The First Division of Chile had exactly the same format and rules as the lower division: Campeonato Apertura – called ‘Copa Polla Gol’ first, giving 2 bonus points to the winner and 1 bonus point to losing finalist and semi-finalist, followed by standard Campeonato Oficial, where a bonus point was given to any winning team, who scored 4 or more goals. The last two teams in Campeonato Oficial were relegated and the 15th and the 16th had to play promotion/relegation mini-league with the 3rd and 4th in the second division. Another mini-league, consisting of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th finishers of Campeonato Oficial was to determine the second Chilean participant in Copa Libertadores. Busy season.
The Apertura was a bit strange – the 18 first division teams were divided into 4 groups. Three of them had 4 teams, the fourth – 6. Why? There is no apparent logic in such division – may be weaker teams were bunched together with mighty Colo-Colo and Universidad de Chile in the 4th group. May be. Anyhow, the big clubs had no problem qualifying. Aviacion lost their chance to go to ¼ finals by a point. Universidad Catolica and Palestino qualified from Group 1, Union Espanola and Cobreloa from Group 2, and Concepcion and Naval from Group 3. The latter were seemingly the weakest among the quarter-finalists and were eliminated. Cobreloa and Colo-Colo went into extra-time in the1/2 finals – at last Colo-Colo scored the only goal in the game. In the other semi-final Union Espanola lost 1-2 to Universidad de Chile. Cobreloa and Union Espanola got a bonus point each and the two biggest Chilean clubs went to decide who gets 2 bonus points. Universidad de Chile managed 2-1 victory again.
Colo-Colo – what was worse? Losing a cup, losing to their bitterest enemy, or losing a bonus point?
Universidad de Chile – proud winners of Apertura – or Copa Polla-Gol – and 2 points. Well, if anything, it was great to beat Colo-Colo.
The real thing started after the rather meaningless Apertura. It should be said right away that no team won a match scoring 4 or more goals, so no further bonus points were awarded. The carriers of bonus points from the Apertura proved to be the strongest Chilean teams this season, yet, the extra points helped no one, so they were good for nothing. Three clubs were hopeless outsiders. Nublense were the worst of the bunch and finished last with 19 points. Goal-difference decided the second directly relegated club. Santiago Morning and Santiago Wanderers both finished with 21 points. Santiago Morning took the unfortunate 17th place because they had the worst goal-difference in the whole league: 33-72. Santiago Wanderers ended 16th, but there was still danger – they had to play in the promotion/relegation mini-league. 15th finished Audax Italiano – they lost a race against 4 other clubs and also had to play at the promotion/relegation mini-league. Everton finished unusually low, but safe – 14th – with 29 points, two more than Audax Italiano. The other three survivors were lowly clubs happy to escape relegation:
Naval was 13th with 30 points.
Lota Schwager – 12th with 31 points, and Aviacion – 11th with 32 points.
Standing, from left: Luis Linderos, Roberto Hodge, Eduardo Peralta, Humberto Martinez, Avelino Albornoz, Roberto ‘Condor’ Rojas.
Crouching: Julio Garcia, Selvin Pennant, Eleodoro Cornejo, Victor Solar, Eduardo Diaz.
Perhaps Aviacion finished well bellow expectation, for unlike the other outsiders, the club had a bunch of good players – Eduardo Peralta played 4 years in Mexico, Selvin Pennant is one of the most prolific goalscorers ever of Guatemala and played for her national team 11 years, Roberto Hodge – a legend of Chilean football, who played 38 games for the national team between 1964 and 1977. True, Hodge was 35 years old, but still a few years away of retirement. And finally there was emerging young star – the 22-years old goalkeeper Roberto ‘Condor’ Rojas. He debuted for Aviacion in 1976 and made strong impression, although his greatest – and lowest – days were still ahead: he played 69 games for Chile between 1983 and 1989, when his career ended prematurely. Trying to prevent a loss of the national team, he deliberately injured himself – the incident resulted in lifetime ban for him and one world cup ban for Chile. At the time Rojas played for Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the end of his playing days turned him to coaching – eventually, he coached the al-time top scorer among the goalkeepers, Rogerio Ceni. All that was in the distant future, but with him and the other strong players Aviacion should have been better in 1979.
Not that they were the only club running low.
Universidad Catolica had weak year and finished 10th. Palestino, the champions in 1978, also were down and finished 8th.
The strong clubs were those distinguishing themselves in Campeonato Apertura. With a little difference. O’Higgins was also in the top group, of which 4 teams were fairly equal and fought for everything but the title. O’Higgins was bumped to 5th place by the bonus points Univesidad de Chile carried from Apertura and finished 5th with 43 points. Universidad de Chile got 4th place for they had worse goal-difference than Union Espanola. Union Espanola continued their good spell – bronze medals this time. But the established names were beaten by rapidly rising newcomer – Cobreloa (Calama).
If their first ever season in first division was considered perhaps due to surprise and enthusiasm, in their second year Cobreloa proved that they were not one-time wonder. Just to make their point, they destroyed O’Higgins 10-0 in Apertura. Cobreloa earned one point more than their rivals – 45 – and finished 2nd for a second consecutive season. Two years in Primera Division – two silver medals. Cobreloa clearly was going to be a big factor in Chilean football.
Still, Cobreloa was not ready yet to really run for the title. 1979 was the year of revival for Colo-Colo. They lost the final of Apertura, but easily outplayed everybody in Campeonato Nacional. 23 wins, 8 ties, only 3 losses, 72-24 goal-difference – best in everything. 55 points – Cobreloa was very distant second with 45 points. Colo-Colo was supreme. At last.
Standing from left: Leonel Herrera, Oscar Wirth, Daniel Díaz, Mario Galindo, Eddio Inostroza, Atilio Herrera.
First row: Ramón Mané Ponce, Carlos Rivas, Carlos Caszely, Severino Vasconcellos , Leonardo Véliz.
Colo-Colo won Primera Division for 12th time, but the previous title was quite long time ago. Hard to tell how much the crisis Colo-Colo experienced in the mid-1970s was a result of politics. Their last title was won in 1972, when Allende was still President. The most popular club in the country was somewhat leaning to the left – at least many of its supporters, some of the players, the star Carlos Caszely very vocally. The great team reached the final of Copa Libertadores in 1973 – then suddenly collapsed. Well, General Pinochet came to power, Allende shot himself, many run away into exile, including football players. Including Caszely, who went to Spain. Colo-Colo not only did not win anything – they were becoming rather mediocre. Time passed, the country settled under the military rule, the turbulent days were over, there was even sense of economic improvement – felt in the football world by the rising clubs from mining town Cobreloa and Cobresal. May be Colo-Colo also benefited in some way. Carlos Caszely came back from Espanol (Barcelona) in 1978. There were some other good players in the squad – Mario Galindo, b. 1951, who was part of the Chilean 1974 World Cup squad. Adolfo Nef (b. 1946), one of the best Chilean goalkeepers of the late 1960s and the 1970s, and also part of the 1974 World Cup team, was between the posts. Carlos Rivas, b. 1953, represented the next talented generation – and was to play at the 1982 World Cup finals. Two new players arrived in 1979 – Oscar Wirth, b. 1955, who immediately relegated Nef to the bench, and, like Rivas, was to be part of the 1982 World Cup squad; and Brazilian midfielder right from Inter (Porto Alegre) – Severino Vasconcelos (b. 1950). Vasconcelos was not a star in Brazil, but had plenty of experience. In Colo-Colo, he was just right – he controlled the midfield and organized the game. He more or less spurred the team and was instrumental for the great season. His presence was so important the club kept him 6 years – Vasconcelos was 29 when arrived and he finally moved to Barcelona (Ecuador) in 1985, he was 35 years old. To a point, the revival of Colo-Colo happened thanks to him and Caszely, who was exactly the same age. Anyhow, Colo-Colo came back with a bang.
But the season was not finished yet. There was the mini-league for the second Libertadores spot. It went in two stages – single-match round robin tournament first, followed by play-off between the top two teams. O’Higgins and Universidad de Chile finished 1st and 2nd. Cobreloa lost all their three matches, unable to score even single goal. The play-off was won by O’Higgins 1-0.
The other mini-league had different concerns – promotion/relegation. Just a regular single-match round-robin. Santiago Wanderers and Audax Italiano from First Division and Arica and Independiente from Second Division. All was practically decided in the 2nd round, when the first division clubs met those from the lower level and won. The 3rd round was carefully played for scoreless ties and the status quo was preserved. The first division clubs finished at the top with 4 points each. Arica got 3, Independiente – 1.
Lucky boys – after suffering and lots of fret, Santiago Wanderes kept their place among the best. The lovely city of Valparaiso was not going to suffer second division football. Nor La Florida, the hometown of Audax Italiano. At least for one more year.