Two changes in 1st division for the new season – one was normal, the other – peculiar.
Club Deportivo Zacatepec (Zacatepec city, Morelos state) was the 2nd division winner the pervious season and promoted. It was a quick return to top flight for the ‘Caneros’ (‘Sugarcane growers’) – although their best years were in the 1950s, usually they played in first division. Relegated in 1976-77, they came after a season in the lower division.
The second new name was really new: Deportivo Neza.
The club was founded in 1978 and was member of the top division without even playing a single official match. This was possible in Mexico because of peculiar rules – a combination of traditional football rules and US rules. The Mexican league, like professional leagues in USA, sold franchises and that was what the participating clubs owned. And had the right to sell. The franchise was the whole thing – not the name, not the location. As a result, clubs appeared and disappeared, popping in different cities and confusing forever fans and historians. After the 1977-78 season ended the city of Neza bought the franchise of Club de Futbol Laguna. Deportivo Neza was founded and took the place of now defunct club in first division. Go figure… was there continuation or was it something entirely new? Deportivo Neza itself did not last long -in 1982 the club – or the franchise? – was sold and moved to Tamaulipas, becoming Correcaminos UAT. Years later Deportivo Neza was resurrected and today plays in the Mexican 3rd division. Meantime Correcaminos was gone and the cities of Neza and Laguna had been quite regularly represented in first division. Tracing who is who is very difficult – Mexican teams are often written either as just city names or by their nicknames, both suggesting continuation, not different entities. Just looking at final tables, it seems that Neza has long, long history. In the same time Deportivo Neza and, say, Toros Neza have nothing in common… or may be they have… Anyhow, the system provided a way around traditional rules of ascent, a parallel system of going up – a club may go up from the bottom of the system, from league to league, via standard rules of promotion. Or may bye a franchise and become a member of first division without the difficulties of having to play at all. The ‘Coyotes’, as Deportivo Neza were nicknamed, chose the quick way – as many other short or long lasting clubs… or franchises?
New ‘Coyotes’ were hardly new as a roster at their debut. They impressed no one in their first season. At the end, what mattered was only that: there was no more Club de Futbol Laguna and there was Deportivo Neza. The beloved cliché of sports journalists – ‘writing history’, ‘re-writing history’, ‘the rest is history’ – hardly apply in the Mexican case: precisely history is difficult to uncover and as for ‘writing it’… the ‘Coyotes’ were apparently not great writers.
The Mexican league was subdivided into 4 groups of 5 teams each. All teams played twice against each other, as everywhere in the world, but every group had separate table. The top two teams of each group went ahead, the rest finished the season. The team with least points among the bottom placed in the groups was relegated. Deportivo Neza finished last in Group 4 – so much for ‘writing history’ – but escaped relegation. Veracruz from Group 1 finished with 23 points. Club Social y Deportivo Jalisco (Guadalajara) – now defunct – had 28 in Group 2, and Deportivo Neza – 30 points. Hardly a memorable start, but at least the Coyotes escaped relegation. From the teams unable to go ahead perhaps the unluckiest were Atlante and Puebla.
Atlante, old club from Mexico City, was normally expected to perform better – clubs from the capital should have more money than others and therefore better teams. But Atlante finished 4th in Group 1.
Puebla finished 3rd in Group 3.
The winners were mixed bag – some typical favourites, some inreasingly getting stronger young clubs, and some surprises. Zacatepec, just coming back from 2nd division, was one of the surprises. Monterrey and America were the top two in Group 1, UNAM and Atletico Potosino from Group2, Cruz Azul and Toluca – Group 3, and UANL and Zacatepec – Group 4. If a normal table was made, Cruz Azul would have been 1st – they had the most points, 51, followed by UANL with 48. Monterrey and America, however, would not be among the best teams in such a table – they earned less points than two clubs taking 3rd places in their groups.
The second stage divided the 8 group winners into 2 quarter-final groups – the winners of each going to the final. Cruz Azul were overwhelming in Group 1. UNAM clinched first place in Group 2 thanks to better goal average. UANL were unlucky 2nd, but they would have been 2nd if goal-difference was the decisive factor too. Zacatepec was the worst team at this stage, but still it was a good season for the newcomers.
The final opposed clubs from the capital – the old and popular Cruz Azul vs rapidly becoming leading and very popular UNAM, better known as Pumas today. It was not to be their year – they were unable to beat Cruz Azul at home and the scoreless tie seemingly benefited the opposition. But in Mexico City ‘home’ games meant little, if anything at all – the second match was the real final, winner takes all. This time Cruz Azul, nominally the host, scored 2 unanswered goals. 0-0 and 2-0 – the champions were dressed in blue.
Cruz Azul triumphed with their 6th title.
UNAM had Hugo Sanchez and Leonardo Cuellar, but Cruz Azul was perhaps the better squad. A bunch of Mexican stars, who played at the 1978 World Cup finals: two defenders – Guillermo Mendizabal (b.1954) and Ignacio Flores (b. 1953) and two midfielders – Horacio Lopez Salgado (b. 1948) and Gerardo Lugo Gomez (b.1955). Ignacio Flores is a club legend – he played only for Cruz Azul during his long career – 1972-1990. 18 years is no joke. The Mexican stars were helped by the usual foreign group of players, who were not international stars, but fitted well in the Mexican league – three Argentinians and one Paraguayan were part of the champion team. Jose Miguel Marin (b. 1945) was reliable goalkeeper, who arrived in Mexico in 1971 and stayed for 10 years. At the time of his arrival he was a member of the national team and played 2 matches for Argentina in 1971. The second Argentine was a defender – Miguel Angel Cornejo (b. 1952) – who played 5 seasons for Cruz Azul (1977-82). The most recent arrival was the midfielder Jose Luis Ceballos (b. 1953) – he came just before the season and instantly helped his new club to win the title. He was also the player with the shortest stay – only 2 seasons. In attack Cruz Azul had a Paraguayan: Carlos Jara Saguier (b. 1950), who arrived in 1975. He was also the only national team player among the foreigners – he played for Paraguay from 1970 to 1981. For Cruz Azul he played until 1983. The team was not world famous, but solid one it was. The title was well deserved – Cruz Azul dominated the league from the start to the end of the season.