Football Journey

The Championships – well, Argentina had two championships and champions for years: Nacional and Metropolitano. A few words before going into them. The 1982 World Cup may have been a disastrous factor, because the leading club performed poorly. The exodus of star players also affected the clubs, particularly Boca Juniors – Maradona moved to Spanish Barcelona. Not just River Plate and Boca Juniors had a weak year – all the big names underperformed: Independiente, Newell’s Old Boys, Velez Sarsfield, Huracan, Rosario Central, and no need to really mention Racing Club, which mostly struggled to survive ever since they lost so much money in 1967, their most triumphal year. Of course, it was not just the World Cup – Argentine football was in desperate financial situation for many years, corruption and mismanagement were the norm, and on top of that were the current and no longer new, but just deepening, political and economic difficulties of the country – so far, crowned by the fresh Malvinas Islands war. Well, when one suffers, another has the best of times.

Campeonato Nacional. The true national championship, to which regional clubs had a chance to rub shoulders with the big boys and, occasinally, even to outplay them. This year was not the year of the small fry, but the year of the very small fry, for many hardly ever heard of clubs not just qualified to play in the Nacional, but actually ruled it. Clubs, like

Union San Vicente (Cordoba) – 7th in Group B. They were not alone – there were many: Guarani Antonio Franco (Posadas), Deportivo Roca (General Roca), and Renato Cesarini (Rosario) in Group D; Mariano Moreno (Junin) and Central Norte (Salta) in Group C; Estudiantes ( Santiago del Estero), San Lorenzo (Mar del Plata), and Atletico Concepcion (Banda del Rio Sali) in Group B; Independiente Rivadavia (Mendoza) in Group A. They all put some fight and inconvenienced the big clubs, of which only one emerged from the group stage: Estadiantes (La Plata). The rest were eliminated… Newell’s Old Boys was 3rd and River Plate 6th in Group A; Independiente – 3rd, and Argentinos Juniors – 4th in Group B; Rosario Central – 3rd, Boca Juniors – 4th, and Huracan 6th in Group C; Velez Sarsfield – 3rd and Racing Club – 8th and last in the table of Group D. Only Independiente was a bit unlucky of the big clubs – they failed to reach the next stage on worse goal-difference. Even the second-tier clubs were not particularly strong, although most of them took advantage of the weakness of the big clubs. So, to the next stage qualified: Quilmes (Quilmes) and Independiente Rivadavia (Mendoza) from Group A; Ferro Carril Oeste (Buenos Aires) and Union (Santa Fe) from Group B; Estudiantes (La Plata) and Talleres (Cordoba) from Group C; and Atletico Racing (Cordoba) and San Martin (Tucuman) from Group D.

In the ¼ finals Estudiantes, Ferro Carril Oeste, Talleres, and Quilmes eliminated their opponents, so at least a first division club was going to win the championship. Quilmes had the toughest time qualifying – they prevailed over Union only by penalty shoot-out.

Here the march of Independiente Rivadavia ended, but the boys deserve a note – a small club, rarely, if at all, playing at big tournaments. They were 2nd – and that only because of worse goal-difference – in Group A, leaving behind Newell’s Old Boys, River Plate, and Instituto (Cordoba). They met Ferro Carril Oeste, historically, a weaker opponent than the clubs they already left in the dust, and were fairly equal – 0-0 and 0-1. An excellent season for this players!

The semi-finals were the true end of the big clubs – Ferro Carril Oeste eliminated Talleres 4-0 and 4-4; and Quilmes won twice against Estudiantes – 2-0 and 1-0.

Unlikely final… Ferro Carril Oeste vs Quilmes. Old clubs, well known in Argentina, but more likely a third-tier clubs, although Quilmes was quite successful in the recent years, enjoying a good spell. So far, for very soon in this very year the spell was over. But at the moment there was no sigh of decline – Quilmes managed a 0-0 tie at the inhospitable stadium of Ferro Carril Oeste. The easiest part was coming – a home game. It was not easy at all – Ferro Carril Oeste won 2-0 and with this – the title.

Quilmes lost, but for this smallish club second place also equals success – vice-champions! Great! Standing from left: Clide Díaz, Tocalli, Milozzi, Gáspari, Zárate, Oscar Emilio Gizzi;

First row: Lorea, Frediani, Acevedo, Converti, Oscar Antonio Gissi.

Not a single big name, not even familiar names – a testimony of this Argentine season.

If Quilmes was happy with 2nd place, imagine the joy of the champions – Ferro Carril Oeste never won a title before. Standing from left: Carlos Arregui, Gómez, Garré, Cúper, Rocchia, Basigalup.

First row: Saccardi, Juárez, Márcico, Cañete, Crocco.

Unlike Quilmes, the champions had a star – not a first rate star, but still a star: Garre. He hardly made the whole difference, but was an advantage somewhat. Well, the real advantage was stronger squad, compared to the one Quilmes had. And what a moment they had! The club from the neighbourhood Caballito, Buenos Aires, was found in 1904 and to this moment their best triumphs were winning the Second Division. They did 6 times, most recently in 1978 – this is to say that first division football, let alone success, was rare thing for the club associated with railroad company at its birth. Their big triumph to date, a true success – champions at last! Yes, they beat just the ‘beermakers’, but first title is historic event for any club in the world. The big golden moment. And as a final note – in the early years their colours were maroon and lighblue – taken from Aston Villa, for the English influence was big: the railroad company was British at that time, so the first white kit with black socks was changed in 1907. In 1911 the colours were changed again and Ferro uses green and white to this very day (except 1974, when orange and white was used, paying tribute to the great Holland of that time). Hector Cuper and Alberto Marcico were the noticeable players of the golden generation, but Oscar Garre was the real stars – the defender was born in 1956 and played for Ferro from 1974 to 1988. He was included in the Argentine national team in 1983 and played a total of 39 matches for it in 5 years, becoming a world champion in 1986. But the real hero was the coach:

Carlos Timoteo Griguol came in 1979 from lowly Kimberley, but he already had a strong reputation from winning the championship with Rosario Central in 1973 and working in Mexico after that. He was at the perfect coaching age – 46: still young, but with plenty of experience. Although one of the best coaches at the time, his name is quite unknown – the reason is he preferred conservative style and because of that he was never seriously considered a national team coach. Conservative or not, he made Ferro Carril Oeste champions for the first time in their history. He made them champions twice, but the second title was still in the unknown future, so let stay with the moment – nobody supporting Ferro will ever forget it.

Argentina. Second Division, or Primera B. Concerns only the Metropolitano championship, largely concentrated in Buenos Aires, and having promotion and relegation. Of course, there were lower levels too. 22 teams divided into 2 groups – the top placed teams continued in direct elimination to compete for the title and the last placed faced relegation to the Third Division. Some well known – today, at least – clubs played in Primera B: San Lorenzo, Banfield, Lanus, Chacarita Juniors, Arsenal, Tigre. Group A was more provincial – the clubs from Santa Fe, Cordoba, and of the Buenos Aires Province were largely there, and the clubs from Metro Buenos Aires were largely in Group B. The geographical division perhaps shaped relegation and promotion, for otherwise the rules seem peculiar: the league system was best organized in Metro Buenos Aires in different league levels and there were the strongest clubs in terms of money and popularity anyway. Thus, one team was directly promoted to First Division, 8 teams competed for the second promotional spot; one team was directly relegated to the Third Division and 2 teams – trying to escape from the second relegation spot. Both teams directly going up and down were related to the Buenos Aires league system – at least, this is the likeliest explanation.

Argentino de Quilmes was last in Group A with 29 points and went down directly. The 10th in Group A – Talleres – and the last in Group B – All Boys – went to the relegation play-off. Since both Argentino de Quilmes and All Boys belonged to Buenos Aires system, points were seemingly the decisive factro: Argentino de Quilmes finished with 29 points and All Boys – with 36.

All Boys won the play-off – the match ended 0-0 and All Boys prevailed at the penalty shoot-out 3-2.

All Boys survived at the last moment.

Talleres went down. That is Talleres Buenos Aires, not to be confused with the better known Talleres Cordoba.

With relegation out of the way, let us move up the tables.

Tigre was 9th in Group A – not a surprise, really, for at that time Tigre was lowly club unlikely to play higher than Second Division football. So was Arsenal, 7th in Group A. So was Lanus, 7th in Group B. To a point, Colon (Santa Fe) was the big disappointment – 8th in Group A. Colon was to be at least a prime candidate for promotion, but failed.

At the top of both groups the fight went on to the next stage: Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata) won Group A, followed by Chacarita Juniors, Almirante Brown, and Deportivo Espanol. Deportivo Armenio ended 5th and missed the play-offs by a point. In Group B the champion had direct promotion, so to the play-offs went those placed from 2nd to 5th: Atlanta, Banfield, Temperley, and Deportivo Italiano. Lucky Deportivo Italiano, for they qualified only thanks to the direct promotion of the group champion and better goal-difference than Defensores de Belgrano. Anyhow, Deportivo Italiano, Almirante Brown, Chacarita Juniors, and Deportivo Espanol were eliminated at the ¼ finals. Gimnasia y Esgrima and Banfield lost at the semi-finals and Atlanta and Temperley faced each other at the final. Temperley won its home leg 2-1, then Atlanta won 1-0 at home and the matter had to be settled by penalty shoot-out, which was dramatic: Temperley finally won 13-12!

A great moment in the history of small Temperley – they clinched promotion to First Division. Standing from left: Issa, Cassé, Piris, Masotto, Villalba, Aguilar.

First row: Dabrowski, Scotta, Finarolli, Lacava Schell, Espósito.

The direct promotion went to San Lorenzo. Perhaps the reason was they had better record – San Lorenzo won fair and square Group B – 23 wins, 11 ties, and 8 matches lost, 56-27 goal-difference, 57 points. 10 points ahead of second placed Atlanta. And 7 points more than the record of the champions of Group A, Gimnasia y Esgrima (La Plata), which finished with 49 points.

If for most second-division clubs a promotion was a big success, for San Lorenzo it was a must – the club was among the big names, they were champions full of stars not that long ago. But they suffered a decline, leading them to second division football. Quick return to the top league was expected – and achieved – but San Lorenzo was still in poor shape: the names of the squad clearly tell that – Rubén Cousillas, Oscar Quiroga, Osvaldo Biain, Hugo Moreno, HéctorOsvaldo López, Ricardo Collavini, Rubén Darío Insua, Leonardo Madelon,Carlos Schamberger, Armando Quinteros, Jorge Rinaldi, Hugo Paulino Sánchez, Eugenio Morel Bogado, Carlos Suárez, Eduardo Abrahamian, RubénAraoz, Pablo Comelles, Ricardo Demagistris, Raúl Moreno, HugoVerdecchia, Miguel Batalla, Marcelo Milano, Oscar Ricardo Ros, Omar Dagorret, Héctor Raúl López, Claudio Marasco, Claudio Pérez.

Well, at least San Lorenzo returned to First Division.

Uruguay. Usually, the least complicated and easy to understand championship, but not this year. Relegation was a messy mystery – the rest was normal. The First Division was going to be reduced again – from 14 teams to 13 in the 1983. Hard to tell why and also hard to tell when the decision was made because the seasonal records do not tally. The simplest way was 2 teams relegated and 1 promoted from the Second Division. Relegation was never just the last in the final table – usually, it was a combined record of the few previous seasons, the newest league members excluded, and the the team with least combined points going down. But not this year…

Colon FC (Montevideo) won the Second Division. Normally, no problem – this was the team promoted. But Colon did not get to play top league football – it was not promoted at all, not even participating in the promotion/relegation tournament. Yes, Colon was a tiny club, but since the whole championship involved only Montevideo clubs, it was nothing unusual for a small club to play in the top league. Anyhow, Colon won the Second Division and nothing more.

But promotion still was an issue, for after the end of the season promotion/relegation tournament was played between 4 teams – Liverpool, 11th in the First Division, and arguably, the last in the combined league record – otherwise, there was no reason for them to be facing relegation. Its opponents came from Second Division: Fenix, El Tanque Sisley, and Racing. Colon was not among the participants and one may think that at that stage the next year to league would have been still 14-team strong, Colon getting direct promotion. But which club was going down, if that was the case? Never mind, worse follows. Fenix won the relegation/promotion tournament with 7 points and better goal-difference than Liverpool, also with 7 points. As most often was the case in South America, goal-difference did not count and Liverpool and Fenix met again: Liverpool won 2-0. By the record, they were safe…

Liverpool – leaving 3 teams behind in the championship, but having but having still to fight for survival and, seemingly, successfully. After winning the promotion/relegation tournament Liverpool was relegated. What was the point for this promotion/relegation tournament, then? Anyway, Liverpool won and was relegated. Colon won and was not promoted. No team was promoted, in fact, and the the league was reduced – same members minus Liverpool. If you are collecting amusing anomalies, South America is your prime source: there not only a team with a negative goal-difference quite often finished first, but now a winning team was relegated.

In another country, even South American one, a team like Huracan Buceo was to be relegated without any fuss: they were dead last with 16 points.

River Plate was 13th with 19 points. Clearly, Huracan Buceo was hopeless outsider this season, but had nothing to worry… River Plate had no worries too.

Miramar Misiones, 12th with 20 points also had no worries.

Liverpool – 11th with 22 points was the only team to worry. Never mind the seasonal performance, never mind the following win of the promotion/relegation tournament…

Rampla Juniors finished 9th – there is the sense that Rampla should have been much higher, just bellow Penarol and Nacional, but reality was different for a long time: may be popular, but Rampla for a long time was kind of declining and practically a mid-table club, more likely to fight to survival instead of for medals.

Danubio was slowly moving in the opposite direction of Rampla Juniors – not down, but up. Slowly, though – they finished 7th, distinguishing themselves as the team with most ties this year: 12. Standing from left: ÁlvaroPérez , Javier Zeoli , Ruben Dopico, Pierino Lattuada, Miguel Beltran , Cesar Javier Vega.

First row: Eliseo Rivero ,Christian Guaita, CarlosBerrueta,Gustavo Dalto, Rúben Sosa .

Anything memorable or just curious? One Argentine player – Guaita – who came from Estudiantes (La Plata) and one Portuguese, unfortunately not on the photo – Custodio Mendes. Well, he was no longer Portuguese, but naturalized Argentinian. And Ruben Sosa – at this time still a teenager, a promising junior.

Sud America was 6th , not a bad season really.

The next 4 had more at stake – not just position, but also a chance to play in Copa Libertadores – Uruguay, as a current holder of the cup, had three spots in the tournament and 4 teams competed for 2 spots in a mini-tournament after the end of the season.

Wanderers finished 5th in the championship, but put a good fight in the following mini-league and got one of the Copa Libertadores spots. Well done.

Bella Vista was 4th – strong year for the club.

Defensor finished 3rd with with 34 points – 5 ahead of Bella Vista and losing silver medals only on goal-difference. Strong season and, as often was the case in Uruguay in general and Defensor in particular, a strong season meant having one great, if aging, star – on this occasion, Baudilio Jauregui. Enough to give the scare to Nacional…

Nacional had a much stronger – by names – squad than Defensor, yet only better goal-difference placed them above. Juan Masnik was at the helm – an young coach, just recently still a major playing star – but very likely the brass and the fans of Nacional did not fancy him much at the moment: silver does not count. Yes, Nacional won the final tournament and thus kept its place in Copa Libertadores, but this was a last ditch effort.

Counting the titles of Penarol is really pointless, but this one was quite impressive: 15 wins, 9 ties, and only 2 games lost. 47-22 goal-difference and 39 points – leaving the arch-enemy Nacional 5 points behind. The best defensive record in the championship and only Defensor scored more goals. And the Uruguayan title was just the domestic part of this excellent for Penarol year – there is still plenty to talk about this squad, so no need to give their names yet.

So, top flight. The Apertura: it was won by Colo-Colo.

They won all three matches in the final tournament, an excellent beginning of the season.

Universidad Catolica was 2nd.

Universidad de Chile – 3rd, and

Cobreloa – 4th. That set the tone of the whole season – the three traditional favourites plus the exciting newcomer rapidly establishing itself as a solid power. But the Apertura meant little and, as it turned out, even less during Campeonato Oficial – bonus points carried over played no role at all.

After 30 championship rounds were played, the picture was crystal clear… well, not really at the bottom of the league. Three outsiders were visible from the start of the championship – Rangers (Tacna) ended last with 15 points. Santiago Morning (Santiago) was 15th also with 15 points, but better goal-difference, and Deportes La Serena (La Serena) – 14th with 19 points. These three had to be relegated and normally historic records of the season point out exactly that. The two teams just above relegation zone – Palestino (Santiago), 13th with 24 points, and Union Espanola (Santiago) – 12th with 25 points had to proceed to the promotion/relegation tournament. But… the league enlargement decreased the number of the relegated to 2 teams. One may think that the highest placed team will survive… and will be wrong: attendance numbers made ‘a good venue’ team of Rangers and the last team in the championship remained in the league. Santiago Morning and Deportes La Serena were relegated. Palestino and Union Espanola went to the promotion/relegation tournament, won there, and also escaped relegation – at least on relative merit, unlike Rangers, which, having been the worst team this season did not have to fret at all. So much for the lower end.

Higher up, the league was seemingly divided into two other groups – 6 teams on top, much stronger than the rest and 7 comfortable mid-table teams much stronger than the outsiders. A good season for two smaller provincial clubs, one may say.

Deportes Arica (Arica) finished 10th. Standing from left: René Jara, José Burgos, Juan Amigo, Adrián Pérez, Hernán Ibarra, Guillermo Cartes;

First row: Enrique Correa (utilero), Enrique Castillo, Francisco Valdés, Héctor Moscoso, Carlos Díaz, Jorge Cabrera.

Regional Atacama (Copiapo) ended 9th.

The top 6 were obviously stronger than the rest of the league, but there was no great race for the title – in fact, one team really run the show, the rest largely battled for positions between 2nd and 6th.

Universidad Catolica finished 6th with 38 points – either a bit unlucky, or dropping its earlier form.

Naval (Talcahuano) was 5th, beating Universidad Catolica on goal-difference.

Magallanes (Santiago) was 4th with 39 points – a good season for the otherwise declining old club.

With 40 points, Universidad de Chile took the bronze medals – the only club benefiting from bonus point carried over from the Apertura: without it, they would have been 4th, losing to Magallanes on goal-difference.

Colo-Colo was 2nd with 41 points. They would have been exactly at the same place even without bonus points, but not higher… Second place is hardly a success for Colo-Colo, but they had to live with it. Perhaps they paid heavy price for their inability to win – Colo-Colo tied 11 matches. They lost just the same number of games as the champions – 5 – so, it was really a matter of winning, not collecting single points.

With Colo-Colo struggling to win, Cobreloa (Calama) did not really have an opponent: they lost 5 games, tied 6, and won 19. 69-23 goal-difference and 45 points. Attack was the key – Cobreloa scored 28 goals more than Colo-Colo, having pretty much the same defensive record. That meant that they not only aimed at winning, but had the scoring power to actually achieve it.

Standing from left: Oscar Wirth, Mario Soto, Eduardo Gomez, Enzo Escobar, Victor Merello, Hugo Tabilo;

Crouching: Luis Ahumada, Hector Puebla, Juan Carlos Letelier, Jorge Siviero, Washington Olivera.

Second title for Cobreloa! That was the season Cobreloa really established itself among the Chilean football favourites: no longer a lucky and temporary upstart, no more doubts about them. Their naturalized coach Vicente Cantatore (Argentine born, but after spending years playing in Chile, he took Chilean citizenship) was instrumental, making not only the club known – he was also rapidly gaining excellent reputation. The sweetness of success.

Chile. Changes in the first league format coloured the 1982 championship and need a few words. In 1981 the top league was made of 18 teams, but reduced to 16 for 1982 – which meant 5 teams were relegated and 3 promoted. But for 1983 the top league was increased to 22 teams – that meant 2 teams were relegated and 8 promoted. This automatically focuses on the Second Division championship and the criteria for relegation and promotion: otherwise the obvious discrepancies between performance in 1982 and the league members in 1983 would be foggy or whimsical at best. Both professional leagues had strange formula of the championship: there was a first stage, called Torneo Polla Gol, but also Copa Chile. And, just to confuse you entirely, it is called Campeonato de Apertura. The essential point of this first stage is that it had almost no importance for the second one – only the winner and the other finalist benefited from it: the winner carried 2 bonus points to the second stage, clearly name Campeonato Oficial, the losing finalist and semi-finalists – 1 point. That was all. But the dual championship had importance to the promotions for the next year, as it turned out. Campeonato Oficial was all final: it was standard league championship, no funky rules (in Torneo Polla Gol bonus points were given for wins with by 4 or more goals and no points for scoreless ties), the first in the final table was champion of Chile, and the bottom 2 (this season) – relegated. Simple… First and Second leagues had the same formula. There was a small addition to the First Division schedule, concerning the second Chilean representative in Copa Libertadores.

Plain calculation, however, suggests troubles with Second Division after such a big increase of the top league. It had 22 teams in 1982 and promotion of 8 left the league with 14. Two relegated from the top – 16. Clearly, relegation to Third Division and promotion from there would be affected to make the numbers, even if Second Division was slightly reduced (and reduction made no sense, if top league was so drastically enlarged). But in most countries, including Chile, the lower you go, the more difficult it gets to find not only competitive teams, but also financially able to play in higher divisions. So, economic measures were applied in the promotion/relegation process – and they were the real factor at the end, explaining why some clubs were suddenly playing higher division football the next year and others remained where they were before. The main criteria was attendance – ‘a good venue’ was the term used, but there was one more factor, seemingly, geographic – it affected promotion to Second Division. ‘Spread the game, cover the whole country’, was seemingly the idea. Promotion was complicated to no end, by introducing a final promotion/relegation tournament between 2 of the lowest in First Division and the 6th and 7th in Second Division. Endless fun… those teams lost and remained in Second Division and in the same time the ‘good venue’ rule promoted the 20th in the final table. Only one team was relegated from Second Division – the last, 22nd, in the final table: Talagante Ferro (Tallagante). With that, the name disappeared… the club was relocated to Santiago under the name Ferroviarios de Santiago.

So far so good? Keeping adding and subtracting? Makes 15 teams in the 1983 Second Division. Three more were promoted… but from where? They did not come via the Third Division championship. The newcomers were from the deep South of the country: Osorno, Valdivisa, and Puerto Montt. Geographic reasons… and Second Division was now 18-team strong. Let’s go back to the 1982 championship.

The final of Campeonato Apertura, or Copa Polla Gol, was reached by Everton and Colchagua. Everton won and got 2 bonus points. Colchagua and losing semi-finalists, Cobrasal and Trasandino got 1 bonus point and started Campeonato Oficial with this slight advantage. Did not help any… Colchagua (San Fernando) slipped to 16th place in the final table. Cobresal (El Salvador) was 6th. Everton (Vina del Mar) – second. Seemingly, only Trasandino (Los Andes) benefited from its strong first stage performance: thanks to the bonus point, they clinched 3rd place, finishing with equal points, but better goal-difference than Union San Felipe (San Felipe). Third place in Second Division… not much to brag about.

Fernandez Vial (Concepcion) was the champion of Second Division.

21 wins, 14 ties, 7 losses, 66-43 goal-difference, 56 points – one more than Everton. Champions, even of Second Division, matter. Strong year for the boys and going up to play with the best. To the envy of their local rivals…

Deportes Concepcion (Concepcion) finished 11th and remained in Second Division.

Some other former First Division members were also unable to reach promotion:

Coquimbo Unido (Coquimbo) finished 10th. Lota Schwager (Coronel) – 13th, Nublense (Chillan) – 14th, Ovalle (Ovalle) – 17th, the list may go on, but those were the general losers remaining in the Second Division. Should have played better: those, who did, moved up.

Along with Fernandez Diaz, the next 4 teams in the final table were directly promoted: Everton (Vina del Mar0 – 2nd, Trasandino (Los Andes) – 3rd, Union San Felipe (San Felipe) – 4th, and Antofagasta (Antofagasta) – 5th.

Lucky Antofagasta. Standing from left: Franklin López, Juan Balbontín, Gustavo Huerta, Eduardo Peralta, Julio Moya, Daniel Díaz.

First row: Navid Contreras, Héctor Olivos, Jorge Américo Spedaletti, Franklin Lobos, Jorge Luis Pons.

Lucky, because they finished 5th only on better goal-difference. But good season anyway – with 53 points, they were just 3 points behind the champions.

The 6th and the 7th went to the promotion/relegation tournament, but there were still three open spots in the new First Division – and now the ‘good venue’ factor was employed… it looks ridiculous: Huachipato (Talcahuano) finished 20th and under normal circumstances may have been relegated to the Third Division – but now they were promoted to the First. So were Green Cross (Temuco) – 15th in the final table.

Santiago Wanderers (Valparaiso) was the third of this group – and the strongest: they were 12th. Good for those clubs, but it still does not make sense – all of them were in the lower half of the table. Others had stronger season – but never mind. Good luck to all promoted in the next season.

The real unlucky were Cobresal and Union Calera – they went to the relegation/promotion tournament, facing Union Espanola (12th in First Division) and Palestino (13th in First), lost, and remained in Second Division – when, without any extra work, Huachipato moved up. Weird. By the way, those, coming from First Division to play in the promotion/relegation tournament added to the weirdness: normally, they should have been save and not endangered by relegation. But that is for the First Division championship. One last thing for the future: not all promoted participated immediately in the 1983 championship: Green Cross and Huachipato joined First Division only at Campeonato Oficial and in many records is actually stated that they were promoted to top flight only after the end of 1983 Campeonato Apertura. Go figure…

 

First Division played its 3-staged championship – it did not really matter how many members the top league had, for they were divided into 3 groups in the first stage. The top 3 teams of the Northern and Southern groups and the first 4 of the Metropolitan group moved to the semi-final stage and the rest – to the relegation group. No points were carried over to the next stage, so what only matters was qualification. Winners were more or less only for the record: Juan Aurich won the Northern group, Coronel Bolognesi – the Southern, and Sporting Cristal – the Metropolitan. At the end, the first stage may be meant most to Coronel Bolognesi – a club rarely winning.

Coronel Bolognesi (Tacna). Standing from left: Oscar Vera, Alberto Sánchez, Reynaldo Bernaola, Carlos “Tito” Reyna, José Zevallos, NN.

First row: NN, Wilmar Valencia, Victorino Vicente, José “Camote” Vásquez, Roberto “Crítico” Zevallos.

The big losers were the Callao clubs – since they played in the toughest Metropolitan group, were they really weak or not hardly mattered: the big Lima clubs were there and life was tough. Atletico Chalaco and Sport Boys finished at the bottom.

Atletico Chalaco finished ahead of local rivals Sport Boys – as if this was any consolation. The rivals were to meet again – in the relegation group. Standing from left: Chicho Espinoza, Augusto Prado, NN, NN, Javier Chirinos, Alejandro Pozú.

First row: NN, Alberto Castillo, Oswaldo Flores, Alberto Eugenio, Aldo Dueñas.

The semi-final stage was also a group tournament – the 10 qualified teams were divided into two groups and the top two of each moved to the final stage. Sporting Cristal was the big loser at this stage, finishing 4rd in Group A and thus eliminated.

Sporting Cristal 1982, standing from left: Miguel Gutierrez, Alfredo Quezada, Ruben Díaz, Felipe Uculmana, Cesar Gonzales, Ramón Quiroga.

First row: Humberto Rey Muñoz, Eloy Ortiz, Luis Reyna, Luis Flores, Juan Caballero.

Union Huaral was may be unlucky – they ended 3rd in the same Group A, but just a point short from qualification.

Union Huaral missing the finals by a point, but still 4 points ahead of the more famous squad of Sporting Cristal.

And the final round-robin tournament: three teams from Lima – Universitario, Alianza, and Deportivo Municipal and single provincial club – Juan Aurich. Unlike the previous stages, the opponents here played only once against each other, so every match was important and, in the same time, lethal.

Deportivo Municipal was the weakest at the end – 1 tie, 2 losses, 2-4 goal differences. Standing from left: Juan José Sato, Percy Maldonado, Enrique Mendoza, Santiago Ojeda, Reynaldo Costa, Rodolfo Gamarra.

Crouching: Ricardo Gonzáles, Julio Argote, Eduardo Malásquez, Jaime Drago, Ever Negrete.

Juan Aurich finished 3rd, but only because they scored one goal more than Deportivo Municipal – 1 tie, 2 losses, 3-5 goal-difference.

Juan Aurich – not bad to be 3rd. May be. Standing from left: Alberto Párraga, José Navarro, Ronald Tello, Lizandro Navarro,  Cabrera, Rufino Bernales.

First row: Arnaldo Cadenillas, Alfredo Jáuregui, Percy Vílchez, Reynaldo Jaime, César Echeandía.

Alianza took the 2nd place, after winning 2 matches and losing 1. May be disappointed, but they qualified for Copa Libertadores, so the season was saved at least by that.

Universitario de Deportes was supreme when mattered most – 3 wins, 5-2 goal-difference.

Champions! Standing from left: Hugo Gastulo, Raúl García, Freddy Ternero, Germán Leguía, Samuel Eugenio,  Eduardo Aguilar, Dr. Jorge Alva, Roberto Scarone – coach.

First row: Rodolfo Chávarry, Juan José Oré, Percy Rojas, José Cañamero, Eusebio Acazuso.

Universitario was just near enough to the top in the earlier stages – 3rd in the first one, and 2nd in the 2nd stage – but at the last one they were supreme. A fine season.

At the same time another battle took place – in the relegation group every team fought for survival. Or, at least to avoid relegation play-off. Not much of a battle, actually: Deportivo Junin (Huancayo) was much weaker than the rest and finished at the dreaded last place with 3 points. Alfonso Ugarte (Puno) was 5th, just above Deportivo Junin, but with 9 points. But Deportivo Junin survived, winning the play-off – and seized to exist. At least as a name – it was changed to Huancayo FC for 1983 season.

One more look at the champions – the pale sand-colour jerseys of Universitario confusing the lenses and looking white. 16th title – but their first since 1974. Thanks to their Uruguayan coach Roberto Scarone too.

A famous player once upon a time, he was perhaps more famous as a coach – for he was at the helm of Penarol (Montevideo) when they won Copa Libertadores in 1960 and 1961 and the Intercontinental Cup in 1961. He did not coach after 1975, but came back in 1982 and finished his coaching career honourably – as a champion. Wise choice of Universitario – Scarone coached them when they won their last title in 1974 too. The magic was still there – Scarone returned them on the path of success after the lean years.

 

Peru. The complicated Second Level championship was won by the little known Gonzales Prada. Good for the general record, but the club was not promoted. Instead, Atletico Torino (Tallara) won promotion.

Standing from left: Luis Vitonera, René Seminario, Ricardo “Morro” Valladares, Walter Valladares, Carlos “Pay” Peña, Dioses.

First row: NN, Freddy “Avispa” Peña, Francisco “Paco” Montero, Félix Suárez, Humberto “Toby” Correa.

A nice return to the top division, but the ‘why’ is a bit obscure: there was no relegation this year in the First Division, because it was extended to 17 teams for the next championship. Either the decision for extension was made late, or there was still relegation, but after a play-off. A relegation tournament was played in the top league, there was a loser, and it played a play-off against Atletico Torino. But no… the play-off was played: between Deportivo Junin, last in First Division and the winner of the Amateur Departamental Champion of the region to which Deportivo Junin beloneged – Castilla. Deportivo Junin won 5-0 and 2-0, and kept its top flight place. So… why Atletico Torino moved up and the Second level champion Gonzales Prada did not is a mystery. Most likely, money was the reason: only first division clubs were called ‘professional’ and the rest of Peruvian football was ‘amateur’. Financial regulations may have been the decisive reason – Atletico Torino was a professional club. Others may have been been short on cash. The vast number of Peruvian clubs were and are unknown to the world – as it is generally with lower-level clubs in every country. Clubs like

Deportivo Anda Aucayacu and

Deportivo Cantolao kicked the ball in the vast lower levels, hidden from the world’s attention. Atletico Torino was another thing altogether – and went up to its more familiar grounds and opponents.

Paraguay. The winner of Second Division, and promoted to the First, was Atletico Colegiales.

An interesting club: it was found in 1977 by the Zacarias family, owners of the chain of bookstores ‘El Colegio’ (‘The College’), and promptly named after their enterprise. The name of the club roughly means ‘the Students’ and to this very day a Zacarias chairs it. The location was nothing much – they hailed from 4 Mojones, Lamba municipality, Asuncion – a humble neighbourhood in a city full of old and popular football clubs. Finances were always limited, but the club generally did well enough. So far, it was a success: promoted to Second Division in 1979 and now, in 1982, won promotion to the top league – absolute beginners in every sense, but impressive ones. And good luck to them in the next season.

The top league had no surprises.

Cerro Porteno was out of the picture, failing one more season.

So was Sportivo Luqueno – and may even its supporters did not notice that Jose Luis Chilavert debuted this year.

Nacional finished 2nd – not bad, but still short of success. Standing from left: Raúl Navarro, Héctor Fariña, Oscar Cardozo, Luis García Siani, Ricardo Pérez, Francisco Carmona.

First row: Máximo Almada, Francisco Alcaraz, José Domingo Paniagua, Gustavo Fanego, Rene Vazquez.

Almost no need to name the champions – Olimpia. 5th consecutive title and also familiar squad – so familiar, that it is even difficult to distinguish the picture of this year from those of the previous. They easily mixed and confused even the club’s historians. One of the most impressive periods in the history of the club, a period not only of domestic dominance, but also of international success, putting them on the world map and making then at least known to fans around the world.

 

Colombia. Still closed league. America (Cali) won the Apertura, the classic-league format of the first stage. Deportivo Cali was 2nd, 1 point behind. Both teams qualified for the semi-final quadrangulars.

Toprneo Finalizacion followed – the league divided into two 7-team groups, each to play the baffling number of 21 games. America (Cali) won Group A, trailed by Deportivo Pereira. Deportes Tolima was 1st in Group B, followed by Millonarios.

As often was in South America, the records make little sense: what was supposed to mean ‘semi-final quadrangulars’? And what was the meaning of ‘Torneo Finalizaion’? The next and final stage was ‘Octagonal final’ – a mini-league of 8 teams. Playing twice against each other. America and Deportivo Cali already qualified to the final tournament from the Apertura. They also finished 1st and 4th , Deportivo Cali, in the second stage. Judging by the finalists, the 2nd, 3rd , and 5th placed in Group A qualified to the final tournament, plus the 3 top-placed teams in Group B.

In such scheme, Once Caldas was seemingly victimized: they were 4th in Group B – higher placed than Independiente Medellin, 5th in Group A. True, if Apertura is taken into consideration, Independiente Medellin had better overall record. Yet, it makes little sense to advance a team only because higher placed teams already qualified.

Two of the teams unable to reach the final tournament:

Union Magdalena with very young ‘Pibe’ Valderama and

Cucuta Deportivo. Standing from left: Julio Niebles, Álvaro Contreras, Oscar Ortega, Eduardo Carrillo, Sergio Rodolfo Santín, Alfredo Griego. Crouching: John Jairo Restrepo, Daniel Godoy, Oscar Orlando Sierra, Adalberto Perrout, Sergio ‘el checho’ Angulo.

So, to the last tournament. Atletico Junior finished 8th and last and last, sharing the same 11 points with two other teams – Independiente Medellin, 7th, and Atletico Nacional, 6th. Deportivo Cali was 5th with 13 points.

Strong season for Deportivo Pereira – 4th with 14 points.

Millonarios ended 3rd with 15 points. Standing from left: Moisés Pachón, Pocillo López, Cheché Hernández, Alberto Pedro Vivalda, Nolberto Molina, Miguel “Nano” Prince. First row: Norberto Peluffo, Jair Abonía, Carlos Ángel López, Ernesto Díaz, Arnoldo Iguarán.

Excellent season for Deportes Tolima – 2nd in the most important final tournament with 17 points, thus qualifying to play in the Libertadores Cup. Standing from left: Hugo Gallego, Américo Quiñónez, Fredy Clavijo, José Flórez, Gustavo Mendoza, Francisco Maturana.

First row: Evaristo Isasi, Aparecido Donisette de Oliveira “Sapuca”, Janio Cabezas, Víctor Hugo del Río, Heberto Carrillo. The world eventually became very familiar with Francisco Maturana, but years later, when he was coaching Colombia.

And lastly – the champions, finishing with 20 points from 8 wins, 4 ties, and losing only 2 matches. 22-14 goal diffrences. Who else, but America (Cali). Standing from left: Víctor Hugo “Káiser” Espinoza Patiño,Heberto Quiñónez,Julio César “Gato” Falcioni Capdevilla,Juan Edgardo Caicedo Vargas, Luis Eduardo “Hombre de hierro” Reyes Portocarrero, Osvaldo Héctor Damiano Gozza.

Crouching:Juan Manuel Bataglia Melgarejo,Gerardo Sabino González Aquino,Víctor “Rápido” Lugo Ortíz,Juan Bautista “Martillo” Penagos Escobar, Roque Raúl Alfaro.

Here they are – the full squad of the new, but very familiar champions of Colombia. Huge squad for that years, but such was South America.

Something interesting happened this season: an European player appeared. True, not for the first time, but it was still extremely rare for Europeans to play in South America.

Dragan Pavlovic joined Santa Fe – not the first Yugoslav to play for the club, but unlike the legendary Dragoslav Sekularac, Pavlovic was obscure player whose career cannot be easily traced. Yet, Pavlovic instantly stamped his mark – he was one of the top scorers in this championship with 16 goals and, more importantly, scored the fastest goal in the history of his new club: against Millonarios, he scored in the 21st second of the game. A picture of him is difficult to find, but his name stays. He eventually moved to play largely indoor soccer in the USA and now is head coach of the youth system of Ajax Chicago.

Bolivia. Primero de Mayo (Potosi) won the single promotion for the next season – a success for the small club, no doubt. For the city too, for otherwise they would have been without first division team in 1983.

Relegation was decided at the first stage of the championship, a normal league format. Independiente Unificada (Potosi) finished last – 14th – and was relegated. The first 8 teams at this stage moved to the second one, divided into 2 groups. The top two of each group went proceeded to the semi-finals.

Bolivar (La Paz) won the first stage with 41 points – 5 ahead of Blooming (Santa Cruz). Good start, but what mattered was still ahead and it was not uncommon strong teams at the openings to fail later in South America. And this Bolivian season was typical to championship with complex formulas: Jorge Wilstermann (Coachabamba) and Oriente Petrolero (Santa Cruz) jumped into high gear, after having mellow first stage – J. Wilstermann was 6th with 28 and Oriente Petrolero – 4th with 30 points. Now they won their groups, J. Wilstermann followed by Bolivar in Group 2 and Oriente Petrolero by Blooming in Group B.

The Strongest (La Paz) were perhaps the big losers this year: 3rd in the openinh stage and 3rd again in Group A of the second stage. Out of the race.

J. Wilstemann eliminated Blooming in the semi-fianls: 2-0 and 0-0. In the other clash Oriente Petrolero and Bolivar exchanged 2-1 home wins and had to play a third match. Now Bolivar prevailed 2-1. Thus, the final was between the teams coming from Group B – which gave Jorge Wilstermann some edge in theory.

In practice, Bolivar won 2-1 its home match and everything had to be decided in the second leg on hostile Cochabamba. Bolivar managed a 1-1 tie and became the 1982 Bolivian champions.

May be a bit unlucky, Jorge Wilstermann, but finishing second was fair overall: they were not impressive in the first stage, tactically depending on the next rounds.

One more title for Bolivar and well deserved too, for they were consistently strong during the whole year and played well in every stage.