Campeonato Nacional. Although much easier to understand and follow then the Brazilian monster, the Argenine national championship had the expected South American peculiarities hardly making sense elsewhere. Unlike Brazil, the Argentine structure seemingly embraced the whole country – first provincial qualifications, then the big clubs joined. A long championship organized like that is difficult to show in its entirety, so generally – even in Argentina – it is observed only from this late stage when the big clubs were included. 32 teams divided into 8 groups. Then… the mystery: no team was out of the game after this stage – the top 2 teams in the group proceeded to Group Winners, the lower placed – to Group Losers. It was straight direct elimination from this point to the group finals. It was simple in the group of the winners, but the other group was more complicated: after every round the losers in the Group Winners moved to Group Losers, having new chance to qualify. And after that the winners of Group Winners and Group Losers went to play the final for the title between themselves, with little bonus to the winner of Group Winners: the final was single match, but in case it ended in a tie, there was a replay. That was the bonus for the winner of Group Winner – having a second chance to prevail on the field instead of going to chancy penalty shoot-out. And if there was a tie again? Well, one second chance is enough… shoot-out.
Strange formula, to say the least: the strongest teams were going to ruin each other and at the same time one of the weaker, having lucky run, could win the national title. There was room for unhealthy scheming – a good team could simply underperformed in the original groups just to appear in the next stage against weaker opponents and reach the final relatively easy. Perhaps the big clubs pulled some weight for such rule to appear: some were going to be eliminated too early otherwise. Perhaps there was also concern about traveling expenses: the ‘winners’ most likely were to be the big clubs and since they were clustered in Buenos Aires and nearby towns, they did not have to travel to some backwaters. Geographically, the ‘backwaters’ were likely to be nearer to each other than to Buenos Aires, so they would not have to travel very far either. No matter what the actual arguments were, the formula was suspect and only real justification for it is that was last Campeonato Nacional, tucked in transitional season, so let get over with as quickly as possible – it had to finish in September and the new scheduled championship start right after the Nacional final. The ‘big’ clubs were the members of not playing first division and how they performed in the Nacional did not matter a bit as for who will be in the ‘new’ top league.
Since tables in the original 8 groups did not matter, let proceed directly to the important next stage – original groups will be given in brackets, just for information.
Group Winners
Boca Juniors (Group B) 3-2 0-2 Vélez Sarsfield (Group G)
Deportivo Español (Group H) 2-1 0-5 River Plate (Group D)
Ferro Carril Oeste (Group H) 1-0 2-1 Unión (Group D)
Independiente (Group C) 3-1 3-2 Ramón Santamarina (Group A)
Newell’s Old Boys (Group E) 0-0 2-1 Chacarita Juniors (Group F)
San Lorenzo de Almagro (Group E) 2-2 0-1 Argentinos Juniors (Group F)
San Martín (Group G) 4-2 0-0 Estudiantes (Rio Cuarto, Group B)
Talleres (Group C) 1-1 1-3 Estudiantes (La Plata, Group A)
Round 3:
Ferro Carril Oeste (BA) 3-0 Independiente (A)
Newell’s Old Boys 1-2 Vélez Sarsfield
(aet)
River Plate 2-0 Estudiantes LP
San Martín (T) 0-2 Argentinos Juniors
Round 4:
Ferro Carril Oeste (BA) 0-3 Argentinos Juniors
Vélez Sarsfield 3-0 River Plate
Round 5:
Argentinos Juniors 2-0 Vélez Sarsfield
Vélez Sarsfield 2-0 Argentinos Juniors
(aet 2-4 on PK)
Argentinos Juniors won the group Winners. Standing from left: Olguín, Domenech, Pavoni, Vidallé, Villalba, Batista.
First row: Castro, Videla, Pasculli, Comisso, Ereros.
Group Losers
Round 2:
Altos Hornos Zapla 2-0 1-2 Argentino (F)
Atlético Cipolletti 0-0 1-3 Instituto
Atletico Cipolletti eliminated.
Belgrano (C) 2-1 1-3 Huracán Las Heras
Belgrano (Cordoba) eliminated.
Central Norte 0-0 3-2 Círculo Deportivo
Curculo Deportivo eliminated.
Gimnasia y Esgrima LP 3-0 0-1 Juventud Antoniana
Guaraní Antonio Franco 0-0 0-1 Platense (VL)
Guarani Antonio Franco eliminated.
Huracán (BA) 2-1 1-1 (aet) Racing (C)
Juventud Alianza 4-3 1-4 (aet) Temperley
Round 3:
Boca Juniors 3-1 Altos Hornos Zapla
Chacarita Juniors 0-0 Huracán (BA)
(aet 4-3 on PK)
Huracan (Buenos Aires) eliminated. Standing from left: Juan A. Sánchez, ?, Rodolfo Rafaelli, ?, Hugo I. Ramírez, Carlos A. Gay.
Croching: Daniel Messina, Claudio Morresi, Claudio Cabrera, Claudio García, ?.
Deportivo Español 2-0 Gimnasia y Esgrima LP
Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) eliminated.
Estudiantes (RC) 0-1 Temperley
Estudiantes (Rio Cuarto) eliminated.
Ramón Santamarina 1-1 Central Norte
(aet 2-4 on PK)
Ramon Santamarina eliminated.
San Lorenzo de Almagro 3-3 Huracán Las Heras
(aet 3-2 on PK)
Talleres (C) 0-4 Instituto
Talleres (Cordoba) eliminated.
Unión (SF) 3-0 Platense (VL)
Round 4:
Central Norte 0-0 Unión (SF)
(aet 1-3 on PK)
Chacarita Juniors 2-0 San Lorenzo de Almagro
(aet)
San Lorenzo eliminated.
Estudiantes LP 1-1 Deportivo Español
(aet 6-5 on PK)
Deportivo Espanol eliminated
Independiente (A) 1-0 Boca Juniors (Abandoned at 85′)
Boca Juniors eliminated.
Newell’s Old Boys 2-1 Temperley
Temperley eliminated.
San Martín (T) 0-0 Instituto
(aet 4-1 on PK)
Instituto (Cordoba) eliminated. Standing from left: Abel Moralejo, Roberto Brunetto, Ramón B. Alvarez, Miguel A. Rodríguez, Pedro Sánchez, Enrique Nieto.
First row: Osvaldo Mattei, Rodolfo C. Rodríguez, Osvaldo Márquez, Alberto Beltrán, Sergio N. González.
Round 5:
Chacarita Juniors 0-1 Newell’s Old Boys
Chacarita Juniors eliminated.
Estudiantes LP 1-0 San Martín (T)
San Martin (Tucuman) eliminated.
River Plate 1-0 Unión (SF)
Ferro Carril Oeste (BA) 0-0 Independiente (A)
(aet 2-4 on PK
Ferro Carril Oeste eliminated. Standing from left: Agonil, Fantaguzzi, Garré, Cúper, Marchesini, Basigalup.
Crouching: Roberto Gómez, Gustavo Acosta, Noremberg, Daniel Fernández, Crocco.
Round 6:
Independiente (A) 0-2 Newell’s Old Boys
Independiente eliminated. Standing from left: Goyén, Clausen, Trossero, Villaverde, Marangoni, Enrique.
Crouching: Gambier, Percudani, Burruchaga, Bochini, Reinoso.
River Plate 4-1 Estudiantes LP
Estudiantes (La Plata) eliminated.
Round 7:
River Plate 2-0 Newell’s Old Boys
Newell’s Old Boys eliminated.
Round 8:
Vélez Sarsfield 2-1 River Plate
River Plate lost the chance to win the championship. Standing from left: Gordillo, Gallego, Borelli, Pumpido, Ruggeri, Montenegro.
First row: Amuchástegui, Francescoli, Morresi, Héctor Enrique, Alfaro.
Vélez Sarsfield won the group Losers.
Round 9: final
Argentinos Juniors 1-1 Vélez Sarsfield
(aet 3-4 on PK)
As Argentinos Juniors came from group Winners and had a new chance. Strange rule, but rule…
Grand Final
Round 10:
Vélez Sarsfield 1-2 Argentinos Juniors
Champion: Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors.
One may say that rules were against Velez Sarsfield, but they lost twice: first they lost the Group Winners final to Argentinos Juniors, so after 3 matches played between these team Velez Sarsfield lost twice and won one match after penalty shoot-out. Fare. Even as a squad they were less impressive than their nemesis. One may note the goalkeeper Navarro Montoya – he will appear in another championship this very year, the Colombian, and will also play his only games for a national team for that country – his dual citizenship eventually will cut his international career short – Colombia did not used him for her national team after 1985 and his desire to play for Argentina was never fulfilled, although FIFA eventually bent her own rules and permitted him to play for Argentina. That was many years after 1985, Navarro Montoya was already 32 by then and Argentinian coaches thought he was too old for the national team. Ciciuffo, however, will be World champion soon.
Standing from left: Lucca, Fren, Vanemerak, Navarro Montoya, Gissi, Gabrich.
First row: Hernández, Meza, Ciciuffo, Comas, Héctor W. López.
The best ever year of Argentinos Juniors – back to back Argentine title and this time they were the singular champions, not having to share triumphs with another champion. Intercontinental champion. Interamerican champion – for that later. One may forget Diego Maradona – his original club succeeded without him, with other heroes. Wonderful underdogs.