USA-Canada: http://football-journey.com/

Mexico I Division: http://football-journey.com/

Going north to Mexico. The mixture of European and American regulations makes difficult long-term following of the country's championships,especially the Second Division ones: too many changes too often. Since the clubs were franchises, they moved from place to place, changing their names as well. This season the teams reaching the final of the Second Division championship were Osos Grises and Atletas Campesinos. Neither name makes sense today. Osos Grises was not even the real name of the club – it was Club Deportivo del Estedo de Mexico, founded in 1976 in the city of Toluca. Young club, surely, and seemingly not just a former club moved to Toluca. They climbed rapidly from the lower levels of Mexican football to the Second Division, aiming even higher. As for the name, they were quickly nicknamed 'Osos Grises', because of their gray jerseys. The nickname stuck and practically replaced the real name even in official records. In the first leg of the final the new club seemed ready to go further – they managed a 0-0 tie away and needed only a small victory at home. Easy... but it was not: Atletas Campesinos won in Toluca – 2-1 – and became not only champion of Second Division, but, more importantly, promoted to top level.


Osos Grises reached their highest success in their, as it turned out, very brief history: the club disappeared soon after that final. 
	Only one club was promoted to First Division and naturally it was the champions of Second Division: Atletas Campesinos were the lucky guys.


The club hailed from Queretaro, but it was neither new one, nor the first team representing the city. Yet, it was... for it was found in 1977. At that time a businessman, named Armando Presa, bought two local clubs – Estudiantes and Gallos Blancos (the White Roosters) – and amalgamated them into a club freshly named Atletas Campesinos. So, the birthdate of the club is 1977 and thus its climb to the top level of Mexican football was even quicker than the similar one of Osos Grises. But... at least Gallos Blancos was older club and a franchisee: to a point, Atletas Campesinos ride on the back of the Gallos Blancos franchise. Which at the end affects the later story of the club founded in 1977 – it had short existence, but not a final date. Eventually, as a franchise, it moved to another city under new name. Eventually, Gallos Blancos re-emerged and went through its newer transitions. Let it be like that: the club died as a club, but remained as a franchise. There was even one more problem: the logo. The tractor was seen as an hidden advertisement, prohibited by the rules of the Mexican Federation, although the picture does not represent neither manufacturer, nor model. In the later transformations of the club the colours were restored, at least for awhile, but the logo had to go. In 1979-80 problems did not cloud the horizon yet – it was happy time: the club won promotion and became popular, for it suddenly gave the city of Queretaro a first division team. People loved it – the reason that the club has something of a cult status today: people fondly remember the name. 


Champions of Second Division – after stumbling at home, Atletas Campesinos won 2-1 away and got promoted. Sky was the limit – so far, money were not a problem and the success was due to a coach with a famous name.
 

None other but Antonio Carbajal lead Atletas Campesinos to victory – the man, whose record 5 World Cup finals was matched only by the end of the 20th century, but remains unbeaten. Unfortunately, winning Second Division was the best achievement – soon financial troubles emerged and although a great star was added to the team in 1981, Atletas Campesinos suffered in First Division – and in 1982 there was no more such club: the franchise was sold. Nothing terrible was detected in 1980, though: it was fantastic season of 3-years old club. 

Venezuela: http://football-journey.com/

Ecuador: http://football-journey.com/

Bolivia: http://football-journey.com/

Colombia: http://football-journey.com/

Paraguay: http://football-journey.com/

Peru I Division: http://football-journey.com/

Peru II Level: http://football-journey.com/

The Chilean First Division differed a bit from the Second Division's formula of the Apertura –  all league members played in the tournament. The groups were not even, for it was impossible to divide 18 teams fairly, so two groups had 4 teams and two groups – five. Group 4 was the toughest – the biggest clubs from Santiago were all there: Colo Colo, Universidad de Chile, Universidad Catolica, Oalestino, and Union Espanola. Not fair for them – three were going to be eliminated early – but never mind. The group winners were without real competition in every group, but even the 2nd placed teams were still ahead of the losers – except in Group 4, where Universidad de Chile and Universidad Catolica finished with 8 points each and better goal-difference qualified Universidad de Chile. The following teams moved to the ¼ finals: Cobreloa and Iquique (Group 1),  Concepcion and Naval (Group 2), O'Higgins and Magallanes (Group 3), and Colo Colo and Universidad de Chile (Group 4). 
 The ¼ finals went without any trouble – with one exception, the winners won both legs. Only Colo Colo faltered in their home match against Concepcion – 1-1 – but not in the away match, which they won 4-0.  In the other pairs Cobreloa won over Magallanes 1-0 and 2-0, Universidad de Chile – over Naval 1-0 and 2-1, and Iquique over O'Higgins 3-1 and 3-2. No extra time, no complications. 
 In the ½ finals Colo Colo eliminated Cobreloa 1-0 and Iquique – Universidad de Chile with same result. The losers got a bonus point each to carry to the real championship. 
 The final was predictable – big Colo Colo vs small Iquique, easy... but it was not easy. Iquique bravely won 2-1 and Copa Polla-Gol. 
Standing from left: Luis Acao, Eddy Campodonico, Manuel Maluenda, Wilfredo Arriaza, Claudio Sanchez, Oscar Valenzuela. 
First row: Fidel Davila, Jaime Carreao, Omar Sauvageot, Gega, Juan Ponce de Ferrari.
Champions of Chile – this is usually the text for this photo, yet, one cannot see any official list of Chilean champions mentioning Iquique this year. And rightly so – the Apertura does not count. All it brought to the champions was 2 bonus points to start Campeonato Nacional with. But it was great for the boys and their fans. By the end of the year it was even better...
 It was, because after the end of Campeonato Nacional Iquique was in the relegation zone. The bonus points helped them not – they were ahead of the real losers anyway and behind the the better teams bonus points or not. Because of the reduction of the league 4 teams were directly relegated – the last four. The quartet was made of true outsiders – the whole group finished far behind the rest of the league. The last two were fading clubs, once upon a time among the best of the country. 

Green Cross (Temuco) was dead last with 18 points. Their downfall was long and painful – originally a Santiago club, they had to relocate to Temuco in 1965. Nothing good happened to them since then. 
 

Santiago Wanderers (Valparaiso) suffered similar fate – like Green Cross, they were in long decline. They finished 5 points ahead of Green Cross, but there was no comfort in that: 17th they were and goind down to second division. A point ahead of them finished a club, usually ending in the relegation zone:
 

Lota Schwager (Coronel) – they did not play often first division football and when they did, they were expected to finish low. 16th place under normal circumstances would still keep their hopes, for this was a spot playing promotion-relegation tournament after the end of the season, but this year it was direct relegation.
 

And directly relegated were the 15th – Coquimbo Unido, which, Lota Schwager, was familiar outsider, expected to finish at the bottom. The only thing about Coquimbo Unido was their record of ties – 15, the highest number in the league. 
 

Iquique, the winners of Apertura, finished 14th – not directly relegated, but still in grave danger, for they went to promotion-relegation tournament. Perhaps the most interesting thing about them was the sponsor: they advertized Pioneer, and Naval – Sony. The battle of the ghetto-blasters, one may say. There was more to rivalry, although not involving Iquique. Naval, representing the Navy, was traditionally a rival of Aviacion (Santiago), the Air Force team. A military rivalry, which Aviacion lost this year.
 

Club de Deportes Aviacion finished 15th , a point ahead of Iquique and 3 points behind Naval. One may think that military dictatorship would elevate military clubs to leading positions, but it was not so. Aviacion actually was dissolved in January 1982. For the moment, they were going to play in the promotion-relegation tournament.
 
 

With 34 points Naval (Talcahuano) escaped relegation and that was all they did. Better than the pilots. 
 Up the table. 
 

Universidad Catolica had miserable season, finishing 10th. 
 

O'Higgins (Rancagua) came close to medals, but only close – with 40 points they finished 5th. Concepcion bested then by a point and got the 4th place. 
 

Colo Colo finished 3rd with 43 points. They scored the most goals by far – 76, 12 more than second best Concepcion.
 

Universidad de Chile got silver medals, happy to be ahead of Colo Colo perhaps, but still without a title. 
The champions were a surprising news – Cobreloa (Calama). Not exactly impressive in neither attack, nor defense, the boys dressed in orange won most matches this season – 17 - and along with Universidad de Chile lost the least – only 4. 48 points – 1 of them a bonus carried over from the Apertura – gave them 3 points lead at the end. The bonus point was symbolic – without it, they were still first. Which was fantastic – the club arrived in the first division only 2 years ago and was little known even in Chile before that.  

Standing from left: Juan Paez, Oscar Wirth, Mario Soto, Eduardo Jimenez, Enzo Escobar, Hugo Tabilo
First row: Oscar Muñoz, Victor Merello, Nelson Pedetti, Luis Ahumada, Paulo Veiga.

First ever title and as it turned out, not first and last either, but even if it was, it would have been amazing success. The rapid climb of the club to the the very top was a result of good deal of money invested, but compared to the squads of the previous two-three seasons, this one was a testimony not only of good investment, but of good work as well. Previously, Cobreloa succeeded thanks to imported aging stars like the great Uruguayan goalkeeper Mazurkiewicz. There were no such players this year – there were three little known foreigners instead: Paulo Sergio Veiga (Brazil), Oscar Roberto Munoz (Argentina), and Nelson Pedetti (Uruguay). Little known perhaps, but they did their job well enough – Pedetti in particular established himself as an important player in Chile, spending almost the whole of his career there. The local players were similarly little known – practically, the champions had only one noticeable player: their new goalkeeper Oscar Wirth, freshly obtained from Colo Colo. Both club and player benefited from the transfer – Cobreloa needed strong keeper and Wirth, although already considered for the national team, was more or less a back-up for Adolfo Nef, arguably the best Chilean keeper of the 1970s. (Curiously, Nef and Wirth were both of German descent – eventually, Wirth went to play in West Germany for a while). An almost anonymous squad meant strong collective approach to the game, hard work, and discipline – which boils down to the coaching authority. Perhaps the coach was the real hero of the champions: Vicente Cantatore. Few knew him as a player – the Argentine had a long career, but was never a star. His late playing year were in Chile, where he stopped playing in 1973 – at the age of 38! - and started his coaching career and taking Chilean citizenship too. Cobreloa was his 4^th club and his first big success. And he built on this success, becoming highly respected coach, moving to Europe and working in Spain, where he finally retired in 2001, his last spell with Sporting (Gijon). In 1980 neither Cantatore, nor Wirth were internationally known and there was still little chance they would be: fantastic season for Cobreloa, well deserved title, but skepticism is strong in football – great as it was, the victory looked like one time wonder. Cobreloa was going to prove skeptics wrong.

The season was over as far as title was concerned. It was not over in two other aspects: the promotion-relegation tournament took place. The 3^rd and 4^th of the Second Division and the 13^th and the 14^th of the First Division. This was the beginning of the end of Aviacion – they finished 3^rd in the mini-league and were relegated. 4^th was Santiago Morning and they remained in Second Division. Iquique won the tournament with 2 wins and 1 tie and preserved its place in the top division. Second was La Serena – they tied all their matches, which was enough for promotion.

Lastly, there was another mini-league – the Liquilla, deciding the second Chilean representative in Copa Libertadores. The 4 teams immediately below the league champions played for the spot: Universidad de Chile, Colo Colo, Concepcion, and O'Higgins. The big Santiago clubs pulled themselves together and dominated, but neither prevailed – both finished with 8 points. Colo Colo had better goal-difference by far, but it did not count. A final play-off was played and Universidad de Chile won 2-1. They were declared champions of Liquilla and were going to play international football. Colo Colo was to stay home – a rare thing for them.

Happy winners – Universidad de Chile saved the season by qualifying for Copa Libertadores. Not a title, but still good enough.

Chile II Division: http://football-journey.com/

Uruguay First Division: http://football-journey.com/