: Luis Amuchástegui, Eusebio J. Roldán, José M. Bianco, Raúl de la Cruz Chaparro, Víctor H. Ferreyra.
Estudiantes (La Plata) – 16th with 32 points.
Instituto – 15th with 33 points. Standing from left: Renato Corsi (USA), Jorge F. Reinoso, Ricardo Kuzemka, Ramón Alvarez, Dalcio Giovagnoli, Enrique Nieto.
Crouching: Héctor Silva, Osvaldo Márquez, Ariel Cozzoni, Ricardo Rentera, Armando Dely Valdés (Panama).
Ferro Carril Oeste – 14th with 33 points. Second row from left: Claudio Cristofanelli, José Fantaguzzi, Oscar Garré, Héctor Cúper, Víctor Marchesini, Fabián Cancelarich.
Fornt row: Oscar R. Acosta, Oscar Agonil, Héctor D. Miranda, Daniel O. Fernández, Luis Fabián Artime.
Deportivo Armenio – 13th with 34 points.
Boca Juniors – 12th with 35 points. Terrible season for mighty Boca – just a point ahead of modest debutantes Deportivo Armenio. Standing from left: Hrabina, Carrizo, Cuciuffo, Gatti, Abramovich, Tavares. First row: Graciani, Melgar, Humberto Gutiérrez, Stafuza, J. L. Villarreal.. Well… take away old Gatti and Cuciuffo and there is practically nothing.
Independiente – another great nothing… 11th with 37 points.
Platense – 10th with 38 points. Standing from left: Aponte, Capozucchi, Juan A. Sánchez, Jones, Guillermo Rodríguez, Fortunato, Bellini. Front: Ivanovic, Boldrini, Espina, Alfaro Moreno.
Deportivo Espanol – 9th with 40 points. Worse goal-difference depraved them from a chance to compete for a spot in the Libertadores Cup – teams placed 2nd to 8th qualified to the tournament for that spot.
Argentinos Juniors – 8th with 40 points. Great days were over, but they still had a chance to appear again in Libertadores. At least at the end of the championship.
Rosario Central – 7th with 40 points.
Velez Sarsfield – 6th with 41 points. Standing from left: Simeone, Sandoval, Rojo, Navarro Montoya, Meza, Lucca. First row: Cardozo, Adrián Bianchi, Zalazar, Claudio García, Macat. One guy will become world-famous in a little while.
Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) – 5th with 43 points. Standing from left: Carlos G. Russo, Gustavo Moriconi, Oscar A. Olivera, Claudio Galvagni, Daniel Pighín, Osvaldo Tempesta, Ricardo Kuzemka.
Crouching: Gabriel Pedrazzi, Carlos A. García, Carlos Carrió, Gerardo M. González.
River Plate – 4th with 46 points. May be preoccupied with something else, may be not great enough to compete successfully on two fronts, may be the competition was too tough. Should have been title contenders, but at the end – 4th.
Racing (Avellaneda) – 3rd with 48 points. May be a revival at last? Let’s wait… Standing from left: Asteggiano, Lamadrid, Berón, Balerio, Perico Pérez, Fabio Costas. Front: Szulz, Decoud, Zaccanti, Medina Bello, Rabuñal.
San Lorenzo – 2nd with 49 points. Strong, but the title was not up to them. Standing from left: Zacarías, Bernuncio, Moner, Giunta, Chilavert, Larraquy. Crouching: Malvárez, Nannini, Perazzo, Ortega Sánchez, Barrera.
Newell’s Old Boys – champions with 55 points from 21 wins, 13 ties, and 4 losses. 68-22 goal-difference. They showed their aim from before the championship and had no real rival this season – finished 6 points ahead of San Lorenzo.
Newell’s Old Boys really deserved to win, if players are any real indication – their squad, with Sensini, Basualdo, Balbo, ‘Tata’ Martino, Dezotti, Scoponi, was way above any other squad by names. Shall we add one Gabriel Batistuta just in case? And this time names translated into class.
Give credit to their coach Josa Judica too. Great, popular, well known club, but provincial… so, it was their only 2nd title – the first was in 1974, when the won the old Metropolitan League. This time – no ifs and buts, a total success.
One last time – the champions!