First Division. The European experiments trying to invigorate the stale football of the 1980s reached Argentina too – new point system was introduced this season: no more ties. Instead 3 points were given for a win and a tied match was followed by penalty shoot-out. The winner in that got 2 points and the loser – 1 point. The other unusual feature was the unofficial Apertura tournament to determinate the 2 Argentine teams for 1989 Copa Libertadores. Thus, the Argentine champion for 1989 was to play in the 1990 Copa Libertadores. Relegation went by the long established relegation table – the last two teams in it. Because of this relegation rule the last team in the championship remained in the league – weird, but rules are rules.
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.
Front: Bianco, Reggiardo, Ubaldi, Bochini, Insúa.
No matter who else was in the team, the greatest name is Richardo Bochini. Already a living legend and evidently eternal… And his status was such that… he can play with different socks than the other players, as the first picture of the champions shows. He spurred Independiente to their 13th title. As a curious note, there was only one Independiente player in the 1990 World Cup Argentine squad and he was not a part of the 1989 champion team.