Cúcuta Deportivo
Cúcuta Deportivo Fútbol Club S. A. is a professional Colombian football team based in Cúcuta, that currently plays in the Categoria Primera A. The club was officially founded on September 10, 1924,[1] and its first appearance in a professional league was in the 1950 Campeonato Profesional season. They play their home games at the 42,000 capacity General Santander stadium, although in 2017 they played some of their home games at Estadio Municipal Héctor "El Zipa" González in Zipaquirá, with capacity for 7,000 people.[2] The team disputes the Clásico del Oriente Colombiano against its long-time rival Atlético Bucaramanga.
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| Full name | Cúcuta Deportivo Fútbol Club S.A. | |||
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| Nickname(s) | Los Motilones (The Motilons), La Furia Motilona (The Motilon Wrath), El Doblemente Glorioso (The Twice Glorious), Los Rojinegros (The Red and Black) | |||
| Founded | 10 September 1924 | |||
| Ground | Estadio General Santander Cúcuta, Colombia | |||
| Capacity | 42,901 | |||
| Owner | José Augusto Cadena Mora | |||
| Manager | Jorge Artigas | |||
| League | Categoría Primera A | |||
| 2019 | 8th, aggregate table | |||
| Website | Club website | |||
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Cúcuta Deportivo has won seven titles between national and international, but the greatest achievements of the team are: two Primera B titles in 1995–96 and 2005, one Primera A title in 2006-II, and reaching the semi-finals of the 2007 Copa Libertadores, where they were knocked out by Argentinian club Boca Juniors. The IFFHS has ranked Cúcuta Deportivo 92nd in the list of best South American clubs of the 21st century.[3]
History
There is some dispute regarding the founding year of Cúcuta Deportivo, but according to historian Alfredo Díaz,[4] the club was founded on 10 September 1924 as Cúcuta Sports Club. The club's first games outside of Colombia were against a team composed of players representing Caracas, Venezuela on 23 November 1926. Two days later, on 25 November, the team played in La Guaira, Venezuela. Cúcuta Sports Club became the base of the Norte de Santander football team that took part in the first Colombian National Games (Juegos Deportivos Nacionales de Colombia) in 1928 in the city of Cali.
On 15 May 1949, the president of the Colombian football league invited the directors of Club Colpet, Chinaquillo, Guasimales, and Unión Frontera to strengthen Cúcuta Deportivo in order to compete in the new Colombian professional football league. In order to facilitate the economic reforms required to join the league, Hernando Lara Hernández bought 1,700 shares in the club in September of the same year.
Between September and November 1949, before beginning its first campaign in the Colombian league, Cúcuta played Hurucán de Medellín, Universidad de Bogotá, Boca Juniors de Cali, and Atlético Bucaramanga. The last of these, Atlético Bucaramanga, is Cúcuta's arch rival, and their games are called the clásico of Eastern Colombia.
In the late fifties and early sixties, the team was under the chairmanship of Marino Vargas Villalta. Under his supervision, the team reached second place in the 1964 DIMAYOR tournament. In the second half of 2006, the team won the Colombian League for the first time in its history by defeating finalist Deportes Tolima 2–1. Some of the key players in that championship were Blas Pérez, Roberto Bobadilla, Charles Castro, Macnelly Torres, Nelson Florez, Lincarlo Henry, and Róbinson Zapata.
1950s
In 1950, Cúcuta played in the professional league with a team consisting of Pedro "Carruja" Díaz, Pablo Mendoza, Gallito Contreras, Julio Ulises Terra, Marcos "Gorilla" Ortíz, "Earthquake" García, Juan José Tulio, Alcide Mañay, Juan Barbieri, "Chino" Perez Luz, Luis Orlando, Roberto Serrano, Luis Alberto "Marciano" Miloc, Juan "Chalamu" Barbosa, Carlos Zunino, Abraham Gonzalez, Ramón Alberto Villaverde and Juan Delucca. In its first year in the league, the team signed 12 players from Uruguay.
During its first professional season, Cúcuta won its first game against the now-defunct Sporting de Barranquilla (2–1), and also defeated Atlético Bucaramanga (0–1) at Atlético's ground in the first clásico of Western Colombia. Luis Albert "the Martian" Miloc scored the game's only goal. Cúcuta finished the year 5th out of 16 teams. More Uruguayan players were brought in for the 1951–52 season, including Schubert Gambetta and Eusebio Tejera. Cúcuta subsequently finished the year 3rd out of 18 teams.
Between 1952 and 1953, the club found itself in its first economic crisis. Resolved not to be disbanded, the team's directors organized an exhibition tour in Central America. The team played in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala and earned enough money in order to maintain its leagues status, which it succeeded in doing for two seasons. By 1954 the crisis had grown and the club was forced to exit the Colombian league for two years, returning in 1956. Cúcuta finished 4th in the league that year. Rolando Serrano, the earliest of the great local heroes, began his career at Cúcuta. Serrano later helped the Colombian national team qualify for the 1962 World Cup.
In 1964, Cúcuta turned in their second best season-long performance to date. Under the management of Marino Vargas Villalta, Cúcuta finished second in the Colombia league, a single point behind champions Club Deportivo los Millonarios.
Relegation
In 1995, after finishing in 16th place in the league, Cúcuta was relegated to the second division, Primera B. One year later, however, the team won the second division title and returned to the top flight, only to be promptly relegated after finishing in last place. Despite finishing second in the Primera B in 1997 to Atlético Huila, Cúcuta failed to win promotion in the league's playoffs. Cúcuta remained in the second division until 2005. That year they were finally crowned Primera B champions and returned to the top flight.
The First Star
On 20 December 2006, coach Jorge Luis Pinto led Cúcuta to its first ever first division championship. This meant the club qualified for the Copa Libertadores de América for the first time.
Cúcuta played the final against Deportes Tolima in a two-legged match. The first game was played at Cúcuta's stadium on 17 December. Rodrigo Saraz scored the only goal of the 1–0 game, which Cúcuta won. In the return leg in Ibagué, the teams drew 1–1, with Macnelly Torres scoring for Cúcuta and Yulián Anchico scoring for Tolima. This result meant Cúcuta won 2–1 on aggregate and were crowned champions.
Overall, Cúcuta has played 46 seasons in the Colombian first division and 9 seasons in the second division.
Copa Libertadores 2007
Cúcuta qualified for 2007 Copa Libertadores by winning the Colombian League's 2006 championship. They were placed in Group 3 alongside Deportes Tolima of Colombia, Grêmio of Brazil, and Cerro Porteño of Paraguay.
The team's first game was a home game against Tolima which ended 0–0. After that they traveled to Porto Alegre, Brazil to play Grêmio, another game which ended 0–0. After that they returned to Colombia to play Cerro Porteño in a match that ended 1–1. The match that followed was in Paraguay, against Cerro Porteño, which ended in a 2–1 loss for Cúcuta. The team rebounded, however, and defeated Grêmio 3–1 at home and visited Tolima in Ibagué in the final group stage match, winning 4–3 in a high-scoring match. This victory ensured their passage into the next round, giving them 9 points to Tolima and Cerro Porteño's 7 each. Grêmio finished top of the group with 10 points.
Their second round matchup was against Mexican club Toluca. After going down 0–1 at home inside of two minutes, Cúcuta rebounded and won the first leg 5–1. Despite losing the second leg 2–0 in Toluca, Cúcuta advanced to the quarter-finals with a 5–3 victory on aggregate.
The quarter-finals pitted Cúcuta against Uruguayan side Nacional. The first leg was again played in Cúcuta, where the Colombian side won 2–0 through goals from Blas Pérez and Macnelly Torres. The second leg, played in Montevideo, ended in a 2–2 draw thanks to goals from Rubén Darío Bustos and Leonard Pajoy for Cúcuta. Qualification for the semi-finals was earned via this 4–2 aggregate victory.
In the semi-finals, Cúcuta played Argentine side Boca Juniors. The first leg, in Cúcuta, ended in a 3–1 victory for the Colombians, but in the second leg, in the famous La Bombonera stadium, Boca earned a 3–0 victory to defeat Cúcuta 4–3 on aggregate and advance to the finals, which they subsequently won against Grêmio.
The November 22, 2007 due to its performance won several awards and recognitions from the television network Fox Sports, editing Colombia, 2 because of their participation in the Copa Libertadores 2007.
Promotion
For the 2015 season, Cúcuta (at the time playing in the second division) was placed in group A along with Atlético Bucaramanga, Deportes Quindio, and Real Cartagena in the play-offs for a spot in the Liga Águila. The team beat Real Cartagena 3–0 and scored another victory 2–0 against Bucaramanga. These two victories allowed them to play against Quindío for a spot in the Liga Águila. In that last match, Cúcuta only needed a draw to qualify because of a better goal differential, the match ended in a draw 3–3 allowing to the Motilón team to return to the Categoría Primera A once again. The team was only able to remain for that season, being relegated again at the end of the year after a bad campaign.
In the 2018 season, Cúcuta qualified for the Finals and placed 1st at the aggregate table, thus achieving promoting to the Primera A for the next season.
Honours
Cúcuta Deportivo's achievements are a Primera A championship in the 2006 Torneo Finalización and three Primera B championships in the 1995–96, 2005 and 2018 seasons. In addition to these, the club has won four friendly tournaments: the Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa Inauguration tournament in 1951, the Copa Internacional Feria del Sol in 2009, the Copa Centenario de Norte de Santander in 2010 and the Copa Alcaldía Municipio Pedro María Ureña in 2011. Its best performance in official international competitions was achieved at the 2007 Copa Libertadores in which the team reached the semifinals, losing in this round to eventual champions Boca Juniors.
Official
- Champions (3): 1995–96, 2005, 2018
Unofficial
- Torneo de Inauguración del Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa:
- Champions (1): 1951
- Copa Internacional Feria del Sol:
- Champions (1): 2009
- Copa Centenario de Norte de Santander:
- Champions (1): 2010
- Copa Alcaldía Municipio Pedro María Ureña:
- Champions (1): 2011
Players
Current squad
- As of 27 January 2020[5]
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Managers
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Legal issues
Ramiro Suárez Corzo as Mayor of Cúcuta was supposedly managing the football (soccer) team Cúcuta Deportivo indirectly overriding the president of this club Angel Uriel Garcia. According to El Tiempo newspaper Suárez was supposed to sell part of the team's stocks to the people of Cúcuta, 8.5% of the total 70%, instead he sold that 70% to his friends. He also authorized Cúcuta to be exempt of taxes until the year 2010, when the Colombian law only allows 1 year to do so.
References
- History of Cúcuta Deportivo on Official Website (in Spanish)
- "Cúcuta tendrá nueva sede en el 2017: jugará en Zipaquirá" [Cúcuta will have new home venue in 2017: they will play at Zipaquirá] (in Spanish). Futbolred.com. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- IFFHS - South American club of the 21st Century
- El Tiempo website (in Spanish) Archived 14 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- Dimayor. "Cúcuta Deportivo". Retrieved 20 July 2019.
- "Liga postobon website" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2013.