Chile had both peculiar championship formula and seasonal changes, needing few notes. The First Division was going to be reduced to 16 teams, so the last 4 teams were relegated. The two above them played promotion-relegation tournament with the 3rd and 4th in the Second Division. One practical reason for the reduction was Campeonato de Apertura – the formula of it was cup-like: at first the first division clubs were divided into 4 groups and 18 teams made strange numbers: 2 groups of 5 teams and 2 of four teams. As for this championship, played in both top divisions, it was a curiosity: the clubs gained little from it. It was nice to win a trophy, but the official champion, the second represent in the Copa Libertadores, and the unfortunate relegated teams were all decided in the second championship. The only thing Campeonato de Apertura gave was a few bonus points to the top teams, carried to the second championship: 2 points for the winner and 1 point for the losing finalist and semi-finalists. Not much to really fight for – as the second championship amply proved this very year. Rules also differed: the second championship had traditional ones – 2 points for a win and 1 point for a tie. Perhaps aiming to stir the teams into more attacking football, in Campeonato de Apertura a scoreless tie brought no points, but bonus point was given for wins in which the winner scored 4 or more goals. Such experiments did not bring results in other countries and the pattern was repeated in Chile: those few teams, which got extra points were top in their groups anyway, without exception. With or without the extra points, they were first. In both division there was not a single club qualifying to the ¼ finals because of extra points. Finally, not a single club benefited from the points carried from Apertura to the second championship. Lastly, Ferroviarios relocated to Talagante and the name was changed as a result – now it was Talagante Ferro.
The Second Division had one more anomaly: 22 teams in the normal championship, but only 20 in the Apertura: Cobresal and Atacama for some reason did not play. Eight teams qualified to the second stage: Arica, La Serena (Group 1), Union San Felipe, San Luis (Group 2), Rangers, Curico Unido (Group 3), and Malleco Unido, Huachipato (Group 4). The ¼ finals produced the next strange thing – at least to the eyes of non-Chileans: goal-difference did not count. Or may be it counted, but in peculiar way. Half of the quarter-finals were not a problem: San Luis won twice against Arica – 4-0 and 2-1, and La Serena against Union San Felipe – 2-0 and 1-0. The other pairs were different… Huachipato won at home 1-0, but lost the second match 0-2 to Curico Unido. Goal did not count, only wins – so extra time was played as a tiebreaker. Nobody scored and the match went into penalty shoot-out. At last Huachipato prevailed. But the last pair did not reach this stage: Rangers lost their home leg against Malleco Unido 0-1. Then they beat Malleco Unido in front of their home crowd. By how much? No matter – extra time was to be played anyway. Huachipato prevailed here, but the record – since with or without extra time this is one match – stays 4-2. Which makes Rangers a winner on goal-difference… the same should have been the case in the clash between Huachipato and Malleco Unido: the record gives advantage to Malleco Unido after extra time: 2-1. Complicated rule… apparently, the extra time was counted separately as a tiebreaker. Go figure by mere numbers.
No such problems in the one-legged ½ finals: San Luis won against La Serena 2-0 and Rangers beat Huachipato 3-1. The losers got one extra point to carry to the second championship.
San Luis won the final 2-1. Rangers got a bonus point for the second championship. San Luis got 2 points and the trophy: ‘Copa Polla-Gol’.
Fine champions, but was it worth the effort? All this games for 2 points…
The second championship started all anew and for real – not for nothing its name was Campeonato Oficial. Standard league format, the last two relegated to the lower levels of Chilean football, the top two promoted to first division, and the 3rd and the 4th having one more chance for promotion in a mini-tournament against the 13th and the 14th in the First Division. Long championship – every team played 42 matches. As it turned out, the bonus points from the Apertura had no effect on anything.
Curico Unido (Curico) finished last with 31 points and said good-bye to Second Division.
Goal-difference decided the second unlucky team: Ovalle (Ovalle), Trasandino (Los Andes), and Independiente (Cauquenes) ended with 34 points.
Independiente had the worst goal-difference of the three and took the 21st place in the final table. Too bad – they were newcomers to the league, the highest achievement of the modest, usually amateur club. They fought bravely, but luck was not on their side.
Luck was not on the side of the clubs, which did not play in the Apertura either:
Regional Atacama (Copiapo) finished 16th.
Cobresal (El Salvador) was 14th, one point better than Atacama. Having to play fewer games than any other club in the league apparently was not a bonus to both clubs.
One more club should be mentioned: Union Calera (La Calera).
The only second division club with world-class star: Elias Figueroa played for them this season. Yet, Union Calera finished only 10th . Figueroa was aging and the immediate impression is that he was no longer at his best – but he was still going to play in the American NASL and at the next World Cup finals. Even so, he was unable to elevate his current club this year.
But what mattered was only at the top of the league. A small difference eventually built up and two teams reached the relegation-promotion stage.
With 50 points La Serena finished 4th – 2 points ahead of Huachipato. The bonus point made no difference at all. So far – good enough.
Santiago Morning, the only club from the capital playing in Second Division this season, finished 3rd with 51 points. Good for keeping hopes for promotion, but the team was not good enough to fight for direct promotion.
Two teams more or less dominated the league and quite easily got promoted.
Nublense (Chillan) finished 2nd with 55 points, leaving Santiago Morning 4 points behind, but they were also 4 points behind the champions. Still, well done – Nublense was directly promoted and that was more than enough.
The champions were the truly superior club this year: first they won the Apertura and continued their triumphal march in the grueling championship of the league. 21 wins, 15 ties, and 6 losses. 72-41 goal-difference. 59 points – 2 of them were bonus, carried from the Apertura, but even without them they were first. First in everything: most wins, least losses, most goals scored, least received.
A second trophy for San Luis (Quillota), but this title really mattered – up they went to first division football. An excellent season for relatively small club.