The problems of Argentine football were chronic and there is no point repeating them year after year. Perhaps one result from them was the increase of ties – 1980 was a season of ties for sure. Only one team – Union (Santa Fe) – finished with less then 10 ties. Even with Maradona Argentinos Juniors tied 16 games, winning only 13. The record belonged to Quilmes and Racing – both finished with 18 ties, exactly half of the total matches of the season. Racing had almost ‘perfect’ final record: 9 wins, 18 ties, 9 losses, 35-34 goal-difference. Almost a goal-per-match scored and received. Quilmes outscored Racing by 2 goals – like almost everybody else in the league (only three teams scored same or less goals then Racing. However, defensively Racing finished second – only River Plate received less goals). Just one club scored more then 60 goals this season – River Plate (64). Some clubs failed, particularly Independiente (14th) and Estudiantes (12th). At the end of the table were clubs from Greater Buenos Aires – the last three were relegated.
Tigre (Victoria) ended dead last after terrible season – they finished with 21 points.
All Boys (Buenos Aires) was 18th with 23 points. Like Tigre, they were clear outsiders, well weaker than the rest of the league. All Boys distinguished themselves with the worst strikers this year (29 goals) and won the least number of matches – only 3.
Quilmes finished 17th – the memories of their great victory were still very fresh, yet, the club plummeted so quickly to relegation.
Standing from left: Fanesi, Palacios, Milozzi, Moralejo, Zárate, Bourgeois.
First row: Godoy, Bianchini, Andreuchi, Gáspari, Salguero.
Unlike All Boys and Tigre, Quilmes fought and had a chance to survive, but eventually was outpaced by San Lorenzo de Almagro, which finished 3 points ahead of poor Quilmes.
San Lorenzo survived, but hey had very poor season indeed – to see them that low in the table was unusual. But this was nothing compared to the disastrous season the most successful Argentinian club of the 1970s had:
With 35 points, Independiente came close to the unthinkable – relegation. True, they were more successful internationally than domestically, but to see them finishing 14th… a crisis was looming at last. Few other traditionally strong clubs had weak season as well: Velez Sarsfield finished 15th, Estudiantes (La Plata) – 12th, and Boca Juniors – 7th. Mighty Boca even ended with negative goal-difference: 43-47.
On the positive side were few provincial clubs, which may not had been stronger than the big clubs, but at least took advantage of the weak performance of the biggies. Union (Santa Fe) was 5th, the only club with less than 10 ties this season, and a team obviously dedicated to attacking football – they finished with 16 wins, the second highest number in the league. Unfortunately, they lost too many matches – 13. Two points better than Union were Platense (Florida, Greater Buenos Aires) and Talleres (Cordoba). Not bad for both teams, but with 41 points they really fought only for the silver medals and lost.
Thanks to better goal-difference, Talleres clinched the bronze medals. Well done, overall – those were good years for Talleres, having a strong by their standards.
Argentinos Juniors finished 2nd with 42 points – one better than Talleres. Excellent season, one might say. Captained by Diego Maradona, already a superstar, the team soared. Unfortunately, Argentinos Juniors were essentially one-man team – surely Maradona was magical, but still one man was unable to win the championship. Maradona was the top scorer of the season – with 25 goals, he practically had no rival (Dante Sanabria of Huracan was second with 22 goals), but his goals were only good enough for second place. Defensively, the team was a disaster – 12 teams had better defensive record than them, including the relegated Quilmes. Finishing second was great, no doubt, but Argentinos Juniors was not even for a moment competing for the title. And Maradona was leaving… so the future was shaky already.
There was no competition for the top place in the league – River Plate comfortably won one more title 9 points ahead of Argentinos Juniors.
‘One great team’, they were called – and what else, after so confident victory – but there is a ‘but’. Passarella, Fillol, Luque, Alonso, Tarantini, just coming back from England: half team current World champions. Add Lopez, Commisso, Pavoni… and keep in mind Saporiti and Gonzalez. Strong, but just a bit short from excellent. However, much better composed team than any other and clearly superior squad, compared to the rest of the league. One more title, why not two titles?