Author: Vesselin

Bolivia. The usual South American 2-staged championship, ending in 1987, but counted as 1986. The 15-team top league was divided into two groups in both stages, but what followed was different. The opening round, played in the fall of 1986 – that is spring in South America – ended with the top 2 teams of each groups playing semifinals and final. The second round was more elaborate: The top 4 of each group proceeded to the next challenge: divided into new 2 groups of 4 teams each and the top 2 of each group going to the semifinals, followed by the final. And after that was the championship final opposing the winners of the two rounds. Two teams were relegated this season – both in the second round, but the criteria was murky: Chaco Petrolero (La Paz) was last in its group with the miserable record of 3 points, so theirs going down is understandable. But Bamin Potosi was relegated from the other group and they were not last, but 7^th with Aurora (Cochabamba) behind them, and had 11 points. Even if total points from both parts of the championship decided relegation, the numbers did not tally. Anyhow, they were relegated. Meantime only one team was going to be promoted and that happened to be Always Ready – a happy occasion for them, returning to top flight.

As for the more important championship race, it was a matter of good calculations and endurance, as the formula pretty much requires: Blooming (Santa Cruz) won Zone A with 26 points, followed by The Strongest (La Paz) with 21 points. Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) won Zone B with 21 points, followed by Litoral (La Paz) with 19 points. Two of the traditionally best – Bolivar and Jorge Wilstermann – were quite down at this phase: Bolivar was 5^th with 15 points and Jorge Wilstermann – 4^th with 16 points, both in Zone B.

Destroyers (Santa Cruz) were perhaps a bit unlucky, finishing 3^rd in Zone A. And the same misfortune happened to them the second round – eliminated by 1 point twice this season. In the semifinals Blooming eliminated Litoral 3-0 and 0-3 – either the winner was decided by a shoot-out or the higher-placed team in the group tournament had advantage.

In the other semifinal – no mystery: The Strongest eliminated Oriente Petrolero 1-2 and 3-0. So far – so good, but the final produced another mystery: The Strongest won the first leg 2-1 and then lost the second 0-1. A third match was staged and it ended 1-1. If away goals goals were allowed, Blooming should have been the winner, without a third match. But it was The Strongest, although the last result was still 1-1… shoot-out followed? If not, on what base The Strongest was proclaimed winner? Half job done, so to say – The Strongest qualified to the championship final. Standing from left: Martinez, Galarza, Montano, Villegas, Fontana, Iriondo. Crouching: Castillo, Jesus Reynaldo, Messa, Ayaviri.

Second round, first phase. The top 4 in Zone A were: Litoral (23 points), The Strongest (20 points), Blooming (18 points) and Petrolero Cochabamba (16 points). In Zone B: Bolivar (21 points), Jorge Wilstermann (18 points), Real Santa Cruz (17 points) and Oriente Petrolero (17 points).

In the second phase Blooming won Group A with 7 points, followed by Oriente Petrolero with 6 points.

Litoral (La Paz) was most unlucky: they had wonderful season, perhaps one of their very best, but ended 3^rd in this phase on worse goal-difference and were out of teh game. And as often was the case with solid performance of smaller clubs in South America, plenty of foreigners made them strong. Standing from left: Hugo A. Zitta (Argentina), Reynaldo Zambrana, Edgar Bautista, Nestor Orellana (Argentina), Carlos Urizar, Ricardo Almeyda (Argentina). First row: Oscar H. Sanz (Argentina), Teodoro Coronel (Paraguay), Cesar Enriquez, Oscar E. Figueroa, Ramiro Vargas.

Jorge Wilstermann (Cochabamba) finished last in the group with 5 points, apparently unable to recover from initially weak or careless start of the season.

Group B was won by Bolivar with 10 points, followed by The Strongest with 9. Real Santa Cruz, 3^rd with 5 points, and Petrolero Cochabamba, 4^th with 0 points.

In the semifinals mystery continues: Blooming (Santa Cruz) was eliminated by The Strongest 1-0 and 0-1. What made Blooming winners? Nevermind… The other semifinal was crystal clear, but exciting.

Bolivar (La Paz) won the first leg 3-0 and looked like they were already finalists. But Oriente Petrolero was not going to give up – they came back in the second leg and destroyed Bolivar 5-0!

The final between Blooming (Santa Cruz) and Oriente Petrolero was not a big contest – Oriente Petrolero won the first leg 3-0 and then tied the second leg 1-1.

Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) won the second round of the championship and reached the grand final. In it they lost the opening leg in La Paz 0-3, but recovered with 3-1 victory at home and third match had to be played, on neutral ground in Cochabamba. This time Oriente Petrolero was clearly on the receiving end, losing 0-3.

Thus The Strongest won in late March or April 1987 the 1986 championship of Bolivia. Count it as you want… it was their 2^nd Liga de Futbol Profesional Boliviano title or 5^th Primera Division title. They had to wait almost 10 years for this one – last winning in 1977.

Full credit to their coach Juan Farias for the victory: the progress of the champions suggests careful measured work, aimed to be at top form at the right moment. The Strongest did not win any group phase, but finished 2^nd every time. Then played better in the direct elimination semi-finals and the finals, of course. After winning the first round, they did not bother to go all the way in the second round , for they already qualified to the championship final. And there came on top – true, after third match, but they won it with a big margin. It was a team well prepared for a marathon, saving strength here and there for the very end.

Venezuela. The last championship held in one year – the next season will be 1986-87.

Universidad de Los Andes (Merida) and

Deportivo Galicia (Caracas) were the best in Second Division, but that did not mean promotion. As it was in the previous years, both teams stayed in the lower league and the top tier remained unchanged.

Connected or not to the strange requirements for really going up, some clubs were seemingly doomed to stay in anonymity – at least ULA and Galicia had been members of the top league. But others, like the pictured Pepeganda Margarita remained in the shadows and what happened to them is perhaps only a matter of local interest and memory.

The top league was still of 11 teams and played 2-part championship: in the opening stage the league was divided into 2 groups and the top 3 of each went to the final stage. Grupo Oriental was won comfortably by Deportivo Italia with 16 points, followed by CS Maritimo with 12 points and Caracas FC with 11 points.

Mineros de Gayana was unlucky 4^th with 10 points and that was the end of the season for them. The other two early exits were Atletico Anzoategui, 5^th with 9 points, and UCV FC, which had terrible season – they were last with 2 points.

Deportivo Tachira won Grupo Occidental with 11 points.

Estudiantes Merida took 2^nd place with 9 points, followed by Portuguesa FC with 8 points, which qualified to the next stage only on better goal-difference. Atletico Zamora was 4^th and out, also with 8 points, and last was Union Espanola de Lara with 4 points.

The final stage – a round-robin tournament of the best 6 showed stronger teams from the Occidental group. Caracas FC finished last with 4 points. Portuguesa FC was 5^th with 7 points. Deportivo Italia, so confident in the opening stage, was now down – 4^th with 9 points. CS Maritimo was the best team from Grupo Oriental, but not a title contender – 3^rd with 11 points. Just like in the group stage, Estudiantes Merida tried to win, but finished 2^nd with 14 points.

Deportivo Tachira was strong from start to finish and won its 4^th title – they finished on top with 15 points from 6 wins, 3 draws, and lost 1 match, 18-7 goal-difference. All together, they won 11 games, tied 4, and lost 3, scoring 31 goals and receiving 14. May be not very impressive numbers, but this was small league without room for large numbers. The squad was largely anonymous to foreign eye, but the boys played together for sometime and were well adjusted to each other. Three Uruguayans helped – Francovig, Maldonado, and Bachini.

Copa Interamericana.

It was played this season, opposing the champions of CONCACAF to the winners of Copa Libertadores, but it was clear why this tournament never really established itself and eventually died. Thanks to the River Plate Museum, the first leg can be seen today on Youtube – mostly to provide additional explanation why Copa Interamericana died. This issue was played in July and August 1987 – no wonder why many consider it 1987 issue, not 1986. Well, first problem was different schedules: Copa Libertadores usually finished by July, but CONCACAF Champions Cup ended at the end of the year and even later: the 1986 final was played in January 1987. At that time it was practically impossible to stage the Interamerican final, because the South American domestic championships were going on. And there was little chances for the next months, for by then Copa Libertadores started. Pushing the final further and further away clearly suggested diminishing importance and interest, which was true for the South Americans – they had to find time, to travel to some more or less obscure place, losing money all the way. The clash was not even remotely equal, as the footage of this final makes painfully clear: LD Alajuelense (Costa Rica) vs River Plate (Argentina).

First Leg [Jul 21, 1987]: Asociación Liga Deportiva Alajuelense 0-0 Club Atlético River Plate

ALD Alajuelense: Alejandro González; Hernán Sosa, Chávez; Vargas (Benavídez 35), Juan Cayasso, Montero; Ulate, Mora, Arias, Solano, Ramírez. Unused substitutes: Porras, Guardia, J. M. Rodríguez, Chacón. Coach: Josepf Bouska.

CA River Plate: Sergio Javier Goycochea; Nelson Daniel Gutiérrez, Alejandro Alfredo Montenegro; Jorge Horacio Borelli, Américo Rubén Gallego, Oscar Alfredo Ruggeri; Claudio Paul Caniggia, Néstor Raúl Gorosito, Juan Gilberto Funes, Omar Arnaldo Palma, Raúl Roque Alfaro. Unused substitutes: Alberto Pedro Vivalda, Enrique Ernesto Corti, Héctor Alberto Enrique, Claudio Alberto Morresi, Ramón Miguel Centurión. Coach: Carlos Timoteo Griguol.

Referee: José Antonio Garza. Venue: Alajuela. Field: Alejandro Morera Soto.

It was Gulliver and the Lilliputians…

Captains Juan Cayasson and Americo Gallego. One is a World champion and the other is… who? River Plate already lost ‘the Prince’ – Francescoli – but had a squad of enormous talent nevertheless. Some big names did not even play – River had 2 1978 World champions: Gallego and Alonso, 3 fresh 1986 World champions: Ruggeri, Pumpido, and Enrique, two future big stars, just starting to get notice – Caniggia and Goycochea, Caniggia only 19 years old. Three Uruguayan national team players, also fresh from the 1986 World Cup – Gutierrez, Saralegui, and Alzamendi. There was one more Uuruguayn – Rubens Navarro – and an Ecuadorian – Diego Cordova – plus plenty of Argentine talent, which is difficult to dissmisss – Gorosito, Borelli, Alfaro, Funes, Palma… It was obvious even before the start of the match that Alajuelense had no chance – they knew it, their fans knew it. River Plate knew it just as well, so it played leisurely, even making a conscious effort not to tackle very hard their opponents. The Costaricans reacted in humble and somewhat amusing way: the players displayed techical skills and got huge applause, but it was in jest, for they had nothing else to do, all possible ways for building attacks closed. The fans booed River Plate not on principle hostility, but only in protest – when they wasted time or carelessly kicked the ball out of target. There was no hurry, the Argentinians preferred to walk and even did not simulate, but when pushed down, they gave the impression that it was much to sit than to stand, and, if stretched on the ground, it was better to lay down and perhaps take a nap than to sit. Tackling was another matter – trying as they could not to be hard, instincts prevailed now and then and Costa Ricans… died. Clearly, River Plate made an effort not to hard, but almost every touch led to great pain and injuries – Costa Ricans apparently were not used to real professional football and got easily injured. At one moment there were three needing medical help and Vargas was unable to continue the game. River Plate’s superiority was enormous and they even did not make any effort to play seriously. Alajuelense had one or two chances, which were not a result of some built up, but just came about, surprising them more than their opponents. Both teams hit the bars and Goycochea had to make two saves. River Plate missed more chances and Gonzales made a few wonderful saves until the match ended 0-0. It could have been 1-1, but more likely 3-0 River Plate – it looked like River Plate did not want really to score, played benevolent game, tried not to shame Alajuelense in front of their own fans. The hosts bravely tried to do whatever they can, which was not much, and were generously permitted to finish honourably.

Here is Alajuelense in the opening leg – heroes at the end, for they were not beaten by River Plate and even had some scoring opportunities.

The second leg was another matter. At home and with trophy to win, River Plate had no option but destroy the lowly opposition. Which they thoroughly did – the fans needed to see the new coach was a winner, so… River Plate had to play more serious football in Buenos Aires. And a trophy is a trophy, no jokes when it comes to adding one more to the vast collection. The opening leg was just a leisurely polite stroll, not hearting feelings was the general aim, but the second leg was no contest.

Second Leg [Aug 16, 1987]: Club Atlético River Plate 3-0 Asociación Liga Deportiva Alajuelense [Villazán 16, Funes 60, Enrique 67]

CA River Plate: Sergio Javier Goycochea; Nelson Daniel Gutiérrez, Oscar Alfredo Ruggeri; Rubén Darío Gómez, Américo Rubén Gallego, Jorge Horacio Borelli; Ramón Miguel Centurión, Héctor Alberto Enrique, Juan Gilberto Funes, Omar Arnaldo Palma, Jorge Villazán (Antonio Alzamendi 66). Unused substitutes: Alberto Pedro Vivalda, Enrique Ernesto Corti, Raúl Roque Alfaro, Claudio Paul Caniggia. Coach: Carlos Timoteo Griguol.

ALD Alajuelense: Alejandro González; Hernán Sosa, Chávez; Vargas, Mora, Montero; Ulate, Ramírez, Arias, Solano, Juan Cayasso. Unused substitutes: Porras, Benavídez, Chacón, Rodríguez, Guardia. Coach: Josepf Bouska.

Referees: Juan Escobar; Asterio Martínez, Lucio González. Venue: Buenos Aires. Field: Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti Predictably, River Plate won Copa Interamericana.

Always great to lift a cup, but this one was particularly easy to get.

LD Alajuelense made the best they could, but the difference in class was so great, they hardly entertained some hopes even for a moment. Standing from left: Ronald Mora, Alvaro Solano, Hernán Sosa, Franco Benavídes, Jorge Ulate, Alejandro González. Front row: Juan Cayasso, Elías Arias, José Chávez, Oscar Ramírez, Mauricio Montero.

Brave as they were, Alajuelense only proved the obvious – apart from Mexico, there was no even remotely decent football in the CONCACAF region, so Interamerican cup was meaninless tournament from any point of view.

River Plate won the trophy easily and probably just as easily forgot about it. This is the squad which played the second leg, actually winning Copa Interamericana.

Costa Rica. Entirely off the radar, as most small football were at the time. Thus, it may be surpirsing to see that this country run championship for than 70 years by 1986. However, it was in some dire straits and reduced to 6 teams playing in the 1985-86 season. The formula of the championship was also mysterious: every team played 36 games, which is impossible number, but still a fact. At the end there was a big surprise – instead of the usual names, a relative newcomer to the top league won. Here is the final table, just because this championship is a rarity:

1.Municipal Puntarenas 36 17 11 8 45-25 45

2.Alajuelense 36 19 6 11 46-32 44

3.Guanacaste 36 12 16 8 44-38 40

4.Saprissa 36 14 11 11 52-37 39

5.Herediano 36 14 11 11 44-38 39

6.Cartaginés 36 15 9 12 41-38 39

Noticeable low place for Herediano, one of the traditional leading and successful clubs.

Well, all depends on who one listens to: there is also such picture in circulation. The international association of football statisticians does not recognize Herediano – the final table above is taken from their site.

As for the champions, they need a few words. This club was usually listed as Municipal Puntarenas or simply Puntarenas, which today leads to confusion, for there is a club with the same name playing, but it has nothing to do with the champions of 1986. The full name of the old club was Asociacion Deportiva Municipal Puntarenas and was founded in 1952, but is defunct since 2014. Today’s club with the similar name was founded recently and is entirely different – old supporters of Municipal Puntarenas make explicit difference between the two, cherishing the old club. The club really came to some prominence after 1975, when finally established itself in the First Division abd running 2^nd twice – in 1978 and 1983. 1985-86 was their golden season, but confusion still remains, for different sources state alternative seasons: sometimes champio of 1985-86, sometimes 1986-87.

Everything is confused now – a photo of the champions could be found at the site of Puntarenas FC, the currently existing club, which has nothing to do with the original club. It is also not entirely certian that this photo is from the actual season – it may be from the next one, but then different sources give different seasons, so who cares about precision.

Pictorial material is extremely difficult to sort out, but this seems to be the team. The players are obscure in any case, even the two Brazilian imports. At least the names exist, as long as one can clarify the season: Wikipedia insists on 1986-87… Goalkeepers: Jorge Arturo Hidalgo, Carlos Bismarck Duarte, Hermidio Barrantes. Defenders: Alfredo “Diablo” Contreras, Jorge Badilla, Ricardo ‘Sardina’ Garcia, Marvin Bustos, Carlos Morales, , Sergio Angulo, Adolfo “El Coyolito” Rojas, Carlos Nikanor |Toppings, Marvin Huertas, Carlo Iranil Carvalho Do Nascimento (Brazil). Midfielders: Sandro Alfaro, Carlos Alberto “El Pistoncillo” Velásquez, Luis Enrique Galagarza, Juan Carlos Aguirre, Rodolfo Ramírez Binns, Francisco Arias, Juan Carlos Díaz, Tomás Eduardo “El Pistón” Velásquez, Kleber Ponce (Brazil). Strikers: Leonidas “Leoni” Flores, Gilberto Rhoden, Didier Morales, Roberto Stevanovich, Danilo Anderson, Donaldo Vega, Franklin “El Chino” Vargas.

Coach: Marvin Rodríguez.

But no matter confusion, champions they were.

For the first and last time – Municipal Puntarenas never won the title before and never win it again, so it was unique achievement still remembered and celebrated in the community.

First Division. The short championship was called ‘Mexico 86’ and had the following structure: the league was divided into two groups of 10 teams each. The teams played only against the teams of the same group, the top 4 teams of each group proceeded to quarterfinals, semifinals, and final. It can be argued that some leading clubs, especially those with national team players, were affected and weakened by the coming World Cup, but a championship is a championship and excuses are only for whiners. Of course, some traditionally strong teams were down – particularly UNAM, which ended 9^th in Group II with 13 points. Only one team played worse than them. No matter, rules are rules and some were eliminated in the group stage:

CD Neza was 5^th in Group I and out,

Necaxa – 7^th in Group II.

In the quarterfinals more casualties fell down: Atlante lost to Monterrey 0-0 and 0-6.

Atletico Morelia lost to Tampico-Madero 2-2 and 0-2.

Cruz Azul – to America 0-1 and 0-1.

Puebla – to CD Guadalajara 2-3 and 1-1.

In the semi-finals, CD Guadalajara was gone, losing twice to Monterrey 0-1 and 0-1. America also lost – Tampico-Madero almost survived the first leg, losing only 2-3, but got big revenge at home: 4-0.

Thus, Monterrey and Tampico-Madero met to decide the 1986 champion of the country. In the first leg Tampico-Madero prevailed 2-1, but the result benefited Monterrey – they were hosting to second leg. And made the best of it, winning 2-0. Monterrey was the stronger finalist – they opened the result in Tampico with a goal by Hector Beccera and Tampico-Madero struggled to prevail: thanks to own goal scored by unfortunate Rito Luna, they equalized, but managed to score the winning goal only in the 79^th minute, thanks to Eduardo Rergis. Monterrey’s victory was not easy at all – Reynaldo Gualdini gave them the lead in the 30^th minute, but only from a penalty. The winning goal was scored in the 93^th minute by Francisco Javier Cruz. Difficult or not, victory was theirs.

This may be a picture of Tampico-Madero from 1986 – certainly it is from their ‘Brio’ period, named after their sponsor. It was bitter-sweet time, though: succesful, but not entirely succesful – they finished second in the short 1985 championship, then second in 1986, both times beaten at the final. Sure, they took revenge for their first loss by thrashing America in the 1986 semi-finals, but still failed to win at the end. Came close, yet – second best.

Monterrey was most deserving champion, for they were consistently strong during the whole championship: they ended with the best record in both groups at the end of the opening stage. Back then they lost only two games, got wonderful +25 goal-difference – five goals better than second-best, Tampico-Madero’s, which trailed them in Group II also by 5 points. Monterrey proceeded unbeaten to the final, producing the biggest victory at the direct elimination rounds – 6-0. They lost minimally the first leg of the final, then won the second by the nececarry margin. Certainly better than Tampico-Madero overall.

One more look at the champion squad. Difficult to tell who is who, but here are the names of the winners: Gueldini, Gamboa, Campa, Contreras, Bahia, Garcia, Munoz, Ortega, Becerra, Cruz, Luna.

Mexico. Hosting the 1986 World Cup led to changes in the domestic championship – the top league played two short championships, one counted in the 1985, and the other – in the spring of 1986, counted for the same year. Second Division, though, was not affected and played its normal 1985-86 season. Thus, there was no promotion-relegation in the 1985 short championship of the First Division, the same teams appeared in the short 1986 championship, and only then a team was relegated. Meantime Second Division went through its own season and the winner was promoted to the top league for the 1986-87 normal season. How much attention the Second Division got this season is hard to tell, for the whole interest was focused on the World Cup, so it would suffice to say that at the end Cordoba and San Mateo Atenco were relegated to Segunda Division ‘B’, the third level. As for the winner of the championship, Cobras (Queretaro) and Pachuca reached the final. Cobras won 2-0 at home and managed a 1-1 tie in Pachuca.

Pachuca tried to climb back to first division, but was unable at the end. Most unfortunate, for they were the strongest team during the season.

Cobras played their best when mattered most and triumphed with promotion – their first! In the Mexican context, their victory was easily understood: it was a new club – or franchise – founded in 1983. That meant there was solid financial back-up and clear aim to go higher. For the moment, at least. As long as money was plentiful, success was guaranteed. Long-term existence was another matter – Queretaro did not have top league team at the moment, but had older club playing in the second division: UA Queretaro. It was not bad – for a second division team – and chances were locals preferred the long established team to the newcomers. As many newly created clubs, Cobras tried to attract fans – not only with the name, thought attractive, but also with their uniforms, which were noted for provocative and avantgarde designs. But it was not enough and eventually the franchise had to relocate to another city – but this happened in the future. Presently, the plan worked fine: the new club won the Second Division championship and was going to debut in the Primera Division in the 1986-87 championship.

Copa de Campeones y Subcampeones CONCACAF 1986. 21 teams participated, but not every country from the region – Mexico, Canada and Cuba, for instance. USA was represented by New York Greek-Americans. Hardly a competition attracting big interest and given the teams involvod, practically unnoticed outside CONCACAF. No team wihtdrew, but statistics are unreliable, as they always were: results were different, depending on the sourse – for example, Marathon (Honduras) and Alianza (El Salvador) ended either 0-1, 1-0 and 2-4 in the penalty shoot-out, or 0-1 and 3-2. The second version exists on the CONCACAF website, failing to explain why Alianza qualified to the next round, since Marathon would have be the winner thanks to more away goals. But the complicated structure of the tournament went ahead round after round, including the weirs Intermediate round, in which only one pair played and three teams qualified directly. All until the semifinals were reached and in them LD Alajuelense (Costa Rica) eliminated Pembroke Hamilton Club (Bermuda) 4-0 and 0-1 and Transvaal (Surinam) beat Trintoc (Trinidad and Tobago) in penalty shoot-out 4-3, after the legs ended 4-2 and 0-2, away goals apparently did not count. At last the final was played – in February the next year, 1987.

At home, LD Alajuelense secured solid lead: 4-1. Four days later they won again – 2-1. Both legs were played in Alajuela, another almost constant feature of this competition: small teams from empoverihsed and difficult to reach countries often prefered to play both legs at one plce, usualy in the slighlt richer country. This, to a point, pre-decided the outcome of the finals. At least the scorers of this final were preserved: Luis Fernandez, Jorge Ulate, Jose Chavez, and Juan Cayasso scored for the hosts in the first leg. Eric Gotlieb scored for Transvaal. In the second leg Regillio Doest scored for Transvaal and Luis Fernandez and Juan Cayasso for the winners.

SV Transvaal, although a recent winner of the tournament, was clearly the weaker side.

Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (Alajuela) was clearly the stronger side and triumphed with the CONCACAF trophy. Home turf undoubtably helped, but even if the final was played normally or on neutral ground, most likely the Costa Ricans would have been comfortable winners. It was important victory for the club: ‘Los Leones’, founded in 1919, are one of the most successful clubs not just in Costa Rica, but in the whole Central America, but domestic success was not enough – international victories were also craved. Mind, their opponents at the final already won CONCACAF’s Cup, lowly as they were. As for LD Alajuelense… it all depend: they won one of the first CONCACAF tournaments, in 1961, but at that time it was unofficial competition. If counted, ‘Los Leones’ won their second Cup. But even if it was counted, they lacked victory in the proper official tournaments and at last they got one. The satisfaction was full, even if most of the world turned its back to the success.

African Player of the Year. Professionalism – that was the word coming to mind when looking at the vote. African football was getting stronger, no doubt, and quality was getting associated with professionalism. Hence, European-based players occupied the top positions no matter how strong continental football was becoming: Egypt ruled continental football in 1986, but the top three players were all based in Europe. World Cup counted most, as usual, so no surprise two of the best were Moroccon. Cameroonian Roger Milla (Montpellier, France) was 3^rd with 80 points. Azis Bouderbala (FC Sion, Switzerland and Morocco) – second with 88 points.

Ezzaki Badou was voted best player of Africa, getting 125 points. Written like that, the name may sound unfamiliar – popularly, that was Zaki, the goalkeeper and the captain of the Moroccan national team.

Naturally, the Moroccan performance at the 1986 World Cup was instrumental, but Zaki was well known in Africa for quite some time and his qualities were recognized elsewhere during the World Cup finals.

Recognition moved him from Widad (Casablanca) to Spanish side Mallorca after the end of the World Cup, so he also was European based professional at the time of the voting.

Zaki was 27 years old at the time with plenty of experience on both club and national team level – he already played at the 1984 Olympic games and twice at the African Cup of Nations and, as a whole, had 10 years of top level football – he debuted in 1976 for Association Sale (Morocco), moved to the leading club Widad in 1978, and eventually found himself in Spain. Already he was voted among the top three players in Africa – 3^rd. His World Cup performance was remarkable and he pretty much deserved to be voted number one African player. He also got most points in the history of voting the top continental player to date, but this is not all that important: with time, more journalists were involved, so more points was inevitable occurance.

African Cup Winners Cup. One team withdrew befroe playing a match in the preliminary round: AS Police (Mauritania). The club benefiting from this withdrawl – Kamboi Eagles (Sierra Leone) – withdrew before playing a match in the first round. It was almost comic… teams going ahead without playing only to be eliminated without playing. Why did they bother to enlist in the tournaments? But there was more: the first leg between Dragons de l’Oueme (Benin) and Abiola Babes (Nigeria) was abandoned, although the result – 2-0 Dragons – stayed. Both clubs were disqualified immediately: Dragons for fielding 2 ineligible players; Abiola for pitch invasion by its supporters. After this scandalous event another one followed: just before the start of the 1/8 finals, Al-Ahly (Tripoli) was disqualified – that followed the suspencion of the Lybian Federation by CAF for not paying its subscription dues. Thus, AS Sogara (Gabon) and DHJ El-Jadida (Morocco) reached the ¼ finals without playing, their opponents dusqualified. DHJ El-Jadida had it tough in the quarter finals against CS Hammam-Lif (Tunisia) – two scoreless draws, scoreless overtime, penalty shoot-out, and only at this points CS Hammam-Lif was a bit luckier, extracting 4-3 victory. But that was the most the Tunisians could do – they were unable to beat AS Sogara at home and lost the away leg without scoring a goal: 0-0 and 0-3. The other semifinal was Egyptian affair – Al-Ahly vs Ismaili – and produced no winner: 0-0 and 1-1. But Al-Ahly scored away goal and qualified to the final. Which looked unusual – Benin was hardly famed for its football, so it was strange to see a team from this country playing a final. Al-Ahly was the obvious favourite and after the opening leg on home turf everything seemed done and finished: Al-Ahly won comfident 3-0. At Gabon, though, the sure victory evaporated – the hosts recovered sufficiently and Al-Ahly had to battle to the end to keep some lead. They succeeded – AS Sogara won only 2-0.

How good or bad AS Sogara was is hard to tell – first, Benin neither then, nor now is in the vanguard of African football. Second, AS Sogara folded many years ago (1995), giving the impression it had been some over-ambitious special project, which quickly run out of money and support. This final was their best achievement, although a bit lucky, for they did not have opponent in the 1/8 finals. But they eliminated serious teams on the way to the final: Secondi Hasaacas (Ghana) in the first round and CS Hammam-Lif (Tunisia) in the semifinals. They came close to at least reaching ovetime at the final. A team of mystery, really, and given their disapperance in the 1990s, too bad they did not win.

Al-Ahly was the favourite of the final and they did not disappoint. Their road to the final did not look like overwhelming success, but they scored just enough to eliminate every opponent, to prevail by a goal, or, in the semifinal, by away goal. It could be said this was mature team, experienced, knowing what is needed and how to get it, without flair, but business-like. No wonder why: Al-Ahly just won its 3^rd consecutive Cup Winners Cup. No other African club won three times in a row ever before. It was not the end of their successful run either – this very likely was the greatest African team ever. And more : Egypt did not qualify to the World Cup finals, but seemingly was the strongest African country at this time. 1986 was a great peak – the national team won the African championship, the clubs – both African club tournaments. All trophies were in Egyptian hands – or feet. The total success spoke of serious development on every level, not at all of some accidental lucky strike. Professional development is murky histroic topic in the realm of African football, but foreign players were playing in Egypt, so professionalism took stable roots in the country – hence, the results.

African Champions' Cup. Nothing new... UDIB (Guinea Bissau) did not play a single game – it qualified to the first round because East End Lions (Sierra Leone) withdrew before the first leg and then withdrew itself before playing the first leg against FAR Rabat (Morocco) in the first round. ASC Ksar (Mauritania) also withdrew in the preliminary round. Maji Maji (Tanzania) withdrew as well in the first round, but they at least played one match, losing 1-5 to Dynamos (Harrare, Zimbabwe). After that there were no more withdrawels, eliminatios rounds went one after another and in the semifinals Canon Yaounde (Cameroon) lost to Zamalek (Egypt) 2-1 and 0-2. In the other semifinal away goal decided the outcome: Nkana Red Devils (Zambia) fatally tied its home leg against Africa Sports (Cote d'Ivoire) 1-1. The second match ended 0-0 and Africa Sports reached the final.
 The final was real drama, as football should be. In Cairo, Zamalek won 2-0, but in Abijan Africa Sports won with the same result. 

Overtime did not change anything, so it came to penalty shoot-out. 

Lottery or not, Africa Sports was in better position, for they were playing in front of home crowd. But it was not to be their day: the Egyptians prevailed 4-2. 

Zamalek triumphed with the Cup and looks like not only shirts were exchanged after the end of the game, but also shorts – two Egyptian players here sport Africa Sports' shorts. Strange, but there was a brief fad in changing shorts in the middle of the 1980s. 

Unlucky Africa Sports – they did everything they could, but lost. Depending on point of view, they either had tough opponents on the road to the final, or were a bit shaky team, especially when it came to scoring. They qualified to the second round after penalty shoot out and twice qualified thanks to away goals. Only in the 1/8 finals they had a big victory – 5-0 against New Nigeria Bank (Nigeria), but lost the second leg 0-2. Seemingly, there was little something missing – perhaps that was why they did not win the trophy. 

Zamalek had wonderful campaign and no problems until the semifinals – but they played admirably against one of the tradtional African powers, Canon (Yaounde), reached the final, and managed to prevail over Africa Sports on their home turf. Zamalek won its second Champions' Cup, all in three years time.