S.S. Cavese 1919

Football club infobox
clubname = Cavese


fullname = Società Sportiva Cavese 1919 SRL
nickname = "Aquilotti" (little eagles)
founded = 1919
ground = Stadio Simonetta Lamberti, Cava de' Tirreni, Italy
capacity = 12,000 | chairman = Antonio Fariello
manager = Aldo Ammazzalorso
league = Lega Pro Prima Divisione - B
season = 2006-07
position = Serie C1/A, 10th
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pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=FFFFFF|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FFFFFF|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=000064

Società Sportiva Cavese 1919 is an Italian football club, based in Cava de' Tirreni, Campania. The club was founded in 1919. Cavese currently plays in Lega Pro Prima Divisione, having last been in Serie B in 1984. The team's colors are blue and white.

History

The team was founded in 1919 as "Unione Sportiva Cavese", and played its first match ever against Salernitana, ended in a 3-2 win for the "aquilotti". In 1922 the team merged with "Libertas Sporting Club", another local team, in order to build a more competitive side. That same year, the team was admitted to the First Division (the equivalent of the nowadays' Serie A). After a few years near the bottom of the table, the death of their coach and an economic crisis lead to their demotion in 1925.

After languishing in the lower levels of Italian Football for 10 years, S.S. Cavese was promoted to the First Division (now the 4th series) in 1937. With a new stadium ("Stadio Francis Palmentieri") and star player (Virgilio Levratto), the Aquilotti rose to the Serie C . However, in 1948 the club ran into more economic trouble, sending them back into the minor divisions. In 1964 the club played it's way to the Serie D despite a 3 point penelty. In 1974, Cavese merged with "Pro Salerno", another Serie D team, and renamed itself as "Pro Cavese". The team returned to Serie C in 1978 and took back its originary denomination in 1980.

In 1981, Cavese was able to gain its first (and only) promotion to Serie B. The first Serie B season for Cavese ended in a 15th place which allowed the team to avoid relegation. The 1982/1983 was the top season ever for the Campanian team in its whole history: in fact, Cavese was almost to reach an incredible promotion to Serie A, ending the first half of the season in a third placed, which would allow the promotion, and sixth at the end of the season. That championship is remembered especially for the crushing 2-1 victory in San Siro against AC Milan. The scorers were Joe Jordan for Milan, and Tivelli and Di Michele for Cavese, after this shock win, the team was nicknamed "Real Cavese" by the Italian sports columnists. However the next season Cavese relegated to Serie C1, and was not able to reach Serie B anymore. The team was even cancelled from Italian football in 1991, and readmitted in the regional "Eccellenza" league with the current denomination.

In recent years, the Cavese went back to the professional italian leagues and in the 2005-2006 season it was able to win the serie C2 league and come back to serie C1. In the 2006-07 Serie C1, a third place in the regular season allowed Cavese to play the promotion playoffs: after a 5-2 defeat to Foggia in the first leg, Cavese nearly overturned it in the second leg, winning it 3-1 and being eliminated by a late Foggia goal during injury time.

Notable former players

*flagicon|Italy Virgilio Levratto
*flagicon|Italy Gianluca Signorini

External links

* [http://www.lacavese.it/ Official site]