Category: 1985

Venezuela. First of all, there was still no clear connection between First and Second divisions – no team was relegated from the top league and the winner of the lower level was not promoted. But there was a new club included in the top division in 1986, Atletico Anzoategui – where it came from and why was included? Sport Maritimo was the winner of Second Division in 1985 – and stayed where it was.

As for the First Division, there were 10 teams in it and the championship was divided into 2 stages – after the first one, the best 6 teams qualified for the second stage, without carrying any records or bonus points from the their earlier effort. The remaining 4 teams finished their season. Those were: UCV FC last with 10 points,

Caracas FC – 9th with 11 points,

Deportivo Italia – curiously called Meridiano in some sources – 8th with 13 points, and Portuguesa FC – 8th with 18 points.

The top 6 started the final stage with blank records, so everybody had a chance to become a champion. Which, of course, brings the usual questions about tactics and clever or stupid schemes… After the finalists played 10 games everything was settled: Mineros de Guayana (Puerto Ordaz) was 6th in the first stage and, correspondingly, the weakest at the final stage – 6th with 6 points. Atletico Zamora (Barinas) was great at the first stage and lost first place only on goal-difference, but was not a factor at the finals – 5th with 8 points.

Atletico San Cristobal was also among the favourites in the first stage – 4 teams finished with 22 points, and goal-difference decided their positions: Atletico San Cristobal was 3rd, but had no strength left for the finals – 4th with 8 points. They had the best defensive record here (8 goals), but also the worst scorers (6 goals).

Nacional Carabobo (Valencia) was twice unfortunate – 4th in the first stage on worse goal-difference, and 3rd in the final stage with 12 points. They fought as much as they could, but finished one point short from the title. Although, even if they got this point, they would have been still second – on goal-difference.

Deportivo Tachira endede 2nd, more unlucky than Nacional Carabobo – they won the first stage. Yes, it was on goal-difference, but they won the most games there – 10 – and also scored most goals – 26. However, at the final stage goal-difference worked against them: they ended with 13 points just like the champions, but… with +1 goal- difference (14-13).

Estudiantes de Merida played smart championship – nothing much in the first stage: they were 5th. Not far behind the best teams at this stage with their 20 points, but out of the race. Nothing like that in the final stage – here they pushed hard, scored a lot, and prevailed at the end. 5 wins, 3 ties, and 2 losses was only shared record, Deportivo Tachira achieved exactly the same. The title was decided by goal-difference and here Estudiantes excelled: 21-13. Much better than Tachira’s 14-13 and thus Estudiantes won the title. This was their second title, the first won in 1980.

Bolivia. Two-phased championship – fist, standard league championship, all 15 teams playing twice against each other. The top 8 teams moved to the second phase and the rest ended the season. Three teams relegated and three promoted from the Second Division.

The best second level teams, ending with promotion this year were:

Universitario (Sucre),

Litoral (La Paz). Standing from left: Hugo A. Zitta, Ricardo Almeida, Carlos Urizar, Reynaldo Zambrana, Ramiro Vargas, Edgar Bautista.

First row: Mario Portugal, Jaime Soria, Néstor Orellana, Ramiro Eguez, Eloy Vargas.

The third promoted club was Bamin (Potosi), but they merged with Real (Potosi) after the season and played in the 1986 championship under their new name Real Bamin (Potosi).

After 28 rounds the bottom of the First Division was decided, but what could be South American championship without some mystery? The last three in the first stage final table should have been relegated. Well…

Magisterio (Sucre) was last with 12 points and out. Municipal (La Paz) – 14th with 15 points and out.

Ciclon (Tarija) was 13th with 19 points and… stayed in the league.

Wilstermann Cooperativas (Potosi) finished 12th with 20 points and was relegated for no apparent reason. Unless they were in financial troubles, there was no explanation why they relegated instead of Ciclon.

San Jose (Oruro) – 11th with 20 points. Chaco Petrolero (La Paz) – 10th with 25 points, and Aurora (Cochabamba) – 9th with 29 points. Aurora was unlucky – they missed the next phased on worse goal-difference.

Since the next phase started from scratch, the only aim at the first phase was to qualify to the second – that is, to finish among top 8. One can ever argue that clever teams played only to qualify no matter in what first-phase position, saving their strength for the real thing. Bolivar (La Paz) finished 7th with 30 points. At the top, Jorge Wilstermann and The Strongest battled for first place and although The Strongest excelled in scoring goal (70), J. Wilstermann won this phase by 2-point margin. They won 20 games and had iron defense, but what did it matter when everybody started with no points the second phase?

The second phase started with the 8 teams divided into 2 groups, the top 2 teams of each went to the semi-finals. In Group A Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) finished last with 3 points and

Jorge Wilstermann (Cochabamba) was 3rd also with 3 points. They did not a single match at this stage, apparently spending all their strength in the first phase. Standing from left: Jhonny Villaroel, Víctor Aragón, Ronald Campos, Hugo Wagner Rodríguez, Víctor Villalón, Hernán Santibáñez.

First row: Alfredo Almada, Julio C. Zárate (paraguayan), Jorge Panozo, Sergio Luna, Freddy Salguero.

Bolivar (La Paz) was second with 9 points and qualified to the semi-finals. Stupid Jorge Wilstermann, clever Bolivar… looks like that. Real (Santa Cruz) won the group with 9 points and better goal-difference than Bolivar’s and also qualified to the semifinals.

Group B. Destroyers (Santa Fe) finished last with 5 points. Like Jorge Wilstermann, they seemingly spent all they got in the first phase, where they finished 3rd.

Blooming (Santa Cruz) also ended here – they were 3rd with 5 points.

The Strongest (La Paz) was 2nd with 7 points and Petrolero (Cochabamba), also with 7 points, took top position on better goal-difference. No matter, both teams qualified.

In the semi-finals Petrolero (Cochabamba) was eliminated by Bolivar – 2-1 and 0-4. The other semi-final, though… Real won their home leg 2-1, then lost the second leg in La Paz 2-4. The Strongest was clearly the winner, but it was Real qualifying to the final. Why? Unless the record is wrong.

Thus, Bolivar and Real met at the final to decide the champion of Bolivia. Looked like everything was done in the opening leg in La Paz – Bolivar won 6-1. But Real came back and won at home 3-1. Goal-difference did not count and there was a third match in which both candidates fought equally and nobody scored: 0-0. The penalty shoot-out favoured Bolivar – 6-5. High drama to the very end.

Real (Santa Cruz) was both lucky and unlucky. They had strong and even season – 4th in the first phase, then winning their second phase group, then… curiously qualifying to the final, then looked like losing it without a fight, then coming back and only unfortunate shot denied them the title.

Bolivar (La Paz) was a case-study how to play a championship organized like the Bolivian one: nothing at first, just enough to qualify to the second phase (7th with 30 points, losing 10 games). Then stepping into another gear and getting stronger from one match to the next – 2nd in Group B, then leaving little doubt who was strongest: beating Petrolero 4-0 in the semis and Real 6-1 in the final. Their final win may look chancy, but Bolivar was really focused and in top form – chance most often helps the better team.

Their coach Moises Barack deserves full credit for the triumph; he was the mastermind of the campaign .

Nothing new and out of ordinary, though – Bolivar won its 7th title (that’s counting only the professional record, started in 1958). Only Jorge Wilstermann was more successful so far – 8 titles.

Ecuador. After a full-league season, the top 8 qualified to the second stage or Octogonal Final. The bottom 8 finished their season after the initial stage, the last in it – relegated. The champion of Second Division was promoted. The final stage proceeded again as standard league championship, but the top three teams in the first stage started it with bonus points: 3 for the 1st placed, 2 for the 2nd placed, and 1 point for the 3rd placed. No other points were carried over to the second stage and who ended with most points in it was the new Ecuadorian champion. Rather simple and easily understood formula for South American championship.

Macara (Ambato) won the Second Division championship and was promoted to the top league this year.

First Division first stage.

After 30 rounds were played Manta Sport (Manta) was last with 17 points and was relegated. The club changed names a few times, so the logo is not from the time when the club was named Manta Sport.

America ended 15th with 19 points. There is some confusion here – America (Quito) is listed in the final table and this photo shows America (Machala). The same club or other club? Hard to tell…

Audaz Octubrino (Machala) – 14th with 21 points.

Tecnico Universitario (Ambato) – 13th with 21 points.

Deportivo Cuenca (Cuenca) – 12th with 23 points.

Deportivo Quevedo (Quevedo) – 11th with 27 points.

Emelec (Guayaquil) – 10th with 27 points. This was a surprise – Emelec out of the championship race.

LDU (Quito) – 9th with 33 points. With them ends the unlucky group which did not qualify to the final stage and finished the season.

Above them were those going to the real championship: Esmeraldas Petrolero (Esmeraldas) – 8th with 33 points, LDU (Portoviejo) – 7th with 34 points, 9 de Octubre (Milagro) – 6th with 34 points, Universidad Catolica (Quito) – 5th with 34 points, El Nacional (Quito) – 4th with 35 points (they scored most goals at this stage – 70. As a contrast, America scored just 18), Deportivo Quito (Quito) – 3rd with 37 points (they got 1 bonus point for the final stage), Barcelona (Guayaquil) – 2nd with 41 points (2 bonus points), and Filanbanco (Guayaquil) – winners of this stage with 44 points (3 bonus points).

Octogonal Final. Has to be said in advance: 2 teams put all the effort just to qualify to the final stage and that was that – there later performance was pitiful, to say the least. Only 3 teams really went for the title and they were the strongest in the first stage.

LDU (Portoviejo) – 8th with 3 points. They did not win a single match and scored only 7 goals, receiving in the same time 42.

9 de Octubre (Milagro) – 7th with 8 points.

Universidad Catolica (Quito) – 6th with 12 points.

El Nacional (Quito) – 5th with 12 points. Strange as it is, but El Nacional seemingly exhausted itself in the first stage, losing steam even before the end of it. Second row from left: Roberto Abruzzesse, Carlos Ron, Marcelo Proano, Federico Lara, Luis Granda, Wilson Armas, Milton Rodriguez, Coronel Luis Tapia (fitness trainer) Luis Escalante (assistant coach), Luis Mosquera, Edwin Quinteros. First row: Marcelo Rangel (medic), Roque Valencia, Geovanny Mera, Elias De Negri, Jose Villafuerte, Ermen Benitez, Hans Maldonado, Fernando Baldeon.

Esmeraldas Petrolero (Esmeraldas) – 4th with 16 points. Great season for one of more obscure Ecuadorian clubs. They really tried to compete, but unfortunately had no team strong enough for something better.

Filanbanco (Guayaquil) – 3rd with 20 points. Those were the best years of a club entirely forgotten now, if it exist at all. It was just meteoric burst in the first half of the 1980s – coming from nowhere and quickly disappearing. They won confidently the first stage, but were not much in the most important second stage, so putting them among the leaders is more of a jest: they were close only because of the 3 bonus points. Still, it was great season. Standing from left: Freddy Bravo, Luis Carlos Macedo (Brazilian), Carlos Calderon, Carlos Montes de Oca, Noe (Brazilian), Luis Preciado. First row: Luis Capurro, Morales, Jose Valencia, Faustino Alonso (Paraguayan), Marcelo Hurtado.

Deportivo Quito (Quito) – 2nd with 21 points. Bonus points or not bonus points, Deportivo Quito settled for second best: they were almost equal to the new champions when it came to winning games – 10 – but lost way too many to be able to challenge the leaders: 4.

Barcelona (Guayaquil) was really flying at the final stage: 11 wins, 2 ties and only one lost game. 29-5 goal-difference. They started with 2 bonus points the Octogonal Final, but did not need them at all. Anyhow, with them, they finished with 26 points – 5 points ahead of Deportivo Quito. Thus, Barcelona won its 8th title. The players are practically unknown outside Ecuador, but there is interesting other aspect: look at the numbers. Big individual numbers are historically attributed to Ajax (Amsterdam) revolution in the early 1970s – a practice not followed, we think, except in ‘weird’ North America (but there it has nothing to do with Ajax’s example). Teams used standard 1 to 11 numbers up to the 1990s… well, not true. South American clubs, especially of ‘lesser countries’, used individual big numbers often, probably before Ajax, before 1970. So, here is a casual example – only three players use ‘normal’ numbers; may be 4 if we assume the goalkeeper played with number 1. The rest… blame it on baseball. Most likely on baseball, for ice-hockey has no influence in South America and basketball was still quite conservative in that. The only problem with such numbers is that one cannot tell players’ positions – when it comes to fairly unknown squads, regular numbers helped to figure out who was defender, who was a striker. With Barcelona, one can be sure only of the goalkeeper and perhaps that Toninho Viera is a central defender. The rest could be anything… but champions they were.

Descentralised Tournament. Two stages here – at first something like normal league championship of 16 teams was played. The last placed in it went to relegation play-off against the weakest team of the Regional Torunament. The top 6 teams qualified to the final stage deciding the title – the winner of the first stage got 2 bonus points to carry over to the final stage. Looked like there was to be a grand final after the final stage for the title between the winners of Regional Tournament and the Descentralised Tournamnt, but that depended on who wins what – obviously, if the same team wins both phases, there was not going to be a grand final. Which, at least this season, makes the notion of grand final dubious – was there such rule at all? Why bonus points, if so? Why playing the Regional Tournament to the end, if there was no rule for grand final? Made better sense if using it only for pruning initial participants to meaningful scale. Questions without clear answers, so the championship:

Alfonso Ugarte (Puno) finished last and went to the relegation play-off. They fared better there, eventually prevailing over Diablos Rojos (Juliaca), the weakest team in the Regional Tournament, 2-1 and thus avoiding relegation.

Asociacion Deportiva (Tarma) – 15th.

Juventud La Joya (Chancay) – 14th.

Deportivo Junin (Huancayo) – 13th. Peruvian football appears aimed at never letting it you relax – just as you decide there is enough confusion and no more possibly can be piled up and there is a strike… the club from Huancayo started the season as Huancayo FC and then before the start of the Descentralised Torunament reversed the name to its older one Deportivo Junin. And under this name played in the second phase.

Coronel Bolognesi (Tacna) – 12th.

Sport Boys (Callao) – 11th.

Sporting Cristal (Lima) – 10th. Very weak season for one of the traditional leading clubs. Poor performance in the original Metropolitan Group – 6th, and even worse in the second stage.

Octavio Espinoza (Ica) – 9th.

Colegio Nacional (Iquitos) – 8th. Apparently, they spent whatever strenght they had in the Regional Tournament.

Melgar FBC (Arequipa) – 7th. Standing from left: Alberto Sanchez, Eloy Ortiz, Freddy Bustamante, Jose Aguayo, Jesus Oviedo. First row: Jorge Ramirez, Raul Obando, ?, ?, Genaro Neyra, Victor Guttierez. Not their year, clearly. The only thing to be proud of was that Genaro Neyra ended the top scorer of the season with 22 goals.

The top six clubs qualified to the final stage of the championship.
Los Espartanos (Pacasmayo) – 6th, Carlos Mannucci (Trujillo) – 5th, Deportivo Municipal (Lima) – 4th, Alianza (Lima) – 3rd, Universitario de Deportes (Lima) – 2nd, and

Universidad Tecnica (Cajamarca) – 1st. UTC won comfortably this phase, leaving Universitario 7 points behind, and earned 2 bonus points to start the final stage with.

And the final group – the finalists had to play once against each other, all games in Lima. The two ‘academic’ clubs were the obvious favourites after winning the two earlier phases, but Alianza was traditional favourite as well, so they counted too. However, in vain.

Deportivo Municipal (Lima) ended 6th with 3 points.

Carlos Mannucci (Trujillo) – 5th with 3 points.

Alianza (Lima) – 4th with 3 points. Standing from left: Jaime Duarte, Jorge Cordero, Daniel Reyes, Tomas Farfan, Roberto Rojas, Jose Mendoza. First row: Raul Mejia, Jose Casanova, Luis Escobar, Humberto Rey Munoz, Gino Pena.

Los Aspartanos (Pacasmayo) – actually, the name is Once Benjamines Espartanos – finished 3rd with 5 points. This club was the great surprise of the season – unheard of club, which out of the blue played very well in every phase and at the end took third place. But no matter how heroic these boys were, they did not have enough class to really run for the title.

Universidad Tecnica (Cajamarca) settled for 2nd place with 8 points. Solid second – even without bonus points, they were ahead of all except Universitario, with which they were unable to compete – their only loss at the final stage was against Univeristario. However, UTC got the second Peruvian spot in Copa Libertadores – rules proved to be nothing this year: Univesitario won the Regional Tournament giving Copa Libertadores spot and after that became Peruvian champion, also giving Libertadores spot. Thus, UTC got the second spot for finishing 2nd in the final table. Not bad.

Universitario de Deportes (Lima) was supreme at the final stage: 5 games, 5 wins. They scored 20 goals, receiving 5: 4-1 average, which shows how far they left the opposition. It was not just final rush, but solid overall season and great timing: just good enough to qualify from their group, but they won the Regional Tournament after that. Second in the first stage of the Descentralised Tournament, 7 points behind UTC, but still second best, but perfect in the final stage. No doubt who deserved the title. Top row from left: Cesar Chavez Riva, Samuel Eugenio, Cesar Charun, Martin Duffo, Javier Chirinos, Walter Najar, Ramon Quiroga, Hugo Gastulo, Leo Rojas, Freddy Ternero, Pedro Novella, Raul Garcia, Enriwue Vega Centeno.

Middle row: Jose Carranza, Luis Reyna, Luis Mansilla, Miguel Elguera, Marcos Calderon – coach, Percy Rojas – assistant coach, Fidel Suarez, Jaime Drago.

Front row: Eduardo Rey Munoz, ?, ?, Miguel Seminario, Garagay, Juan Carlos Oblitas, Claudio Pedraglio, Miguel Torres.

This was the 16th title for Universitario and they left Alianza behind – the rivals had 15 titles at the moment. Still the most successful Peruvian club. That is not counting the amateur championships before 1926.

Top level. The first phase of the season was the Regional Tournament. 30 teams started in it, divided into 4 groups. Strange groups… The Metropolitan Group had 12 teams and contrary to logic, not just teams from Lima and Callao, but also clubs from Ica, Iquitos, Chancay, Huaral, and Huacho. There were also 3 properly provincial groups – Northern, Central, and Southern – of 6 teams each. The teams in the Metropolitan Group played twice against each other to the tune of 22 games in total. The small provincial groups had different schedule – against each other, the participants played 3 games, 15 games each in total. The idea of this stage was sifting out those going ahead to the next stage – the top 4 of Metropolitan Group plus the winners of the provincial groups. That is 7 teams… so additional rule pops up: the winner of the Metropolitan Group got a bye in the ¼ finals, qualifying directly to the semi-finals. Eventually, the tournament proceeds to its final and the winner, by the rules, got a place in the Libertadores Cup. Rules are one thing, reality another – it did not mean much, if the winner of this phase became also champion of Peru, for this winner was still going to play at the championship final. As Peruvian champions, they automatically got a spot at Libertadores Cup. However, it would not do it to play a full championship just for that – to reach a spot in Libertadores Cup: the winner was also proclaimed Regional champion. It was relatively clear at the top… what about the bottom? The top teams in the 4 groups also qualified to play in the next phase of the championship, the Descentralised Tournament. The next in the initial final tables also qualified for the next phase: 7 teams from Metropolitan Group and 2 from each provincial group. That makes 16 teams… but the 16th was decided in a play-off between the 8th in the Metropolitan Group and the weakest of the 3rd placed teams in the provincial groups. As for those unable to qualify during the first phase, they played against some teams from Second Division in the so-called Intermediary Division to gain places in the next year’s top level championship. Wait a minute… there was quite separate Second Division championship, ending with champion, which was also getting promotion – well, this was seemingly something else, as well as the eventual relegation play-off in the top level. This relegation play-off involved the weakest 2 teams in the first and the second phase of the top championship. Confused? Better be… the weakest in the first phase seemingly was playing in both the Intermediary championship and later in the relegation play-off. There was very good chance relatively strong teams to be out of top level, if unlucky in the Intermediary Championship and not so-good lower level teams actually promoted from the same tournament. Not to mention the possibility of a team obviously stronger than many others in the first phase to be relegated, having been last in the second phase. Never mind… let’s go ahead. The top 4 teams of Metropolitan Group and winners of the provincial groups qualified to the next stage of Regional Tournament.

After the end of group stage of first phase the following teams were out of the game, going to the Intermediary Championship: from Metropolitan Group:

Union Huaral (Huaral) – 9th. Standing from left: Cesar Caseres, ?, ‘Toronjo’ Paredes, Oscar Quintana, Carillo Carty, Santiago Carty. First row: Victor ‘Pichicho’ Benavides, Alejandro Luces, Jose Canamero, Roberto Zevallos, Luis Redher.

Juventud La Palma (Huacho) – 10th,

San Agustin (Lima) – 11th. Well.. let put question mark here. San Agustin or Huracan San Agustin? May be one and the same club, may be not…

Atletico Chalaco (Callao) – 12th. Standing from left: Victor Requena, Dante Novaro, Augusto Prado, Jorge Zavala, Luis Goyzueta, Chicho Espinoza. First row: Juan Sanchez, Jorge Simic, Willy Quevedo, Jose Pajuelo, ‘Agujita’ Bassa. Question mark here as well – the same formation sometimes is given as 1988 squad, sometimes as 1985’s.

From the Northern Group: Sport Pilsen (Guadalupe) – 4th. Never ending mystery and confusion: a team from Guadalupe or from Callao? Even its emblem lists both names, so what was this club doing in the Northern Group? Callao clubs play in the Metropolitan Group… Jose Galvez (Chimbote) – 5th and Atletico Torino (Talara) – 6th.

From the Central Group: Defensor ANDA (Aucayacu) – 4th, Leon (Huanuco) – 5th and Chachamayo FC (La Merced) – 6th.

From the Southern Group: Cienciano (Cusco) – 4th,

Atletico Huracan (Moquegua) – 5th. This obscure club deserves a mote: it is named after Huracan (Buenos Aires), using even the same emblem. Which celebrates the birth of aviation in Argentina and its father Jorge Newberry – name and picture of his balloon ‘Huracan’.

Lastly, Diablos Rojos (Juliaca) – 6th. Poor ‘Red Devils’… they had the worst record at this stage with their 3 points and for this went to the relegation play-off. Did they, however, played in the Intermediary Championship as well? Only next year championship could tell – if they appear in it, then they played successfully in the Intermediary Championship and the relegation play-off was a joke.

This stage properly ends with the qualification play-off for a berth in the second phase: Juventud La Joya (Chancay), 8th in the Metropolitan Group, vs Deportivo COOPTRIP (Pucallpa), 3rd in the Central Group. So… it was not direct qualification to the Descentralised Tournament for the top 3 of each provincial group after all. But why Deportivo COOPTRIP was selected for the qualification play-off? Apparently, for having less points than the other provincial 3rd placed teams. As for class… there was not much in them: Juventud La Joya destroyed them mercilessly 2-0 and 8-0 and joined the Descentralised Tournament.

Meantime the Regional Tournament went ahead: Colegio Nacional (3rd Metropolitan) eliminated Coronel Bolognesi (1st Southern) 3-1. Universitario de Deportes (4th Metropolitan) eliminated Carlos Manucci (1st Northern) 4-1. Deportivo Municipal (2nd Metropolitan) had some difficulties against Asociacon Deportiva (1st Central), but eventually prevailed: 1-1 and 3-1 in the penalty shoot-out. Alianza qualified directly to the semi-finals as Metropolitan Group winner and some of the fog cleared: no matter how much effort to get provincial clubs on the national footing, the Metropolitan cluster of mostly Lima clubs was much, much stronger.

In the semi-finals, Colegio Nacional eliminated Deportivo Municipal 3-0 and Alinaza lost the derby against Universitario de Deportes – 0-0 and 7-8 in the penalty shoot-out.

Colegio Nacional (Iquitos) and Universitario de Deportes (Lima) played the final of Regional Tournament.

Colegio Nacional – or CNI, as is often written – lost the final 1-3.

Universitario de Deportes – usually known as just Universitario – won the first phase of the marathon. Standing from left: Miguel Gutierrez, Javier Chirinos, Freddy Ternero, Hugo Gastulo, Samuel Eugenio, Ramon Quiroga. First row: Eduardo Rey Munoz, Luis Reyna, Kai Rasmussen, Miguel Seminario, Juan Carlos Oblitas.

So, what exactly this victory gave Universitario? Regional Championship title – meaning almost nothing; a guaranteed spot in Copa Libertadores – in case something goes wrong in the next phase; 1 bonus point to carry over to the second stage of Descentralised Tournament – also the final stage of 1985 championship where the national title was decided at last. Not much, overall…

Peru. One can feel vertigo just trying to explain Peruvian championship structure. Top and lower levels were somewhat mixed, which concerned promotion and relegation. The top championship was divided into 2 phases, culminated by final group of 6 teams deciding the champion. But there was not clear-cut separation of first and second phase – somehow, the first phase determined the teams playing in the second phase, yet, each phase had its own conclusion. Lower level teams seemingly appeared at one point, playing against some unlucky top level starters for places in the next year championship, yet, there was relegation and promotion as well – 1 teams up, 1 team down. Perhaps the best is to start with second level winner and proceed to the top championship with explanations for each phase.

Guardia Republiclana (Lima) was the champion of second level this year. This way they seemingly earned promotion to the top level. Club Circolo Sportivo Guardia Republicana was a very new club, founded in 1981 and judging by the name – related to the Military. Which explains there rapid climb to the top of Peruvian football. One may wonder about their fan base – did they have any fans? Doubtful, for Lima had old and popular clubs and hardly anybody could suddenly chose to put his heart to some upstart, but state-sponsored clubs hardly ever need fans for their existence.

Speaking of lower levels, Peru had another champion – the winner of somewhat mysterious Copa Peru. What kind of clubs played in it and what the trophy was worth? Hard to tell, looking at the champion:

Hungaritos Agustinos (Iquitos) won Copa Peru, adding its name to rather long list of previous winners. Standing from left: Marden Macedo, Mario Melendez, Ramirez, ‘Timon’ Sandoval, Esteban Angulo, Roman Flores.

First row: Adriel Cardama, Oscar ‘Payasito’ Calvo, Edgar Ferreyra, Jorge Navas, Rafael ‘Candelita’ Rengifo.

Unheard of club, which even victorious, would remain unheard of. The city of Iquitos had its own popular and well known club, which apparently was not rivaled by Hungaritos Agustinos. Whatever HA won, it did not propel them to visibility. They were just a footnote, somehow. Yet, it was strange in the grand picture – already there were quite famous clubs, which were equally invisible: Defensor (Lima) was out of the picture, for example. Apparently, they were lost somewhere in the swamp of second level. But where exactly lurked Hungaritos Agustinos?

Paraguay. Small leagues present one central problem: how many games a team should play in a year. It is no good – from any angle – to have too few. 10-team league needs more games, so the Paraguayan championship was organized in 4 stages – in the first 3 every team played once against all others and in the 4th final stage the best 6 competed for the title. The best 6 teams played 32 games that way – a reasonable number. One team was relegated and one moved up from Second Division.

Sport Colombia (Asuncion) won the Second Division championship and was promoted.

First Division. Eventually, 4 teams were unable to reach the final stage – as most top division clubs hailed from Asuncion, the weaklings were mostly from the capital as well: Libertad, River Plate, and Atletico Colegiales.

Sportivo Luqueno was the 4th lowly team this year. Standing from left: Cristóbal Villa, Marcos Aquino, Gustavo Jara, Francisco Velloso, Edgar Morales, Cornelio Rolón.

Crouching: Nicolás Azuaga, Arísitdes Saldívar, Salvador Medina, Hugo Fernández, Cipriano Romero.

River Plate (Asuncion) was relegated – they were quite weak during the season, but hardly the worst performer, so the reason for relegation could be the popular in South America ‘relegation table’, taking into account not a single season, but 5 consecutive season. River Plate is not one of the successful Paraguayan clubs, so relegation was quite normal.

The top 6 played the final round-robin stage and positioned themselves as follows:

San Lorenzo (San Lorenzo) – 6th. They lost all final games.

Guarani (Asuncion) – 5th with 6 points. They scored most goals at this stage: 14. However… why were they 5th? Cerro Porteno got only 3 points at the final stage… Well, bonus points were carried over from the 3 earlier stages and Guarani had 0. Cerro Porteno, however, had 4 bonus points.

Cerro Porteno (Asuncion) ended 4th with 7 points. It was a very strange and uneven season – Cerro played very strong 2 stages and and was very weak in the other two. Ups and down – winning the 1st stage, then dropping down to 8th place in the second stage, winning the third stage, weak in the final stage. They were the team with most bonus points, but that was all.

Sol de America (Asuncion) – 3rd with 7 points. Their earlier stages were far from strong and they came to the final tournament with 1 bonus point. Standing from left: Marcelino Blanco, Elías Leguizamón, Eugenio Pereira, Vicente Fariña, Jorge Battaglia, Teresio Centurón.

Crouching: Julio C. Achucarro, Pedro Garay, Cristino Centurión, José Alfonso, Jorge Cartamán.

Nacional (Asuncion) took 2nd place with 8 points. 2 bonus points placed them above Sol de America and clinched them the 2nd Paraguayan spot in Copa Libertadores.

Little need to name the champion: Olimpia (Asuncion), of course. Judging from their performance in the earlier stages, it looked like it was not going to be their year – they did not win any stage. But were absolutely superior at the final stage: 4 wins and 1 tie. Even without bonus points they were on top. As it was, they had 2 bonus points – they were not on top gear in the earlier stages, but finished 2nd twice and once 3rd – it was just great timing, aimed at the most important final tournament. It was wise, vastly experienced squad, knowing perfectly how to get results – and it was also double-edged situation. The team was pretty much the same since 1977 or 1978, so the players were more than comfortable playing with each other, everything was smooth for a long time. But it was aging squad and that was dangerous – it was time to start rebuilding, but why changing successful team? The usual dilemma, perhaps aggravated by the Paraguayan predicament: small pool of talent. Good to refresh the squad, but with whom? Talented players preferred to play abroad and whoever was around was no match to aging, but still better than most regulars of Olimpia. This was a team winning 6 consecutive tittle, started in 1978 and losing only the 1984 championship. Only to bounce back on top in 1985. Why changing anything? Why changing the most successful squad in Paraguayan history, the one which bettered the old record of 5 consecutive titles, also hold by Olimpia? Just pile up trophies and there was difficulty counting them already.

 

First Division. Simple matter – standard league championship, involving 20 teams. Chile was reducing the league for the next season from 20 to 18 teams, so the last 3 were relegated and only one team was promoted from Second Division. The championship was fairly entertaining, for the teams proved to be quite equal and the battle for both title and survival went on to the end.

O’Higgins finished last with 21 points – obviously, weaker than the rest and an outsider this championship. Down they went.

Deportes Arica – 19th with 27 points and relegated.

San Luis – 18th with 28 points and the third relegated team.

Union San Felipe – 17th with 30 points.

Deportes Concepcion – 16th with 31 points.

Deportes Iquique – 15th with 32 points.

Audax Italiano – 14th with 34 points.

Union La Calera – 13th with 35 points.

Huachipato – 12th with 36 points.

Naval – 11th with 38 points.

Magallanes – 10th with 39 points.

Universidad de Chile – 9th with 39 points.

Rangers – 8th with 40 points.

Palestino – 7th with 40 points. They scored most goals this championship: 66.

Universidad Catolica – 6th with 45 points.

Cobresal – 5th with 46 points.

Union Espanola – 4th with 48 points.

Colo Colo – 3rd with 49 points.

Everton – 2nd with 50 points.

Cobreloa won the championship with 52 points. 21 wins, 10 ties, 7 losses, 65-24 goal-difference. Standing from left: Carlos Rojas, Eduardo Fournier, Eduardo Gomez, Enzo Escobar, Armando Alarcon, Hugo Tabilo. First row: Fidel Davila, Jorge Garcia, Juan Carlos Letelier, Hector Puebla, Juan Covarrubias. The names hardly ring any bells, but Cobreloa already established itself among the top Chilean clubs. This title was not an easy one – 5 other opponents could have win it – but the victory was a sign of maturity precisely for that: pursuit by equally strong teams, Cobreloa still managed to come on top.

Third title for Cobreloa – and all started in 1978!

Chile. First Division was uncomplicated league championship, but Second Division was structured differently. 20 teams in it. One promoted and one relegated. The teams were divided into 2 groups of 10 teams each, playing 2-staged championship at first, followed by play-offs of finals – one for promotion and one for relegation. The first stage was standard league championship, but the second stage divided each group into two small groups depending on the final table of the first stage: 5 teams played for the group winner, 5 teams for the group loser, all teams went to the second stage carrying their points from the first. Not very complicated formula, but it had strange ending this year. Let jump right to the second stage.

Zona Norte – Liguilla Ascenso.

Deportes La Serena – 5th with 23 points.

Santiago Wanderers – 4th with 28 points.

Antofagasta – 3rd with 28 points.

Union Santa Cruz – 2nd with 30 points.

Trasandino – 1st with 34 points. Trasandino won Zona Norte and proceeded to the final play-off.

Liguilla Descenso.

Coquimbo Unido – 1st – 6th as a final position place – with 25 points.

Quintero Unido – 7th with 25 points.

Regional Atacama – 8th with 24 points.

Deportes Ovalle – 9th with 23 points.

Super Lo Miranda – 10th with 20 points. Going to the crucial relegation play-off.

Zona Sur. Liguilla Ascenco.

Provincial Osorno – 5th with 24 points.

Curico Unido – 4th with 26 points.

Malleco Unido – 3rd with 29 points.

Lota Schwager – 2nd with 29 points.

Fernandez Vial – 1st with 35 points and going to the championship final.

Liguilla Descenso.

Deportes Valdivia – 1st – 6th in the final table – with 26 points.

Deportes Linares – 7th with 25 points.

Deportes Iberia – 8th with 24 points.

Deportes Puerto Montt – 9th with 23 points.

Deportes Victoria – 10th with 19 points and going to the relegation play-off.

Relegation play-off between the bottom placed in Zona Norte and Zona Sur. Super Lo Miranda won its home leg 3-0 and tied the second leg in Victoria 2-2.

Super Lo Miranda survived and remained in Second Division.

Deportes Victoria – relegated to Third Division.

Championship final. The group winners play 2 legs, but in case each one a match, third decisive game was to be played. On November 17 Trasandino won 2-0 in Concepcion, visiting Fernandez Vial. Looked like final victory already. But Fernandez Vial pulled itself together and won in Los Andes 1-0 on November 24. Two days later the opponents met again on neutral ground in Talca – this time Trasandino prevailed 1-0 and won the championship. Which meant also promotion… and it was not.

Fernandez Vial (Concepcion) lost the decisive final and ended 2nd this year. It was fair, somewhat, for during the season Trasandino performed better. Season finished, lick some wounds, get ready for another try. Yet, Fernandez Vial was promoted and played in First Division the next season. Why? No idea… sources differ: some state Fernandez Vial was promoted, other – that Trasandino was promoted. What makes everything ‘clear’ is a look at the 1986 First Division: Fernandez Vial is there, Trasandino – not. So here they are the losers who were promoted. Lucky boys.

Trasandino (Los Andes) were the new champions of Second Division. Great! They looked slightly better than Fernandez Vial during the season and at end clinched the title. But they were not promoted, as they should have been as winners. Possible reasons: may be some penalty for infringement of the rules – either using illegible players or game fixing. No info is available, though. The other possibility is failing to meet some requirements for playing in the top league: either substandard stadium or lack of enough money. The third possible reason is voluntary withdrawal – here lack of money would be the decisive factor. Since there is no available information, one can speculate, but the fact is Trasandino was not promoted.

Uruguay. The only ‘normal’ championship in South America – no stages, no complications, just a ‘classic’ league.

Second Division. Provincial clubs made their way to it, but had difficulty taking hold – Oriental finished last, 10th, and Huracan (Paso de la Arena) – 9th. The rest were Montevideo clubs. Colon (8th) distinguished itself with extremely low scoring record – 6 goals. Fenix and Liverpool battled for promotion.

Fenix prevailed by a point and won the Second Division championship, going up as a result. 11 wins, 5 ties, 2 losses, 31-11 and 27 points.

First Division – slightly larger: 13 teams. Relegation was determined by the same method Argentina used: a relegation table, combining few years and the lowest in it went down – not the the team ending last in the current year. There was no dramatic race for the title, but no one-team dominance either: rather easy, insignificant championship without big surprises.

Bella Vista – last with 17 points.

Defensor – 12th with 18 points.

Danubio – 11th with 21 points. Standing from left: Hector Roux, Jorge Sere, Daniel Uberti, Abraham Yeladian, Daniel Martinez, Cesar Vega.

First row: Arian Viera, Edison Suarez, Ruben Sosa, Boris Machado, Gustavo Dalto.

Danubio scored most goals in this championship: 36.

Huracan Buceo – 10th with 22 points. Standing from left: Luis Romero, Daniel Delgado, Nestor Goncalves, Raul Mirabal, Marcos Aguiar, Mario Picun.

First row: Julio D. Morales, Jacinto Baptista, Roberto Roo, Luis Jaime, Marcelo Martinez.

Sud America – 9th with 22 points and relegated. Unfortunate for them, but the combined record placed them last. Standing from left: Walter Alvarez, Pablo Fuentes, Jorge D. Cardaccio, Nelson Pena, Flavio Sosa, Anibal Migueiro.

First row: Marcelo Dantaz, Jorge Bertolio, Ignacio Saavedra, Alejandro Cano, Jorge Martinez.

Central Espanol – 8th with 23 points.

Rampla Juniors – 7th with 24 points.

Progreso – 6th with 25 points.

Nacional – 5th with 26 points. Mediocre season, better forgotten. Standing from left: Hugo De Leon, Jose Luis Pintos Saldana, Nestor Montelongo, Gualberto Velichco, Wilson Graniolati, Tony Gomez.

First row: Washington Castagnero, Luis Alberto Acosta, Eduardo Favaro, Carlos, Berrueta, Sergio Olivera.

River Plate – 4th with 27 points.

Cerro – 3rd with 27 points.

Wanderers – 2nd with 28 points. Standing from left: Enrique Pena, Ariel De Amas, Mario Rebollo, Mario Delgado, Gonzalo Diaz, Gonzalo Madrid.

First row: Claudio Di Pascua, Jose R. Cabrera (Argentina), Luis Noe, Enrique Baez, Alvaro Lois.

Penarol, coached by Roque Maspoli, won its 37th title (the picture shows different number – 39 – but official records tell slightly smaller number). 12 wins, 8 ties, 4 losses, 35-16, 32 points. The only team to win 10 or more games this season, second highest scoring record and sharing best defensive record with Wanderers. Easy victory, but nothing special, nothing remarkable – just one more title. Plenty of good players – add Alzamendi, Ostolaza and Jimenez to those on the photo – but hardly one of the truly outstanding squads of Penarol. Perhaps Bossio was the most important player of this vintage. Penarol won, but it will quite some time before they add another title to their impressive record.