Colombia. Another structural mystery – the format was was not new, but how it worked? It was three-staged championship and individually, the stages were clear: Apertura at first. |Or Copa de la Paz. The league divided into 2 groups of 7 teams and the top 2 teams of each going to something like finals. So far, so good… the round-robin final groups was played and finished… without real final table. Was there a winner at all? If not what was the point? The second stage – Clausura or Campeonato Nacional – was typical league championship. And after its end there was the last stage – 8 teams playing for the title in the Torneo Octogonal. There was little connection between the stages: no points were carried over, every stage was on its own. But between the second and the final stage a bonus table was made – the top teams of both earlier stages got bonus points, depending on place – from 1 point for first place to 0.25 point for 4th place. These bonus points were carried over to the final stage, but… not all teams performing well earlier qualified to the final stage – really, there was no understandable reason why some teams were in and other – out. Anyhow, whoever won the final stage, played in a standard league format, was the champion of Colombia.
Before jumping to this last stage, let see which teams were eliminated.
Cucuta Deportivo. It was clear with them: last in Group B of Apertura and last in the Clausura. The weakest team this year, especially in the Clausura.
Independiente Santa Fe. Also understandable why – 5th in Group B of Apertura and 13th in the Clausura – if the best 8 teams of either stage qualified for the final stage, Santa Fe was out.
Once Caldas – 4th in Group B of Apertura and 12th in the Clausura. They were weak, but would be out of the finals only if the measure for qualification was the Clausura final table.
Deportes Tolima. They were last in Group A of Apertura, but 7th in the Clausura – would be out of the finals if Apertura was the measure for qualification, but if it was Clausura… they should have been in.
Deportivo Pereira. Standing from left: Cardona, Olave, Grau, Estrada, Quintabani. First row: Alape, Perea, Didi, Del Rio, Diaz, Paez. With them, it looked clear – 6th in Group A of Apertura and 9th in Clausura – out by any final table.
Deportes Quindio. If Apertura was the measure, they were rightly out of the finals – they finished 6th in Group B. But if it was Clausura… in it, Quindio ended 4th and got bonus point. Evidently, they were very strong at this stage, but they were out of the finals. Their absence was stranger than the absence of Tolima. Since there was no anything like combined table – only bonus table – why some of these teams were out of the finals, but others, hardly better, qualified? An open question.
The other open question is what happened at the end of Apertura – instead of final table, there is this:
1. Atlético Junior 2 1 1 0 2- 0 3
2. Indep. Medellín 2 0 1 1 0- 2 1
3. América de Cali 2 1 1 0 4- 3 3
4. Deportivo Cali 2 0 1 1 3- 4 1
Seemingly, there was no official winner, but the distribution of bonus points tells different: Atletico Junior got most. Was the whole purpose just to decide bonus points? Even this was not right… Atletico Junior got 1 point. Independiente Medellin got 0.75 – which is the bonus for 2nd place! America – 0.50, the bonus for 3rd place, although 3 points in the round-robin is more than 1 point, and Deportivo Cali – 0.25. Looked like the round-robin stage served different purpose: to re-establish positions in the original groups and bonus points given in accord with that: Independiente Medellin won Group A and although they underperfomed in the round-robin ‘final’, they competed only the winners of Group B – Atletico Junior and not with America, which was 2nd in Group B.
Clausura had no such complications – it was standard league championship with standard final table. In effect, it was a battle only between America and Deportivo Cali, which America won with 38 points. Atletico Nacional was 3rd and Deportes Quindio – 4th. They were 4th only because of head-to-head record against Union Magdalena – there could not be any other reason, for both teams ended with 29 points and Union had better goal-difference by far (+11 vs -3). But Millonarios also had 29 points and better goal-difference than Quindio… so, it may have been different decisive factor: the team with most wins placed of others – Quindio won 11 games, Union and Millonarios – 10 each. Anyhow, the good standing did not help Quindio a bit – they got 0.25 bonus points for it, but were out of the final stage. America got 1 bonus point, Deportivo Cali – 0.75, and Atletico Nacional – 0.5. Thus some teams entered the final stage with their bonuses and as small as they were, at the end that was important: America carried 1.5 points, Deportivo Cali and Atletico Junior – 1 point each, Independiente Medellin – 0.75 and Atletico Nacional – 0.50 point. Atletico Junior was suspect finalist – they were quite weak in Clausura: 11th with 22 points. But practically the best of Apertura… the final 8 were somehow distilled by taking in account performance in Apertura and Clausura singularly. It was much simpler just to include the top 4 teams of each stage, but… it had to be complicated and mind-boggling, as if transplanting the ‘magical realism’ of Gabriel Garcia Marquez into football. At least it was simple in the final stage – the Octogonal Final.
Atletico Bucaramanga was last with 7 points.
Union Magdalena – 7th with 7 points. Better head-to-head record placed them ahead of Bucaramanga.
Atletico Nacional – 6th with 13.50 points.
Independiente Medellin – concurrently written as Deportivo Medellin, but most often as DIM (Deportivo Independinete Medellin) – 5th with 13.75 points.
Atletico Junior – also known as Junior – 4th with 17 points.
Millonarios – 3rd with 18 points. They scored most goals in the final tournament, but that was their only achievement this year. Third row from left: Eduardo Luján Manera (D.T), Miguel Prince, Juan Gilberto Funes, Germán Gutiérrez de Piñeres, Norberto Peluffo, Alfredo Ferrer, René Higuita, Pedro Vivalda, José Hernández, Eduardo Pimentel, Marcelo Trobbiani, Germán Morales, Rubén Timko(P.F).
Middle row: Jair Abonía, Carlos Meza, Jamir Carabali, Arnoldo Iguarán, Adolfo Téllez, Cerveleón Cuesta, Manuel Acisclo Córdoba, Federico Valencia, Wilfredo Rincón.
Sitting in front: Rubén Cuevas, Hugo Galeano, Edgar Castañeda, Juan Carlos Díaz, Carlos Gómez, Rubén Darío Hernández, Alonso López, Hernando García.
Deportivo Cali – 2nd with 22 points. They had the best defensive record at the final stage, allowing only 8 goals, but lost the title anyway. Fought to the end, though.
America (Cali) clinched the title with 20.50 points. Half a point ahead of Deportivo. Really, bonus points decided the championship – America came to the final stage with 1.50 points, Deportivo with 1 point. The derby of Cali was won on that. Not the most dominant season of America, but this was not their fault – the rivals were strong and ambitious. Due to competition, America’s performance could be easily underestimated – in fact, this season was one of their most successful in history to date: they won 4th consecutive title, equalizing the record of Millonarios set in 1964 (and going to beat it the next year) and reached the Copa Libertadores final, which they did not exactly lose – penalty shoot-out is a lottery. It was already recognized that this was the strongest ever period of America. The squad was talented and experienced and had few big stars – the Paraguayan Cabanas, the Argentine Gareca, and the local Ortiz. To outsiders and from the distance of time it may look like other clubs had the ‘true’ stars – Valderama, Escobar, Rincon, Higuita – but they were not famous yet. In real time, Cabanas, Gareca, Ortiz were the leading players – the others became famous later, they were still young talent. Already making waves, but not fully in bloom. America had the best squad at the time, pure and simple. If there was anything simple in Colombian football, that was it.