Olimpia 1979: the year El Decano touched the sky

In 1979, Club Olimpia lived through the most important year in its history. El Decano of Paraguayan football won the Copa Libertadores for the first time and, months later, the Intercontinental Cup. Coach Luis Cubilla was in charge of the team, and Osvaldo Domínguez Dibb was club president.

The road began in the group stage. Olimpia shared a group with Sol de América, also from Asunción, and with Bolívar and Jorge Wilstermann, from Bolivia. They won five of their six matches. Their only defeat came away to Bolívar. At home they got their revenge with a 3-0 win over the same opponents and finished first.

In the second round, which was played in groups of three teams, their opponents were Brazil's Guarani, from Campinas, and Chile's Palestino. Olimpia beat Guarani 2-1 in Asunción and defeated Palestino twice: 2-0 in Santiago and 3-0 at home. The last match was in Brazil against Guarani. The 1-1 draw sent them through to the final.

Standing in their way were Boca Juniors, who had won the 1977 and 1978 editions and were chasing a third straight title. The first leg was played on July 22, 1979 at the Defensores del Chaco stadium in Asunción, in front of some 50,000 people. Olimpia won 2-0 with goals from Osvaldo Aquino and Miguel Ángel Piazza.

Five days later, on July 27, the second leg was played at La Bombonera in Buenos Aires. The match ended 0-0 and Olimpia lifted their first Copa Libertadores. They were also the first Paraguayan club to win it. Until then, the trophy had only gone to clubs from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. That second leg saw the cup debut of a youngster who would later become very important to the club, Jorge Guasch. That squad had names that remain in the club's memory: goalkeeper Éver Almeida, Alicio Solalinde, Roberto Paredes, Carlos Kiese, Luis Torres, Hugo Talavera, Evaristo Isasi, Enrique Villalba and Osvaldo Aquino, among others. Several of them were part of the Paraguay national team that won the Copa América that same year, the second in its history. It was an unforgettable year for Paraguayan football.

The title earned them the right to play in the Intercontinental Cup. The European champions, Nottingham Forest, declined to take part, and their place was taken by Malmö of Sweden, who had lost the European Cup final to the English side. The first leg was played on November 18, 1979 at the club's stadium in Malmö, in the depths of the Swedish autumn and in front of some 5,000 spectators. Olimpia won 1-0 with a goal from Evaristo Isasi.

The second leg did not come until March 2, 1980, at the Defensores del Chaco. By then the team had a few new faces, such as defender Daniel Di Bartolomeo, and Flaminio Sosa also played. Olimpia won again, this time 2-1, with goals from Alicio Solalinde and Miguel Michelagnoli. They sealed the tie 3-1 on aggregate and became intercontinental champions.

That cycle also included the 1979 Paraguayan championship and the Interamerican Cup, which Olimpia won in early 1980 against FAS of El Salvador, with a 3-3 draw in San Salvador and a 5-0 thrashing in Asunción. It was their third international trophy in a few months. Because of that string of titles, the club also became known as the “Rey de Copas”.

Olimpia would win the Copa Libertadores again in 1990 and in 2002. But 1979 remained the starting point: the year a Paraguayan club took its seat for the first time at the table of the giants of the Americas and the world.