Argentina. Two championships with different formats and Second Division belonging to Metropolitano championship. Not without peculiarities and mysteries, typical for South American football… Second Division – Primera B – was divided into 2 Zones this year, each with 11 teams. Every participant ended with 42 games, which means the schedule was interzonal – if the teams played solely with zonal members, the number is impossible. Two teams were relegated to Third Division, but relegation was not because of this season results – it was combined record of this and earlier championships, so final tables do not tell precisely who and why went down. Two teams were promoted – one should think the zonal champions, but only one of them went up directly. The other participated in promotional play-offs with 7 other clubs. Looks like the team with most points among all was directly promoted, which renders the zonal division meaningless: all teams played against each other and still there was something like combined final table – otherwise there would be no reason for the winner with more points to get direct promotion.
Promoted from Third Division were:
Talleres (Buenos Aires). Standing from left: Javier González, José Logatto, Derlis Giménez, Néstor Iglesias, Juan De Angelis, Osvaldo Diez.
First row: Juan José Laszlo, Gabriel Marrone, Jorge Franzoni, Marcelo Pérez Álvarez, Alberto Petorrosi.
Argentino (Rosario).
Relegated to Third Division were Central Cordoba (Rosario) and Villa Dalmine (Buenos Aires). Villa Dalmine was no mystery – they finished last in Zona B. Central Cordoba, however, was 8th in Zona A. Not only Arsenal (Sarandi), Deportivo Espanol (Buenos Aires), and Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) were bellow Central Cordoba, but ever one of them finished with worst record than Villa Dalmine – the only reason for relegation could be combined record of several championships, nothing else makes any sense.
The season was not good for some better known clubs.
Lanus was 9th in Zona B with 39 points. Banfield was just before Lanus – 8th. Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) was last in Zona A and the team with the worst final record in both zones – 31 points. Arsenal was unheard of club at this time, but Colon, often playing first division football, was only 6th in Zona A.
The top 4 teams in Zona A proceeded to the promotional play-offs: Tigre, 1st with 50 points, Almirante Brown, 2nd with 44, Los Andes, 3rd with 44, and Chacarita Juniors, 4th with 43 points.
Sarmiento was unlucky – 5th with 43 points. Worse goal-difference by a single goal placed them bellow Chacarita Juniors.
In Zona B the team going to promotional play-offs were: Estudiantes (Buenos Aires), 5th with 46 points, Quilmes, 4th with 46 points, All Boys, 3rd with 46 points, and Deportivo Italiano (Buenos Aires) – 2nd with 48 points.
Atlanta (Buenos Aires) won Zona B with 53 points – the best record in the whole Second Division this year. Standing from left: Raúl Domínguez, Rubén D. Gómez, Adrián Bianchi, Verón, Bernardis, Luis Díaz, Millicay. First row: Villagra, Graciani, Alfredo Torres y Milano.
Well, combine table makes Atlanta Second Division champions and so they were. Directly promoted because of that. Well done.
The play-offs proceeded in standard cup format – two-leg ¼ finals, ½ finals, final. Tigre was eliminated right away – it took penalty shoot-out, but still the champions of Zona A lost.
Quilmes finished in the semi-finals, where they were eliminated by Los Andes. Meantime Chacarita Juniors eliminated Deportivo Espanol.
All Boys vs Chacarita Juniors was the last clash. Chacarita won the home leg 2-0 and tied the away leg 3-3.
Los Andes failed to reach first division – not a bad campaign, but they really pushed to the limit at the play-offs. Curiously, the final was between the 3rd – Los Andes – and the 4th – Chacarita Juniors – in Zona A. Was it just a single table, neither team would have been dreaming of promotion… so the end was better even for losers at the final.
Chacarita Juniors had every reason for joy – if it was a single final table, they would have been 10th. Thanks to the peculiar rules, they not only had a chance to get promoted, but actually did it. A return to first division was wonderful, especially because their neighbours and rivals Atlanta won the direct promotion – now the rivals would not laugh at more popular Chacarita Juniors from above. Well done.