Category: 1983

Chile. A championship so complicated, it deserves a note. There was Campeonato Apertura, followed by Campeonato Oficial, with Copa Chile overlapping Oficial. The official champion was the one of Campeonato Oficial. There were promotions to the higher league after Apertura, based not on results, but on administrative criteria – ‘good venues, meaning large enough stadiums and attendance. Rules differed for different divisions as well as the championship formats. The Apertura in First Division only gave a chance for the winner to compete for the second Libertadores spot after the end of Oficial. The Cup – Chile was and is the only South American country having national cup tournament, although for a short time and involving only the top league clubs – gave bonus points for the winner (2 points) and the losers at the final and the semi-finals (1 point) to be carried to Oficial. The parallel cup for the Second Division involved only 10 clubs, had no final and the only purpose for it was the bring extra revenue for the participants. The Apertura gave bonus points to the top 4 clubs to be carried to Oficial – 2 points for the winner and 1 point for losing finalist and semi-finalists. However, 2 clubs were promoted after Apertura to First Division – cities, judged to be ‘good venues’. Talcahuano and Temuco were the cities, so Huachipato and Green Cross moved up. Huachipato won the Apertura, but could not carry its 2 bonus points to the higher division. On the other hand Green Cross did not go even to the second phase of the championship, but went up anyway. Thus, the top league was enlarged to 22 teams in the middle of the year. Second Division started with 18 teams, but finished with 24. Five Third Division clubs were promoted administratively for Oficial – performance did not matter: Third Division was divided into three groups and no team from Central Group went up. One team from the Northern Group and 4 teams from Southern Group were considered having big enough stadiums and attendance to join the higher division. So far, so good, but some mystery remains – with 2 teams exiting and 5 joining, Second Division had 21 teams at the beginning of Oficial – where three more, to make the final number of 24, came from? So strange and complicated,

Quintero Unido (Quintero) boasts they were Third Division champions in 1983. They were one of the promoted to Second Division teams in mid-year. At this point, they only won a stage of Third Division championship – they finished 1st in the Northern Group. One may understand the club… this was the only time they ended first, but champions? The Third Division championship continued without them and the other 4 promoted teams and ended with official champion: Super Lo Miranda (Lo Miranda). They and second placed Ivan Mayo (Villa Alemana) were promoted to Second Division for the 1983 season.

At the time Quintero Unido finished first in the Northern Group of Third Division, the Apertura of Second Division ended. Huachipato (Talcahuana) won it, finishing on top of the final group. What they got was 2 bonus points, but since they were promoted to play in the top league for the rest of the year, the points meant nothing – they were valid only for the Second Division Oficial championship. Those behind Huachipato – San Luis, Cobresal, and Coquimbo Unido – carried their bonus point to Oficial.

Oficial was all that mattered. The formula was strange – the league was divided into 2 12-team groups in which every team played twice against all others. A second round followed – again in 2 groups, but made differently – the top 6 of the initial groups got the bottom 6 of the other group. This time the teams met only once against each other and after this stage was finished a final aggregate table was made. Every team played 33 games, but there were teams never playing against each other, for they never appeared in the same group. The final table not only decided the league champion, but also decided promotion and relegation. Two teams were directly relegated and the four immediately above them went to play-offs deciding two more relegated. The bottom of the final table was quite strange – Santiago Morning (Santiago) was last with 19 points. This was the most famous club going to Third Division. Colchagua (San Fernando) was 23rd with 23 points – they also used to play top league football. Nuble Unido (Chillan) was 22nd – the name sound unfamiliar, but they changed to it in the middle of the year: originally, this was Nublense, a club playing for years in the top division. Curico Unido (Curico) was 21st with 25 points – the only mid-season newcomer facing relegation. Ovalle (Ovalle), one more former first division member was 20th with 27 points, and San Antonio Unido (San Antonio) was 19th with 28 points. At the relegation play-offs Curico Unido and Ovalle prevailed rather easily and remained in the Second Division. Relegated were: Santiago Morning, Colchagua, Nuble Unido, and San Antonio Unido.

Osorno (Osorno) was very lucky – they ended 18th with 28 points. Safe. But it was only better goal-difference placing them there.

Up the table the newcomers must be mentioned: those, lifted up from Third Division performed surprisingly well. Curuco Unido was the worst, but even they managed to escape relegation back to Third Division. The other four were quite solid: General Velasquez (San Vicente de Tagua Tagua) was 16th, Union Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz) – 14th, Quintero Unido – 13th, and Victoria (Victoria) – 8th.

From the better known members of Second Divison – known, because of years playing top league football,

Concepcion (Concepcion) ended 10th with 36 points,

Union Calera (La Calera) – 9th with 36 points, and

Lota Schwager (Coronel) – 7th with 37 points. Lota Schwager missed a chance for promotion almost unfairly at a glance: Coquimbo Unido was above them thanks to the bonus point carried from otherwise meaningless Campeonato Apertura. If not for this extra point… Well, without this point it would have been the same, Lota Schwager still 7th, on worse goal-difference.

Those, placed from 3rd to 6th place went to promotion play-offs. Coquimbo Unido (Coquimbo) was 6th with 38 points, La Serena (La Serena) – 5th with 40 points, Malleco Unido (Angol) – 4th with 40 points, and Laja (Laja) – 3rd with 42 points.

Deportes Laja desreves a note of praise: practically unknown small club, they had fantastic season, including winning their group in the Cup tournament. It would have been wonderful, if they ended with promotion, they were so close. But they lost.

The other small club, Malleco Unido, also lost – after winning the pay-offs former first division members went up: La Serena and

Coquimbo Unido.

And at the top of Second Division and directly promoted were San Luis (Quillota), 2nd with 44 points, and Cobresal (El Salvador). Both teams played consistently strong season – did well in the Apertura and better in the Oficial. As a result, their bonus points were practically unneeded. But San Luis was only solid, consistent, and squirreling points – Cobresal excelled.

Cobresal was superior – they finished 12 points ahead of San Luis, losing only one match in the campaign. They were 3rd in the meaningless Apertura, did not play in the meaningless cup torunament, and ended first in the both stages of Oficial. At the end they had 23 wins, 9 ties, lost just one match, added a bonus point from Aperura, outscored everybody with 67 goals (the second best was Coquimbo Unido with 58) and had astonishing defense, allowing only 18 goals (the next best defensive record belonged to Malleco Unido – 30 goals). Cobresal were far above anybody in the league and speculations what could have been if two teams were not promoted in the mid-year are futile: Huachipato won the Apertura, but the championship hardly counted for anything and Cobresal did well in it too. Meantime Green Cross was less than impressive and unable to move beyond the opening stage – it was unlikely they would have been very strong later in the year. Cobresal was start from the start and getting stronger as the season progressed. Perhaps what was really strange is that they were not administratively promoted after Apertura, but even this was just fine – not promoted, they were able to earn a trophy: true, champions of only Second Division, but champions.

Because everything was muddy, let repeat the promoted teams: Cobresal (El Salvador), San Luis (Quillota), La Serena (La Serena), and Coquimbo Unido (Coquimbo).

Uruguay.

Some clubs were out of sight – like Racing – and that concerning only Montevideo clubs, for there were no other in the first, second, and third division. Colon, Fenix, and Liverpool got a chance to run for promotion, but only the winner of Second Division was directly promoted:

Central Espanol finished 1st and returned to the top league.

River Plate – 13th and last in First Division was relegated. They finished with 16 points.

Rampla Juniors ended 12th with 19 points. They were safe – combined record of previous championships decided the team going to relegation/promotion play-off.

Huracan Buceo – 11th with 20 points – went to relegation/promotion play off. Standing from left: Enrique Peña , Roberto Santos , Raúl Mirabal , Andrés Ortuño , Miguel Leone, Luis Cáceres.

Front row: Juan Contreras, Victor Mastropiero, Julio Daniel Morales, Daniel Tores, Luis Paiva.

They played round-robin tournament against Liverpool, Fenix, and Colon from Second Division, won 5 and lost 1 game, finished first and preserved their place in the top league.

Miramar Misiones – 10th with 20 points.

Sud America – 9th with 20 points.

Cerro – 8th with 22 points.

Surprise, surprise… Penarol 7th with 22 points. Hard to believe, but that was the upsetting fact. Most likely the team was just too tired and unfocussed from playing too much international football, but for Penarol that could not be valid excuse.

Progreso was 6th with 24 points.

Wanderers – 5th with 25 points.

Bella Vista – 4th with 28 points.

Defensor won the bronze with 29 points. Standing from left: Ferron, “El Piti” Sarubbi, Hector Roux, “El Pete” Russo, Maeso, Eduardo Acevedo, Pablo Forlan.

Crouching: Daniel Oddine, Miguel Caillava, “El Polilla” Jorge Orosman Da Silva, Rafael Villazan, Abel Tolosa, Ganeglius. The big figure here was Pablo Forlan, old and at the very end of his long and illustrious career, but still good enough to hel a team to high position. Defensor, however, depended on ties – they tied 15 of their 24 championship games.

Wonderful season for Danubio – they may have been a bit lucky, for they finished above Defensor only because had better goal-difference by a single goal, but they got silver. Then they won the mini-tournament for the second Uruguayan spot in Copa Libertadores. Danubio was really getting recognized and establishing itself among the leading clubs of the country.

This year’s champions had no rivals whatsoever – 16 wins, 6 ties, 2 losses, 46-13, 38 points. The second in the table had 9 points less. Standing rom left: Rodolfo Rodriguez, Ferrari, Berrueta, W. Gonzalez, “Chico” Moreira, Aguirregaray.

First row: Alzamendi, Luzardo, Wilmar Cabrera, Miguel Angel Brindisi, Aguilera.

Good squad, no doubt, but did not look stronger than Penarol’s – on paper. It had a foreign star – the Argentine midfielder Miguel Brindisi. By now, his name was fading and he was getting old, but still the champion. As for the club’s name – there is no need to mention it… who else but Nacional. One more title, so routine. The only ‘new’ thing about them is perhaps the photo itself – using the less familiar second kit with red shirts. So strong Nacional was this year – or may be the opposition too weak – that they hardly ever used all their star players in the starting eleven, so some of them are missing here: Cid, Perdomo, Sosa, to name a few.

Metropolitano First Division. A note on relegation is in order: point average of the last two seasons determined the two relegated teams, according to relegation table. Racing Club and Nueva Chicago were at the bottom of this table and were relegated to the second division.

19 teams played in the top league at this time standard two-legged championship. After 38 rounds, the final table was a bit unusual – largely reflecting financial situation of some clubs.

Atletico Racing (Cordoba) was last with 27 points.

River Plate (Buenos Aires) – 18th with 29 points. Standing from left: Saporiti, Jorge García, Olarticoechea, Gallego, Puentedura, Nieto.

Crouching: Bica, Messina, Francescoli, Tapia, De Vicente.

Very lean and troublesome season for the mighty club – the squad reflects the problems, although a team featuring Francescoli, Olarticoechea, Gallego, and Tapia seemed able to perform stronger.

Racing Club (Avellaneda) – 17th with 30 points. Their lowly position was less surprising – the club was ailing ever since they conquered the world back in the 1960s, but this year they were relegated and that was shocking – one of the ‘big five’ was going to second division.

Rosario Central (Rosario) – 16th with 30 points. Very weak season, unusually weak. A season club and fans wanted to forget as quickly as possible.

Nueva Chicago (Buenos Aires) – 15th with 32 points. Standing from left: Erba, Loyarte, Traverso, Lucca, Larramendi.

First row: Galván, Bina, Acuña, Vera Benítez, Hermosilla Flores, Vega.

Actually, not a bad season for the smallish club – especially when their performance in the other championship is added – but they were relegated. Unfortunate.

Huracan (Buenos Aires) 14th with 32 points. Standing from left: Carlos Martínez, Christian Angeletti, Enrique Vidallé, Marcelo Bottari, Osvaldo Cortés, Jorge Romero.

First row: Claudio García, Rubén Carrá, Néstor Di Luca, Jorge J. Gutiérrez, Dante Sanabria.

Another big club down in the table. Disastrous season for traditional leaders.

Talleres (Cordoba) – 13th with 33 points. Not bad, when one looks who is behind them.

Temperley (Temperley) – 12th with 33 points. Looks rather insignificant place, but this was arguably one of the strongest seasons of the club – when the whole season is looked at.

Platense (Vicente Lopez) – 11th with 34 points. Standing from left: Sánchez Sotelo, Biasutto, Pavón, Ginanni, Scigliano, Roldán.

First row: Cabral, Magalhaes, Petti, Grimoldi, Anzarda.

Not bad at the first glance, but they were 17th in the relegation table. This season helped little and the next one seemed to be crucial – avoiding relegation was the only concern.

Instituto (Cordoba) – 10th with 35 points. Their usual… and nothing to brag about.

Newell’s Old Boys (Rosario) – 9th with 35 points. Modest season, but safe and much better than local rivals Rosario Central.

Argentinos Juniors (Buenos Aires) – 8th with 36 points. Their rise was explained mostly by the presence of Maradona – once he left, the normally modest club was expected to plummet down immediately. But so much was focused on the superstar, that the rest of the squad was overlooked – it was not bad and most amazingly the club managed to keep its decent players. And quietly a star was added too. So, they continued their rather good spell.

Boca Juniors (Buenos Aires) – 7th with 37 points. Standing from left: Mouzo, Ruggeri, Berta, Gatti, Mendoza, Córdoba.

Crouching: Gareca, Juan J. López, Jorge Domínguez, Pasucci, Alves.

Frankly, a disappointment. It may have been the leaving of Maradona, but still the squad was better than most – on paper.

Estudiantes (La Plata) – 6th with 38 points. If one takes only this championship – solid, but nothing special. If both championships are looked at – another story.

Union (Santa Fe) – 5th with 38 points. Strong season for them.

Velez Sarsfield (Buenos Aires) – 4th with 44 points. Standing from left: Bujedo, Moralejo, Jorge, Pumpido, Cuciuffo, Larraquy.

First row: Nannini, Bianchi, Norberto Alonso, Vanemerak, Comas.

Good season and no surprise, given the squad – Carlos Bianchi back from France and still the deadly scorer (2nd in the league with 22 goals), Norberto Alonso, and up and coming future world champions Pumpido and Cuciuffo.

Ferro Carril Oeste (Buenos Aires) – 3rd with 46 points. If only this season is looked at, may be surprising performance – the team hardly had any big names in its squad. But as modest as they were, these boys were one of the strongest ever squads of the club and enjoyed the strongest period in the club’s history. Third place was just great.

San Lorenzo de Almagro (Buenos Aires) missed the previous season, but came back with vengeance and almost won the championship. Second with 47 points at the end – one point behind the champions. Not a squad bursting with big names, but ambitious and promising. Well, big clubs cannot stay down for long.

By now the champions should be known to everybody – Independiente (Avellaneda) was not mentioned so far. It was not overwhelming victory – the team really had to fight for it, prvailing by a single point – but still it was the most deserving team. 16 wins, 16 ties, only 4 lost games, 54-38, and 48 points. Third ranking in number of victories, most ties in the league, and least losses – rather defensive approach. Four teams scored more goals than them, the defense was second best – but a distant second (Ferro Carril Oeste allowed only 27 goals in their net). Nothing outstanding, but the squad was food for thought: not just the most solid in the league, but also with a future – Bochini, Burruchaga, Calderon, Killer, Olguin, Clausen… add Villaverde and Percudani. It looked like a new great squad was almost ready and quite at par with the wonderful teams of the first half of the 1970s. No other club had similar squad at the moment and there was every reason to believe that Independiente will dominate Argentinian football in the next years. If they were able to keep their players and add a few more – which was quite questionable. But why worry yet – enjoy the fresh title.

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.

Taca de Ouro. 40 teams started the marathon and after the first phase they were reduced to 32 – 12 teams were out, continuing in Taca de Prata and 4 teams joined the tournament, qualifying from Taca de Prata, 8 groups of 4 teams each, the top two qualifying to the next round and the lower two done with competition for this season. Out were:

Cruzeiro, Comercial (Campo Grande), Ponte Preta,

Internacional, Uberaba,

Vila Nova,

Campo Grande,

Bahia, Americano,

Tiradentes,

Sergipe,

Botafogo (Rio de Janeiro), America (Natal), Botafogo (Ribeirao Preto), Rio Negro.

Fluminense.

Third phase – same structure: 4 groups of 4 teams each, the top two qualifying to the ¼ finals. Eliminated at this stage were:

Palmeiras, Nautico, Colorado, America (Rio de Janeiro),

Gremio,

Ferroviaria, Guarani, and

Corinthians.

Quarter-finals. Here the messy rules played a role… away goals did not count, but earlier record qualified one team at this stage:

Sao Paulo was eliminated by Atletico Paranaense after 1-2 and 1-0. What made Atletico the winner is simply a mystery…

Goias was out on ‘earlier record’ – their clash with Santos resulted in two ties: 0-0 and 2-2. Goias scored 2 away goals – and was out. Santos had better record in the previous phase. No controversy in the other two quarter-finals.

Vasco da Gama was out after 1-2 and 1-1 against Flamengo, and

Sport was most clearly outplayed by Atletico Mineiro – 0-0 and 1-4.

Semi-finals and rules again… combined goal-difference was not decisive factor in case the opponents won one leg each and tie-breaker had to be played. Sometimes… at least, that was the case in the final of Taca de Prata – but not here.

Atletico Paranaense lost the first leg against Flamengo 0-3, but won 2-0 at home. And was out – which is easily understood, but since they reached this stage thanks to some other rule and generally combined goal-difference did not matter… why at this stage and, seemingly, at this stage only? At least the other semi-final was plain.

Atletico Mineiro lost the first leg to Santos 1-2 and was unable to win at home – 0-0.

Thus, Santos and Flamengo reached the final of the championship. Weird rules to the end… two-legged final, but here combined goal-difference counted. Did not count in Taca de Prata, but here it did. As for the finalists, one can wonder too – Santos participated in the tournament only because of ‘historic ranking’. By administrative fiat, not on merit. They qualified to the semi-finals thanks on ‘better record in the previous stage’. Again, not on merit. Flamengo reached the final on combined goal-difference, which did not always apply as a tie-breaker, but even so, Flamengo reached the final fairly. Fair, but since a final table was made after each tournament, there was still something strange: Santos accumulated more points than Flamengo during the season. Flamengo had a chance to get ahead, of course – Santos had only 1 point more – but did not.

Santos won the home leg 2-1 – Pita and Serginho scored for them and Baltazar for Flamengo. The second leg in Rio de Janeiro was all Flamengo, however – 3-0. Zico, Leandro, and Adilio scored. One victory to each finalist… which led to third match in Copa Libertadores, Taca de Prata, and sometimes in Taca de Ouro in the past. But not this year – Flamengo won on the combined goal-difference: 4-2.

Santos lost the final and remained uncrowned – so far, unable to win the national championship. Hard to judge, though… on one hand, Santos was ‘helped’ and it was good to see justice restored at last. On the other hand, they were the best team during the long weird championship – at least the most successful, finishing with most points – 36 – from 13 wins, 10 ties, and losing only 3 matches. With Paulo Isidoro, Serginho, Marcio, and Pita they had strong team – as strong as any other of the leading Brazilian teams, for none had more than 4-5 big stars in their roster. Good as any, for Corinthians with Socrates, Sao Paulo with Renato and Careca, and Gremio, currently at the top of the world, did not go very far. Overall, Santos did very well – very well, but lost the title.

Flamengo won its 3rd title. Thus, the most popular Brazilian club climbed on top, equalizing the record of Internacional (Porto Alegre). But Inter lost its edge a few year ago and now was the true time of Flamengo – they won their first Brazilian title in 1980, the second in 1982, and continued their strong spell in 1983. Most likely they had the best squad at this time – Zico, Junior, Leandro, Mozer, Raul, Baltazar. They did not need outside help like Santos, yet… Santos ended with more points than them this year. One can always doubt Brazilian football… that was the time when all talk was about Corinthians, led by Socrates. All talk, but Flamengo was winning and Corinthians was not reaching even semi-finals. Zico was true king and it was nice to see him champion. Cold statistics were in favour of the ‘White Pele’ – 3 titles. The real Pele had 0. Socrates – 0. Garrincha – 0. It was different at the bench, though – Flamego won three titles in 4 years, but with 3 different coaches. So far, the most successful coaches were not at the helm of Flamengo – Minelli was leading with three consecutive titles (1975 and 1976 with Inter and 1977 with Sao Paulo), followed by Brandao (twice with Palmeiras – 1972 and 1973) and Andrade (1979 with Inter and 1981 with Gremio). None of the Flamengo winning coaches repeated his success – neither with Flamengo, nor with any other club (Coutinho – 1980, Torres – 1982, Parreira – 1983). It looked like the players were the real driving force. Zico. Unfortunately, money was elsewhere… and the stars were going to Europe. Soon Zico was going to play for Italian Udinese. What a predicament… not worth playing for champions, better join rather lowly Italian club.

Taca de Prata. Hard to tell what the real strength was… the group winners in the second phase moved to Taca de Ouro. These were Americano, Botafogo (Ribeirao Preto), Guarani, and Uberaba. So, the strongest so far teams were out of the competition, but 12 clubs came from Taca de Ouro for the third stage: Moto Clube, Joinville, Galicia, Fortaleza, Mixto, Rio Branco, Brasilia, Treze, Paysandu, CSA, Juventus, and Ferroviario. The third phase corresponds to 1/8 finals – 16 teams and direct elimination. Mind: of the 36 second level starters only 4 and all of them second placed in their second phase groups continued in the third level – the rest all came down from the upper level, thanks to… finishing last in the first phase of Taca de Ouro. Among the early losers were:

Bangu – second phase,

America (Belo Horizonte), better known as America MG – first phase,

Coritiba – first phase,

Santa Cruz – second phase.

In the next round the original second level teams were further reduced in half: Guarany was eliminated by CSA and

Itumbiara – by Juventus.

The rest of the eliminated teams were:

Ferroviario,

Moto Clube,

Paysandu,

Treze,

Fortaleza, and Rio Branco.

Quarter-finals eliminated the last of the original starters of 1983 Taca de Prata:

Central – by Brasilia, and

Londrina – by Joinville.

Galicia lost to Juventus and Mixto – to CSA.

The semi-finals:

Brasilia (Brasilia) was out after 0-0 and 1-1 against CSA. Rules… CSA qualified because had better 4th record. No away goals, no over-time, no penalties, no replay…just record in the previous stage. Unlucky boys from the capital city.

Joinville was also eliminated after 0-0 and 1-2 against Juventus.

The final opposed CSA to Juventus and it was the typical South American affair: goals did not count, if there was no clear winner after the two legs, a tie-breaking third match was scheduled. There was no clear winner – CSA won at home 3-1, but Juventus won its home match 3-0. They also prevailed in the tie-breaker 1-0 and won Taca de Prata.

CSA – Centro Sportivo Alagoano – from the city of Maceió, one of the traditionally strongest clubs in the state of Alagoas, did well, but it was really mixed season: too weak to last in Taca de Ouro, they were quite fine in the second level, although with luck. Luck, however, rarely carry a team to the end – if away goals decided an outcome, CSA would have been eliminated in the semi-finals. Away goal was against them in the final too, but eventually they lost the tie-breaker, so some kind of justice prevailed.

Juventus – Clube Atlético Juventus (São Paulo) was in the same position like CSA, but managed to end with a trophy. At the time Juventus was practically unheard of and it was something like a miracle they were included in Taca de Ouro. But they did not last in the highest tournament and that was just as well – up there, they had no chance to win, even if they played surprisingly strong football. Taca de Prata was their level really and here they excelled and won. Which, apart from the trophy and name as champions, gave them ‘promotion’ to the next Taca de Ouro, one more try guaranteed.

Brazil. The complicated formula remained intact: 76 teams participated in the two levels, but they were not leagues and some teams moved from one tournament to the other, according to the weird rules. 40 teams started in Taca de Ouro, the highest level, and 36 in Taca de Prata, the second level. Participants were included according the lots given to every state, which depended largely on historic strength and clout. Sao Paulo had 6 spots, Rio de Janiero – 5, and the rest of the country – 2 or 1. State championships decided representatives. Except for two clubs – the winner of the previous year Taca de Prata was promoted in a sense, and one team got place because of ‘historical ranking’: those were Campo Grande (Rio de Janeiro) and famous Santos. “Historical ranking” was a bit of nonsense… ways had to be discovered, imagined, created, so no big club to be left out. So, Santos was in… everybody was in. But for how long and what that meant? After the first phase, played in 8 groups, the last in each moved to the third phase of the lower Taca de Prata. Second to last teams went to qualification play-offs between themselves and the losers also moved to the the third phase of Taca de Prata. In the same time the winners of 4 groups in the second phase of Taca de Prata moved up to continue in Taca de Ouro. 16 clubs moved from one level to another during the outgoing championship – and this rule practically rendered meaningless not only the ‘promotion’ of the winner of the lower level, but also inclusions due to ‘historical ranking’. Taca de Prata followed similar formula, so one way or another the famous clubs were included and their movement up, at least to some point, was more or less guaranteed.

Of course, Brazilian football is almost endless, so 76 clubs hardly cover everything – many clubs remained outside the national championship.

Uniao Skina Esporte Clube naturally had no chance of playing in the national championship – mere provincial amateurs.

Tuna Luso failed to qualify.

Uberlandia also missed the boat. Standing from left: Jorginho (comissão técnica), Moacir, Zé Mário, Zecão, Joel, Luiz Cosme, Carlos Alberto, Wilmar (comissão técnica)

Crouching: Marco Túlio (comissão técnica), Gil, Chiquinho, Maurinho, Wisner, Vivinho

Confianca was also out.

ABC was also out.

From entirely unknown clubs to barely familiar ones… Much depended on geography – states with few spots may have relatively bigger club out and in the same time another lowly state would have practically unknown team playing in Taca de Ouro. At least in the beginning.

Copa Libertadores. The usual format, established for years – five groups at first, where the representative of two countries competed and the winner proceeded to the semi-final round. The current holder joined the five group winners at this stage, the 6 teams divided into two groups of 3 teams each and their winners going to the final. Nothing all that dramatic at the opening stage:

Group 1 – Argentina and Chile. Perhaps the toughest group, but eventually Estudiantes (La Plata) came on top.

1.Estudiantes (La Plata) 6 3 1 2 8- 6 7

2.Cobreloa (Calama) 6 3 0 3 8- 6 6

3.Colo Colo (Santiago) 6 3 0 3 5- 8 6

4.Ferro Carril Oeste (Bs. Aires) 6 2 1 3 4- 5 5

Group 2 – Brazil and Bolivia. No contest here – Gremio was supreme.

1.Grêmio (Porto Alegre) 6 5 1 0 13- 4 11

2.Flamengo (Rio de Janeiro) 6 2 2 2 15-10 6

3.Bolívar (La Paz) 6 2 0 4 13-14 4

4.Blooming (Santa Cruz) 6 1 1 4 4-17 3

Group 3 – Colombia and Peru. The Colombian teams were clearly stronger, but Tolima was no match to America.

1.América (Cali) 6 4 2 0 10- 3 10

2.Tolima (Ibagué) 6 1 4 1 5- 6 6

3.Universitario (Lima) 6 0 4 2 5- 8 4

4.Alianza (Lima) 6 1 2 3 3- 6 4

Group 4 – Ecuador and Venezuela. The weakest countries grouped together, a little joke of chance. And rather surprisingly Venezuelan team won the group.

1.Atlético (San Cristóbal) 6 3 2 1 8- 4 8

2.El Nacional (Quito) 6 3 1 2 7- 4 7

3.Barcelona (Guayaquil) 5 1 2 2 7- 9 4

4.Táchira (San Cristóbal) 5 0 3 2 1- 6 3

Group 5 – Uruguay and Paraguay. The Uruguayans were simply too strong and extra match decided the winner between them.

1.Nacional (Montevideo) 6 4 1 1 12- 4 9

2.Wanderers (Montevideo) 6 3 3 0 9- 5 9

3.Nacional (Asunción) 6 1 2 3 6-12 4

4.Olimpia (Asunción) 6 0 2 4 3- 9 2

 

First Place Playoff

May 26: Nacional – Wanderers 2-0

[Luzardo, Aguilera]

Semi-final stage:

Group 1: Once again an Uruguayan battle, for the Venezuelans were way too weak to play any role. Penarol prevailed in the classic Montevideo derby, played this time on international stage.

1.Peñarol (Montevideo) 4 3 1 0 5- 1 7

2.Nacional (Montevideo) 4 2 0 2 8- 6 4

3.Atlético (San Cristóbal) 4 0 1 3 2- 8 1

Group 2. To a point, Gremio was lucky – they finished with 5 points, but their Argentinian pursuers still had one game to play and if they won the away match with America, a play-off had to be scheduled. But the Colombians held Estudiantes at a 0-0 draw and thus left them at the second place.

1.Grêmio (Porto Alegre) 4 2 1 1 7- 6 5

2.Estudiantes (La Plata) 4 1 2 1 6- 5 4

3.América (Cali) 4 1 1 2 2- 4 3

So, Gremio and Penarol went to the final, the Uruguayans with a strong chance to win the South American trophy for a second consecutive year and the Brazilians hoping to win it for the first time. It was typical heavy South American clash, with no favourite – relative strength or weakness practically played no role, the sides fueled by ambition. The first leg in Montevideo ended undecided – 1-1.

 

1st leg. Centenario, Montevideo, 22- 7-1983

 

Peñarol – Grêmio 1-1

Morena 1-0

Tita 1-1

 

Peñarol: G.Fernández, W.Olivera, N.Gutiérrez, N.Montelongo, V.H.Diogo, M.Bossio, W.Silva (J.Villarreal), M.Saralegui, F.Morena, J.L.Zalazar, V.Ramos.

Grêmio: Mazaropi, Baidek, De León, Paulo Roberto, China, Casemiro, Renato, Osvaldo, Caio (César), Tita, Tarciso.

 

Referee: Teodoro Nitti (Argentina)

Attendance: 70,000

 

The second leg in Porto Alegre only slightly favoured the home team – very often a third match had to be staged to decide the Copa Libertadores winner.

Almost ironically, it was bearded Uruguayan final – captains Hugo de Leon and Walter Olivera before the match started: both defenders, both Uruguayan stars, neither played World Cup finals, but if Olivera was getting old and this was one of his last chances to triumph internationally, De Leon was coming to his prime, a current star of the 1980s football.

Of course, there was nothing friendly on the pitch, both teams determined to win.

Eventually, Gremio scored, thanks to Caio, but Fernando Morena canceled the fragile lead.

Gremio did not give up, of course, and managed to score a second goal – interestingly, the substitute of Caio, Cesar directed the ball into the net.

Cesar celebrates.

Gremio was happy and Penarol had no answer this time – the match ended 2-1.

2nd leg. Olímpico, Porto Alegre, 28- 7-1983

 

Grêmio – Peñarol 2-1

Caio 1-0

Morena 1-1

César 2-1

 

Grêmio: Mazaropi, Baidek, De León, Paulo Roberto, China, Casemiro, Renato, Osvaldo, Caio (César), Tita, Tarciso.

Peñarol: G.Fernández, W.Olivera, N.Gutiérrez, N.Montelongo, V.H.Diogo, M.Bossio, W.Silva, M.Saralegui, F.Morena, J.L.Zalazar, V.Ramos.

 

Referee: Edison Pérez (Peru)

Attendance: 80,000

Copa Libertadores got new winner and to the delight of the massive home crowd Hugo de Leon received the coveted trophy.

Penarol lost, which of course did not please them in the least, but it was fair – the team was getting too old, they won everything possible already and were not getting stronger – it was time to step down. Nobody can blame the Uruguayans, though – their football may not have been the prettiest, but they were fighters and gave everything they had.

Greamio extracted difficult victory and added its name to the list of the greatest South American clubs. Standing from left: Paulo Roberto, Mazaropi, Baidek, China, Casemiro, de Leon.

First row: Renato Gaucho, Osvaldo, Caio, Tita, Tarciso.

A wonderful team at its peak this year – not everybody was a big star, but this victory more or less established bright new talent – Tita and Tarciso. There was more to it – Brazilian clubs rarely won Copa Libertadores and Gremio was only the 4th team to do so, after Santos, Cruzeiro, and Flamengo. Locally, it was even better – Inter (Porto Alegre) played a final once and lost it, so Gremio came ahead of their home rivals. Their victory practically placed Porto Alegre on the map on one hand, and on the other – the formidable team Inter had in the 1970s never managed to win internationally. Gremio, somewhat in the shadow of various Brazilian clubs and their mighty squads, did what others were unable to do – conquer South America. Wonderful achievement.

The Intercontinental Cup was played on December 11, 1983 in Tokyo. Hamburger SV (West Germany) vs Gremio (Brazil). By now, both teams had some changes, which, initially, appeared to tip the scales in favour of the European champion – Hrubesch was no longer with them, but Gremio was without Leao, more serious loss, considering the general weakness of Brazilian goalkeepers at the time. Yet, it was not easily predictable match – HSV lost quite a lot of its strength after winning the European Champions Cup in the spring, Europeans lost to South Americans all finals played after 1976, Gremio, lesser known to Europeans than other Brazilian clubs, had big group of formidable players. Weather was supposed to help the Germans, for, in theory, South Americans were not used to winter conditions and cold. On the other hand, Brazilians were traditionally very difficult opponent for German teams, no matter what.

The teams came out in front of 62 000 enthusiastic and predominantly Japanese crowd – the Japanese preferred Brazilian football, but they were too polite to create hostile atmosphere, so neither team was going to benefit by the ’12th player’: the hosts were going to cheer both teams, every great effort, and generally abstain from booing.

The match proved to be entertaining clash, played in very fast tempo and neither team shied away from the typical aggressive physical tackles and close marking of the 1980s football.

What was interesting, may be even surprising, was the conditions of Gremio – the Brazilians matched the Germans, never showing any sign of getting tired and slowing down.

Both teams played open, attacking football, and more technical Brazilians eventually started to prevail.

However, it was tiny difference – the Germans attacked at the moment they got the ball, they had their chances, but Gremio was slightly more dangerous and certainly more creative.

Which gave them more opportunities to shoot at the German net – midfielders and defenders were very good at killing attacks, so the chances to score were few, but Gremio had more and better ones than HSV. And they scored in the 38th minute – Renato Gaucho was the hero.

Hamburger SV eventually equalized in the 85th minute, thanks to Schroder, and the match went into extra-time.

Now Renato Gaucho scored his second goal – in the 93rd minute, which was somewhat too early against unbreakable Germans. But Gremio managed not only to keep its fragile lead, but also continued to attack to the last minute and was still the more dangerous team. At the final whistle it was precious 2-1 and Gremio was the King of the World.

Tokyo, National Stadium

December 11, 1983 Att: 62,000 Ref: Michel Vautrot (FRA)

 

Hamburger SV (GER) 1-2 (0-1) aet Grêmio FBPA (BRA)

0-1 38′ Renato Gaúcho

1-1 85′ Schroeder

1-2 93′ Renato Gaúcho

 

Hamburger SV : Stein – Wehmeyer, Hieronymus, Jacobs, Schroeder, Groh, Rolff, Magath, Hartwig, Hansen, Wuttke

Grêmio FBPA : Mazarópi – Paulo Roberto, Baidek, De León, Paulo César Magalhães, China, Osvaldo (Bonamigo), Mário Sérgio, Renato Gaúcho, Tarciso, Paulo César Caju (Caio)

Hugo De Leon received the Intercontinental Cup after well deserved victory.

And happiness was endless.

One more name added to the list of best teams in the world – Gremio.

Hamburger SV came close, but lost. It was bitter ending of the year – they lost the Supercup, then lost the Intercontinental Cup… the fall of 1983 was not the same as the spring of the same year. Something was missing, the form was not quite the same. HSV were fighters, but largely fighters now. Hard to point a finger at some major deficiency – they were still hungry, they tried their best, but came a bit short. The absence of three players was quite visible – Hrubesch, Kaltz, and Bastrup. Without them, HSV had problems in attack – it was not so creative, it was not so dangerous, there was no prominent scorer, the edge was lost. HSV was not going to dominate club football, that much was becoming increasingly sure – somewhat they reached their peak and started their slow sliding down this very year.

Gremio had its finest season so far, conquering the world. Strangely, this squad did not get proper attention, although they deserved closer look: they more than matched German strength without losing their technical and creative edge. They battled well, but also produced moments of magic, which was increasingly becoming rare seen. Perhaps the reason was that most of the players were practically unknown in Europe – Paulo Cesar Lima or Paulo Cesar Caju was by far the best known star, but he was kind of dismissed by now, considered too old and even a bit suspect, for he was remembered largely with disappointments: at 1974 World Cup and later with disastrous season with Marseille (France). But the old master was simply great in 1983 and his age did not show at all. China was largely Brazilian star and since he hardly ever played for the national team, remained unknown in Europe. Renato or Renato Gaucho did not impress with the national team, largely because he played during rather lean time for Brazil. Tarciso and Mario Sergio were seen, quite wrongly, as potential future stars – just ‘discovered’. The formidable Uruguayan central defender and captain of the team Hugo de Leon was not considered a star because a) Uruguay was out of view since 1974 and b) de Leon did not move to Europe. But this group of players was world class and the rest blended well too – so good, that the qualities or the lack of them of Mazaropi remained entirely hidden: the goalkeeper had little to do most of the time. Compared to HSV, Gremio did not suffer from the absence of a key star – Leao was still the best Brazilian goalkeeper by far, but even against Germans his absence was not felt. The only problem Gremio faced was the future: Paulo Cesar Lima was not forever and Renato, Mario Sergio, and Tarciso were very likely to be transferred to European clubs. As any other South American club, Gremio had little chances for keeping stars at home – both club and players needed big European money.

European Player of the Year. The usual vote resulted in familiar by now no-contest: one player was practically out of any even remote competition.

Michel Mlatini got 110 points. Kenny Dalglish (Liverpool, Scotland) was second with 26 and Alan Simonsen (Vejle, Denmark) – third with 25 points.

Introducing Platini is pointless – he was already superstar and everybody knows of him, for good or bad, today. But this was the first time he was voted the best European player. And was it right decision? This time it was, after years of detected doubtful choices. Yet, there was something a bit bitter… that there were few really outstanding players in Europe was noticed for some time. Football changed, so individuals did not shine as much as they did before 1970. And there was decreasing number of incredible talent – whether it was just a freak of nature, or a result of uniformed training and molding was open to debate, no matter how futile such debate, but the fact remained. Platini belonged to almost forgotten by now category of true stars and was at his peak – 28-years old, and just joined Juventus, thus able to play for outstanding club, where his talent was going to fully flourish. Platini was pretty much alone, though – inconsistent or outright bad form, age, injuries, conflicts with coaches, difficult adaptation to new environment reduced the possible rivals to none. Instead, oldish players got votes – and let see why. Kenny Dalglish, already 32, had disastrous year with Liverpool and also his play did not improve, nor was going to improve at this age – he already reached the peak of his abilities, but remarkably stayed at his peak for years. Consistency was the key: even when Liverpool played poorly, Dalglish was not to blame. Compared to other current stars, he was quite obvious choice, for they were excellent this year. Alan Simonsen, 31 and no longer interesting for big clubs – released from Barcelona, he played a bit in English Second Division, and returned home to play for Vejle, which was not just going downhill, but rather signaled approaching retirement. But he was still the key player for the national team of Denmark, which was rapidly rising and got many praises – riding on that, Simonsen came back. He was seen as the motor of the new bright Danish squad.

Meantime others had difficulties – Breitner and K.-H. Rummenigge were clearly not the same, Schuster were more in the new for conflicts than for brilliant performance, Gerets got involved in bribing scandal, Boniek had difficulty finding his place in Juventus – what looked like lethal duo, a dream for many a coach – Platini-Boniek – was not exactly dynamite. However, Platini still played better and something almost forgotten happened: the top European player was not playing for a winning club. Juventus lost the title in 1982-83 and also the European Champions Cup final. France had no official games, for they were hosting the 1984 European Championship and did not have to go the trials of qualification. Ir was overall performance, with minor problems and more brilliant ones, which made everybody seeing Platini as the best.

And since the player of the year was decided at the end of the year, the new season was already in full swing – this time Platini and Juventus got together well, it was strong and recent finish. Well deserved award, although some felt it was coming a bit late and Platini was overlooked in the last 2-3 years. As for him, when he was asked who he thinks best, it was Bryan Robson of Manchester United. The specialists placed him 10th with 13 points… and the overwhelming winner thought this lowly creature better than anyone better than Platini.