Uruguay.
Some clubs were out of sight – like
Racing – and that concerning only Montevideo clubs, for there were
no other in the first, second, and third division. Colon, Fenix, and
Liverpool got a chance to run for promotion, but only the winner of
Second Division was directly promoted:
Central Espanol finished 1st
and returned to the top league.
River Plate - 13th and last
in First Division was relegated. They finished with 16 points.
Rampla Juniors ended 12th
with 19 points. They were safe – combined record of previous
championships decided the team going to relegation/promotion
play-off.
Huracan Buceo - 11th with 20
points – went to relegation/promotion play off. Standing from left:
Enrique Peña , Roberto Santos , Raúl Mirabal , Andrés Ortuño ,
Miguel Leone, Luis Cáceres.
Front row: Juan Contreras, Victor
Mastropiero, Julio Daniel Morales, Daniel Tores, Luis Paiva.
They played round-robin tournament
against Liverpool, Fenix, and Colon from Second Division, won 5 and
lost 1 game, finished first and preserved their place in the top
league.
Miramar Misiones - 10th
with 20 points.
Sud America - 9th with 20
points.
Cerro - 8th with 22 points.
Surprise, surprise... Penarol 7th
with 22 points. Hard to believe, but that was the upsetting fact.
Most likely the team was just too tired and unfocussed from playing
too much international football, but for Penarol that could not be
valid excuse.
Progreso was 6th with 24
points.
Wanderers - 5th with 25
points.
Bella Vista - 4th with 28
points.
Defensor won the bronze with 29 points.
Standing from left: Ferron, "El Piti"
Sarubbi, Hector Roux, "El Pete" Russo, Maeso, Eduardo
Acevedo, Pablo Forlan.
Crouching: Daniel Oddine, Miguel Caillava, "El Polilla" Jorge Orosman Da Silva, Rafael Villazan, Abel Tolosa, Ganeglius. The big figure here was Pablo Forlan, old and at the very end of his long and illustrious career, but still good enough to hel a team to high position. Defensor, however, depended on ties – they tied 15 of their 24 championship games.
Crouching: Daniel Oddine, Miguel Caillava, "El Polilla" Jorge Orosman Da Silva, Rafael Villazan, Abel Tolosa, Ganeglius. The big figure here was Pablo Forlan, old and at the very end of his long and illustrious career, but still good enough to hel a team to high position. Defensor, however, depended on ties – they tied 15 of their 24 championship games.
Wonderful season for
Danubio – they may have been a bit lucky, for they finished above
Defensor only because had better goal-difference by a single goal,
but they got silver. Then they won the mini-tournament for the second
Uruguayan spot in Copa Libertadores. Danubio was really getting
recognized and establishing itself among the leading clubs of the
country.
This year's champions had no
rivals whatsoever – 16 wins, 6 ties, 2 losses, 46-13, 38 points.
The second in the table had 9 points less. Standing rom left: Rodolfo
Rodriguez, Ferrari, Berrueta, W. Gonzalez, "Chico" Moreira,
Aguirregaray.
First row: Alzamendi, Luzardo, Wilmar Cabrera, Miguel Angel Brindisi, Aguilera.
First row: Alzamendi, Luzardo, Wilmar Cabrera, Miguel Angel Brindisi, Aguilera.
Good squad, no doubt, but did
not look stronger than Penarol's – on paper. It had a foreign star
– the Argentine midfielder Miguel Brindisi. By now, his name was
fading and he was getting old, but still the champion. As for the
club's name – there is no need to mention it... who else but
Nacional. One more title, so routine. The only 'new' thing about them
is perhaps the photo itself – using the less familiar second kit
with red shirts. So strong Nacional was this year – or may be the
opposition too weak – that they hardly ever used all their star
players in the starting eleven, so some of them are missing here:
Cid, Perdomo, Sosa, to name a few.