Bolivia. The only country with regular, uncomplicated championship in South America this year. The 14-team league had representatives of only 6 cities – La Paz and Santa Cruz had 4 teams each, Cochabamba – 3, and Oruro, Potosi, and Sucre – 1 each. Below them was a wider tournament was played – a second level championship, which winner was promoted to the top professional league. As for the first league, perhaps the most impressive thing was high scoring: at that time scoring rapidly declined everywhere, so to have 3.79 goal-average was nice. The numbers, however, were not because fantastic football was played in Bolivia, but because most clubs were weak.
Independiente Petrolero (Sucre) won the second level championship and was promoted. For the first time in their history they were going to play first division football – naturally, wonderful achievement, especially because Independiente Petrolero did better than their city rivals Stormers. As it happened, they were taking their place.
Stormers, an old and occasionally successful club, had very bad season – and not only season: it was more or less the end of them. The club never really recovered, no doubt the key reason was lack of money.
Stormers – or Stormer’s Sporting Club, as it is the full name, corrupted with time to Stormers – were pathetic outsiders this season. They won 2 matches, tied 2 , and lost 22. Their defense was really nothing – in 26 championship matches they received 103 goals. Memorable… on the negative side of records. Stormers were so bad, no other club of top flight had to fear relegation. But with Stormers down, Sucre suddenly was coming to the sad moment of not having first division team… luckily, Independiente Petrolero won promotion.
Even with an outsider, the first division was divided in three different groups: lowly teams at the bottom, quite below the rest – Independiente Unificada ( Potosi) – 13th, Always Ready (La Paz) – 12th, and Aurora (Cochabamba) – 11th. Above them was slightly better group – Real (Santa Cruz), San Jose (Oruro), Guabira (Santa Cruz), and Municipal (La Paz).
Guabira (Santa Cruz) – a typical smallish Bolivian club. 8th this year. More then half of the league was quite weak, but even those above them were not particularly great. Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz), Blooming (Santa Cruz), and Bolivar (La Paz) were clearly stronger than most of the league, but not for a minute they challenged the top league spots.
Bolivar – 4th this year, which amounted to very weak season for them. Bronze medals were way out of their reach – 4 points away at the end. Bolivar had the second best scoring record, though – 68 goals.
Two clubs fought for 2nd and 3rd place – an important battle, because the 2nd in the final table was getting the second Bolivian spot in Copa Libertadores. One point decided the lucky team.
Petrolero (Cochabamba) lost the battle and finished with bronze, but they had curious season: apparently, their approach was defensive. They lost only one match – no other club matched their record – but tied also a record number of games: 12.
The Strongest (La Paz) prevailed in the battle with Petrolero thanks to winning – they won 17 matches and eventually ended one point better than their rivals. However, 2nd place was hardly a success for a club used to trophies and this year they never came near the leaders. There was a single club dominating the championship: Jorge Wilstermann. Usual suspects, of course, but they were overwhelmingly strong. 22 wins, 2 ties, and 2 losses. 75-14 goal-difference – best strikers and best defenders. The Strongest finished 7 points behind – Jorge Wilstermann had no rival at all.
Solid champions, one more title going to Cochabamba. 7th title and a period called by the club ‘the third golden era’. A short ‘era’ it may have been, but success is success and this was the first title Jorge Wilstermann won since the Bolivian league became fully professional.