Copa Interamericana. Practically, unheard of international competiton.
The Interamerican Cup was established in 1969. It was born out of refusal – a proposition for something like tournament for continental club champions was rejected strongly by UEFA and to lesser degree by CONMEBOL. In spite of this rejection Copa Interamericana was established, a carbon copy of the Intercontinental Cup: a contest between the winners of South America (Copa Libertadores) and North America (CONCACAF’s champions cup). It was organized as two-legged final, but there were problems from start and the Cup never gained real reputation. The problems were largely embedded in the North American predicament: only the Mexican teams were decent enough to warm South American interest. Further, NASL flatly refused to participate. Travel was difficult and expensive as well and financially the South American clubs were mostly doomed to spend lots of money for nothing – Mexican clubs could attract some interest, but if the opponent happened to be from Central America or the Caribbian islands it was almost certain there would be only huge expenses and no income. Copa Interamericana was seemingly doomed from day one and was played sporadically, which eventually affected even the truthfulness of the records. Suffice to say that in 1985 it was only the 9th issue of the Cup and it was the first time it was played after 1980. Or 1981… for it was never sure to which year an issue belonged to: the 1985 final is also recorded as the 1986 one and this was not first time years were given alternatively. It was also the first year one match was played instead of two, a testimony of the problems with interesting crowds to attend such games and financial and logistic difficulties. Originally, the format was more optimistic: in case of a draw after the two legs, a third match was played (happened 3 times), but not it was decided to go directly to penalty shoot-out in case of a draw. Since this tournament is unlikely to be mentioned again, let us go to the end of line: Copa Interamericana was played for the last time in 1998. It was discontinued after the last drop of trouble made it entirely meaningless: Mexican clubs started participating in South American club tournaments. Not only South and North were somewhat amalgamated, but CONCACAF club tournaments lost their only strong and popular clubs.
The 1985 – or 1986, depending on who was counting – issue somewhat concentrated all problems of this cup: it was staged for the first time after 1980 (or 1981), so it appeared as a revival of a kind. It was the first time the final was a single match. However, the CONCACAF champion happened to hail from Trinidad and Tobago, fueling all misgivings and most likely the reason for the change of the formula from 2 games to one. From South American point of view only playing against Mexican clubs made some sense, but already their champions tasted disappointment in every sense, playing against teams from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Now it was not even that, but some completely obscure opponent from the very bottom of the football world. Very likely this final would not have been played at all, if some of the big South American clubs was Copa Libertadores winner in 1985, but it was modest Argentinos Juniors… most likely, the prime motivation for them to play was hunger for trophies – they did not have many. But even for them was meaningless to play a home leg: it was guaranteed that a Buenos Aires leg will be played at empty stadium. The only crowd could be away, so the final was played in Trinidad. Something between vacation on the beach and a leisurely exhibition game, played in early 1986 – hence, the confusion of the records.
Defence Force vs Argentinos Juniors. Amateurs vs professionals – whatever ambitions drove the opponents, it was hardly a great match. Memorable for the home team and its supporters only. Entirely ignored game by the international community.
Whatever from this final survived to our time is preserved by Defence Force, but even this is scarce and does not go even to showing squad photos of the finalists. Argentinos Juniors scored a goal sometime during the game and that was all: 1-0.
Defence Force did what they could and given the difference of class, they finished with more than plausible result. Almost equal, nothing to be ashamed of.
Expected victory of Argentinos Juniors, but also just a footnote for them – so, there is no picture of the victors. Only a note that the club won Copa Interamericana. This is a version of the team in some domestic game, but since the Trinidad adventure was played in early 1986, the squad was still unchanged
May be insignificant victory of obscure tournament, but still worth mentioning, for this was the most successful year aver for Argentinos Juniors. Copa Interamericana had a new winner added to the list and the rest was mere statistics: Argentina was leading by far, with 5 victories. Argentinian clubs played a total of 6 finals, losing only one (Boca Juniors in 1978). Mexico followed with 5 finals, but winning only twice (America in 1978 and UNAM in 1981). Independiente (Avellaneda) was the most successful club with 3 wins (1973, 1974, and 1976). All together, 8 countries were represented in the 9 issues of the tournament – Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Trinidad and Tobago. Three times a third match was needed to decided the winner (1969, 1978, and 1981). The biggest win happened in 1980, when Olimpia (Paraguay) destroyed FAS (El Salvador) 8-3 (3-3 and 5-0). The unclear winner is Independiente in 1974 – they lost the home leg 0-1 to Municipal (Guatemala) and won the away match 1-0. A tie, but Independiente was declared Cup winner. Independiente did not prevail in 1976 either, but for that final away goals counted, so the 2-2 tie in Mexico benefited them. Boca Juniors was just the opposite of lucky in 1978 – they won the away leg against America (Mexico City) 3-0, but lost at home 0-1. Goals did not count this year and Boca Juniors lost the third match 1-2 in overtime. In the whole history of Copa Interamericana Defence Force (Trinidad and Tobago) was the weakest and most obscure finalist.