Torneo Finalizacion was much more complicated: at first, something close to regular league was played – 14 teams played 21 rounds. The top 8 teams moved to the second stage. Few surprises here: Tolima was still at the bottom and out – 13th. The worst team was however Deportivo Independiente Meddelin…
Standing, from left: Mario Gutiérrez, José Velásquez, Leone, Zárate, Escobar.
Crouching: Mauricio Salazar, Pérez, Londero, Hugo Sotil, Ponciano Castro, Mejía.
DIM at the very bottom. Hugo Sotil too… only three years ago Catalunians demanded from the brass of their beloved Barcelona to include Sotil in starters… in 1979 such demand seemed meaningless.
Deportivo Cucuta was 12th and also out of the race.
Standing, from left: Américo Ortiz, “ Gringo” Palacios, Rodrigo Cosme, Francisco Nieto, Rando “ Tomate” Gómez, Rogante.
Crouching: “ Burrito” Gonzalez, Manuel Rosendo Magan, Victor Nicolás Cocco, Arnoldo Iguaran, Gustavo Contreras ( Kinesiologist).
Note Contreras – South Americans were either ahead of time, or used fancy names for their medical stuff. Kinesiologists came to European teams much later. Apparently, the kinesiologist did not help much.
The biggest losers of this stage were Once Caldas, who were 3rd in Apertura. Now they plummeted down to 11th place. Curiously, they finished with positive goal-difference – 34-28.
Just the opposite happened to Deportivo Pereira – they had miserable Apertura: 12th. But in the opening stage of Finalizacion they finished 3rd. The rest of top 8 teams were pretty much the same as they were in the Apertura, taking pretty much the same positions with exactly the same leaders – Deportivo Cali was 2nd with 27 points, and America – 1st with 31 points. But points mattered no more than qualifying to the second stage, where the top 8 were divided into two round-robin groups. Well, here logic leaves us… Millonarios, 8th in the first stage was out. Once Caldas was in… why is hard to tell: perhaps Apertura was taken into account.
Millonarios – the best known to Europeans Colombian club had very weak year – twice 8th and out. Was it fair, though to exclude them from the second stage after finishing higher than Once Caldas? They were not alone:
Deportes Quindio finished 6th in the first stage. True, they were only 10th in the Apertura, but played well in the beginning of Finalizacion. Yetm they were out – Independiente Santa Fe, 9th, went ahead.
It was here when the tournament started in earnest. Two teams of each group were going ahead to the third stage. In Group A America had difficulties for the first time this year. 2 wins, 2 ties, 2 losses, negative goal-difference – 6-7. Luckily, two of the rivals ended with 5 points and America took 2nd place – and qualified. Atletico Nacional and Deportivo Pereira were the unlucky ones – they missed qualification by little, but in a sense it was fair – both clubs really played well only recently, having mediocre Torneo Apertura.
Standing, from left: Raúl Ramón Navarro Paviato, Alejandro Estanislao Semenewicz, Víctor Emilio Luna Gómez, Héctor Javier Céspedes Carrillo, Francisco Antonio Maturana García, Iván Darío Castañeda Zapata.
Crouching: Pedro Enrique Sarmiento Solís, Aldo Fernando Rodríguez, Hernán Darío Herrera Ramírez, Osvaldo Marcial Palavecino, Jorge Ortíz Jiménez.
Semenewicz was out, Maturana was out, Palavecino was out… Atletico Nacional perhaps played too carefully so far and to switch to another gear was impossible. Or may be they were not in great shape to begin with. On the other hand Atletico Junior excelled – so far, they were not impressive, seemingly satisfied with just going ahead. But now the team went full ahead and finished 1st with 8 points. They lost just one match. Group B had bigger surprise. Once Caldas, going down since the beginning of Torneo Finalizacion, finished last. Deportivo Cali, so far the second strongest team in the country, finished 3rd … 1 win, 1 loss, and 4 ties – they were suddenly out.
Deportivo Cali should have been title contenders, but were out instead. Bad luck or their form dropped just when it mattered most? Union Magdalena and Independiente Santa Fe went the opposite direction – sluggish Apertura, better first stage of Finazicaion, even better second stage. Both teams seemingly had better timing, coming to the peak of their form when it was really important. Both ended with 7 points, Union took the 1st place thanks to better goal-average.
And finally the final stage – again a round-robin tournament, with double importance: the winner, if different from America, was going to the seasonal final. However, if America won Finalizacion, then the top teams in the final group were going to Copa Libertadores. Atletico Junior proved to be the outsider – apparently, their strength lasted only until they reached the final. Once here, they lost 5 of their 6 matches. They got a single point – ironically, when visiting America. The other three clubs fought equally and goal-difference decided the winner.
Union Magdalena finished with 7 points – and took 3rd place. They outscored all others, but unfortunately earned 1 point less than their rivals.
America and Independiente Santa Fe finished with 8 points each. The ending of Torneo Apertura was repeating… this time goal-difference decided the winner and it was again America.
Excellent finish for Independiente Santa Fe, but they had to be satisfied with 2nd place. Bad luck . But they secured Copa Libertadores spot.
America won Torneo Finalizacion and since they also won Torneo Apertura, there was no final play-off to decide the title – it was theirs.
Standing, from left: Wilson Américo Quiñónez, Luis Alegría Valencia, Gabriel Chaparro, Aurelio José Pascuttini, Luis Eduardo Reyes, Carlos Alfredo Gay.
First row: Horacio Ferrín, Juan Manuel Bataglia, Gerardo González, Jorge Ramón Cáceres, Alfonso Cañon.
For America it was historic year – they won their first title! It was not overwhelming victory – America was perhaps lucky to come first in both parts of championship, but first they were both times. If anything, they were consistent – except for the shaky second stage of Finalizacion, they were at top form the whole year. Scoring was not their best side – their top scorer Jorge Ramon Caseres was 8th with 19 goals: Juan Jose Irigoyen scored 36 and his Millonarios was a mediocrity, also playing fewer games than America. Defense was the much stronger side of America, but whatever it was, they won all the way. Gabriel Ochoa Uribe must be credited with the success – he arrived this very season from Millonarios and immediately won the title. True to his reputation – he already had 7 titles as a coach. And his 8th was not the last – whatever he won with Millonarios and Santa Fe, he would double with America. Great years were just beginning for the Red Devil, as America is known.