Argentina. Second Division, or Primera B. Concerns only the Metropolitano championship, largely concentrated in Buenos Aires, and having promotion and relegation. Of course, there were lower levels too. 22 teams divided into 2 groups – the top placed teams continued in direct elimination to compete for the title and the last placed faced relegation to the Third Division. Some well known – today, at least – clubs played in Primera B: San Lorenzo, Banfield, Lanus, Chacarita Juniors, Arsenal, Tigre. Group A was more provincial – the clubs from Santa Fe, Cordoba, and of the Buenos Aires Province were largely there, and the clubs from Metro Buenos Aires were largely in Group B. The geographical division perhaps shaped relegation and promotion, for otherwise the rules seem peculiar: the league system was best organized in Metro Buenos Aires in different league levels and there were the strongest clubs in terms of money and popularity anyway. Thus, one team was directly promoted to First Division, 8 teams competed for the second promotional spot; one team was directly relegated to the Third Division and 2 teams – trying to escape from the second relegation spot. Both teams directly going up and down were related to the Buenos Aires league system – at least, this is the likeliest explanation.
Argentino de Quilmes was last in Group A with 29 points and went down directly. The 10th in Group A – Talleres – and the last in Group B – All Boys – went to the relegation play-off. Since both Argentino de Quilmes and All Boys belonged to Buenos Aires system, points were seemingly the decisive factro: Argentino de Quilmes finished with 29 points and All Boys – with 36.
All Boys won the play-off – the match ended 0-0 and All Boys prevailed at the penalty shoot-out 3-2.
All Boys survived at the last moment.
Talleres went down. That is Talleres Buenos Aires, not to be confused with the better known Talleres Cordoba.
With relegation out of the way, let us move up the tables.
Tigre was 9th in Group A – not a surprise, really, for at that time Tigre was lowly club unlikely to play higher than Second Division football. So was Arsenal, 7th in Group A. So was Lanus, 7th in Group B. To a point, Colon (Santa Fe) was the big disappointment – 8th in Group A. Colon was to be at least a prime candidate for promotion, but failed.
At the top of both groups the fight went on to the next stage: Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) won Group A, followed by Chacarita Juniors, Almirante Brown, and Deportivo Espanol. Deportivo Armenio ended 5th and missed the play-offs by a point. In Group B the champion had direct promotion, so to the play-offs went those placed from 2nd to 5th: Atlanta, Banfield, Temperley, and Deportivo Italiano. Lucky Deportivo Italiano, for they qualified only thanks to the direct promotion of the group champion and better goal-difference than Defensores de Belgrano. Anyhow, Deportivo Italiano, Almirante Brown, Chacarita Juniors, and Deportivo Espanol were eliminated at the ¼ finals. Gimnasia y Esgrima and Banfield lost at the semi-finals and Atlanta and Temperley faced each other at the final. Temperley won its home leg 2-1, then Atlanta won 1-0 at home and the matter had to be settled by penalty shoot-out, which was dramatic: Temperley finally won 13-12!
A great moment in the history of small Temperley – they clinched promotion to First Division. Standing from left: Issa, Cassé, Piris, Masotto, Villalba, Aguilar.
First row: Dabrowski, Scotta, Finarolli, Lacava Schell, Espósito.
The direct promotion went to San Lorenzo. Perhaps the reason was they had better record – San Lorenzo won fair and square Group B – 23 wins, 11 ties, and 8 matches lost, 56-27 goal-difference, 57 points. 10 points ahead of second placed Atlanta. And 7 points more than the record of the champions of Group A, Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata), which finished with 49 points.
If for most second-division clubs a promotion was a big success, for San Lorenzo it was a must – the club was among the big names, they were champions full of stars not that long ago. But they suffered a decline, leading them to second division football. Quick return to the top league was expected – and achieved – but San Lorenzo was still in poor shape: the names of the squad clearly tell that – Rubén Cousillas, Oscar Quiroga, Osvaldo Biain, Hugo Moreno, HéctorOsvaldo López, Ricardo Collavini, Rubén Darío Insua, Leonardo Madelon,Carlos Schamberger, Armando Quinteros, Jorge Rinaldi, Hugo Paulino Sánchez, Eugenio Morel Bogado, Carlos Suárez, Eduardo Abrahamian, RubénAraoz, Pablo Comelles, Ricardo Demagistris, Raúl Moreno, HugoVerdecchia, Miguel Batalla, Marcelo Milano, Oscar Ricardo Ros, Omar Dagorret, Héctor Raúl López, Claudio Marasco, Claudio Pérez.
Well, at least San Lorenzo returned to First Division.