C.D.S.C. Cruz Azul

Infobox football club
clubname = Cruz Azul


fullname = Club Deportivo Social
y Cultural Cruz Azul A.C.
nickname = La Maquina Celeste
La Maquina Cementera
La Noria| founded = May 22, 1927
ground = Azul
Mexico DF
capacity = 35,000
chairman =
manager =
IFFHS Rank = 197
league = La Primera División
season = Clausura 2008 | position = 2nd Place
3rd (league)
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Club Deportivo Social y Cultural Cruz Azul , also known as Cruz Azul, is a popular Mexican professional football (soccer) club. Cruz Azul plays in the Primera División de México and its home venue is the Estadio Azul, located in the southwestern part of Mexico City in the Colonia Nochebuena, next to the Napoles neighborhood. The team moved there in 1996, after playing for many seasons at the Estadio Azteca.

Los Cementeros are traditionally one of the biggest and most successful teams in Mexico; they have been first division champions 8 times, tied with Toluca, and trail only Club America with 10, and Guadalajara with 11. Cruz azul is a young team they have only been playing in the first division since 1964 and with 8 championships. The club is also even with Club America for most CONCACAF Champions' Cup with 5. Cruz Azul was also the first Mexican club to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores when they lost on penalties to Argentine soccer giants Boca Juniors. Currently the clubs jerseys are being provided by Umbro. Cruz Azul is now at position 197# of the IFFHS rank being the 6th best Mexican team according to the IFFHS.

History

Cruz Azul was founded as an amateur team on May 22nd, 1927 by the workers of the cement makers Cemento Cruz Azul and Macario Acosta, located on the town of Jasso, Hidalgo. Cemento Cruz Azul still sponsors the team, although sponsorship is currently shared with Coca-Cola and Telcel.

Guillermo Álvarez Macías and Carlos Garcés were the main figures behind the creation effort and the quick success of the team, which frequently represented the state of Hidalgo in national amateur tournaments.

From 1927 to 1960, the amateur team played many times in Mexico City, against the reserve squads of established professional teams such as Club Aguilitas, Necaxa, Atlante, Asturias and Marte. Considering the increasing success of the team, the new administration of the cement company (which changed its name to "Cooperativa Cruz Azul") decided in 1960 to build a stadium in Jasso, the Estadio 10 de Diciembre, and officially registered the team on the professional ascent division, the Segunda División for the 1960-61 season.

By 1964, under the Hungarian coach Jorge Marik, the team won the Segunda División championship, earning the right to play the following season in the highest circuit of professional football in Mexico, the Primera División.

That first season ended with an eighth place finish and increased hopes for the future. Just 4 years later, Cruz Azul won its first league tournament, under coach Raúl Cárdenas.

Cruz Azul became the most successful Mexican team of the '70s, winning the league tournament 6 times between 1970 and 1980, four of them under Raúl Cárdenas, and the last two with Ignacio Trelles at the helm. Such dominance earned them the nickname "La Máquina" (The Machine), which is still used as the unofficial nickname of the team.

1997 brought the team its eighth and most recent championship during the "Invierno 1997" tournament under coach Luis Fernando Tena, making this the youngest team to win eight championships in less than 40 years. Recently, Cruz Azul played the final match against Santos Laguna losing 3-2.

Copa Libertadores 2001

In 2001, Cruz Azul was invited to a tournament between some Mexican and Venezuelan teams. The two best teams of this tournament earned the right to play in the Copa Libertadores, a tournament of the all the best teams of South America. Cruz Azul qualified for the Copa Libertadores in its first try, and reached the final match. Cruz Azul was placed in Group 7 along with teams such as Sao Caetano, Defensor Sporting, and Olmedo. Cruz Azul finished leader of the group with 13 points. In the round of 16 Cruz Azul faced Cerro Porteño. The first leg was played in Asunción and Cruz Azul lost 2-1. The second leg was played in Mexico and Cruz Azul won the game 3-1. The aggregate score was 4-3 in favor of Cruz Azul and they moved on to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals Cruz Azul faced CA River Plate of Argentina. The first leg of the match was played in Buenos Aires and ended in a 0-0 draw. The second leg was played in Mexico and Cruz Azul won 3-0. Cruz Azul was having a great run and played Rosario Central in the semifinals. The first leg was played in Mexico and Cruz Azul won the game 2-0. The second leg was played in Rosario in a very exciting match which ended in a 3-3 draw in favor of Cruz Azul due to the 2-0 victory in the first leg. In the final match, Cruz Azul played against the Argentinian club Boca Juniors, Cruz Azul lost at home the first leg 1-0, but came back to win the second leg with the same score, at Boca's stadium La Bombonera. Until then, no team had ever won a Copa Libertadores final match there. After the overtime due to the tie, the championship was decided by penalty kicks, where the more experienced Boca Juniors prevailed. Still, Cruz Azul surprised everybody with the unprecedented feat of reaching the final on their first try by defeating established Brazilian and Argentinian teams such as Sao Caetano, Rosario Central and CA River Plate.

2006-2007

In the 2006 Apertura, the team started off great but in the middle of the season, they had a hard time adding points on the board. Cruz Azul recovered and finished the regular season as the points leader. They have not won a title since the championship they won against Leon in 1997. For the Apertura 2006, Cruz Azul made it to the quarterfinals and faced Chivas in the Estadio Jalisco. In the first leg, Cruz Azul played a very poor game and lost 2-0. On November 25, 2006 Cruz Azul played the second leg at Estadio Azul and played a brilliant game. Cruz Azul started off strong and put Chivas keeper Oswaldo Sanchez to the test on many occasions. In the middle of the first half, defender Salvador Carmona pushed a Chivas player in the penalty area and cost Cruz Azul a penalty.Ramon Morales had no problem and put the score 1-0 in favor of Chivas in the 39th minute. Cruz Azul kept creating opportunities and at the end of the first half, Cesar Delgado made a great play that Richard Nunez finished with a goal to tie the game right before halftime in the 45th minute. In the second half, Chivas scored thanks to Ramon Morales again to put the score 2-1 in favor of Chivas. Cruz Azul did not give up and Miguel Sabah tied the game 2-2 in the 62nd minute. Cruz Azul played a great game and ended up tying the game 2-2 but losing 4-2 on aggregate.

In the 2007 Clausura the team had a great start, finishing among the first 8 teams in the league that went to playoffs. The team had a great quarterfinal series against the Tecos of the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, thanks to two magnificent goals from striker Richard Nuñez and moved to semifinals against Pachuca FC, the top team in the league. Pachuca beat Cruz Azul in the Estadio Azul in the first leg of the series with a strong 3-1. Cruz Azul still had a chance to overcome the adverse score, but on that same evening, the Court of Arbitration for Sport communicated that team captain Salvador Carmona was declared ineligible with immediate and lifetime effect, because of a repeated doping indiscipline that occurred back in January 2006. The sanction was dated May 18th 2007, the very day of the first match against Pachuca. Arguing that player Salvador Carmona did play on that day for Cruz Azul, the Mexican Soccer Federation, aka Federacion Mexicana de Futbol sanctioned Cruz Azul by suspending the team one game from competition, under the argument of aligning an ineligible player. Many legal arguments have been raised by both the player's lawyer and Cruz Azul, but the sanction stood and Cruz Azul lost its opportunity to overcome the 3-1 and go to the final series against America.

Clausura 2008

In the Clausura the team make a great tournament, finishing in third place. The team won 9 games, draw 4 times and lost only 4 times. In quarterfinals they played against Jaguares losing 1-0 in the first leg and winning 2-1 in the second leg with goals of Pablo Zeballos and Miguel Sabah. They moved to semifinals against San Luis, the first leg was played in San Luis and Cruz Azul won 0-1 with a goal of Miguel Sabah. In the second leg, Cruz Azul and San Luis played a formidable match that ended 1-1 with goals of Eduardo Coudet and Pablo Zeballos. In the final, Cruz Azul played against Santos Laguna, second place in the tournament. The first leg ended 1-2 with a victory for Santos, and in the second leg a 1-1 make Laguna team champions.

* *losses was in penalties

tadium

The team currently plays in Estadio Azul. The stadium is located in Mexico DF. The Federal District owns Estadio Azul. Currently, Cruz Azul training facilities are located at Xochimilco.

The team is planning construction of a new stadium, Nuevo Estadio Azul, will be located on same location of the current stadium after it is demolished, in 2010 with a 38,418 capacity.

Current Roster

Fs player|no=6|nat=Mexico|pos=MF|name=Gerardo Torrado ("Captain")

Notable Players

Mexico
*flagicon|MEX Pablo Larios
*flagicon|MEX Óscar Pérez
*flagicon|MEX Carlos Hermosillo
*flagicon|MEX Ricardo Osorio
*flagicon|MEX Aaron Galindo
*flagicon|MEX Francisco Palencia
*flagicon|MEX Melvin Brown
*flagicon|MEX Cesar Villaluz
*flagicon|MEX Benjamin Galindo
*flagicon|MEX Juan Carlos Cacho
*flagicon|MEX Marcelino Bernal
*flagicon|MEX Jared Borgetti
*flagicon|MEX Gerardo Torrado
*flagicon|MEX Enrique Meza Enriquez
*flagicon|MEX Francisco Fonseca
*flagicon|MEX Yosgart GutiérrezArgentina
*flagicon|ARG Miguel Marín
*flagicon|ARG Luciano Figueroa
*flagicon|ARG Marcelo Delgado
*flagicon|ARG Daniel "Cata" Diaz
*flagicon|ARG Cesar Delgado
*flagicon|ARG Patricio Hernandez
*flagicon|ARG Federico Lussenhoff
*flagicon|ARGflagicon|ITA Mauro CamoranesiBrazil
*flagicon|BRA Julio Cesar PinheiroChile
*flagicon|CHI Eduardo RubioEcuador
*flagicon|ECU Agustín Delgado
*flagicon|ECU Álex AguinagaItaly
*flagicon|ITAflagicon|USA Carmelo D'AnziParaguay
*flagicon|PAR Carlos Jara Saguier
*flagicon|PAR Jorge Luis Campos
*flagicon|PAR Juan Carlos Yegros
*flagicon|PAR Denis CanizaPeru
*flagicon|PER Juan Reynoso
*flagicon|PER Walter VilchezUruguay
*flagicon|URU Richard Nuñez
*flagicon|URU Sebastián Abreu

Famous Players brought up in Cruz Azul

{| width=100%
valign="top"
*flagicon|MEX Aarón Galindo - flagicon|GER Eintracht Frankfurt
*flagicon|MEX Ricardo Osorio - flagicon|GER Stuttgart

External links

* [http://www.cruz-azul.com.mx/ Official site]
* [http://www.femexfut.org.mx/PrimeraDivision/ Primera División]
* [http://bluestation.webspacemania.com/ BlueStation (Unofficial Site)]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablest/teresa-herrera.html/ Trofeo Teresa Herrera]