First Division at a glance promoted attacking football – almost 2.5 goals per game were scored. Ties were not in favour – only 3 clubs finished with 10 or more ties, but none tied half of their championship matches, unlike other countries. Looked like a triumph of attacking football, but such conclusion could be wrong: it was not that much attacking approach, but inequality of the opponents, producing goals and reducing the number of ties. The outsider of the league was Rentistas – they finished 14th. Last with 12 points – the nearest opponent ended 5 points ahead. Rentistas was relegated and no surprise here: traditionally, they were third rank club and hardly able to stay in the First Division for long.
Huracan Buceo – like Rentistas, a third rank club – finished safely 13th, but they were not really in danger of relegation for the most of the season. Weaker then most of the league, they were much stronger than Rentistas and that was most important.
Danubio, a typical representative of the second rank clubs, finished 8th. Like most clubs, mid-table position was their usual dwelling – a bit up or a bit down the table, depending on the year. And no wonder why – no noticeable players. Standing from left: Carlos Berrueta, Jorge Seré,Tomás Lima , Sergio Santin, Cesar Vega.
First row: Néstor Silva, Luis Malvarez, Ricardo Cuayatto ,Julio Noble, Eliseo Rivero. One player’s name is missing, but whose?
Danubio distinguished itself, however, by beating the champions twice – 2-0 and 3-2. The only club in the league to do so
The season was good for small Bella Vista.
Without well known players, Bella Vista not only finished 4th, but they were the 2nd highest scoring team this year with 43 goals. Not bad at all, but there was even bigger good news coming.
Weak season for Penarol – they finished 3rd, a point above Bella Vista.
The reason may have been the absence of Fernando Morena, but in any case Penarol underperformed and were not at all competing for the title.
The silver medalists were a surprise, yet, they deserved their medals.Wanderers.
Standing from left: Raul Esnal , Nestor Montelongo , Julio Acuña , Ariel Krasouski , Gualberto De los Santos, Luis Fleitas .
First row: Juan Jose Cabrera , Jorge Barrios ,Jorge Yanes ,Enzo Francescoli, Luis Acosta .
A good team, but not really able to run for the title. Second place, however, was a high achievement. They finished with the best defensive record in the championship, allowing only 16 goals. Naturally, collective effort brought success, but two players deserve mentioning: Ariel Krasouski and Enzo Francescoli, both very young and bursting with talent. For the moment, Krasouski was the bright rising star – Francescoli was still unknown. Unfortunately, the season really finished on sour note.
Their was no real competition for the title this year – one team was high above the league, leading comfortably and almost effortlessly winning the title. Nacional had a fantastic year – they won the Uruguayan championship, then they won Copa Libertadores and finally capped everything by winning the Intercontinental Cup. Reigning supreme and collecting their 33rd title – actually, with so many titles, it is a bit pointless to mention the number: one more championship won and certainly not the last victory, at least on domestic front.
Looking casual, may be even dour, on picture, but the cups in front of them speak of themselves. Excellent season indeed – Nacional conquered the world. This photo was taken when trophies piled up, so one key player was missing: Hugo de Leon moved to play for Gremio in Brazil after the championship of Uruguay finished. Yet, even without him half of the Uruguayan national team is here, plus some interesting veterans – because of them, this vintage is considered ‘veteranos’, and they were certainly essential for the victory. However, again because of them this squad is judged not particularly great, but rather the swan song of the old stars, therefore, without much future. Also, there were other curiosities: Nacional started the championship with heavy loss – 0-3 against Bella Vista. After that, they lost just three more matches – two of them against Danubio, and their 4th loss – against Sud America. However, they were strong when mattered most, beating Wanderers twice and keeping Penarol at bay with a win and a tie. It was additional drop of sweetness, for no matter how the season went, the derby with Penarol was the most important. At then end Nacional finished 6 points ahead of Wanderers and had 9 more than Penarol, having the best goalscoring record in the league by far – the champions scored 53 goals in 26 games. The next best scorers, Bella Vista, managed just 43. Such a record suggests attacking football, and this is the other interesting point about the champions: attacking-minded they were not:
Their tactical scheme was unusual for the time, but certainly with strong defensive emphasis – 5-2-3 – with Blanco playing a sweeper. The midfield was apparently changeable, which means they had no outstanding playmaker. The three veterans – Blanco, Esparrago, and Milar – enjoyed one last trimphal run, and they needed that badly at the end of their careers. Hugo de Leon was excellent, but perhaps the most important player was Victorino – the goal-scoring machine, perhaps having his best season. Almost all starters were current or former national team players, but the squad was considered a bit old and without much future in it -especially after de Leon, one of the younger stars, left. No matter – old or young, this players just rolled over everybody.
Since Nacional was both domestic champions and Copa Libertadores winners, Uruguay had 2 spots in the next Copa Libertadores tournament – the usual ‘Liquilla’ took place to determine who will represent the country internationally and here something surprising happened. Penarol won the first spot, apparently ambitious to save the season – nothing strange in that – but the second spot was clinched by Bella Vista. Wanderers, the second best team in the championship and certainly having better players than Bella Vista lost. Krasouski and Francescoli probably were still too young and inexperienced to prevail and go to international football.