C.S. Cartaginés

Cartaginés

Full name	Club Sport Cartaginés S.A.D.
Nickname(s)	Los Azules (The Blues) Brumosos (The Foggers)
Founded	July 01, 1906
Ground	Estadio José Rafael Fello Meza Ivankovich, Cartago, Costa Rica (Capacity: 13,500)
Chairman	Jose Luis Rodríguez Solano
Manager	Johnny Chávez
League	Primera División de Costa Rica
Verano 2011	4th (of 11 teams)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Club Sport Cartaginés Deportiva S.A. is a Costa Rican football club, that currently plays in the Costa Rican Primera División. The club plays in Estadio Jose Rafael Fello Meza, in Barrio Asis de Cartago, Costa Rica.

History

The club is the oldest in Costa Rica, having been founded in 1906. It has won three Costa Rican championships, in 1923, 1936, and 1940.

Club Sport Cartaginés was founded on July 7, 1906 by Willie Pirie, a group of Costa Ricans of English descent and English immigrants that lived in Cartago. Since there were few football teams at the time games where repeatedly held against teams in Cartago such as Combate and Monte Libano. The team's original uniform colors were red and blue. Club Sport Cartaginés' first official match was seen as a local social event as the municipal Philharmonic played prior to the game.

In 1914 Club Sport Cartaginés returned to the Costa Rican football scene but under its new name: the Americano. The name Americano lasted until 1921 when Costa Rica's Primera División started its national championship, at the time Americano reverted back to its original name of Club Sport Cartaginés and changed their uniform and colors to vertical white and blue stripes, a scheme that still prevails today. The 1923 National Championship Finals saw Club Sport Cartaginés face La Libertad, a match that Cartaginés won by a score of two to one giving the club its first of three national titles.

After the seasons many of Cartaginés' players left the team to play in Europe and in teams based in San Jose. Due to the mass exodus of players from the team Club Sport Cartaginés disbanded in 1925. By 1934 the popularity of football in Cartago reemerged as a tournament of local Cartago teams participated. After the tournament it was decided to form Club Sport Cartaginés once again with the best players that participated in the tournament and to emerge as a third division team winning the third division title in 1935. In 1936 the team managed to be victorious in the second division winning all of its games and being crowned the second division champions, earning them a spot in first division. For the first year back in the second division the team reinforced themselves with local star players that had played for other teams. In that first year back, Club Sport Cartaginés once again made it to the Finals of Costa Rica's first division and once again facing La Libertad, defeating them by a score of one to nil and achieving the status of national champions in Costa Rica's national stadium in San Jose. By 1940 Cartaginés only had three players left from its amazing 1936 championship season, but they still managed to make it to the finals against heavily favorite Club Sport Herediano. During the first half of the game the score was in favor of Herediano as they led 3 to 1 but amazingly Cartaginés reinforced themselves for the second half scoring three goals and beating the favorite Herediano by a score of 4 to 3. The 1940 Cartaginés team has been the last to win the national championship for Cartago. In the years following the 1940 Championship cartago managed to discover a new and talented player, José Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivankovich. Within a few years Jose Rafael became known as el "Maestro", the teacher. He was named so because it was said that he thought new tricks and ways of playing that had not been seen in Costa Rica. José Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivankovich was voted at the end of the century as Costa Rica's best player of the 20th century and is still recognized as the player with the biggest impact on national football. In 1966 Cartaginés was the first club to travel to the United States playing against Guadalajara and Emelec. Cartiginés struggled during the '80s after it was relegated to second division and was forced to play its way up in order to obtain a spot in Costa Rica's top league, "el futbol de primera." A breakthrough came for Cartaginés when in 1983 they won the "segunda" championship, during a season in which brilliant play by some newcomers, notably Mario F. Granados S. and "el Chino" gave Cartaginés an edge over its adversaries. The club has been unable to break Saprissa and Alajuelense's hold on the top position in recent years, but has frequently finished second. They did, however, win the CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 1994.

Ever since that championship, Cartaginés has been unable to win any league titles in Costa Rica, something which some believe^[who?] to be the result of a curse set on the team by the priest at the Basílica de Los Ángles when 1940 players stormed the Basilica ridding on top of their horses, celebrating their championship; many others credit the lack of titles to the curse of "el muñeco", a strange voodoo-like doll that was supposedly buried under Cartaginés' turf at the "Fello Meza" stadium in order to prevent them from winning further titles and bringing bad luck to the club. Many supporters of the club believe that unless someone finds the "magical" doll Cartago will continue to struggle and not win any more championships.

Stadium

The stadium "Jose Rafael Fello" Meza is located in Barrio Asis in Cartago, it has a capacity of 13,500 and is the fourth of the highest capacity stadiums in Costa Rica.

Current squad

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 Luis Fernando Torres 3 DF Héctor Hidalgo 4 DF Kevin Sanabria 5 MF Osman López García 6 DF Andrés Sanabria 7 MF Paolo Jiménez 8 MF Danny Fonseca 9 MF Pablo Brenes 10 FW Randall Brenes 12 MF Eduardo Valverde 13 MF Douglas Cordero Machado 14 DF José Villalobos Chan 15 DF Daniel Hernández Astorga 16 FW Andrés Lezcano

No. Position Player 17 MF José Sánchez Barquero 18 DF Josué Salas 19 FW Luis Saenz Rivera 20 DF Randall Alvarado 21 FW Arturo Mirault Morales 22 DF Carlos Johnson 23 DF Andrés Flores Acuña 24 DF Dennis Granados Picado 25 DF Kevin Vega 26 MF David Guzmán Sanabria 27 FW Eneas da Conceiçao 31 GK Osvaldo Quesada 33 GK Alejandro Gómez Bermúdez

Notable players

Nationals

Randall Brenes "Chiqui" Raúl Chaverri Enrique Córdoba "Pelirrojo" Héctor Coto "Macho" Danny Fonseca Danilo García "Piche" García Harry Garret Norman Gómez "Pin" Róger Gómez "Policía" Mario Francisco Granados Tarcicio Guillén

Leonel Hernández Fernando Jiménez Alexánder Madrigal Enrique Madriz Héctor Marchena Enrique Marín Asdrúbal Meneses José Rafael Meza Ivancovich "Fello" Roy Miller Rigoberto Rojas "Feo" Walford Vaughns "Wally"

Foreigners

Carlos Alberto Diaz Adrián Rojas Victor Núñez Luis Ramírez Zapata

Roberto Brown Claudio Ciccia Pablo Tiscornia

Coaches

• Carlos De Toro
• Gustavo de Simone
• Carlos Linaris
• Juan Luis Hernández
• Flavio Ortega (1994)
• José de la Paz Herrera

Honours

Domestic

• Primera División de Costa Rica: 3

1923, 1936, 1940

International

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 1 appearance

1994

• Interamerican Cup

Runner-up (1): 1994

• Copa Interclubes UNCAF: 1 appearance

Runner-up (1): 1978

External links

• Official Website