Deportivo Táchira

Deportivo Táchira

Full name	Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club
Nickname(s)	Aurinegro (Gold-and-black)
Founded	January 11, 1974
Stadium	Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, San Cristóbal, Venezuela (Capacity: 42,500)
President	Juana Suárez
League	Primera División
2009-10	2nd
Home colors Away colors

Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club is a traditional^[1] and a popular^[2] Venezuelan football club. It was founded in 1974 by the initiative of Gaetano Greco. In its first national championship, the club finished in first place, originating the nickname El equipo que nació Grande (meaning the club which was born Big).

History

In 1970, Italian-born Gaetano Greco founded in San Cristóbal an amateur club called Juventus, named after the famous Italian club. In 1974, Greco noticed that there was no professional football club in Táchira, so he decided to start a club based on the amateur Juventus club. He and twelve other people founded the club on January 11 of that year, which was named Deportivo San Cristóbal. Most of the club's players came from the Juventus club. Initially, the club's colors were blue and white, like the Italy ones.

In January 1975, the club changed its colors to yellow and black, because those colors better represented the Táchira state and were the preferred colors of the Uruguayan manager José "Pocho" Gil, due to their likeness to Peñarol ones in Uruguay.

Titles

• Primera División Venezolana: 7

1979, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2000, 2008, 2011

• Copa Libertadores: 12 appearances

1980: First Round 1982: First Round 1983: First Round 1985: First Round

1987: First Round 1988: First Round 1989: Round of 16 1991: Round of 16

2001: First Round 2004: Quarter-Finals 2005: First Round 2009: Second Round

• Copa Sudamericana: 1 appearance

2002: Preliminary Round

• Copa CONMEBOL: 3 appearances

1993: First Round

1996: First Round

1997: First Round

• Deportivo Táchira is the Venezuelan club with the most appearances in Copa Libertadores, and is also the club which has finished as Venezuela's league runner-up the most times. It has won seven national championships.

• The club's best Copa Libertadores participation was in 2004, when the club became the second team to qualify for the quarterfinal of the competition without losing a match, playing against strong teams like River Plate (Argentina), Libertad (Paraguay), Deportes Tolima (Colombia) and Nacional de Montevideo (Uruguay), before facing São Paulo (Brazil) in the quarterfinals.

Current squad

As of July 2011

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 Manuel Sanhouse GK Roberts Rivas GK Richard Ruiz DF Jesús Álvarez DF Wilker Ángel DF Richard Badillo DF Gerzon Chacón (captain) DF Jackson Clavijo DF William Díaz DF Walter Moreno MF Andrés Rouga DF Laudemir Valera DF José Yégüez MF Ruben Arocha

No. Position Player MF Jorge Casanova MF Maurice Cova MF Pedro Fernández MF César "Mágico" González MF Diego Guerrero MF Sebastián Hernández MF Mauricio Parra MF Javier Villafráz FW Anderson Arias FW Cristian Cásseres FW Oswaldo Chaurant FW Yonathan Del Valle FW Sergio Herrera

Stadium

Main article: Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo

The club's home stadium is Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, located in San Cristóbal. It has a maximum capacity of 42,500 people.

Supporters

The supporters are known as aurinegros ("gold-and-blacks")

There are three main organized groups of supporters, La Torcida Aurinegra , "La 12" now known as "La Avalancha Sur."

The aurinegros had already committed acts of violence at the stadium. One of the most tragic events took place on December 17, 2000, when the club and Caracas drew 2-2, which gave the Copa República Bolivariana de Venezuela's title to the other side, and a mob of angry supporters burned a bus inside the soccer field.^[3]

Derby

The match between Deportivo Táchira and Estudiantes de Mérida is known as the Clásico de Los Andes (meaning Andes' Derby), but in recent years the match between Deportivo Táchira and Caracas FC has been known as the modern derby, because of the successful performance of both teams. Other classic rival was Marítimo de Venezuela (Caracas'club) in the 1980s and earlier 1990s.

Colors

Deportivo Táchira's shirt has black and yellow vertical stripes, with black shorts and socks.

Famous players

The list is sorted by last name

• Daniel Delfino
• Nicolás Díez
• Frankie Oviedo
• Dan "El Torito Blanco" Birkey
• Gilberto Angelucci
• Pedro Delgado
• Rafael Dudamel
• Ricardo Páez
• Tomás Rincón

References

1. ^ Llegué con la idea y el sueño de ser campeón - Deportivo Táchira's official website (December 28, 2006)
2. ^ Táchira traspasa la frontera - El Universal (July 26, 2004)
3. ^ Los Gochigans - El Universal (November 1, 2003)

• Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Spanish-language Wikipedia article (retrieved January 15, 2004).

External links

• Deportivo Táchira's official website
• Deportivo Táchira's unofficial website
• Deportivo Táchira's blog
• Deportivo Táchira's fan site