Peru. By now, the largest championship in the world – 44 teams played the top tier season. The aim was largely full representation of the country, which naturally complicated the championship formula. Torneo Descentralizado had 2 parts, played the same way and the winners of Regional I and Regional II met at the end to decide the title. Regional I was a bit shorter, it seems. It seems, because early stage results are still not available – only final tables. The participants were geographically divided into 5 leagues at first – the largest and strongest was the Metropolitan, from which the 4 top teams qualified to the next stage, the Octagonal. The winners of the other 4 leagues qualified to the Octagonal too. The Octagonal was practically a knockout stage similar to ¼ finals in cup tournaments. The winners went to the final stage, the Liquilla, a round-robin format, in which the finalist played once against the rest of the group. The winner was the champion of Regional I or Regional II, for both parts had the same formula. The winner of Regional I also qualified to Copa Libertadores. At last the winners of both parts met to contest the title in one match – that is, if the winners of Regional I and Regional II were different teams. Seven teams were relegated down to the second tier – Copa Peru – at the end of the season, but the relegation rules are not clear: apart from the Metropolitan league, where clearly the last placed went down, it is a mystery why the other 6 teams were relegated, for they were not last in the their leagues. It is also unclear why 2 teams were relegated from the Central and Oriental leagues, but from the other leagues only 1 team went down. Because of the size and the formula of the championship, it will be abbreviated here only to second stage of first part and final positions in the second part. The first stage leagues were: Metropolitan – 12 teams, Central – 8 teams, North – 10 teams, Oriental – 6 teams, and South – 8 teams.
Since it is not clear why most relegated teams went down, let just mention them now:
Meteor – true to its name, this club is difficult to find today, if it exists at all. Possibly from Lima, they played in the Metropolitan league, finishing last in both Regional I and Regional II. Naturally, relegated and disappeared from sight and mind.
Defensor ANDA (Aucayacu) and Alipio Ponce (Mazamari) were relegated from Central league – impossible to tell why.
This may be a photo of Alipio Ponce from the season.
15 de Septiembre (Trujillo) was relegated from North.
Chacarita Versalles (Iquitos) and
Atletico Belen (Moyobamba) were relegated from Oriental. Again, a mystery… why 2 teams were relegated from the smallest regional league?
Atletico Huracan (Moquegua) was relegated from South. The photo may be from this season.
Regional I.
The top 4 teams from Metropolitan qualified to Octagonal – Universitario, 1st, Alianza (Lima) – 2nd, Union Huaral – 3rd, and Sport Boys – 4t. Deportivo Junin won Central and qualified. Deportivo Pacifico won North and qualified. Deportivo Hospital won Oriental and FBC Melgar won South.
In the Octagonal FBC Melgar eliminated Alianza (Lima) 2-0, 1-3 and 5-4 in the penalty shoot-out. Deportivo Junin lost to Universitario 1-0 and 1-6. Deportivo Hospital was eliminated by Union Huaral 1-1 and 1-5. Sport Boys eliminated Deportivo Pacifico not on the pitch – the first in Callao ended 0-0 and seemingly Deportivo Pacifico withdrew after that and Sport Boys qualified to the final without playing.
Liguilla Final:
FBC Melgar – last with 1 points, Union Huaral – 3rd with 2 points, Universitario – 2nd with 4 points, Sport Boys – 1st with 5 points.
Sport Boys (Callao) won Regional I – may be a bit lucky, but winners. So far, they qualified to the next Copa Libertadores and had a good chance to be Peruvian champions too.
Regional II.
Metropolitan.
Meteor – last with 11 points. They were last in the Regional I and now again.
Deportivo AELU (Lima) – 11th with 14 points. Standing from left: Pedro Bonelli, Luis García, Gabriel Kanashiro, Robert Yamamoto, Willy Uehara, Juan Mármol. First row: Carlos Takeuchi, Edwin Uehara, Juan José Oré, Luis Chiaveri, Alberto Akatsuka.
This club deserves a note: ethnic clubs exist everywhere in the world and some are even traditionally strong, but most of them have European roots. To have Asian community club was quite unusual at the time – there was at least one Chinese club in Peru, Lau Chun, but not at top level. Deportivo AELU belonged to the Japanese community of Lima and did quite well playing top tier football. And true to its roots, it had many players of Japanese descend, which makes it even more remarkable than most ethnic clubs in South America, which for a long time already had professional players having nothing to do with the ethnic banner.
Internazionale (San Borja) – 10th with 16 points.
Octavio Espinoza (Ica) – 9th with 18 points. May be a photo from this season.
San Agustin (Lima) – 8th with 18 points.
Sporting Cristal (Lima) – 7th with 21 points. Standing from left: Percy Olivares, Luis Avila, Jorge Arteaga, Jorge Olaechea, Miguel Miranda. Crouching: Francesco Manassero, Pablo Zegarra, Pedro Novella, Julio César Antón, Oscar Calvo, Luis Redher.
Miserable season, which perhaps still disgusts the club and its fans – it is hard to find a team photo of 1990: this one is labeled 1989-90. Could be 1989, could be 1990 – the squad is practically the same.
Defensor (Lima) – 6th with 24 points. Standing from left: Manuel Earl, Lucio Del Mul,
Roberto Aguillar, Julio Colina, Enrique Peña. First row: Mario Aceval, Roberto Lanatta, Ricardo Zegarra, Edgar Agui, Pedro Meza, Christian Luna.
Deportivo Municipal (Lima) – 5th with 25 points.
Union Huaral – 4th with 27 points and qualified to Octagonal.
Universitario – 3rd with 29 points and qualified to Octagonal.
Sport Boys – 2nd with 30 points and qualified to Octagonal. Remarkably, they did not lose even one match at this stage: 8 wins and 14 ties.
Alianza – 1st with 31 points and qualified to Octagonal.
Central: no results and very likely no real final table are preserved, so apart from the winner, the rest is approximate.
Union (Huayllaspanca) – may be a photo of the season, may be 8th… One thing is sure: not only Sport Boys used pink.
Union Minas (Cerro de Pasca) – may be 7th.
Alipio Ponce (Mazamari) – may be 6th, but relegated.
Defensor ANDA (Aucayacu) – may be 5th. Relegated.
Leon (Huanuco) – may be 4th.
Mina San Vicente (Junin) – often given as Minas San Vicente. May be 3rd.
Deportivo (Junin) – may be 2nd.
ADT (Tarma) – 1st and qualified to Octagonal.
North: same as Central and the rest of provincial leagues – no information.
Atletico Grau (Piura) – may be 10th.
Deportivo Canana (Lambayeque) – may be 9th.
15 de Septiembre (Trujillo) may be 8th and relegated.
Deportivo Morba (La Esperanza) – may be 7th.
Libertad (Trujillo) – may be 6th.
Atletico Torino (Talara) – may be 5th.
UTC – Universidad Tecnica (Cajamarca) – may be 4th.
Carlos A. Mannucci (Trujillo) – may be 3rd.
Deportivo Pacifico (Tumbes) – may be 2nd, may be a photo of this season.
Alianza Atletico (Sullana) – 1st and qualified to Octagonal.
Oriental – the smallest league.
San Martin (Porres) – may be 6th.
Atletico Belen (Moyobamba) – may be 5th but relegated.
Chacarita Versalles (Iquitos) – may be 4th and relegated.
Deportivo Hospital (Pucallpa) – may be 3rd, may be a photo of the season. They had their day in the first part of the championship, but could not repeat it.
Deportivo Bancos (Pucallpa) – may be 2nd.
Union (Tarapoto) – 1st and qualified to Octagonal.
South.
Atletico Huracan (Moquegua) – may be 8th and relegated.
Juvenil Los Angeles (Moquegua) – may be 7th.
Cienciano (Cuzco) – may be 6th.
Coronel Bolognesi (Tacna) – may be 5th.
Alfonso Ugarte (Puno) – may be 4th.
Diablos Rojos (Juliaca) – may be 3rd.
Aurora (Arequipa) – may be 2nd.
FBC Melgar – 1st and qualified to Octagonal.
Octagonal:
Union (Tarapoto) was eliminated by Universitario 0-5 and 1-1. All depends on size… small and little known Union had a season to remember: they reached Octagonal stage, a big achievement for almost anonymous club.
ADT (Tarma) was destroyed by Alianza: 0-1 and 0-6. May be a photo of this season.
FBC Melgar had no luck – and Sport Boys again had luck on their side: 2-1, 0-1, and finally Melgar went down in the penalty shoot-out 4-5.
Union (Huaral) lost to Alianza Atletico 1-1 and 0-1.
Liquilla Final: the last four created a drama –Alianza and Universitario battled for top place and ended with equal points. Goal-difference did not count, so an extra play-off was staged.
Alianza Atletico (Sullana) finished last with 2 points.
Sport Boys was 3rd with 2 points.
Alianza (Lima) -2nd with 4 points and 4-2 goal-difference.
Universitario – 1st with 4 points, but 6-1 goal-difference. This mattered not and the rivals met again on January 30th, 1991, the 1990 season already spilled over the next year. Universitario prevailed 1-0 and thus won Regional II, which propelled them to the championship final.
And after all that, the big final on February 3rd, 1991: Universitario – Sport Boys, the winners of the first and second part of the long season. And Sport Boys run out of luck this time – they lost 2-4 and the title.
Callao lost the rivalry with Lima – Sport Boys had wonderful season, yet, one cannot help but notice that they were lucky of few crucial occasions. But good luck does not run forever – Sport Boys was seemingly weaker at the Liguilla Final of Regional II. Out of steam, they lost the title. Still, very strong season. Only players, standing from left: Roberto Arrelucea, Leoncio Cervera,Martín Duffo, Ochandarte, Quiroz, César Chavez Riva. Front: Abel Lobatón, NN, Atoche, Oswaldo Flores, Ramón Anchisi.
Universitario (Lima) won the final and its 19th title. Strong season – they won the Metropolitan league in the first part of the championship and ended 2nd in Regional I. They were 3rd in the Metropolitan league in the second part and battled hard to win Regional II against the arch-enemy Alianza and prevailed. At the championship final they were clearly much stronger than Sport Boys – well deserved title! All together, the champions played 45 games – 2 more than Sport Boys – of which they 26, tied 12, and lost 7. Scored 87 goals, received 29. Sport Boys had considerably weaker record – they did not win neither Metropolitan championship, played 2 games less than Universitario and won 17, tied 20, and lost 6. Scored 64 goals, received 41. Most of all, Universitario was evenly strong during the whole season – Sport Boys looked like running out of steam near the end. As for the squad… it is hard to tell: Peruvian football was not at its best at this time and no outstanding players were around. This applies, inevitably, to the champions too. Perhaps not a great team, but champions are champions.