2002 Categoría Primera A season

Copa Mustang

Season	2002
Champions	Apertura: América de Cali (12th title) Finalización: Independiente Medellín (3rd title)
Relegated	Real Cartagena
Copa Libertadores	América de Cali Independiente Medellín Deportivo Cali
Copa Sudamericana	Atlético Nacional Deportivo Pasto
Matches played	448
Goals scored	1029 (2.3 per match)
Top goalscorer	Apertura: Luis Zuleta (13 goals) Finalización: Orlando Ballesteros and Milton Rodríguez (13 goals each)
← 2001 2003 →

The 2002 Categoría Primera A season was the 54th season of Colombia's top-flight football league.

Format

Starting from this year, the General Assembly of DIMAYOR approved the expansion of the tournament from 16 to 18 teams, adding to the league two of the three DIMAYOR associates who were taking part of the Categoría Primera B at the time through a special promotion tournament. In addition to this, the league started awarding two championships per season.

For both the Apertura and Finalización tournaments, the 18 teams were first divided into three groups of six teams, playing five games, and then all teams in the league played each other once for a total of 22 matches. The semifinal round was played by the best eight teams at the end of the 22 matches, who were divided into two groups of four according to their position at the end of the first stage: odd-ranked teams made up Group A, while even-ranked ones made up Group B. The winners of each group played the finals to decide the champions.

Torneo Apertura

The Torneo Apertura (officially the 2002 Copa Mustang I for sponsorship reasons) was the first tournament of the season. The tournament began on 3 February and ended on 19 June.

First stage

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Deportivo Cali	22	11	6	5	44	24	+20	39	Advanced to the Semifinals
2	Santa Fe	22	10	8	4	26	13	+13	38
3	Atlético Nacional	22	10	8	4	24	18	+6	38
4	Envigado	22	10	6	6	21	18	+3	36
5	Deportivo Pasto	22	9	7	6	29	27	+2	34
6	Atlético Bucaramanga	22	9	6	7	24	22	+2	33
7	Unión Magdalena	22	9	6	7	27	27	0	33
8	América de Cali	22	8	9	5	27	22	+5	33
9	Once Caldas	22	9	5	8	36	29	+7	32
10	Deportivo Pereira	22	8	8	6	20	16	+4	32
11	Deportes Quindío	22	7	9	6	24	30	−6	30
12	Junior	22	7	5	10	19	25	−6	26
13	Millonarios	22	5	8	9	17	21	−4	23
14	Atlético Huila	22	5	7	10	21	32	−11	22
15	Cortuluá	22	5	6	11	16	25	−9	21
16	Independiente Medellín	22	4	9	9	26	32	−6	21
17	Real Cartagena	22	4	8	10	17	25	−8	20
18	Deportes Tolima	22	3	9	10	18	30	−12	18

Semifinals

The second phase of the tournament consisted of two groups of 4 teams. This was played by the top eight teams from the first stage. The winners of each group faced each other in the Finals to define the champion.

Group A

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Atlético Nacional	6	5	1	0	12	4	+8	16	Advanced to the Finals
2	Unión Magdalena	6	3	0	3	12	9	+3	9
3	Deportivo Cali	6	2	2	2	11	13	−2	8
4	Deportivo Pasto	6	0	1	5	4	13	−9	1

Results

Home \ Away	NAC	CAL	PAS	MAG
Atlético Nacional		2–1	3–0	2–1
Deportivo Cali	2–2		3–1	4–1
Deportivo Pasto	0–2	1–1		1–2
Unión Magdalena	0–1	6–0	2–1

Group B

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	América de Cali	6	4	0	2	6	6	0	12	Advanced to the Finals
2	Santa Fe	6	3	2	1	9	5	+4	11
3	Envigado	6	2	2	2	6	4	+2	8
4	Atlético Bucaramanga	6	0	2	4	4	10	−6	2

Results

Home \ Away	AME	BUC	ENV	SFE
América de Cali		1–0	2–1	2–1
Atlético Bucaramanga	0–1		0–2	2–2
Envigado	2–0	1–1		0–1
Santa Fe	2–0	3–1	0–0

Finals

Date	City	Home	Score	Away
June 16	Cali	América de Cali	2 - 1	Atlético Nacional
June 19	Medellín	Atlético Nacional	0 - 1	América de Cali
América de Cali won 3 - 1 on aggregate score.

Champions América de Cali Twelfth Title

Top goalscorers

Rank	Name	Club	Goals
1	Luis Zuleta	Unión Magdalena	13
2	José Herrera	Unión Magdalena	12
	Jorge Agudelo	Atlético Nacional	12
4	Carlos Castillo	Deportivo Cali	11
	Leonardo Mina Polo	Deportivo Cali	11
	Carlos Vilarete	Unión Magdalena	11
7	Wilson Carpintero	Atlético Bucaramanga	9
	Giovanni Hernández	Deportivo Cali	9
	Léider Preciado	Once Caldas	9

Torneo Finalización

The Torneo Finalización (officially the 2002 Copa Mustang II for sponsorship reasons) was the second tournament of the season. It began on 7 July and ended on 22 December.

First stage

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Deportivo Cali	22	14	5	3	38	15	+23	47	Advanced to the Semifinals
2	Deportivo Pasto	22	11	3	8	32	33	−1	36
3	Independiente Medellín	22	9	8	5	25	16	+9	35
4	América de Cali	22	10	4	8	26	24	+2	34
5	Atlético Bucaramanga	22	9	6	7	34	29	+5	33
6	Unión Magdalena	22	9	6	7	25	26	−1	33
7	Deportes Tolima	22	8	9	5	30	26	+4	33
8	Atlético Nacional	22	8	8	6	28	21	+7	32
9	Santa Fe	22	8	8	6	35	30	+5	32
10	Once Caldas	22	7	11	4	23	17	+6	32
11	Deportes Quindío	22	8	4	10	18	23	−5	28
12	Cortuluá	22	8	4	10	21	27	−6	28
13	Deportivo Pereira	22	7	5	10	27	34	−7	26
14	Real Cartagena	22	7	4	11	20	30	−10	25
15	Atlético Huila	22	6	7	9	21	29	−8	25
16	Millonarios	22	6	5	11	25	31	−6	23
17	Junior	22	4	9	9	27	33	−6	21
18	Envigado	22	3	6	13	16	27	−11	15

Semifinals

The second phase of the tournament consisted of two groups of 4 teams. This was played by the top eight teams from the first stage. The winners of each group faced each other in the Finals to define the champion.

Group A

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Independiente Medellín	6	3	2	1	7	4	+3	11	Advanced to the Finals
2	Deportivo Cali	6	3	1	2	8	5	+3	10
3	Atlético Bucaramanga	6	2	1	3	5	8	−3	7
4	Deportes Tolima	6	1	2	3	5	8	−3	5

Results

Home \ Away	BUC	TOL	CAL	DIM
Atlético Bucaramanga		2–0	1–2	1–0
Deportes Tolima	1–1		2–0	1–3
Deportivo Cali	4–0	1–0		0–1
Independiente Medellín	1–0	1–1	1–1

Group B

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Deportivo Pasto	6	3	2	1	7	5	+2	11	Advanced to the Finals
2	América de Cali	6	3	1	2	8	6	+2	10
3	Unión Magdalena	6	2	1	3	6	8	−2	7
4	Atlético Nacional	6	1	2	3	4	6	−2	5

Results

Home \ Away	AME	NAC	PAS	MAG
América de Cali		2–1	3–0	2–0
Atlético Nacional	0–0		1–1	2–0
Deportivo Pasto	2–0	1–0		3–1
Unión Magdalena	3–1	2–0	0–0

Finals

Date	City	Home	Score	Away
December 18	Medellín	Independiente Medellín	2 - 0	Deportivo Pasto
December 22	Pasto	Deportivo Pasto	1 - 1	Independiente Medellín
Independiente Medellín won 3 - 1 on aggregate score.

Champions Independiente Medellín Third Title

Top goalscorers

Rank	Name	Club	Goals
1	Orlando Ballesteros	Atlético Bucaramanga	13
	Milton Rodríguez	Deportivo Pereira	13
3	Léider Preciado	Deportivo Cali	11
	Pablo Jaramillo	Deportivo Pasto	11
5	Ricardo Ciciliano	Deportes Tolima	10
	Jairo Patiño	Deportivo Pasto	10

Aggregate table

An aggregate table including all games that a team plays during the year is used to determine berths to both the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana. The best-placed non-champion qualified for the 2003 Copa Libertadores along with both champions of the season, while the 2nd and 3rd best-placed non-champions qualified for the 2003 Copa Sudamericana.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Deportivo Cali	60	30	14	16	101	57	+44	104	2003 Copa Libertadores
2	América de Cali (C)	58	27	14	17	63	58	+5	95
3	Atlético Nacional	58	24	19	15	68	49	+19	91	2003 Copa Sudamericana
4	Deportivo Pasto	58	23	14	21	73	81	−8	83
5	Unión Magdalena	56	23	13	20	70	70	0	82
6	Santa Fe	50	21	18	11	70	48	+22	81
7	Atlético Bucaramanga	56	20	15	21	67	69	−2	75
8	Independiente Medellín (C)	52	17	20	15	61	53	+8	71	2003 Copa Libertadores
9	Once Caldas	44	16	16	12	59	46	+13	64
10	Envigado	50	15	14	21	43	49	−6	59
11	Deportivo Pereira	44	15	13	16	47	50	−3	58
12	Deportes Quindío	44	15	13	16	42	53	−11	58
13	Deportes Tolima	50	12	20	18	53	64	−11	56
14	Cortuluá	44	13	10	21	37	52	−15	49
15	Junior	44	11	14	19	46	58	−12	47
16	Atlético Huila	44	11	14	19	42	61	−19	47
17	Millonarios	44	11	13	20	42	52	−10	46
18	Real Cartagena	44	11	12	21	37	55	−18	45

Relegation

Pos	Team	Pld	Pts	Avg	Relegation
1	América de Cali	132	221	1.674
2	Deportivo Cali	132	221	1.674
3	Santa Fe	132	207	1.568
4	Once Caldas	132	205	1.553
5	Atlético Nacional	132	193	1.462
6	Deportes Tolima	132	188	1.424
7	Millonarios	132	180	1.364
8	Deportivo Pasto	132	176	1.333
9	Junior	132	173	1.311
10	Independiente Medellín	132	172	1.303
11	Envigado	132	170	1.288
12	Cortuluá	132	165	1.25
13	Deportivo Pereira	132	159	1.205
14	Unión Magdalena	132	154	1.167
15	Atlético Bucaramanga	132	154	1.167
16	Deportes Quindío	132	153	1.159
17	Atlético Huila	132	142	1.076
18	Real Cartagena	132	142	1.076	Relegated to the Categoría Primera B

Rules for classification: 1st average; 2nd wins; 3rd goal difference; 4th number of goals scored; 5th away goals scored.

External links

• Dimayor official website
• Colombia 2002 RSSSF