C.D. Saprissa

Saprissa

Full name	Deportivo Saprissa Sociedad Anónima Deportiva
Founded	July 16, 1935
Ground	Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá (La Cueva), San José, Costa Rica (Capacity: 24,000)
Owner	Horizonte Morado
Chairman	Juan Carlos Rojas Callán
League	Primera División de Costa Rica
Verano 2011	5 (of 11 teams)
Home colours Away colours

Deportivo Saprissa S.A.D. (formerly known as C.D. Saprissa) is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is located in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and plays their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá.

The club's success has led to the Costa Rican newspaper Diario Extra nicknaming the team El Monstruo Morado ("The Purple Monster"), after Saprissa won a Championship in the early 1980s and an article in the newspaper said "the crowd yells and screams like a thousand-headed monster". It is Costa Rica's golden club after its appearance in the FIFA's World Cup and many national titles.

Saprissa is one of the most successful clubs in CONCACAF having won the CONCACAF Champions' Cup three times - in 1993, 1995, and 2005. Saprissa is also the most successful club in Central America having won five Central American crowns in 1972, 1973, 1978, 1998, and 2003. In 2009 the team was honored as the Team of the XXth Century of CONCACAF, a poll made by FIFA based on the results in official international competitions.

The team is also the most successful club in Costa Rica having won 29 Primera División de Costa Rica championships, the most of any team in Costa Rica.

For the year from 1 September 2007 to 31 August 2008 the club is listed as being the 106th best team in the world by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, an organization recognized by FIFA.^[1]

One of their most notable moments came in 2005 when they became the first, and so far only, non-Mexican club in CONCACAF to take part in the FIFA Club World Cup, finishing in third place. Along with Club Necaxa, this is the highest finish out of any CONCACAF team in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Saprissa has the most appearances in the CONCACAF Champions Cup finals by a Costa Rican club with three first place finishes and four runners-up finishes. Their six consecutive titles from 1972 to 1977 is a national record.

The club was the best in Central & North America of the 20th century according to IFFHS.^[2]

History

For more details on this topic, see History of Deportivo Saprissa.

Deportivo Saprissa was founded on 16 July 1935 and they entered the Costa Rican Third Division as Saprissa F.C. They were promoted to the Primera División de Costa Rica, making their debut in the top flight on 21 August 1949. The club has remained in the Costa Rican top flight ever since. They were Primera División champions six consecutive seasons between 1972 and 1977.

Recent events

In 2003, the club was bought by Mexican entrepreneur Jorge Vergara, the owner of Mexican football club Club Deportivo Guadalajara and soon after the operator of Major League Soccer club Club Deportivo Chivas USA in the United States.

Saprissa won the 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup, beating Mexican club UNAM in the final over two legs, in May 2005. As CONCACAF club champions they qualified for the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship, held in Japan in December 2005. They beat Australian club Sydney FC in the quarter-finals thanks to a goal by Christian Bolaños. In the semi-finals they were beaten 3-0 by English club Liverpool. In the third place match they beat Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia 3-2. Álvaro Saborío scored two goals, and Rónald Gómez scored the final goal in the 89th minute to seal the win. They finished the competition in third place behind São Paulo of Brazil and Liverpool. Saborío was joint top scorer, and Bolaños was awarded the Bronze Ball by FIFA as third best player of the championship.

Team colours and nickname

In 1937, Saprissa adopted purple as the official kit colour. It is said that the team adopted purple because their previous kit, which consisted of a red and blue striped shirt, was washed together by mistake. Then when the kits were ready to be picked up, it was realized that the two colours had blended, forming a solid purple colour.^{[citation needed]}

The history of the nickname El Monstruo Morado (The Purple Monster) can be traced back to 1987, when the Costa Rican newspaper Diario Extra gave the team the nickname during the local derby with LD Alajuelense. A reporter is said to have commented that the sea of fans in the stands at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá in Tibás wearing purple and the tremendous noise they were generating made him feel like he was "in the presence of a thousand headed monster". Saprissa immediately adopted the nickname El Monstruo Morado.

Stadium

Main article: Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

Fans of "La Ultra Morada" in La Cueva

Saprissa plays home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá, named after Ricardo Saprissa. They originally played at the Costa Rica National Stadium, which they rented and shared.

A new site for a stadium was bought in 1965 and on 27 August 1972 after six years of construction and upgrades, Estadio Ricardo Saprissa was officially opened. The first match was between Deportivo Saprissa and Comunicaciones of Guatemala. The match ended in a 1-1 draw with Peter Sandoval of Comunicaciones scoring the first goal at the new stadium.

The stadium is called La Cueva del Monstruo (The Monster's Cave), after the nickname of the club, El Monstruo Morado ("The Purple Monster"). It has a seating capacity of 24,000 and is overlooked by local mountains and downtown San Jose.

Supporters

La Ultra Morada (The Purple Ultra) is the club's official supporters group. The group was the first Ultras group in Costa Rica, formed in 1995 when the then Saprissa president Enrique Artiñano brought fans from the Chilean football club Universidad Católica, to help build a similar ultras group to their Los Cruzados, for Saprissa. In the mid-to-late 1990s the Ultras began to develop the image of being football hooligans when violence began to break out with opposition fans during games. Due to the negative atmosphere and press coverage, Saprissa stepped in to restore order to a group that they had helped create. Ultra Morada has now been taken under the wing of Saprissa, making it a more stable but devoted supporters group. This project is still on-going. The groups rivalry with La 12 (The Twelve) who support LD Alajuelense has been the cause of a number violent clashes in and out of stadiums.

Mascot

The official mascot of the team is a cartoonish purple dragon, which was based on the Dragon Elliot, and similar to one of Dragontales and many other dragons from children shows. Because of this, many of the fans call the mascot "Un monstruo bonachón" which means "A friendly monster". But even though the nickname may sound childish, the Ultra and Costa Rica shows love for their team mascot and actually respect it, make healthy and friendly jokes about it and put many T-shirts or costumes of him. However in early 2010, a new mascot was introduced, the mascot was designed in Mexico, it was a campy, superhero-like purple monster and replaced the old mascot without previous notification to the fans. The new mascot was highly rejected by the fans, claiming that "No queremos un dinosaurio super héroe, queremos al espíritu del equipo (We don't want a super hero, we want the original spirit of the team)". The new mascot was replaced immediately after the strong rejection, and the team now has a new mascot that resembles the original. The new costume was manufactured by Fernando Thiel, an Argentina-born puppeteer who lives in Costa Rica.

Players

Current squad

As of 2011^[3]

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 1 GK Víctor Bolivar 2 DF Esteban Sirias 4 DF José Mena 5 DF Alexander Robinson 6 MF Yeltsin Tejeda 7 MF Maikol Ortiz 8 MF Walter Centeno (Captain) 10 FW Alonso Solís 11 FW Allan Alemán 12 MF Fernando Paniagua 13 GK Fausto González 14 DF Heiner Mora 15 FW John Jairo Ruiz 16 DF Gabriel Badilla (2rd Captain) 17 FW Erick Scott 19 FW Jairo Arrieta

No. Position Player 20 MF David Guzmán 21 MF Armando Alonso 22 GK Donny Grant 23 MF Juan Bustos 24 DF Ricardo Blanco 25 MF Manfred Russell 27 FW Cesar Elizondo 28 FW Josué Martínez 29 DF Fabian Rojas 30 MF Douglas Sequeira (3rd Captain) 31 DF Óscar Duarte 32 DF Krasher Mooke 33 MF Luis Diego Cordero 77 FW Mynor Escoe - DF Jordan Smith - MF Esteban Luna

Out on loan

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 Minor Álvarez (on loan at Belen Bridgestone) - DF Kendall Watson (on loan at Perez Zeledon) - DF Javier Loaiza (on loan at Perez Zeledon)

No. Position Player - MF Mauricio Castillo (on loan at Belen Bridgestone) - FW William Phillips (on loan at Puntarenas FC) - FW Daniel Colindres (on loan at Santos de Guapiles) - FW Jorge Alejandro Castro (on loan at Santos de Guapiles)

Non-playing staff

Name	Role
Enrique Rivers	Vice President
Mario Jiménez	Commercial Manager
Randall Row	Assistant Coach
Jose Francisco Porras	Assistant Coach
Marcelo Tulbovitz	Head Athletic Trainer
Róger Mora	Goalkeeping coach
Willy Gálvez	Team Physician

Former coaches

1950s - 1960s Francisco García Eduardo Viso Abella Otto Bumbel Carlos Peucelle Alfredo Piedra José Ramos Mario Cordero Gavelo Conejo 1970s Marvin Rodríguez Geovanny Rodríguez Guillermo Hernández Jozef Karel Daniel Vazquez 1980s Josef Bouška Odir Jaques

1990s Alexandre Guimarães Carlos Linaris Luis García Carlos Watson Julio César Cortés Jorge Olguín Valdeir Vieira 2000s to date Manuel Keosseian Hernán Medford Jeaustin Campos Roy Myers Juan Manuel Álvarez

Honours

National

• Primera División de Costa Rica: 29

1952-53, 1953–54, 1957–58, 1962–63, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1972–73, 1973–74, 1974–75, 1975–76, 1976–77, 1977–78, 1982–83, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007-08 Apertura, 2007-08 Clausura, 2008-09 Apertura, 2010 Clausura

• Costa Rican Short Championships: 8

1997-98 Clausura, 1998–99 Apertura, 1998–99 Clausura, 2003–04 Apertura, 2005–06 Apertura, 2005–06 Clausura, 2006–07 Apertura, 2006–07 Clausura

International

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 24 appearances

Winners (3): 1993, 1995, 2005

Runners-up (4): 1970, 1973, 2004, 2008

• Copa Interclubes UNCAF: 17 appearances

Winners (5): 1972, 1973, 1978, 1998, 2003

Runners-up (7): 1971, 1974, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2007

• Interamerican Cup: 2 appearances

Runners-up (2): 1993, 1995

• CONCACAF Central American Champions: 1 appearance

Winners (1): 1970

• Copa Ricard: 1 appearance

Runners-up (1): 2008

• US Camel Cup: 1 appearance

Winners (1): 1985

• FIFA World Club Championship Toyota Cup: 1 appearance

Third Place (1): 2005

See also

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup and Champions League records and statistics

References

1. ^ "Club World Ranking Top 350 (1 September 2007 - 31 August 2008)". International Federation of Football History & Statistics. http://www.iffhs.de/?10f42e00fa2d17f73702fa3016e23c17f7370eff3702bb1c2bbb6f28f53512. Retrieved 2008-09-29. 
2. ^ "Central and North America's club of the Century". IFFHS official website. http://www.iffhs.de/?32b0cfd380ff73117fe2c0bf23c17e23a09e33b17f7370eff3702bb1c2bbb6e20f83617f23808f16. Retrieved 2009-10-08. 
3. ^ Deportivo Saprissa - Sitio Oficial del Monstruo Morado

External links

• futboldecostarica.com (Spanish)
• Official Web Site (English) (Japanese) (Spanish)