Argentina on the other hand had no broken legs. Rather, no such were seen through Argentine lenses: the country was plummeting into her own political and economic nightmare, but football was… healthy? May be not, but the gauchos always consider their football great, so by default 1974 was great too – going to win the World Cup. True, every club was in fantastic debt, players were going abroad by alarming numbers, and River Plate and Boca Juniors were miserable, but – hey! Independiente ruled the world! Not Argentina, though… Newell’s Old Boys won Metropolitano.

The Argentine structure was becoming inadequate, at least linguistically: Metropolitano, technically the Buenos Aires championship, was won by the club from Rosario.

The Nacional was won by San Lorenzo.

Well, Buenos Aires lost her own championship, but won the national one.

Top, left to right: Glaria, Pris, Anhielo, Olguin, Telch.
Bottom: Cocco, Scotta, Chazarreta, Beltran, Ortiz, Villar (cut off, unfortunately).
Now, both winners are traditionally strong, but hardly among the biggest and most successful. They provided some national players, yet, the fun was mostly for their fans – neither club made big international impression at the time. More likely it was the general mess of the Argentine football, the weakness of River and Boca, the decline of Estudiantes, and the preoccupation with international competitions of Independentiente, propelling Newell’s Old Boys and San Lorenzo to their titles. Fans will disagree, of course.