Club Olimpia1979Home

White, with the black band across the chest and the crest above it: this is the shirt in which Olimpia won the 1979 Copa Libertadores, the first ever lifted by a Paraguayan club.

The side coached by Luis Cubilla, a former Peñarol forward, reached the final against Boca Juniors, winners of the two previous editions. In the first leg, on 22 July at the Defensores del Chaco, Osvaldo Aquino opened the scoring after 2 minutes and the Uruguayan Miguel Ángel Piazza made it 2-0 with a long-range free kick. Five days later, at La Bombonera and in front of around 65,000 people, the match ended 0-0 on a heated night, with two players sent off on each side. Olimpia were champions of South America.

The photos in El Gráfico magazine show two versions of the same shirt. In one team line-up from the cup, the black band is plain. In the celebration at La Bombonera, however, it already carries the name Union Club written in white, the sponsor that according to Football Kit Archive was with the club from 1979. The collar is round, with a black trim that is repeated on the cuffs of the short sleeves.

With that band, Olimpia began a run that within a few months also brought them the Intercontinental Cup, with two wins over Sweden's Malmö: 1-0 in Malmö on 18 November 1979 and 2-1 in Asunción on 2 March 1980.