Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba

Godoy Cruz

Full name	Club Deportivo Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba
Nickname(s)	Tomba El Expreso ("The Express") Bodeguero ("Wine-producer")
Founded	June 21, 1921
Ground	Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Godoy Cruz, Mendoza (Capacity: 45,000)
Chairman	Mario Rodolfo Contreras
Manager	Jorge da Silva
League	Argentine Primera División
2011 Clausura	3rd
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Club Deportivo Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba, known simply as Godoy Cruz, is a sports club from Godoy Cruz, Mendoza Province, Argentina. The club is best known for their football team, that plays in the Primera División, the top level of the Argentine football league system.

History

The club was founded on June 21, 1921 under the name Sportivo Godoy Cruz, and changed to its current name on April 25, 1930 after the fusion with Deportivo Bodega Antonio Tomba. In 1959, Godoy Cruz' stadium, the Estadio Feliciano Gambarte, was constructed. The stadium is nicknamed La Bodega (Spanish for "wine cellar") and holds 14,000 people.

Godoy Cruz played in the regional league for several years before reaching the national level. The club won the Mendoza first division championship in 1944, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1954, 1968, and also in 1989 and 1990 that qualified to play in the defunct Torneo del Interior national-level tournament.

Winning the Torneo del Interior in 1994, Godoy Cruz reached the Primera B Nacional (Argentine second division) that year. After more than ten years in the second division, the club was finally promoted to the Primera División in 2006, after winning the 2005–06 season of the Primera B Nacional, defeating Nueva Chicago in the final.

20 year old Enzo Peréz scored the first goal by Godoy Cruz in the Argentine Primera, in a 1–1 draw with Belgrano on September 9, 2006.

At the end of the 2006–07 season, Godoy Cruz was relegated from the Primera after losing their promotion/relegation playoff with Huracán. Their stay in the second division was short, as they earned automatic promotion to the first division after finishing runners-up to San Martín de Tucumán during the 2007–08 season.

Godoy Cruz secured their best ever league position of 3rd place under Omar Asad's management during the 2010 Clausura. In that tournament, they also achieved the best-ever point total (37) for a team indirectly affiliated to the Argentine Football Association (meaning clubs under the administration of the Federal Council branch of AFA, which are teams outside Buenos Aires, Greater Buenos Aires, Rosario and Santa Fe). These results qualified them for the 2011 Copa Libertadores, their first appearance in this tournament.

When Godoy Cruz made their Copa Libertadores debut in February 2011 in a 2–1 win against 2008 champions Liga de Quito they became the first indirectly affiliated side ever to represent Argentina in the Copa Libertadores.^[1]

Nickname

Godoy Cruz is nicknamed Tomba and Bodeguero, in reference to the wine selling activity of the Deportivo Bodega Antonio Tomba, one of the merging clubs of 1921. Since the stadium is located near a railway, the club is also called El Expreso ("The Express").

Current squad

Current squad of Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba as of October 9, 2011 (edit)
Sources: Official website and Argentine Soccer

No. Position Player 1  ARG GK Nelson Ibáñez 2  ARG DF Leonardo Sigali 3  ARG DF Roberto Russo 5  ARG MF Nicolás Olmedo 6  ARG DF Víctor Aguilera 7  ARG MF Juan Carlos Falcón 8  ARG MF Diego Villar 9  URU FW Álvaro Navarro 10  ECU FW Franklin Salas 11  ARG FW Leandro Caruso 12  ARG GK Sebastián Torrico 14  ARG MF Israel Damonte 15  PAN MF Armando Cooper 16  ARG MF Sergio López 17  ARG MF Adrián Torres 18  ARG FW Rubén Ramírez 19  ARG FW Pablo Miranda

No. Position Player 20  ARG FW Pablo Ruiz 21  ARG DF Zelmar García 22  ARG DF Lucas Ceballos 23  ARG MF Ariel Rojas 24  ARG MF Gonzalo Cabrera 25  ARG DF Nicolás Sánchez 26  URU DF Jorge Curbelo 27  ARG MF Luis Daher 28  ARG MF Gabriel Moyano 30  ARG DF Germán Voboril 31  ARG MF Facundo Castillón 33  ARG DF Juan Manuel Marital 34  ARG MF Sergio Sánchez 35  ARG DF Leandro Olivarez 36  ARG FW Juan Garro 37  ARG GK Sebastián Moyano 38  ARG DF Facundo Rodríguez

Manager: Jorge da Silva

Friendly matches

A source of historical pride for the team's supporters are two friendly matches won against Argentine giants: in 1965, they defeated Boca Juniors 4–0, and in 1997 they defeated River Plate by the same margin.

Godoy Cruz won the summer 2009 edition of the friendly pentagonal cup known as the "Copa Ciudad de Tandil", after defeating both Chacarita Juniors and Quilmes in penalty shootouts.^[2]

Notable players

This sports-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

To appear in this section a player must have either played at least 50 games for the club, set a club record or played for their national team.

For a list of former and current Godoy Cruz players with a Wikipedia article, see Category:Godoy Cruz footballers.

Daniel Oldrá (1990's) Alejandro Abaurre (1990–91), (1994–2002), (2005–06) Rafael Iglesias (1990–97), (1998–2003) Rubén Almeida (1994–96), (2000–02) Martín Astudillo (1995–97) Diego Pozo (1995–2005) Rubén Paz (1996) Fabián Basualdo (1997–98) Nelson Ibáñez (2001–03), (2005–) Sebastián Torrico (2001–07), (2009–) Daniel Giménez (2002), (2004–06) Nicolás Olmedo (2002–04), (2005–)

Mariano Torresi (2002–07) Enzo Pérez (2003–07) Gabriel Vallés (2003–09) Josimar Mosquera (2005–06) Mauro Poy (2005–07) Diego Villar (2005–) Martín Arzuaga (2007) Jorge Winston Curbelo (2007–08), (2009–) Diego Figueredo (2007) Leandro Caruso (2008–09)(2011- Jairo Castillo (2008–09), (2010–) Roberto Malingas Jiménez (2009)

References

1. ^ Rise of the interior? at Fútbol Fútbol Fútbol
2. ^ http://www.mdzol.com/mdz/nota/99076

External links

• Official website (Spanish)