Estudiantes de Buenos Aires

Estudiantes (BA)

Full name	Club Atlético Estudiantes
Nickname(s)	Pincha, Matador
Founded	August 15, 1898
Ground	Estadio Ciudad de Caseros, Caseros, Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina (Capacity: 16,740 [1])
Chairman	Fernando Isla Casares
Manager	Salvador Pasini
League	Primera B Metropolitana
2010-11	2nd (qualified to Torneo Reducido)
Home colours Away colours

For other uses, see Estudiantes (disambiguation).

Club Atlético Estudiantes, usually called Estudiantes de Buenos Aires or Estudiantes de Caseros, is a sports club from Caseros, Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina. The club is mostly known by its football team, which currently plays in Primera B Metropolitana, the regionalised third division of the Argentine football league system.

History

The beginning

By 1897 football in Argentina was practised almost exclusively by English people that lived in Buenos Aires. Three of that immigrants, called Hansen, McHardy and Fitz Simons, encouraged a group of Argentine young poeple to join them in order to form a team. The club was officially founded on August 15, 1898, and the name was taken from the High School they attended: Colegion Nacional Sur.

The young native players soon learned from the English men, who taught them the basics of playing football. By 1899 the name had been changed to Estudiantes, which was easier to pronounce by team's followers from the standgrounds.

First tours

Estudiantes team of 1907.

In 1904 Estudiantes promoted to Primera División. By then, the club had built a stadium, placed in Palermo, Buenos Aires where played its home games. During the amateur era, the squad won the Copa de Competencia Jockey Club in 1910 and reached three Copa de Honor finals in 1906, 1909 and 1913. The recognition earned during those years encouraged the managers to make the team take part on tours over other provinces of Argentina. This tours would also help to spread the practise of football in the rest of Argentina, increasing the popularity of this sport amongst its population. The first tour was in 1907 where Estudiantes played some matches against local teams. One of them was on May 5, 1907, when Estudiantes defeated Newell's Old Boys 3-2. That was the first team the Rosarino team faced a squad from Buenos Aires.

Nevertheless, the most important tour took part in Brazil in 1910. Never before an Argentine football team had played outside the Río de la Plata. Estudiantes disputed four matches in Brazil, winning all of them. The squad scored 24 goals and only received 3. Back in Buenos Aires, the players were received and acclaimed by a crowd and were also invited to numerous receptions due to their great performance.

The amateur years

In 1928 Estudiantes merged with Sportivo Devoto, which allowed the club to incorporate some players from that club who would become notable playing for Estudiantes. Some of them were wing Nardini, forward Luis Sánchez and midfielders Horacio Méndez and Antonio Martínez. Those players, along with Estudiantes' former players such as Muschetti, Closas and Camilo Méndez formed a team that disputed memorable matches against Boca Juniors and River Plate. Nevertheless, the difference between called "small" teams and the "big" ones (because of being less popular than Boca, River or Independiente) was considerable. That was more visible when Profesional era began in 1931 in Argentina. Estudiantes remained in the Amateur Association (which had been left by the called "Big ones"), which soon lost interest so fans choose the Professional championship, where their teams had moved to. Moreover, most of Estudiantes' notable players were seduced by good offers from other clubs and soon left the team. Some of the footballers that left Estudiantes were Nardini and Martínez (transferred to Boca), "Huesito" Sánchez (to Platense), Closas (to San Lorenzo de Almagro) and Camilo Méndez (acquired by River Plate).

Losing territory

The 1942 team which won the first championship for the club.

Once the fusion between Profesional League and Amateur League was done, Estudiantes started its run at the second division. In 1940 the club was sent down to the third division (now Primera C Metropolitana) after finishing in the penultimate position of the tournament. Two years after, the club obtained the championship coming back to Primera B, after defeating Liniers in the finals. The usual line-up was: Mares; Garza, Monza; Menéndez, Conti, Civera; Acosta, Borjas, Gastaldo, Jara, Purgia.

Some highlights for Estudiantes were the great campaign of 1947, with Juan Calicchio being the top scorer with 36 goals in 40 matches played. Banfield's notable forward Gustavo Albella was the second scorer with 35. In 1959 Estudiantes was relegated to the fourth division (Primera D) after finishing in the last place. In May, 1963 the club inaugurated its stadium in Caseros, Greater Buenos Aires, in a match against Sacachispas. That same year Estudiantes was regelated to Primera C after a restructuring on the Argentine league system. This lasted to 1966 when Estudiantes won another title, promoting to Primera B again.

Back to First Division

The squad that obtained the third title in 1977.

In 1974 Estudiantes made a great season reaching the championship final. The decissive match was against Unión de Santa Fe and Estudiantes lost 1-0 and could not promote to Primera División. The line-up was: Landaburu; Cillis, Gomissi, Olivera, Batain; Toublanc, Juan Carlos Bravo, Osvaldo Pérez; Roberto Osvaldo Díaz, Toloza (then Cassano), Nogneira (then Anilo).

That final lost repercuted on the players' performance and the following seasons Estudiantes did not make great campaigns. This was until 1977, when Estudiantes won the championship promoting to Primera División for its first time. The squad played a total of 36 matches winning 17 with 14 draws and only 5 defeats. The line-up for the last match vs. Villa Dálmine was: Balbiano; Manuel Pérez, Bravo, Paz, Gerez; Ciccarello, Alberto Pafundi, Carlos Guillermo; Toloza (then Baldovino), Ugarte, Juan Guillermo. Other players that also contributed to the victory were Filipetti, Martinuccio, Carrizo, Cortés, Méndez and Barranco. Ricardo Trigilli was dessigned as the coach.

Playing in Primera, one of the most important matches Estudiantes disputed was against Boca Juniors. The game ended up in a 1-1 tie, which allowed Quilmes to be with a great chance to obtain the championship (which the "Cervecero" finally took advantage of). But at the end of the season, Estudiantes went down again.

Institutional development

Back in the Primera B, Estudiantes (still being coached by Trigilli) built two new standgrounds to increase the stadium capacity. Trigilli left in 1982, which the team developed a poor performance, almost beng relegated to Primera C. Trigilli came back in 1983 and Estudiantes qualified to the "octogonal" searching for a place in Primera. The team finally was eliminated by Deportivo Italiano.

In 1986, Argentine football was restructured again, and therefore the Primera B Nacional was created as the second division. Estudiantes could not qualify to be in that tournament (finished 10th and only 8 were able to play in Nacional B) so the squad went on Primera B, renamed "Primera B Metropolitana" although it was a third division of the football league system.

In 1988 the club inaugurated a new grandstand which a capacity of 10,000 seats.

Promotions and relegations

After poor performances in past seasons, Estudiantes broght Ricardo Trigilli back as its coach. Under his command, the team could keep its place in the third division. In 1995-96 season Estudiantes achieved the so long awaited promotion to Nacional B, defeating its historical rival Almagro with a memorable 5-1 in the second final match (after finishing 2-2 the first game). Trigilli achieved the record of being the team's coach in the two promotions obtained by the club, 1977 and 1995-96.

In the 1998/99 season Estudiantes was relegated to Primera B Metropolitana again, along with Atlanta. Only a year lasted until team's return to Primera B Nacional, which happened in the playoffs finals defeating Sarmiento de Junín. In 2000-01 season Estudiantes went down to Primera B Metropolitana again, where has remained since.

Club facilities

The club was founded in Buenos Aires, in the corner of Blandengues Avenue (today Avenida del Libertador) and Oro street. In 1920 it moved to Figueroa Alcorta and Dorrego Avenues and then in 1931 moved again to Villa Devoto, where established in Desaguadero and José P. Varela streets. The main facility still remains on that place. In 1963 Estudiantes opened its own stadium in Caseros, Buenos Aires.

Current Squad 2011

For a list of all former and current Estudiantes de Buenos Aires footballers with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Estudiantes de Buenos Aires footballers.

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Martín Ríos DF Sebastián Ferreira DF Gastón Montero DF Darío Ledesma MF Jonathan Páez DF Nicolás Gásperi FW Edilio Cardoso MF Nahuel Pansardi FW Andrés Montenegro MF Germán Scamporrino MF Luis González GK Julio Salvá DF Alan Bezzone

No. Position Player DF Facundo Bazán MF Juan Sosa FW Mariano Torresi FW Cristian Yassogna FW Fredy Márquinez MF Luis Soria MF Facundo Chumba GK Ezequiel Ramírez FW Patricio Isla Casares MF Silvestre Sacayán MF Octavio Maturo MF Eduardo Castro DF Nicolás Álvarez

Titles

• Primera B: 2

1977, 1999/00

• Primera C: 2

1942, 1966

See also

• List of football clubs in Argentina
• Argentine football league system

References

1. ^ Estadio Ciudad de Caseros on Estudiantes' website

External links

• Soy Caseros (Spanish)
• Caseros Pincha (Spanish)