Traps, controversies and Bilardo's craziest cabals: the secrets of the volcanic final of Libertadores that Boca won over Deportivo Cali

Angel Torres, idol of the Colombian team, evokes that 1978 crossing on the threshold of the debut in the tournament of both teams, who cross again in Group E of the competition

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Boca Juniors starts the road in the 2022 Copa Libertadores in order to fulfill the dream of winning the seventh star. He shares Group E along with Corinthians, Always Ready and Deportivo Cali, a rival that brings back good memories.

It turns out that in 1978, Xeneize and El Glorioso settled that historic final of the continental tournament that had everything: a 0-0 draw, a rematch with a shower of goals, the cabals of Carlos Bilardo and Juan Carlos Toto Lorenzo, and also many controversial situations.

The first leg took place at the Pascual Guerrero Stadium, in Cali, and ended without goals. The rematch was played a month later at the request of Boca, and in La Bombonera “things happened that journalism, fans, and often even us as players”, as Angel María Torres, former El Decano striker, recalled, and I participated in both matches.

“We couldn't rest the night before in Buenos Aires. There was a lot of noise outside the hotel because the Boca fans made a mess on purpose and didn't let us sleep,” confessed “El Ñato”, who is the third top scorer in the club's history with 118 goals.

However, the then footballer of the Verdiblanco team told details about what happened in the local locker room before the rematch: “When we arrived at La Bombonera they threw a firecracker at us that exploded in the middle of the dressing room and we were afraid. Bilardo told us he was going to ask for the suspension of the match, but in the end he didn't. We were mistreated in Argentina. Xeneize tried at any cost to be champion of the Libertadores”, he slipped.

Finally, Boca won 4-0, thanks to the double of Hugo Perotti and the goals of Ernesto Mastrangelo and Carlos Salinas, and raised his second Libertadores in a row on the green lawn, although according to El Ñato Torres denounces, the local used controversial methods to gain advantages in the key sectors of La Bombonera.

“The Argentine police threw dogs at us to prevent us from kicking the corners freely. They put them close to me so they would bark at me and assault me. I was afraid because I was almost bitten by a dog. It was one of the reasons that made that final abnormal,” he detailed in a heads-up with Infobae.

-Angel, what is your life?

- I've been away from football since 2012. Until recently I worked in the lower divisions of Deportivo Cali and at the same time I worked as an employee in a notary office, because we as footballers earned well, to live well, but not to save.

-He did most of his career at Deportivo Cali. He became the highest idol of the institution. What does it feel like to be loved in that club?

-It is very satisfying for one that they remember it after everything they have lived in that institution. Now they call me more than when I played, they are the paradoxes of football. I lived many joys in 1974, when we were champions, and in 1978, when we ended up being runners-up in the Copa Libertadores that year, after losing the final with Boca. We were the first Colombian team to play a final. In addition, in 1980 we were with Professor Carlos Salvador Bilardo in the qualifiers for the World Cup in Spain 82. The Argentine was the coach of Colombia's senior team.

- What do you remember about Bilardo as technical director of Deportivo Cali in the 1977/78 season?

-Here they remember him and love him very much. Carlos was one step ahead of the rest of his colleagues, based on the strategies he proposed and the tactics he used for his leaders. He was very hardworking and left nothing to chance. Everything he said happened. For that reason, he was an advance in Colombian football. He shredded everything and was very thorough in the directions he gave. Very detailed.

- What was the work that Carlos was doing?

-It was very repetitive during training so as not to fall into the same mistakes. He never tired of doing the same thing all the time to make a ready move go well. He stressed all the time the mistakes we made so that it would not happen again. He really emphasized what he wanted from our game. Notice that working in this way marked history in Colombian football, since thanks to him we got to play a Libertadores final for the first time.

- What cabals did Bilardo have?

-One of them was to take someone else on the bus on the way to the stadium to accompany us, before the matches, and if that day we won, he would get him to travel in the next matches as a cabal. Now, if he was lost, that fan could never approach the teacher again, because for Carlos he was a mufa.

- Was he a person close to the campus?

-A normal fan who sometimes talked to him. When we were going to play, I put him on the bus to accompany us. If we won, he stayed with us all year. On the other hand, if we lost, I didn't talk to the sympathizer anymore. And it happened. Before playing the final with Boca for the Copa Libertadores in 1978, the fan traveled with us to Buenos Aires and was with the Cali squad. When we lost in La Bombonera by 4 to 0 he didn't come back anymore, he disappeared.

- Is it true that he was very cabulero with the clothes he wore too?

-Yes, he spent the whole year with only one change of clothes. He always went the same way as directing the matches with black loafers, a blue jean and a shirt of the same color. The two years he was wearing the same clothes, he swore you didn't change them. He gave me the whole outfit and shoes when we beat Atlético Nacional 1 to 0 on the hour with an Olympic goal of mine and we qualified the Libertadores in 79.

- What did you do with those clothes?

-The shoes were broken, the pants and the shirt were all faded. I kept everything five years, didn't use it and then threw it away. He gave it to me and I kept it as a gift from the teacher. After that game, in the locker room he took off his clothes and gave them to me as a prize.

- Why did you reward him?

-For having scored that Olympic goal that allowed us to play the Libertadores 79 and to have been runner-up in the local tournament.

- What was it about that team led by Bilardo that came to play in the final with Boca?

-It was a great team and we made them respect us on all courts. The teacher was very obsessive and knew everything about the rivals, he studied them completely. He was very dedicated to football. It was not pure chance, it was internalized above all. In addition, we had very good players, with very high levels. Notice that later most of the Deportivo Cali players were part of the Colombia team led by Carlos. I also remember that the substitutes who did not add minutes in the match, Carlos had them train at night.

El ex delantero, en la actualidad. Hoy alejado del fútbol, tras haber trabajado en la formación de jugadores

- Where were you taking them?

-After the match they stayed in the stadium training for about two hours and we waited on the bus for them to finish. The training lasted the time of a match with the idea that they would have the same number of minutes. Then we went to the rally. During the two years that Carlos directed us, if we spent two months in our house it is a lot because even if we didn't play, we were still concentrating. We played on Sundays, we gathered since Friday. If we had a meeting during the week, we concentrated every day because the weekend after that there was also competition.

- Did you ever release them?

-Suddenly on Sunday he let us go out at night, but we had to go back to the rally. We could see our family for a couple of hours, but on the condition of returning to the hotel. There were colleagues whom he called to control them during those moments of freedom to check if they went to visit their relatives. I knew that, too, he communicated with several of my former colleagues to point out the mistakes they made so that it would not happen to them again.

- Did they have allowed outings with Carlos during the rallies?

No, he just let us go to the movies, but no more than that. Drinking was not allowed because it was a lack of discipline. When we went to see movies he came with us or sent his physical trainer, Julio Coscia, to make a personal mark for us (laughs).

I watched them to find out what they were doing...

-Sneakily yes, he was watching us, although there were several former colleagues who did it to the teacher, even though he was very strict, right? They escaped from the concentration when we were lying down and they were going to do their misdeed, to visit some girl. Carlos didn't notice because he didn't check the rooms, but he did send his field assistant, Eduardo Manera, or the kinesiologist, to take a look and tell him.

- What do you remember about that first home Copa Libertadores final?

-We were close to easily winning the match against Boca, but unfortunately the forwards could not convert, we missed several opportunities, that's why it ended 0 to 0. In the rematch at La Bombonera they overtook us, because we came from playing the octagonal of the Colombian tournament.

- Why was the rematch played a month later?

-They didn't tell us. We knew that Boca had asked to postpone the rematch for a month and since the AFA has much more interference than the Colombian Federation in Conmebol, we were harmed. Then, the schedule was changed and, when played 30 days later, they recovered well physically and we continued to compete, in this way we were busted to the decisive match. If we had played after 8 days we would have done a better performance.

- What was it about that team that came to play in the final of the Cup?

-It was a very close group and we were all shooting for the same side. So, we played the same way as home and away. They had respect for us on the outside because we went out to win every game and not to defend ourselves. That team that Bilardo commanded is the one that most remembers the fans of Deportivo Cali, with the forward Benítez-Scotta and me. Until 1986 Cali had great teams. Then, it was all different.

- Is it true that in the first leg Bilardo asked his players to throw Vick VapoRub on his rivals?

He didn't say it literally, but suddenly there was a former player, Fernando el Pecoso Castro, who copied him every morning when he became a coach. When we played against Boca in Pascual Guerrero in that first final, Frecoso smeared Vick Vaporub with Ernesto Mastrangelo in his eyes and left him blind during the match.

- Was it during a corner kick?

-Yes, local. El Frecoso smeared his fingers and ran them over the face to striker xeneize. There was a pot next to the arch. He went, grabbed him and put him before the execution of the corner kick. Castro had heard that in Estudiantes they did that and, suddenly, he took him as an advanced student and carried it out.

- How did they spend the night before the rematch?

We couldn't rest the night before in Buenos Aires. There was a lot of noise outside the hotel because the Boca fans made a mess on purpose and didn't let us sleep well. Then, when we arrived at the stadium they threw a firecracker at us that exploded in the middle of the dressing room and we were very afraid. Bilardo told us that the situation could have changed and he was going to ask for the suspension of the match, but in the end he didn't. We were mistreated in Argentina. Xeneize tried at all costs to be champion of the Libertadores, whatever it was.

-Tampoco había control antidoping…

- There was nothing. There was no control of anything. I can't tell you if the people from Boca took anything to play the game, I do think it was all very weird. Another strange thing was that both me and Cococho, one of my former colleagues, when we threw the shots from the corner to the changed leg, the cops who were nearby threw their dogs at us to intimidate us.

- How is that?

-Yes, the Argentine police threw dogs at us to prevent us from kicking the corners freely. They put them close to me so they would bark at me and assault me. I was afraid because almost a dog bites me. It was one of the reasons that made that final abnormal. But in itself during the game they overtook us, they beat us well 4 to 0, nothing more to say from the result. We were able to get out of La Bombonera well because Boca was champion and there was no reason to be attacked.

"Ese equipo de Deportivo Cali hizo historia", recuerda con nostalgia

- Was the final of 78 the most important in Deportivo Cali's life?

-Yes, because we were close to being champions, we lacked very little. For the first time, a Colombian team reached a final in an international cup. Not just for Cali, but for the whole country. We played four matches against Boca: two in 1977 and the others in 1978. There was one that in La Bombonera we tied 1 to 1.

-He was also directed by Bilardo in the Colombia national team during the 1982 World Cup Qualifiers

-Yes. He took over in 1980 and took us to several of us in Deportivo Cali, because he was the sensation team and the base of the national team. Now it is Nacional de Medellín plus those who play in Europe. In the national team we had to lose to Uruguay, to Peru in Lima, and with Paraguay we were winning and ended up losing 3 to 2. Then he did not qualify for Spain 82.

- What analysis do you do before the match between Deportivo Cali and Boca tonight?

-They're two different teams. Cali is going through the worst moment in its history. He had never lost three consecutive games and is dragging a negative streak. Of the last four games, he drew one and lost three, he had never seen that. Boca is not playing well either, but it is a respectable team, because Argentines are about overcoming all adversities, they are like Uruguayans and Paraguayans, who do not give a ball for loss.

- Does it hurt to watch the moment the Colombian national team is going through?

-Yes, because it has very good players and unfortunately did not qualify for Qatar 2022. There are players who are standing out in Europe, but they come here and they don't perform. We were seven games without converting and that kills any team. The final clash was against Peru and it was lost, there was the standings. Unfortunately, the rope always breaks because of the easiest thing and Reinaldo Rueda left his post, but that no goals are scored is not the coach's fault. To make it happen, I like Marcelo Bielsa or Carlos Gamero, the technical director of Millonarios. Also, Marcelo Gallardo sounds, the two Argentines are in the bid to reach the Colombian national team and both are to the taste of Colombians.

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