Football Journey

Algeria. The development of African football was acclaimed around the world, but the rapid improvement did not mean all that much at home – the oldest and better organized leagues along the Mediterranean coast still had gaps. Thus, Algerian football was already going on the road of full professionalism, but as late as 1986-87 it is impossible to establish reliable records: how many goals MS Oran scored this season is still disputable. What happened to ESM Guelma? If they were relegated, why? Or were they were expelled for some violations of rules? Or what? Anyhow, Algerian football was one of the best organized in Africa, having a very long tradition. The top league had 20 teams, but was going to be reduced to 18 the next season – so, 5 teams were going down and 3 were promoted from second level. USK Alger, JSM Tiaret, JSM Skikda earned promotion. The last 4 in the top league were relegated: WO Boufarik, last with 27 points, MB Saida – 19th with 28 points, GCR Masacara – 18th with 31 points, and CM Constantine – 17th with 33 points. One more team had to go down, however… and that should have been the 16th: WM Tlemcem. But they stayed. Apparently ESM Guelma, 13th with 37 point disappeared from the league. Since nobody seems able to find why, statisticians keep the final table with a question mark – ‘relegated?’
The rest was normal.
JS Bordj Menaiel finished 9th with 40 points.
Better known Mouloudia – MC Alger – finished 10th with 39 points.
One club was above the rest, had a splendid season and won the title easily:
Entente Sportive Setifienne – usually known just as ES Setif (but sometimes written EP Setif) – won 19 games, tied 10 and lost 9. Scored 40 goals, received 22. 48 points left MP Oran 6 points behind. Not the best scorers – 7 teams scored more than them (most of all this season scored RCM Relizane – 49. They finished 15th), but had the best defence – the only other team allowing less than 30 goals in their net was JE Tizi Ouzou with 28; they finished 6th. Ties dominated the championship – only 2 teams ended with less than 10 – so the champions were quite modest in that department – they mostly won games and that makes one a champion.
Excellent season for ES Setif, no doubt about it. And historic one as well – they won their 2nd title after a considerable wait.

Canada. From the ashes of NASL professional football was reborn in Canada – it was a second attempt, after short-lived Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League, which lasted from 1961 to 1965. 8 teams participated in the first championship of the Canadian Soccer League – their rosters were mainly made of former NASL players, but it was modest affair compared to NASL: no big foreign names were hired, it was largely domestic talent. The difficulties were old and obvious: travel concerns, which inevitably were money concerns. Soccer existed in Canada since late 19th century, failing to even register in the minds of the mainstream population, so there was little hope for big attendance to cover the costs. Thus, the championship formula was odd – the teams were divided in two Divisions, Eastern and Western, 4 teams each. They played 4 times against opponents in the same Division and twice against opponents from the other Division – that made a regular season of 20 games, after which the play-offs started – first a Division final, between the top in each division: a semifinal between the 2nd and the 3rd and then the winner played against the division winner. And then the division champions played the final for the league title. The original members were: Hamilton Steelers, Otawa Pioneers, Toronto Blizzard, and North York Rockets in the Eastern Division and Vancouver 86ers, Calgary Kickers, Edmonton Brickmen, and Winnipeg Fury in the Western Division.
Here is the long forgotten Winnipeg Fury – they happened to be weak in the opening season – only North York Rockets finished with worse record than theirs.
The very first league game was played in Aylmer, Quebec, which was the home of Ottawa Pioneers, in front of 2500 fans. That sums it all: a team had no big money to play on big venue, sometimes having to play out of town just because of it and in turn it was practically impossible to get real exposure and built bigger fan-base. Small crowds, small out of the way venues, just trying to survive. But never mind, football is tough. Hamilton Steelers won the Eastern Division followed by Ottawa Pioneers. In the Western Division Calgary Kickers was best, followed by Vancouver 86ers. Then the real championship started in earnest: in the Eastern semifinal Ottawa lost to Toronto 1-2. However, Hamilton was best – at the final they won 1-0 against Toronto Blizzard.
In the West Vancouver eliminated Edmonton 2-1, but in the final Calgary still remained best, beating Vancouver 86ers 4-3.
In the big league final the West prevailed: Calgary won 2-1 vs Hamilton.
Hamilton Steelers ended second – not bad at all.

Calgary Kickers won the first professional championship of Canada Soccer League.

Costa Rica. The oldest championship in Central America had one more season largely invisible to the big football world.
Alajuelense, perhaps too much involved in international tournaments, failed to win.
It was not Deportivo Saprissa’s year either.
Herediano won and it was significant victory for one of the traditional powers in Costa Rica – it was their 20th title. Well, depending on what is counted, since one of their victories was of a championship running concurrent to the one governed by the Federation. Or the other way around – it was long ago and hard to tell for sure who recognized what. Still, it was 20th title for the club, no matter what others said, and such number is no small achievement.

First Division. 21 teams, to be reduced to 20, so 2 teams relegated this season. Divided into 4 groups, yet, playing against all league members twice. The teams with least points – relegated. The top 2 teams of every group going to the play-offs. Well, traditionally the English championship was considered the longest and most grueling – consider this: in Mexico, after 40 games in the first stage 8 teams continued to add championship games and the finalists ended with 46 games – or 47, if there was no winner after the two legs. In England – 42 games were played in First and Second Division.
The first stage:
Group 1:
Necaxa – last with 33 points.
Atlante – 4th with 34 points.
Toluca – 3rd with 37 points.
Monterrey was 2nd with 39 points and Tecos – or Universidad Autonoma Guadalajara, or UAG – 1st also with 39 points, but better goal-difference. Both teams qualified to the play-offs.
Group 2.
Leon – last with 32 points. Unfortunately, they finished with the second worst record in the league and were relegated. Champions of 1983, now going down.
Deportivo Neza – 4th with 39 points.
Tampico Madero – 3rd with 41 points. Were they in Group 1, they would be going to the play-off… here – end of the road.
UANL finished 2nd with 44 points and Guadalajara – CD Guadalajara, or Chivas – were group winners with 55 points. They had the best record at the first stage.
Group 3.
Atlas – last with 33 points.

Universidad de Guadalajara – or Leones Negros – 4th with 36 points.
UNAM – or Pumas – 3rd with 40 points.
Puebla, 2nd with 42 points, and Morelia, 1st with 47 points, qualified to the play-offs.
Group 4.
Cobras (Queretaro) – last with 31 points. And since that was the worst record in the league, they were relegated. Not living up to their deadly name, but what can you do?
Angeles (Puebla) – 5th with 34 points.
Irapuato – 4th with 36 points.
Atletico Potosino – 3rd with 42 points.
America, 2nd with 52 points, and Cruz Azul, 1st with 54 points, qualified to the next stage.
The play-offs – or quarter-finals – were live or die, like any cup-format.
Monterrey, the Mexican champions of 1985-86, were eliminated by CD Guadalajara by a goal: 3-3 and 0-1.
America went down by a goal too, losing to Puebla 2-2 and 1-2.
Tecos – or UAG – lost to Cruz Azul, but only after penalty shoot-out: 2-0, 0-2, 2-3 penalty shoot out.
UANL – or Tigres – lost to Morelia 2-3 and 0-2.
In the semifinals
Puebla was eliminated by CD Guadalajara 0-2 and 0-2.
Morelia lost to Cruz Azul 2-0 and 1-4.
Thus, the big final was between the strongest teams all the way from the star of the championship – Cruz Azul (Mexico City) and CD Guadalajara (Guadalajara). The boys from the industrial capital of Jalisco were stronger and made no mistakes – they won both legs: 1-0 and 3-2.
Strong season for Cruz Azul, but second-best.

For outsiders, the squad is fairly anonymous – even those following World Cup could recognized only a handful of names, those playing for the national team of Mexico. But a team consistently strong in such a long season as the Mexican, must be quite good. All together, they won 26 games, tied 14, and lost 6. Scored 75 goals, received 33. In the play-offs they were unbeaten: 5 wins and 1 tie. Scored 12 goal, allowed 5. Very impressive record. Club Deportivo Guadalajara, increasingly becoming officially known as Chivas, won its 9th title. This was their first title since 1970, so they were back with vengeance – and bettered their record as the most successful Mexican club. Cruz Azul stayed 2nd with 7 titles.

Mexico. The well established formula remained unchanged: the top two divisions were divided into 4 groups, but the teams played twice against all teams. After that the top 2 teams in every group proceeded to the next stage. At this point the formulas differed – direct play-offs to the final in First Division, but not so in Second Division – over there the 8 remaining teams were again divided in 2 groups and the winners went the final to compete for the title and promotion. Two teams were relegated from First Division and one was promoted from Second Division – which was to even the numbers in both leagues, for presently they were 21 in the top league and 19 in the second level. Those with least points at the end of first stage of First Division went down. Relegation from Second Division was differently decided: the team with least points at the end of the first stage was directly relegated. The 4 teams at the bottom by total points in the initial stage went to final tournament between themselves and the last two were relegated. Not very complicated, but still questionable concept, as it will be shown. The ever present trouble with Mexican football was names and franchises – who was who and for how long? Is there direct relation between some contemporary club and one with the same name from past? To which city a team really belongs and what is its name? Official name and popular nicknames are seemingly always mixed in the tables, often alternative names given in the one and same information of championship. Nothing certain… so here and there alternatives shall be given.
The Mexican formula had been suspect largely in terms of objective strength and this Second Division championship was a great example of it – the groups were drawn in unfortunate way: four of the strongest teams this season happened to be together in Group 2, so inevitably two of them did not qualified to the next stage. In the same time Group 1 was the weakest – three of the five teams went to the relegation tournament and those who qualified to the next stage were rather weak so far. Since at the end of the season a full combined table was made, the discrepancy is hard to ignore:
If the formula was standard league formula, Santos Laguna would have been unquestionable winner: they had 66 points after 36 games, 9 more than second-best Tecoman. Jalisco would have been 3rd. Nut as the formula was… Jalisco did not even qualified to the next stage, for the top three were together in Group 2. In standard league championship the eventual winner would have been… 12th with their 45 points. However, nothing like that happened at the bottom, for relegation depended on points, not on group standing and the relegated team was last on both accounts: last in the meaningless final table and last in the relegation tournament.
Zacatecas, or Mineros (Zacatecas) was directly relegated – they were last with 27 points and worst goal-difference in the combined table.
The next four at the bottom played the final relegation tournament: Nuevo Necaxa and Pachuca ended out. Progreso (Cocula) and Chetumal survived. If it was just direct relegation – Nueva Necaxa was going to be relegated, but not Pachuca – Progreso would have been. Zacatecas, Chetumal, and Pachuca played in Group 1… Nueva Necaxa played in Group 2, Progreso – in Group 3, and no team in Group 4 was too weak to end in danger of relegation.
In the next stage things changed… In Group 1 Texcoco finished last with 4 points, Tecoman was 3rd with 6 points, Pioneros (Cancun) – 2nd with 8 points, and U.A. Queretaro won the group with 10 points. In its original Group 4 Queretaro quaified as 2nd in the group with 50 points – which placed them 6th in the combined final table. But they reached the final.
More surprised in Group 2: Universidad de Colima was last with 6 points, Zacatepes – 3rd with 6 points, Santos Laguna – 2nd with 7 points and on top – Correcaminos UAT with 11 points. In the combined table the winners were 12th… Meantime the originally formidable Santos Laguna lost all of its steam – either that, or Correcaminos, placed in the weakest original group played at first the bare minimum in order to qualify, saving strength for the games which mattered.
May be before the final of the season the rest of league members should be given with alternatives in brackets and final position in the combined table: Tapatio, 14th, La Piedad (or Reboceros), 13th, Tepic (or Deportivo, or Deportivo Tepic J.A.P.), 11th, Oaxaca (or Chapulineros), 10th, Texcoco (or Faraones may be? Or Club de Futbol Texcoco? Or Toros?), 8th, Orizaba (or Albinegros), 7th.
So, the final – two-legged affair, contested between U.A. Tamaulipas and U.A. Queretaro. Then again… contested between Correcaminos and Gallos Blancos. Or between Correcaminos de la UAT and Gallos Blancos de la UAQ. Same teams, different varieties of names, go figure. They were equal, though and the two legs produced no victor – 0-0 and 1-1. Third match was stage, at Azteca in Mexico City, neutral ground. This match ended scoreless – 0-0 – and the last resort was penalty shoot-out, where Correcaminos prevailed 4-2. High drama.
Thus Correcaminos UAT – best known as Correcaminos – was the champion of Second Division and promoted to the top league. How fair was that is another story, but they won and that was all of importance. A return to top flight in their case. They won the championship of Second Division for the first time. Still… in a normal championship formula, they would have been 12th…

CONCACAF Champions Cup – or Copa de Campeones y Subcampeones CONCACAF, as the tournament is officially called. The usual messy and rather strangely organized competition, in which the only worthy teams were the Mexican: America and Monterrey. They, however, could not reach the big final both – at the final of Northern/Central Section one of them was inevitably out. One may argue that stronger teams (from Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador) were actually in impossible position unlike the much weaker Caribbean teams, but such was the construction of the tournament. US teams were practically a joke – San Pedro Yugoslavs (who did not even play – they withdrew) and St. Louis Kutis SC and the Mexican sailed to the final in which America won over Monterrey 3-3 and 2-0. Thus, one of the CONCACAF was America.
The Caribbean Section was even murkier: the representatives of Surinam – Robin Hood and Paloeloe withdrew for financial reasons at the first leg. The whole divide into sections hardly made sense – few Caribbean states participated and among those who did not was even Haiti, better known to most thanks to their play at the 1974 World Cup. Jamaica had only one team in the tournament, which required 2 of every country. In the second leg the second match between Defence Force (Trinidad & Tobago) and Club Franciscain was not played – apparently, the hosts of it, Club Francisacain, decided to withdrew after losing the first game. At this stage is also entirely unclear how Etoile de Morne-à-l’Eau (Guadelupe) was eliminated – by results, they won against VSADC (St Lucia) 0-0 and 3-1. Seemingly, records of semi-final round are non-existent – if there was such round. However, 3 teams qualified from the previous round, yet the next was already the final and between the teams of Trinidad & Tobaco – Defence Force (who played so far just one match – they had a bye in the first round, then Club Franciscain withdrew before the second leg) and Trintoc, who played solid 4 games before reaching the final (they successfully eliminated teams with outlandish names – Rick’s Superstars from Saint Vincent first and then Golden Star from Martinique). Where and why Etoile de Morne-a-l’Eau evaporated nobody knows… The clash of Trinidad ended with Defence Force victory – 1-1 and 2-1 – and once again they had a chance to win the CONCACAF trophy. On theory. In reality they managed a tie at home – 1-1 – and lost in Mexico 0-2.
One can appreciate Defence Force in their own terms – a small team from small country, which was doing quite good on international level. But not when against them were real professionals – no matter how determined and heroic, they had no chance.
America (Mexico City) won the CONCACAF Champions Cup for a second time.

Interamerican Cup – unclear was the 1987 really played: the contest between River Plate (Argentina) and Alajuelense (Costa Rica) took place in 1987 indeed, but the continental champions were of 1986. Sometimes the final was considered for 1987, sometimes for 1986. So – look back at the 1986 where it is observed.

South American Player of the Year. Copa America ruled the year, so the best players were chosen largely on their performance in it. European-based players did not make the list, as usual. Thus, it was not a surprise that Uruguayans were ranked high – Jose Perdomo was voted 3rd and Obdulio Trasante – 2nd. But above them was the Colombian Carlos Valderama.
‘El Pibe’ Valderama was already noticed, but it was also a matter of maturity – now 26 old, the great attacking midfielder-playmaker was at the best age for a player. After starting with Union Magdalena in 1981, he was moved for a season to Millonarios and then, in 1985, to Deportivo Cali – already having plenty of experience and finally settling in stronger team. He was a national team regular for Colombia since 1985, part of the great generation, which practically put Colombia on the map, a generation led by him, still not even at its peak. Fans loved him for his elegant moves, great skills and creativity. And for his rolled down socks too, going along with his exotic hairstyle – Valderama was a true star.
Yet, Deportivo Cali was in the shadow of America (Cali), so it was not club football exactly moving him to the top of the continent.
On club level, the Uruguyans achieved more – they won Copa Libertadores with Penarol. They won Copa America too, playing for Uruguay, but… in Copa America Valderama dazzled the crowds and Colombia did not do bad.
Valderama was stronger than current World champions and on their own turf too.
He outshined Maradona in his home. This year Valderama proved his worth and practically established himself as the best Colombian player of all times. And although his competition won trophies and he did not, he deserved the award most.

Venezuela. Apart of the excitement over Deportivo Tachira heroics in Copa Libertadores, Venezuela was having new champion this season, which was played for the first time in two years – 1986-87 instead of only 1987. And the structure was coming to maturity: two teams promoted from second level and two teams relegated from the top league.
Pereganga Margarita (Isla Margarita), founded just in 1985, won the Second Division and went up. Second was Penisulares (Araya) and they were also pormoted.
The top league of 14 teams played 2-staged championship – at first the teams were divided into two groups, Oriental and Occidental, and the top 4 teams in each qualified to the final stage. The last in each group were relegated, only the rule for that was unclear: Galicia (Caracas) was last in the Oriental Group and was properly relegated, but in the Occidental Group Universidad de los Andes was last, but remained – Llaneros, 6th, was relegated instead. In any case 3 teams in each group did not qualified to the final stage: in the Oriental Group Atletico Anzoategui, 5th, Unversidad Central, 6th, and Galicia, 7th. In the Occidental Group the season ended at this stage for Zamora, 5th, Llaneros, 6th, and Universidad de los Andes, 7th. Among those who qualified there was already a leader: Maritimo won 15 of their 24 games and no other team came close. Naturally, they won the Oriental Group with 36 points, followed by Deportivo Italia with 28 points (10 ties!), Caracas FC – 3rd with 25 points (and 21-21 goal-difference), and Mineros – 4th with 22 points. Portuguesa won the Occidental Group thanks to better goal-difference – they and Estudiantes finished with 31 points each, Deportivo Tachira was 3rd with 27 points and Union Deportiva – 4th with 24 points.
The Final Stage was round-robin 2-legged affair, contested by two teams – Maritimo and Deportivo Tachira. Deportivo Italia finished last with 9 points. Portuguesa – 7th with 11 points, Mineros – 6th with 12 points, Union Deportiva – 5th with 13 points, Caracas FC – 4th with 13 points.
Estudiantes took the bronze medals with 15 points.
Deportivo Tachira eventually lost the race for the title by a single point – they finished with 19 points, although greatly outscored all other teams (21 goals – Union Deportiva was second best scoring team at the final stage with 16).
With 20 points, Maritimo (Caracas) prevailed in the race for the title – 8 wins, 4 ties, 2 lost games. Certainly, they were the most winning team in this championship, but somewhat there victories were not spectacular – more of a good work of their defense, than of exciting strikers. 13-3 was their scoring record at the final stage: allowing only 3 goals in 14 games was fantastic achievement, but they scored less than a goal-per-game average. No matter, they were best, winning the very first title in the history of the club.

Bolivia. The championship formula was almost identical with that of Ecuador – at the first stage a regular league championship was played and the top 8 of the 14 top league clubs qualified to the second stage. In the second stage the the 8 teams were divided into 2 groups and the top 2 teams in each of them qualified to the semifinals. Then the winners in the semifinals played the final of the second stage and after that the winners of the first and second stages played the championship final.
First stage: Universitario (Sucre) was last with 18 points, Ciclon (Tarija) – 13th with 19 points, Aurora (Cochabamba) – 12th with 19 points, San Jose (Oruro) – 11th with 21 points, Real (Santa Cruz) – 10th with 23 points, and Jorge Wilstermann (Cochabamba) – 9th with 24 points. Universitario and Ciclon were possibly relegated. Very weak season for Jorge Wilstermann.
The top 8 qualified to the next stage: Blooming (Santa Cruz) – 8th with 25 points, Always Ready (La Paz) – 7th with 26 points, Destroyers (Santa Cruz) – 6th with 28 points, Litoral (La Paz) – 5th with 28 points, The Strongest (La Paz) – 4th with 29 points, Petrolero (Cochabamba) – 3rd with 32 points, Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) – 2nd with 34 points.
Bolivar (La Paz) won the First Stage with 38 points and instantly qualified to the championship final. Which meant that they could take it easy in the Second Stage – if they decided so.
Second Stage. Deliberately or not, but Group A was made of only clubs from La Paz and the provincials played in Group B.
Group A: Always Ready was last with 2 points, Bolivar – 3rd with 7 points, Litoral – 2nd with 7 points and The Strongest – 1st with 8 points. The top two qualified to the semifinals.
Group B: Petrolero – 4th with 5 points,
Blooming – 3rd with 5 points, Oriente Petrolero – 2nd with 6 points and Destroyers – 1st with 8 points. Top two went to the semifinals.
Semifinals: Litoral was eliminated by Destroyers 0-1 and 1-1 and

The Strongest lost to Oriente Petrolero 2-1 and 1-3.
In the final Destroyers lost to Oriente Petrolero 1-1 and 1-3.
Oriente Petrolero won the Second Stage and qualified to the championship final.
In the championship final everything was decided in the first leg – Bolivar absolutely destroyed Oriente Petrolero 6-0. However, in Santa Cruz the hosts won 3-0. And since goal-difference did not count… a third match was scheduled in Cochabamba. Bolivar left no doubts now: 5-2!
Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) finished second this season.

Bolivar (La Paz) won at the end, but leaving a bit of a bitter taste: they had up and down season. Seemingly, they did not play very serious football in the second stage, satisfied with reaching the championship final in the first stage. Also, it looked like they decided the job was done in the first leg of the final and thus permitted Oriente Petrolero to get a play-off. Such suspicions come from the results: 6-0 at first and then 5-2 in the third game. But whatever ends well cannot be judged harshly: Bolivar won its 8th title and equalized Jorge Wilstermann in the lead of the Bolivian strongest teams.