1964 Copa Libertadores

1964 Copa de Campeones de América
Tournament details
Dates	April 3 - August 12
Teams	11 (from 10 confederations)
Final positions
Champions	Independiente (1st title)
Runners-up	Nacional
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	88 (3.38 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mario Rodríguez; Celino Mora; (6 goals each)
	← 1963 1965 →

The 1964 Copa de Campeones de América was the fifth edition of South America's premier club football tournament. For the first time since its inception, every member of CONMEBOL was represented in the competition. Deportivo Italia became the first club from Venezuela to participate, providing an unexpectedly impressive performance after eliminating Bahia of Brazil in the preliminary round and beating Barcelona in Guayaquil.

Building up on Boca Juniors' great showing in the last season, Argentine football managed to put themselves on the international map as Independiente won Argentina's first title. El Diablo Rojo, or Red Devil, eliminated the powerful Santos, which played without the main stars of its attack (Dorval, Mengálvio, Coutinho and an injured Pelé didn't play, and Pepe played just the first match of the semifinal).^[1] After winning both matches of their semifinal series, the Argentines dispatched Nacional in the finals. Mario Rodríguez was a key factor in Independiente's triumph and was the top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals.

Qualified teams

Country	Team	Qualification method
CONMEBOL 1 berth	Santos	1963 Copa Libertadores de América winners
Argentina 1 berth	Independiente	1963 Primera División champion
Bolivia 1 berth	Aurora	1963 Copa Simón Bolívar champion
Brazil 1 berth	Bahia	1963 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A runner-up
Chile 1 berth	Colo-Colo	1963 Primera División champion
Colombia 1 berth	Millonarios	1963 Campeonato Profesional champion
Ecuador 1 berth	Barcelona	1963 Campeonato Ecuatoriano de Fútbol champion
Paraguay 1 berth	Cerro Porteño	1963 Primera División champion
Peru 1 berth	Alianza Lima	1963 Primera División champion
Uruguay 1 berth	Nacional	1963 Primera División champion
Venezuela 1 berth	Deportivo Italia	1963 Venezuelan Primera División champion

Tie-breaking criteria

This edition saw a first round, with three groups containing three teams each; the preliminary round from the 1961 edition was reintroduced. The format for the semifinals and the finals remained unchanged.

At each stage of the tournament teams receive 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and no points for a loss. If two or more teams are equal on points, the following criteria will be applied to determine the ranking in the group stage:

a one-game playoff;
superior goal difference;
draw of lots.

Preliminary round

Owing to the uneven number of teams in the competition, a preliminary round was created to determine who joined the other 9 teams in the competition. As a predominated "weak" side, Venezuela has its representative face off against Brazil's second representative. The winner of the series would advance into the First round. Both matches took place in Caracas.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Deportivo Italia	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	3
Bahía	2	0	1	1	1	2	-1	1

April 3, 1964

Deportivo Italia

0 – 0

Bahía

Caracas

April 8, 1964	Bahía	1 – 2	Deportivo Italia	Caracas
	Vevê		Jaime Iramido

First round

Nine teams were drawn into groups of three. In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away. The top team in each group advanced to the Semifinals. Santos, the title holders, had a bye to the next round.

Group 1

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Nacional	4	3	1	0	9	2	7	7
Cerro Porteño	4	1	2	1	11	6	5	4
Aurora	4	0	1	3	2	14	-12	1

April 12, 1964	Aurora	2 – 2	Cerro Porteño	Cochabamba
	Herbas Alcócer		Mora Rojas

April 19, 1964	Nacional	2 – 0	Aurora	Montevideo
	Abeledo

April 26, 1964	Cerro Porteño	2 – 2	Nacional	Asunción
	Mora		Méndez Oyarbide

May 3, 1964	Aurora	0 – 3	Nacional	Cochabamba
			Bergara Pérez Acosta

May 10, 1964	Nacional	2 – 0	Cerro Porteño	Montevideo
	Bergara Pérez

May 17, 1964	Cerro Porteño	7 – 0	Aurora	Asunción
	Rojas Mora Rojas Breglia Rojas

Group 2

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Independiente	4	3	1	0	11	3	8	7
Millonarios	4	2	0	2	6	8	-2	4
Alianza Lima	4	0	1	3	5	11	-6	1

May 7, 1964	Millonarios	3 – 2	Alianza Lima	Bogotá
	Gamboa		León Zegarra

May 31, 1964	Independiente	4 – 0	Alianza Lima	Avellaneda
	Savoy Rodríguez Rolan Suárez

June 4, 1964	Alianza Lima	2 – 2 ^[A]	Independiente	Avellaneda
	León		Savoy

June 7, 1964	Independiente	5 – 1	Millonarios	Avellaneda
	Rodríguez Suárez Savoy		Parodi

June 28, 1964	Alianza Lima	1 – 2 ^[B]	Millonarios	Bogotá
	Tenemás		Klinger Gamboa

July 8, 1964

Millonarios

^[C]

Independiente

Bogotá

Group 3

Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Colo-Colo	4	3	1	9	7	2	6
Barcelona	4	2	2	9	4	5	4
Deportivo Italia	4	1	3	2	9	-7	2

May 3, 1964	Barcelona	0 – 1	Deportivo Italia	Guayaquil
			Zequniha

May 5, 1964	Colo-Colo	4 – 0	Deportivo Italia	Santiago
	Valdés Álvarez Moreno Roberto

May 13, 1964	Barcelona	2 – 3	Colo-Colo	Guayaquil
	Nivaldo		Roberto Álvarez Valdés

May 17, 1964	Deportivo Italia	1 – 2	Colo-Colo	Caracas
	Jaime		Roberto Moreno

May 24, 1964	Deportivo Italia	0 – 3	Barcelona	Caracas
			Nivaldo Geninho Calderón

May 28, 1964	Colo-Colo	0 – 4	Barcelona	Santiago
			Nivaldo Helio Geninho

Semifinals

Four teams were drawn into two groups. In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away. The top team in each group advanced to the Finals.

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Independiente	2	2	0	0	5	3	+2	4
Santos	2	0	0	2	3	5	−2	0

July 15, 1964	Santos	2 – 3	Independiente	Rio de Janeiro
	Guerreiro Pepe		Rodríguez Bernao Suárez

July 22, 1964	Independiente	2 – 1	Santos	Avellaneda
	Mori Rodríguez		Guerreiro

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Nacional	2	2	0	0	8	4	+4	4
Colo-Colo	2	0	0	2	4	8	−4	0

July 15, 1964	Colo-Colo	2 – 4	Nacional	Santiago
	Baeza o.g.' Alvarez		Sanfilippo Leites Douksas

August 1, 1964	Nacional	4 – 2	Colo-Colo	Montevideo
	Jaburú Douksas Pérez		Jiménez Valdés

Finals

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Independiente	2	1	1	0	1	0	+1	3
Nacional	2	0	1	1	0	1	−1	1

August 6, 1964	Nacional	0 – 0	Independiente	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo
				Attendance: 60,000 Referee: Leo Horn (Netherlands)

August 12, 1964	Independiente	1 – 0	Nacional	La Doble Visera, Avellaneda
	Rodríguez 35'			Attendance: 80,000 Referee: Dimas Larrosa (Paraguay)

Champion

Copa Libertadores de América 1964 Champion
Independiente First Title

Top goalscorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	Mario Rodríguez	Independiente	6
1	Celino Mora	Cerro Porteño	6
3	Nivaldo	Barcelona	5
4	Luis Eduardo Suárez	Independiente	4
	Raúl Armando Savoy	Independiente	4
	Delio Gamboa	Millonarios	4
3	Francisco Valdés	Colo-Colo	3
	Luis Hernán Álvarez	Colo-Colo	3
	Roberto Frojuelo	Colo-Colo	3
	Domingo Pérez	Nacional	3
	Víctor Zegarra	Alianza Lima	3

Footnotes

^ [1] News at journal Folha de S.Paulo on June 23, 2015, the Argentine TV brought up to light phone recordings conversations between Abel Gnecco, Argentina's representative in referee committee of Conmebol and the former president of AFA, Julio Grondona, who died in 2014 and who in 1964 was president of Independiente. In the wiretapping (recorded at May 17, 2013), Grondona praises himself for have conspired with the referee team of semifinal between Santos and Independiente, in order that Brazilian team could not qualify for the final. Transcription of the wiretape, included. (in Portuguese)

A. ^ Played in Avellaneda (Racing Club's stadium) due to the tragedy around the olympic qualifier between Peru and Argentina in Lima.

B. ^ Played in Bogotá (El Campin) due to the tragedy around the olympic qualifier between Peru and Argentina in Lima.

C. ^ Not played due to differences between CONMEBOL and the Colombian football federations, ADEFútbol and FEDEBOL (after Independiente refused to travel to Bogotá); points incredibly were awarded to Independiente despite refused to play (but no goals).

External links

Copa Libertadores 1964 at CONMEBOL website
Copa Libertadores 1964 at RSSSF

[1] [1] News at journal Folha de S.Paulo on June 23, 2015, the Argentine TV brought up to light phone recordings conversations between Abel Gnecco, Argentina's representative in referee committee of Conmebol and the former president of AFA, Julio Grondona, who died in 2014 and who in 1964 was president of Independiente. In the wiretapping (recorded at May 17, 2013), Grondona praises himself for have conspired with the referee team of semifinal between Santos and Independiente, in order that Brazilian team could not qualify for the final. Transcription of the wiretape, included. (in Portuguese)

[1]