Category: 1988

CONCACAF Champions Cup – Copa de Campeones y Subcampeones CONCACAF. The usual complicated formula, which gave probably unfair chances to the Caribbean teams, but in any case apart from Mexico there was no serious championship in this part of the world – NASL already disappeared, but they did not participate in this tournament anyway. USA was represented by obscure and not even fully professional teams, Canada did not participate at all. All depended on the Mexicans, really – and at the crucial moment Atletico Morelia failed to appear and was disqualified. Cruz Azul lost to Olimpia (Honduras) 0-0, 1-2. Most likely their mind was elsewhere and not really committed to this tournament. Thus, from North/Central Zone Olimpia (Honduras) and Alajuelense (Costa Rica) reached the semifinals. The Caribbean Zone had only one team at this stage – so was the formula… Defence Force (Trinidad and Tobago) won the Caribbean final, prevailing over Robin Hood (Surinam) 0-1, 3-1. And since the semifinals were still played in zonal lines, Defence Force had no opponent and directly qualified to the final. Olimpia, however, faced Alajuelense and won 1-1, 1-0. This should have been the final, if strength had to do anything with this competition, but perhaps if the weak, yet numerous, Carribbean countries had no chance they would have refused to participate at all. Anyhow… the final did not reach Trinidad and Tobago – both legs were played at Estadio Nacional, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Money surely was the issue for Defence Force and the outcome was predictable: they lost both matches, played on 19th and 21st of December – 0-2 and 0-2.
When one looks at the records, it is impressive – Defence Force reached the CONCACAF final regularly, even won the Cup once. In terms of Carribean football, no doubt they were best for a long time, but in a larger picture it was not so. And the club was quite aware of that – otherwise why deciding to play both legs away?
Olimpia (Tegucigalpa) won the trophy without trouble and the victory was great – it was the second time they won it, having to wait a long time, for the first time they won was in 1972. Yes, their opponents were very weak and yes, the Mexicans kind of neglected the tournament, but winners are winners and it was not their fault that the others were weak or not serious. Again, in their own continental terms, Olimpia was one of the strongest clubs – perhaps only the Costarican Alajuelense was equal to them and in the direct clash Olimpia prevailed. Joy in Tegucigalpa and rightly so.

First Division. In the regular stage of the championship were decided the 8 teams qualified to the next stage plus the relegated team.
Correcaminos UAT was the relegated team this season, finishing with 29 points, but they were relegated only on worse goal-difference. Atletico Potosino survived, having better goal-difference.
As usual, the division of the league into 4 groups gave chance to teams with less points than others to go ahead. The ‘victims’ of the system were
Atlante – 7th in the ‘Tabla General’ with 40 points, but 3rd in Group 1 and
Cruz Azul – 8th in the general table also with 40 points, but 3rd in Group 2.
The others unable to reach the next stage:
Group 1: Tampico Madero (4th)
Angeles de Puebla, 5th.
Group 2:
Atlas, 4th and Atletico Potosino, 5th.
Group 3:
Necaxa, 3rd, Neza, 4th, and
Irapuato, 5th.
Group 4:
Tigres UANL, 3rd and Monterrey, 4th.
In the ¼ finals Puebla (2nd Group 3) lost to America (1st Group 3) 2-2 and 0-4.
CD Guadalajara (1st Group 1) lost to Atletico Morelia (1st Group 4) 0-1 and 1-2
Toluca (2nd Group 4) lost to U de G (1st Group 2) 0-1 and 0-1.
Tecos UAG (2nd Group 2) lost to UNAM (2nd Group 1) 1-4 and 0-2.
In the semifinals
Atletico Morelia was eliminated by America 2-2, 3-3, 1-3 penalty shoot-out, and
Universidad de Guadalajara by UNAM 2-2 and 1-2. Interestingly, in the regular season U de G had the second-best record with 50 points – but direct elimination was another matter.
The final was all-Mexico City: America vs UNAM. UNAM won the first leg 1-0, thanks to Luis Flores. The match was played at their own Estadio Olympico Universitario in front of 73 000. America hosted at Azteca and in front of 114 600 spectators destroyed UNAM 4-1. Gonzalo Farfan (2), Adrian Camacho, and Antonio Carlos Santos scored for the victors, Luis Flores – for UNAM.

UNAM ended with silver – not bad, but still disappointing.
America won its 7th title and really deserved it: they were the best team all the way. Was just a regular championship, they would have been champions, leaving the rest well behind with their 55 points. Apart from the first leg of the final, they did not lose any game during the direct elimination stages. Atletico Morelia gave them the fright, but still America prevailed in the shoot-out. Their best squad played exciting football, using 4-4-2 scheme: A. Chavez – E. Herrera, G. Huerta, A. Tena, G. Naranjo – J. Luna, C. Ortega, A.C. Santos, G. Farfan – C. Hermosillo, L. R. Alves.
Admiration for their coach Jorge Vieira – he made very attractive and successful squad and won the championship.

Mexico. Second Division. Was it a strait-forward championship, the champion was going to be the best team of the season. As it was organized, the best did not even reach the final.
Leon was the best team in the regular season by far – 21 wins, 9 ties, 8 losses, 82-46, 67 points. In the combined ‘final’ table they were 4 points ahead of the 2nd, Santos Laguna, and 13 points ahead of the 3rd – Cobras Ciudad Juarez. Unfortunately, the regular season was only the first phase of the championship -Leon won its Group 4, of course, and qualified to the next stage. Cobras was 2nd in the same group.
Santos Laguna suffered more – they were 2nd overall, much stronger than Cobras in the regular season and won their Group 1. And that pretty much the end of them…
The top 2 teams of the 4 initial groups plus the the 2 teams with best records finishing 3rd qualified to the next stage. The team with the worst record in the regular season was directly relegated and the 4 teams above them went to relegation tournament – 2 were relegated, 2 survived. Thus, Oaxaca was directly relegated and Texcoco and Aguila Progreso Industrial were relegated after the mini-tournament. Salina Cruz and F.E.G. Escaped relegation.
For 5 teams the season ended with the regular season – Zacatepec, Chetumal, Tepic, S.U.O.O., and La Piedad. La Piedad had the 8th best record after the regular season, but were in stronger group and thus unable to qualify to the next stage.
The 10 teams qualifying to the second stage were divided into 2 groups and the group winners went to play the championship final, the winner declared champion of Second Division and promoted to top flight.
Cobras won Group 1 on better goal-difference, followed by Tapatito, Santos Laguna, Orizaba, and Pioneros Cancun. Leon once again was best, winning Group 2 6 points ahead of Tecoman. Apatzingan was 3rd, followed by Jalisco and U.A.Q.
At the final Leon maintained a scoreless tie away in Ciudad Juarez, but was also unable to win at home – the second leg ended 1-1. A third match was played at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City and this time Cobras won 1-0.
Unfortunate Leon – they were best the whole long season, but lost by a single goal at the end.
Cobras Ciudad Juarez were champions of Second Division and promoted back to First Division, from which they were relegated in the previous season. They won the match which mattered most, what could you say… as for their return, it was the return of the franchise – Cobras played in the top league before they were Cobras, then the franchise was sold and renamed, then moved to Ciudad Juarez. A typical journey of a Mexican club from name to name and from city to city. Just for that one may not care much for the winners – but they had cute kit.

Costa Rica. Traditional leaders met at championship final in June and Deportivo Saprissa prevailed. Or not?
The picture says Herediano won. So the existing record – the final ended 1-0 Herediano, with a goal scored by Mario Orta in the 87th minute.
However, in the list of Costa Rican champions Deportivo Sapirssa stays. Who was the champion and why?

African Footballer of the Year. European based players came on top – on one hand, African players were increasingly playing in Europe and getting respect as professionals. On the other hand, the African championship informed the outcome of the yearly voting the best – and those who impressed there counted most. Of course, they played in Europe already. Youssouf Falikou Fofana, playing for Monaco, was 3rd with 40 points. Roger Milla (Cameroon and Montpellier) – 2nd with 68 points. May be the top African player since mid-1970, for he appeared regularly among the best three.
Kalusha Bwalya (Zambia and Cercle Brugge) won without any doubt with 111 points.
May be playing for smallish Belgian club, but also the star of exciting and unfortunate Zambian national team. If Milla was established star for years, he also represented the old by now – 25-years old Bwalya was the current wave of players not just struggling to establish themselves in Europe, but players recognized for talent and much in demand. Players more or less on equal footing with native European professionals. Bwalya was by no means one-time wonder: his best and most famous years were yet to come.

African Champions’ Cup. This issue was a rarity in the history of the competition – almost normal! Only Lybian champions Al-Nasr withdrew in the first round. The representatives of the leading countries reached the semifinals and there penalty shoot-outs decided the finalists: Entente Setif (Algeria) eliminated Al-Ahly (Egypt) 2-0, 0-2, and 4-2 in the penalty shoot-out. Similarly Nigerian Iwuanyanwu eliminated FAR Rabat (Morocco) 4-1, 1-4, 5-3 in the penalty shoot-out. High drama and significantly both winners prevailed away from home.
The final did not go to that: in Ibadan Iwuanyanwu won 1-0, but at Constantine they were destroyed 4-0 and the Cup went to Algeria.
Here is a moment from the finals – hard to tell what is celebrated: looks like a goal scored, but in the official records there is no goal scored in the 23rd minute in any leg.
First Leg:
Ibadan, November 26, 1988
Iwuanyanwu Nationale: Ansah, Madu, Obi, Ekpo, Godwin Eke, Uwe, Ozogula, Ukaegbu, Uwakwe Eke, Oliha, Uzokine.
Entente Sétif: Osmani, Nabti, Adjes, Bernaoui, Serrar, Boulehdjilet, Rais, Zorgane, Rahmani,
Adjissa, Doudou.
Referee: Idrissa Traoré (Mali)

Second Leg:
Constantine, December 9, 1988
Entente Sétif: Osmani, Adjas, Nabti, Bernaoui, Serrar, Boulehdjilet, Bendjaballah, Zorgane, Gherib,
Adjissa, Rahmani.
Iwuanyanwu Nationale: Ansah, Benson, Toyin, Levi, Godwin Eke, Uwe, Ekarika, Ukaegbu, Uwakwe Eke, Ekpo, Ozdgula.
Referee: Badara Sene (Senegal)
Iwuanyanwu Nationale (Owerri) confirmed the steady ascent of Nigerian football. They lost, but still reaching the final was a triumph.
ES Setif was the second Algerian club winning African cup. Back in 1976 Mouloudia d’Algiers won after penalty shoot-out drama – ES Setif bettered that with a clean victory.
In the home leg they were supreme, leaving no doubt who deserves the trophy. Their first! And in the year when they were relegated from First Division, as it happened.

African Cup Winners Cup. Same old, same old… Douanes (Mauritania) left the field at the 64th minute of the first leg against Wallidan (Gambia), losing 0-3 in the preliminary round. Dragons de d’Ouleme (Benin), Hearts of Oak (Ghana), KAC Marrakech (Morocco) withdrew without playing in the first round. US Mbila Nzambi (Gabon) played at home the opening leg against Inter Club (Congo Brazzaville), which ended 1-1 and withdrew. Wallidan (Gambia), after benefiting from opponent’s withdrawal in the preliminary round, withdrew without playing in the ¼ finals. Never mind the usual, the tournament meandered to its finals stages – in the semifinals Diamant Yaounde (Cameroon) was eliminated by CA Bizerte 1-0 and 0-3, and Inter Club (Congo Brazzaville) lost to Ranchers Bees (Nigeria) 1-0 and 0-2. Thus, the final opposed Nigerian to Tunisian team. Visiting Kaduna, CA Bizerte managed a 0-0 draw and then prevailed at home 1-0.
Ranchers Bees – or Rancher’s Bees – from Kaduna lost the final by a single goal. It was great success for one of the less known African clubs.
Exotic name, no doubt, but also very hard to find – little chance this photo is from their may be greatest season. Not sure even if it was from the period – but, conditionally, let have it.
Club Athletique Bizertin, usually known just as CA Bizerte, achieved its greatest success in their already 60-years of existence.
It was great historic success on two accounts – not only CA Bizerte won its first continental trophy, but it was the first time Tunisian club won. And it was just the second time Tunisian team reached a final – in the previous year in the same tournament Esperance Sportive lost. Great and proud moment for both club and country.

Algeria. The top league was going to be reduced from 18 to 16 teams the next season, so 5 teams were relegated (Skidka, WA Ilemcen, CR Belcourt, ASO Chlef, and EP Setif) and 3 promoted from second level (MO Constantine, RS Kouba, and USM Sidi Bel Abbes).
MC Alger finished 13th with 34 points and escaped relegation only because… who knows because. They finished with absolutely identical record with unfortunate EP Setif. Unless head-to-head results were considered, it was a mystery.
The other mystery concerns Entente Setif – there was only EP Setif, but not ES Setif in the league. For lack of other indications, this team should be considered the one and the same which concurred Africa this year – and was strangely relegated from the Algerian First Division, taking 14th place.
On the top – kind of a surprise. MC Oran kind of dominated the championship.
Standing from left: Benmimoun – Belatoui – Bott – Meziane – Belabbès – Drid. First row: Mecheri – Sebbah – Belloumi – Foussi – Chérif El-Ouazzani.
Instantly conisidered a great squad, they won the title after 16 wins, 9 ties, 9 losses, 44-28, and 41 points – 4 points ahead of the nearest pursuer JE Tizi Ouzou. Belloumi was the big star in the squad, but it was only the 2nd title MC Oran won – and had to wait 17 years for this one. They won their first in distant 1970-71.

The Asian Cup – the 9th Asian championship. The finals were played in Qatar and 10 teams qualified to them – Saudi Arabia as current Cup holders, Qatar as hosts, and the top 2 teams from the 4 qualifying groups, which were also played in round-robin tournaments. 20 teams participated in them.
Group 1, played in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
1.UAE 5 4 1 0 12- 1 9
2.CHINA 5 3 2 0 10- 0 8
3.North Yemen 5 1 3 1 5- 5 5
4.Thailand 5 1 2 2 5-12 4
5.Bangladesh 5 0 3 2 1- 9 3
6.India 5 0 1 4 0- 6 1
Group 2, played in Kuala Lumpur, Malyasia.
1.KUWAIT 4 3 1 0 9- 0 7
2.JAPAN 4 2 1 1 6- 3 5
3.Jordan 4 1 3 0 2- 1 5
4.Malaysia 4 1 1 2 4- 6 3
5.Pakistan 4 0 0 4 1-12 0
Group 3, played in Katmandu, Nepal.
1.SYRIA 4 3 1 0 8- 2 7
2.IRAN 4 2 2 0 6- 1 6
3.North Korea 4 2 1 1 3- 2 5
4.Hongkong 4 0 1 3 0- 5 1
5.Nepal 4 0 1 3 0- 7 1
Group 4, played in Jakarta, Indonesia.
1.BAHRAIN 3 2 1 0 4- 0 5
2.SOUTH KOREA 3 1 1 1 5- 3 3
3.Indonesia 3 1 1 1 1- 4 3
4.South Yemen 3 0 1 2 1- 4 1
The finals were played in Dhoha, December 1988.
Group 1.
1.SOUTH KOREA 4 4 0 0 9- 2 8
2.IRAN 4 2 1 1 3- 3 5
3.Qatar 4 2 0 2 7- 6 4
4.UAE 4 1 0 3 2- 4 2
5.Japan 4 0 1 3 0- 6 1
Group 2.
1.SAUDI ARABIA 4 2 2 0 4- 1 6
2.CHINA 4 2 1 1 6- 3 5
3.Syria 4 2 0 2 2- 5 4
4.Kuwait 4 0 3 1 2- 3 3
5.Bahrain 4 0 2 2 1- 3 2
In the semifinals South Korea prevailed over China in overtime 2-1 (93,102 Lee Tae Ho; 100 Mai Chao] and Saudi Arabia won in regular time over Iran 1-0 ( 20 Majed Abdullah).
Third place match: Iran and China finished 0-0 and Iran won penalty shoot-out 3-0.
The final was played on December, 18 and ended in a scoreless tie: Saudi Arabia – South Korea 0-0. In the penalty shoot-out Saudi Arabia prevailed 4-3.
Asian football was getting stronger too – at least at the top level.
South Korea, with its few European-based professional players was hold at bay by inspired Saudis.
And the Saudis triumphed at the end.
South Korea ended with silver medals. Bad luck, but good performance.

Saudi Arabia won its 2nd consecutive Asian Cup.
Important victory, of course, especially if taken into perspective – although still unknown outside their continent, the Saudis were rapidly developing and they already established themselves as continental power. Soon the world would see they were not just an exotic team.

African Cup of Nations. The third big international tournament of the year. The finals were played in Morocco – Egypt qualified as holders, Morocco as hosts, the other 6 finalist had to reach the final phase. Naturally, African tournament was simple smooth matter – originally, Zambia had to host the finals, but they withdrew at the end of 1986 for financial reasons. Algeria agreed to take Zambia’s place, but then a dispute between Algeria and CAF emerged and CAF appointed Morocco.
The final stage was to be played in Rabat and Casablanca. The road to it was thorny, as ever: Ethiopia, Mali, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, and Mauritius withdrew at the preliminary round. Zambia and Rwanda withdrew at the first round. Libya withdrew at the second round. Ethiopia played the home leg against Tanzania and won 4-2, but then withdrew. Rwanda did not play a single match – they qualified to the first round because Lesotho withdrew, then they withdrew and did not play against Malawi. Libya did pretty much the same – as a stronger team, they did not played at the preliminary round, but started in the first – and directly qualified, because Zambia withdrew. Then they had to play against Algeria in the second round and this time Libya withdrew. It was the usual African story – teams refused to play for political reasons, for lack of money, because of domestic troubles, because of petty quarrels. A bunch of Nigerian best players were excluded from the national team by decision of the country’s President – the reason was failure to arrive at training camp. Then, in the last minute before the finals, they were forgiven and included hastily in the squad again. But eventually all finalists became clear at the second qualification round: Algeria without playing – Libya withdrew, Cameroon – Sudan 2-0 and 0-1, Malawi – Cote d’Ivoire 1-2 and 0-2, Nigeria – Sierra Leone 3-0 and 0-2, Senegal – Zaire 0-0 and 0-0, Zaire won 4-2 penalty shoot-out, Zimbabwe – Kenya 1-1 and 0-0, Kenya qualified on away-goal.
The finals were played in two groups of 4 teams, the top two going to the semifinals.
Group A played in Casablanca.
1.MOROCCO 3 1 2 0 2- 1 4
2.ALGERIA 3 1 1 1 2- 2 3
Cote d’Ivoire 3 0 3 0 2- 2 3
4.Zaire 3 0 2 1 2- 3 2
Algeria qualified by drawing of lots.
Group B played in Rabat.
1.NIGERIA 3 1 2 0 4- 1 4
2.CAMEROON 3 1 2 0 2- 1 4
3.Egypt 3 1 1 1 3- 1 3
4.Kenya 3 0 1 2 0- 6 1
The surprise here was the elimination of Egypt. Effectively, it happened in the opening match against Cameroon – Roger Milla scored in the 5th minute the only goal of the game. Egypt lost and then in the third and last game the Nigerians managed a 0-0 tie, which killed all Egyptian hopes for a second title in a row.
In the semifinals Northern Africa lost completely:
Nigeria and Algeria ended 1-1 in Rabat and Nigeria prevailed at the penalty shoot-out 9-8. Interestingly, they scored both goals in the game – one in their own net gave the lead to Algeria and only 4 minutes before the final whistle Maatar equalized.
In Casablanca the hosts lost to Cameroon – Makanaky scored the only goal of the game in the 78th minute. One may easily imagine Moroccan disappointment. It was not the last either – in the match for the 3rd place Algeria managed 1-1 in regular time, although they equalized only 3 minutes before the end. Nader scored for Morocco in the 67th minute and before the end Belloumi equalized. Algeria prevailed in the penalty shoot-out 4-3.
The final – Nigeria vs Cameroon. Fairly equal and not exciting game. Cameroon looked somewhat stronger and certainly seasoned and experienced.
Nigeria had a certain bite, but
always displayed relatively innocent approach – not clear and well followed tactics, often replacing it with individual improvisations. Yet, they scored a beautiful goal in the first half which was disallowed – if somebody was in offside at all, certainly he was not the scorer.
Cameroon was better organized, patient, and wise – it was not just that Cameroon had World Cup experience; rather that they had more European based professionals well adapted to tactical football.
Eventually, without dominating the game, they got what they wanted – a penalty was called in the 55th minute, Konde scored it, and Nigeria had no answer to that. At the final whistle it was still 1-0 Cameroon. In any case, African football was getting noticed at last – the final was televised in Europe and Italian broadcast can be seen today on Youtube. TV also showed lingering deficiencies – weird for the late 1980s, but Cameroon seemingly did not have enough shirts for everybody and substitute Abena had one with hastily improvised number on top of the originally made number.
Final (Casablanca, Stade Mohammed V)
27- 3-88 Cameroon 1-0 Nigeria [Emmanuel Kundé 55pen]
Cameroon: Joseph-Antoine Bell, Stephen Tataw, Emmanuel Kundé, Benjamin Massing, Charles Ntamark, Bertin Ollé-Ollé (Richard Abéna 23), Emile Mbouh, Cyrille Makanaky, Louis M’Fedé, André Kana-Biyik, Roger Milla.
Coach: Claude le Roy (France);
Nigeria: Peter Rufai, Yisa Sofoluwe, Sunday Eboigbe, Stephen Keshi, Bright Omokaro, Samuel Okwaraji, Augustine Eguavoen, Henry Nwosu, Ndubuisi Okosieme, Rashidi Yekini, Folorunso Okenla (Humphrey Edobor).
Coach: Manfred Hoener (Germany);
referee: Idrissa Sarr (Mauritania)
Cameroon won the 1988 African championship.
This may be – or may be not – Nigeria 1988.
However, this is the Nigerian squad just before the beginning of the final. Strong performance, a team surely ascending, but still not a winner. There were players who became well known international stars in the 1990s – Rufai, Yekini, Keshi, Eboigbe – but at the moment the Nigerians were unknown. Combination of factors worked against them – first of all, they lacked European professional experience. Discipline was a problem – there was almost anecdotal accident, when Rufai and Keshi went to trials in England and hearing that they were threatened with punishment hastily returned to Lagos at the last moment. Rufai went directly to the camp and was fine. Keshi, however, went first to his home town to visit family and was late. Since government meddled in the affairs of the national team players were punished not by football authorities, but by the state itself – such interfearances, quite common in Africa to this very day, hardly helped making a strong and consistent squad. On the other hand players always acted frivolously – Keshi, always described as great patriot ready to sacrifice his own interest for the good of his country, still chose to visit home before reporting to training camp. Even when knowing very well that he will be punished for lateness. Yet, it was a team with talent.
Cameroon won its 2nd African title – of course, they were strong football country for a long time now, but the 1990s established them strongly outside their own continent. Like most African countries they used European coaches, but the work of Claude Le Roy somewhat easier because of great talent, which steadily was moving to play professionally in Europe. Roger Milla was aging and approaching a kind of retirement, but Bell, Tataw, Kunde were at their peaks and Kana-Biyik was rapidly rising start. If there was a thorn in this team – apart from the usual governmental meddling, broken promises and suddenly evaporating money – it was the long and bitter rivalry between the great goalkeepers Thomas N’Kono and Joseph-Antoine Bell. Unfortunately, of the same age, very different personalities and not friends – in their rivalry the whole bowl of African problems simmered for years: different ethnicity, different politics, pride, showmanship, everything. The men rarely clashed directly with each other – and had respect for the rival’s playing abilities – but coaches suffered criticism fueled by the keeper they ignored and groups of players supported either one of the other keeper not just because he happened to be in better form. So here was the 1988 chapter of the long epic: Bell was the regular, N’Kono not in the squad at all. Anyhow, everything ended well and Bell was the current hero at home.
Roger Milla, however, was becoming a national symbol – he did not score at the final, yet, he was brought down in the penalty area after which Cameroon scored. He managed two important goals earlier: the winning goal against Egypt and the equalized against Nigeria in the group stage. That is, all goals Cameroon scored in the group, practically giving vital 2 points to his team and thus qualifying it to the semifinals.