1998 Torneo Descentralizado

Torneo Descentralizado
Season	1998
Champions	Universitario; 22nd Primera División title
Relegated	Lawn Tennis
Copa Libertadores	Universitario; Sporting Cristal
Copa CONMEBOL	Sport Boys
Copa Merconorte	Alianza Lima; Sporting Cristal; Universitario
Top goalscorer	Nelson Esidio (25)
	← 1997 1999 →

The 1998 season of the Torneo Descentralizado was the 83rd season of the top category of Peruvian football (soccer). It was played by 12 teams. The national champion was Universitario.

The national championship was divided into two half-year tournaments, the Torneo Apertura and the Torneo Clausura. Each was played on a home-and-away round-robin basis. The winners of each would play for the national title in a playoff. If the same club had won both tournaments, it would have won the national championship automatically.

Following-season Copa Libertadores berths went to the winner of each tournament, while the runners-up played for a Copa CONMEBOL spot. The bottom team on the aggregate table was relegated, while the eleventh place held a relegation/promotion playoff against the winner of the Segunda División (Second Division).

Teams

Team changes

Promoted from 1997 Segunda División	Promoted from 1997 Copa Perú	Relegated from 1997 Primera División
Lawn Tennis (1st)	Juan Aurich (1st)	Alcides Vigo (11th) Atlético Torino (12th) José Gálvez (13th) La Loretana (14th)

Stadia locations

Alianza Lima
Lawn Tennis
Municipal
Sporting Cristal
Universitario
Sport Boys

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Locations of the 1998 Primera División teams

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity	Field
Alianza Atlético	Sullana	Campeones del 36	8,000	Grass
Alianza Lima	Lima	Alejandro Villanueva	35,000	Grass
Cienciano	Cuzco	Garcilaso	42,056	Grass
Deportivo Municipal	Lima	Nacional	45,750	Grass
Deprotivo Pesquero	Chimbote	Manuel Rivera Sanchez	25,000	Grass
Juan Aurich	Chiclayo	Elías Aguirre	24,500	Grass
Lawn Tennis	Lima	Nacional	45,750	Grass
Melgar	Arequipa	Mariano Melgar	20,000	Grass
Sport Boys	Callao	Miguel Grau	18,000	Grass
Sporting Cristal	Lima	San Martín de Porres	17,000	Grass
Unión Minas	Cerro de Pasco	Daniel Alcides Carrión	8,000	Grass
Universitario	Lima	Nacional	45,750	Grass

Torneo Apertura

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Universitario	22	11	10	1	40	18	+22	43	Copa Libertadores 1999 First stage
2	Sport Boys	22	11	6	5	38	23	+15	39	1999 Copa CONMEBOL playoff
3	Sporting Cristal	22	10	7	5	40	20	+20	37
4	Unión Minas	22	11	4	7	33	29	+4	37
5	Deportivo Pesquero	22	9	6	7	35	21	+14	33
6	Alianza Lima	22	9	6	7	35	21	+14	33
7	Juan Aurich	22	7	8	7	27	25	+2	29
8	Alianza Atlético	22	6	8	8	33	26	+7	26
9	Cienciano	22	6	7	9	24	27	−3	25
10	Melgar	22	7	2	13	20	36	−16	23
11	Deportivo Municipal	22	6	4	12	23	48	−25	22
12	Lawn Tennis	22	3	2	17	16	49	−33	11

Updated to match(es) played on July 1998. Source: https://www.rsssf.org/tablesp/peru98.html
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Results

Home \ Away	AAS	ALI	CIE	MUN	PES	JA	LTF	MEL	SBA	CRI	MIN	UNI
Alianza Atlético		4–2	3–3	3–1	2–3	2–2	1–1	4–1	1–0	1–3	3–3	0–0
Alianza Lima	1–0		2–0	7–0	0–1	2–1	3–0	2–0	3–0	0–0	6–0	0–0
Cienciano	1–0	4–0		0–0	3–1	1–0	1–2	2–0	0–0	2–1	0–0	1–1
Deportivo Municipal	0–1	2–0	1–1		2–4	1–0	3–0	2–1	1–3	0–3	2–3	2–2
Deportivo Pesquero	3–1	2–2	3–0	2–1		1–3	3–0	3–1	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–0
Juan Aurich	2–1	2–2	1–1	1–2	0–0		2–1	2–0	1–0	1–1	4–0	1–1
Lawn Tennis	1–2	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–2	0–1		1–2	1–2	0–4	2–0	0–5
Melgar	2–1	1–0	2–1	4–0	0–0	0–0	2–1		0–1	2–0	1–2	0–1
Sport Boys	2–2	0–0	3–1	5–0	4–0	3–1	3–3	1–0		1–0	4–1	3–3
Sporting Cristal	0–0	1–1	3–2	3–0	2–1	2–2	5–0	7–1	1–0		2–1	1–1
Unión Minas	0–0	1–0	2–0	3–0	4–1	1–0	4–1	2–0	2–0	2–0		1–1
Universitario	5–1	2–1	1–0	2–2	2–1	3–0	2–0	3–0	1–2	2–1	2–1

Updated to match(es) played on 1998. Source: RSSSF Peru 1998
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Torneo Clausura

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sporting Cristal (A, O)	22	13	3	6	41	23	+18	42	Copa Libertadores 1999 First stage
2	Alianza Lima (A)	22	11	9	2	35	17	+18	42	1999 Copa CONMEBOL playoff
3	Sport Boys	22	12	6	4	24	12	+12	42
4	Universitario	22	8	10	4	32	22	+10	34
5	Cienciano	22	7	9	6	23	20	+3	29^[a]
6	Deportivo Pesquero	22	7	8	7	20	20	0	29
7	Melgar	22	8	5	9	26	33	−7	29
8	Juan Aurich	22	6	8	8	24	27	−3	26
9	Alianza Atlético	22	6	6	10	24	30	−6	24
10	Unión Minas	22	6	6	10	22	30	−8	24
11	Lawn Tennis	22	6	4	12	20	38	−18	22
12	Deportivo Municipal	22	3	4	15	24	43	−19	13

Updated to match(es) played on December 1998. Source: https://www.rsssf.org/tablesp/peru98.html
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(A) Advance to a further round; (O) Play-off winners
Notes:

^ Cienciano were docked 1 points for fielding 4 foreign players in Round 3.

Results

Home \ Away	AAS	ALI	CIE	MUN	PES	JA	LTF	MEL	SBA	CRI	MIN	UNI
Alianza Atlético		1–1	2–0	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–1	2–2	0–0	2–3	3–0	1–1
Alianza Lima	4–2		4–1	2–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	3–1	0–2	0–0	1–0
Cienciano	2–0	0–0		4–1	2–0	1–0	4–0	0–0	0–0	2–1	0–0	0–0
Deportivo Municipal	0–1	1–1	1–2		0–3	1–1	1–2	5–1	0–1	2–1	2–3	1–1
Deportivo Pesquero	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–1		2–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	3–0	2–2
Juan Aurich	2–0	0–0	2–2	1–1	1–0		4–1	3–2	0–4	2–1	2–1	1–1
Lawn Tennis	2–0	1–5	2–0	0–2	1–2	0–0		2–1	0–1	1–1	3–1	0–2
Melgar	2–1	1–2	3–2	1–0	2–0	1–0	3–1		2–0	0–1	3–1	0–3
Sport Boys	1–0	0–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	0–0	3–0		2–0	2–1	1–1
Sporting Cristal	3–2	1–1	1–0	7–2	0–1	3–1	2–1	3–0	2–0		4–2	2–0
Unión Minas	0–1	2–1	0–0	2–1	3–0	1–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	1–0		2–2
Universitario	3–1	0–3	1–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	4–0	2–2	3–0	0–2	1–0

Updated to match(es) played on 1998. Source: RSSSF Peru 1998
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Clausura title play-off

December 16, 1998

Sporting Cristal	1–0	Alianza Lima
A. Mendoza 42'

Estadio Nacional,
Lima

Sporting Cristal Clausura 1998 winners
To Copa Libertadores 1999
(Alianza Lima to Copa CONMEBOL playoff)

Copa CONMEBOL play-off

December 20, 1998

Sport Boys	0–1	Alianza Lima
		Saavedra 74'

Estadio Miguel Grau,
Callao

December 22, 1998

Alianza Lima	2–0	Sport Boys
Basombrío 6' Gareca 29'

Estadio Alejandro Villanueva,
Lima

Alianza Lima to 1999 Copa CONMEBOL
(Alianza Lima later declined their spot in favor of Sport Boys)

Season finals

December 20, 1998

Sporting Cristal	2–1	Universitario
N. Esidio 30' A. Mendoza 40'		L. Guadalupe 62'

Estadio Nacional,
Lima

December 23, 1998

Universitario	2–1	Sporting Cristal
R. Farfán 50' R. Farfán 56'		A. Mendoza 74'
Penalties
Gustavo Grondona César Casas Gustavo Falaschi Luis Guadalupe Eduardo Esidio	4–2	Javier Ferreira Jorge Soto Roger Serrano Germán Carty

Estadio Nacional,
Lima

Aggregate table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sport Boys	44	23	12	9	62	35	+27	81	1999 Copa CONMEBOL
2	Sporting Cristal	44	23	10	11	81	43	+38	79	1999 Copa Libertadores and 1999 Copa Merconorte
3	Universitario	44	19	20	5	72	40	+32	77	1999 Copa Libertadores and 1999 Copa Merconorte
4	Alianza Lima	44	20	15	9	70	38	+32	75	1999 Copa Merconorte
5	Deportivo Pesquero	44	16	14	14	53	49	+4	62
6	Unión Minas	44	17	10	17	55	60	−5	61
7	Juan Aurich	44	13	16	15	51	52	−1	55
8	Cienciano	44	13	16	15	47	47	0	54^[a]
9	Melgar	44	15	7	22	46	69	−23	52
10	Alianza Atlético	44	12	14	18	57	66	−9	50
11	Deportivo Municipal (O)	44	9	8	27	47	91	−44	35	Qualification for promotion play-off
12	Lawn Tennis	44	9	6	29	36	87	−51	33	Relegation to 1999 Segunda División

Updated to match(es) played on December, 1999. Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(O) Play-off winners
Notes: