San Lorenzo de Almagro

"CASLA" redirects here. For the village in Ireland, see Casla.

San Lorenzo de Almagro

Full name	Club Atlético Sin Libertadores de America
Nickname(s)	El Ciclón (The Cyclone) Los Cuervos (The Crows) Los Santos (The Saints) Los Gauchos de Boedo (Boedo's Gauchos) Los Azulgrana (The Blue and Red)
Founded	April 1, 1908
Ground	Estadio Pedro Bidegain (El Nuevo Gasómetro), Boedo, Buenos Aires (Capacity: 43,494)
Chairman	Carlos Abdo
Manager	Vacant
League	Primera División
2011 Clausura	14th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine sports club based in Boedo neighbourhood, Buenos Aires, mostly known because of its football team.

San Lorenzo was the first Argentine football team which won a championship without being defeated, and also the only team which achieved 2 titles that way (1968 and 1972), apart from being the first team which obtained 2 titles in the same year (1972 Metropolitano championship and Nacional championships).

History

Amateur Era

Lorenzo Massa, the founder of Club Atlético San Lorenzo.

In the early 1900s, a street gang based in the Almagro neighbourhood would invite gangs from other neighborhoods to play street football by writing in graffiti: Los Forzosos de Almagro desafían (Almagro's strongmen dare you). As tramway and bus lines extended into Almagro, street playing became dangerous; following an accident in which a tramway car seriously injured a footballer, Catholic priest Lorenzo Massa started hosting the games in the backyard of his parish church in México avenue. Under his guidance, San Lorenzo de Almagro was formally established on April 1, 1908 honoring Father Massa, the Battle of San Lorenzo, Saint Lawrence and, of course, the barrio.

Due to the team did not have a stadium, San Lorenzo began to play its home games in a field property of the Club Martínez, placed in the neighbourhood of the same name. The squad played its first match on April 26, 1914, and at the end of the seaon San Lorenzo had to play a final match facing Excursionistas to proclaim a champion. San Lorenzo won the series (the results were 0-0 and 5-0). This title allowed San Lorenzo to dispute the playoffs in order to promote to the Argentine Primera División, which finally obtained after beating Club Honor y Patria by a score of 3-0.

1924 Asociación Amateurs de Football champion

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In 1916 San Lorenzo inaugurated its own stadium (later nicknamed El Gasómetro) in a match against Estudiantes de La Plata. The stadium was located in Boedo neighbourhood, on La Plata Avenue, where remained until its closure in the 1980s.

Since its promotion to Primera in 1915 San Lorenzo participated in the Primera División Amateur until 1930, when the club decided (along with other teams of Argentina) to create a professional league. In February, 1919, San Lorenzo participated of the Torneo Caballito, which finally won. The other teams taking part on the tournament were Club Atlético Atlanta, Club Atlético Huracán, Ferro Carril Oeste, Estudiantil Porteño and Sportivo Almagro.

San Lorenzo also won 3 titles more in 1923, 1924 and 1927 and ended in the 2nd place in 1925 and 1926. Likewise, the squad gained international reputation winning the Copa Aldao (a competition played by the champions of Argentina and Uruguay) in 1923 and 1927.

San Lorenzo soon became one of the top clubs in Buenos Aires; ever since the start of professionalism in 1931, it was counted in the top five (cinco grandes) together with Boca Juniors, Independiente, River Plate and Racing.

Professional Era

In the 1930s, Isidro Lángara and other players of Basque descent endeared San Lorenzo to the Basque community. The team also relied on players from the provinces, known as los gauchos, and won its first professional title in 1933.

San Lorenzo players before a friendly match in Spain, January 16, 1947

In 1946, San Lorenzo broke the River Plate monopoly and won the league title; the team then went on to a tour of Spain and Portugal that was one of the highlights of the club's history. After losing to Real Madrid, it went on to defeat Barcelona and both the Spanish and Portuguese national teams; the Spanish press acclaimed San Lorenzo as "the best team in the world". Player René Pontoni was offered a contract with Barcelona but declined to leave Argentina (Barcelona then drafted River Plate's Alfredo Di Stéfano). Fellow player Reinaldo Martino did stay in European football and would later become a star with Juventus.

In the 1960s, a generation of players known as carasucias (literally: dirty faces) were the darling of Argentine fans because of their offensive, careless playing and their bad-boy antics off the pitch. The 1968 team was nicknamed los matadores as it won the championship without losing a single game, this team was recognized as the best team in the world by many journalists. In the years 1968-1974 San Lorenzo won a total of four league titles, its best harvest ever. In 1972, the club became the first Argentine team to win two league titles in one year.

Unfortunately, poor administrations led San Lorenzo to a huge economic crisis, that even forced it to sell their well located stadium. The team was relegated in 1981, only to return to the top division with great fanfare in the 1982 season, which set all-time attendance records for the club.

By that time, the club had no stadium and was plagued by debt and irregularities. Controversial president Fernando Miele (1986-2001) delivered both the new stadium and two league titles: the Clausura '95 (after 21 years without winning a first division title) and the Clausura 2001 (in which the team achieved 11 consecutive victories). San Lorenzo finished the Clausura 2001 with 47 points in a tournament of 19 matches, setting the record for the highest points haul since the inception of the Apertura and Clausura system in 1990.

In late 2001, San Lorenzo won their first international title: the Copa Mercosur 2001, becoming the only Argentine team to win that international cup, because the others champions were all from Brazil.

San Lorenzo also won the first edition of the Copa Sudamericana in December 2002, claiming their second international title, and getting the opportunity to play the Recopa against the Copa Libertadores champion Olimpia

San Lorenzo is identified with the middle class atmosphere of the Boedo neighborhood. Its derby rival from the southern part of Buenos Aires are Huracán, who were promoted back to the first division for the 2007-08 season.

In 2007, San Lorenzo won the First Division League, Clausura 2007 beating Boca Juniors in the race for the title. Led by manager Ramón Díaz, San Lorenzo secured the title after the 17th roand of fixtures, with two games still to play. They finished the tournament with 45 points.

Stadium

View of the Estadio Pedro Bidegain.

The old Estadio Gasómetro stadium in Boedo was a venue of great renown, where many international games were held. During the military government in 1979 San Lorenzo was forced to sell the stadium to a low amount of money. After 14 years of stadium rent San Lorenzo with the help of fans inaugurate the new stadium, called the Nuevo Gasómetro opened December 1993 in the intersection of the Perito Moreno and Varela avenues in the Flores, Buenos Aires neighborhood. Fans were never able to adapt to the new place and so their old stadium and place is still claimed by San Lorenzo and their fans to this day, the April 12, 2011 was a demonstration which was attended by over 20,000 people in claim its place in the world.

The official name of the stadium is Estadio Pedro Bidegain after a former club president. It has a capacity of 43,494 and the pitch size is 110 x 70 m.

Nicknames

• Los Gauchos de Boedo (Boedo's Gauchos), after the many players from the provinces who played in 1933 and came out as champions.
• Los Santos (The Saints), after the club's name, literally "Saint Lawrence".
• Los Cuervos (The Crows), after the black colors of Father Massa's robes.
• El Ciclón (The Cyclone), in opposition to their traditional opponent Huracán (The Hurricane).
• Los Azulgrana (The Blue and Red), after the club's colors.
• Los Matadores (The Killers), originally used for the unbeaten 1968 champions.
• The fans' collective calls itself La Gloriosa (The Glorious).

Titles

Amateur

• Primera División (3): 1923, 1924, 1927

Domestic

• Primera División (11): 1933, 1936 (Copa de Honor), 1946, 1959, 1968 Metropolitano, 1972 Metropolitano, 1972 Nacional, 1974 Nacional, 1995 Clausura, 2001 Clausura, 2007 Clausura

International

• Copa Mercosur (1): 2001
• Copa Sudamericana (1): 2002

Other

• Copa Río de la Plata (3): 1923, 1927, 1946
• Copa Confraternidad Escobar - Gerona (1): 1941
• Copa de la República (1): 1943
• Copa Jorge Newbery (1): 1964
• Liguilla Pre-Libertadores (2): 1988 y 1991
• Copa San Martín de Tours (1): 1994

Current squad

Current squad of San Lorenzo de Almagro as of August 28, 2011 (edit)
Sources: Official website & Argentine Soccer

No. Position Player 1  ARG GK Nereo Champagne 2  ARG DF Cristian Tula 3  ESP DF Gonzalo Bozzoni 4  ARG DF Sebastián Luna 5  PAR MF Néstor Ortigoza 6  ARG DF Jonathan Bottinelli 7  ARG FW Juan Carlos Menseguez 8  ARG MF Enzo Kalinski 9  ARG FW Bernardo Romeo 10  ARG MF Leandro Romagnoli 11  URU DF Emiliano Tellechea 12  ARG GK Ezequiel Mastrolía 13  ARG DF Fernando Meza 14  ARG FW Fabricio Pedrozo 15  ARG MF Rafael Cabrera 16  ARG DF Nicolás Bianchi Arce 17  ARG MF Fernando Gutiérrez 18  ARG DF José San Román

No. Position Player 19  URU FW Juan Manuel Salgueiro 20  PER MF Giancarlo Carmona 22  ARG GK Pablo Migliore 23  ARG MF Salvador Reynoso 24  ARG MF Julio Ramírez 25  ARG DF Pablo Alvarado 26  ARG FW Nahuel Benítez 27  ARG DF José Luis Palomino 28  ARG MF Gonzalo Bazán 29  ARG MF Gabriel Méndez 30  ARG FW César Lamanna 31  ARG FW Emanuel Gigliotti 32  ARG DF Jonathan Ferrari 33  ARG MF Sebastián González 36  ARG DF Adrián Martínez 38  ARG FW Nahuel de Vico 39  ARG FW Diego Martínez 40  ARG DF Gastón Aguirre

Manager: Omar Asad

Former players

To appear in this section a player must have made at least 50 appearances for the club.

José Fossa (1919–34) Alfredo Carricaberry (1920–30) Luis Monti (1922–30) Diego García (1925–40) Arturo Arrieta (1927–39) Waldemar de Brito (1934–36) Isidro Lángara (1939–43) Ángel Zubieta (1939–52) Rinaldo Martino (1941–48) Victor Caselli (1942–45) René Pontoni (1945–48; 1954) Armando Farro (1945–52) Mario Papa (1948–53) José Sanfilippo (1953–62; 1972) Juan Benavidez (1951–55) Ángel Berni (1953–59) Narciso Doval (1962–68; 1979) Roberto Telch (1962–75) Rafael Albrecht (1963–70) Agustín Irusta (1963–76) Héctor Veira (1963–69; 1973)

Alberto Rendo (1965–69) Rodolfo Fischer (1965–72; 1977–78) Rubén Ayala (1968–73) Victorio Cocco (1968–74) Carlos Veglio (1968–75) Rubén Glaría (1968–75) Sergio Bismarck Villar (1968–81) Héctor Scotta (1971–75; 1979; 1981) Oscar Ortiz (1971–76) Jorge Olguín (1971–79) Ricardo Lavolpe (1975–79) José Luis Ceballos (1975; 1981) Claudio Marangoni (1976–79) Rubén Darío Insúa (1978–86) Walter Perazzo (1979–88) Armando Quinteros (1981–85; 1987) Jorge Higuaín (1982–86) Jorge Rinaldi (1983–85; 1991–92) Blas Giunta (1983–88) José Luis Chilavert (1985–88) Néstor Gorosito (1988–89; 1992–93; 1996–99)

Alberto Acosta (1988–90; 1992; 1998; 2001–03) Leonardo Rodríguez (1990–91; 2001–02) Jorge Borelli (1992–96) Eduardo Bennet (1993–95) Paulo Silas (1993–97) Esteban González (1994–95) Oscar Ruggeri (1994–97) Gilberto Angelucci (1994–98) Fernando Galetto (1994–99) Claudio Biaggio (1994–99) Sebastián Abreu (1996–97; 2000–01) Guillermo Franco (1996–02) Iván Córdoba (1998–00) Walter Erviti (1998–02) Claudio Morel Rodríguez (1998–04) Bernardo Romeo(1998–01; 2007–10) Pablo Michelini (1999–05) Leandro Romagnoli (1999–05; 2009–) Ezequiel Lavezzi (2004–07)

External links

• Official website (Spanish)

References