Argentinos Juniors

Argentinos Juniors
Full name	Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors
Nickname(s)	Bichos Colorados (Red Bugs); El Semillero (Seed Garden)" El tifon de Boyaca"
Founded	August 15, 1904
Ground	Estadio Diego Armando Maradona,; La Paternal, Buenos Aires; (Capacity: 24,800)
Chairman	Luis Miguel Segura
Manager	Vacant
League	Primera División
2011 Clausura	4th
Website	Club home page

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine football club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. Founded on August 15, 1904, the club was originally called the “Martyrs of Chicago”, in homage to the eight anarchists imprisoned or hanged after the 1886 Haymarket Riot in Chicago.^[1]

[edit] History

[edit] Early years

The club was founded in the Villa Crespo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires on August 14, 1904. In 1905 it joined the "Fútbol de competencia" league playing its first game against Club La Prensa, which it lost by a catastrophic scoreline of 12–1. After several moves in their first few years Argentinos settled in Villa Urquiza.

In 1909 Argentinos gained affiliation with the Argentine Football Association, but in 1912 they were involved in the first schism in Argentine football when they joined the breakaway "Federación de Fútbol". In 1920 they played a promotion playoff with El Porvenir but lost 3–2 on aggregate, one year later they secured promotion to the Primera, and made their debut in the 1922 season, where they competed well, finishing in 6th place.

The club endured a terrible season in 1925, but they followed it up in 1926 with a 2nd place finish behind champions Boca Juniors.

In 1927 the two separate football associations were reunified and Argentinos played in a massive 34 team league. Later, the league was expanded to 36 and Argentinos managed to keep their place until 1930.

[edit] 1931–1966

In 1931 Argentinos joined 17 other clubs in forming a breakaway professional league, a move that marked the beginning of the professional era of Argentine football. In 1934 the Amateur league was broken up and Argentina once again had a unified first division. As part of this move, Argentinos Juniors were unified with Club Atlético Atlanta, the season progressed badly, and after 25 rounds the union was dissolved due to financial irregularities in the Atlanta books. Argentinos Juniors played on but finished bottom of the league with only 2 wins from 39 games.

Argentinos was allowed to keep its place in the Primera, but succumbed to relegation in 1937 after finishing second from bottom of the table.

In 1940 Argentinos enjoyed a good campaign in a new stadium, which culminated in winning the 2nd division,^[2] but the club were not allowed promotion because their ground did not meet the requirements of the Primera División, and AFA would not make an exception for Argentinos to play at another ground, even though they had done so for several other promoted clubs in previous seasons.

The Argentinos Juniors team that in 1955 won the championship promoting to Primera División.

In 1943 Hector Ingunza made his first appearance for the club, he went on to become the top scorer in the clubs history with 143 goals in official games between 1943 and 1946.

In 1948 Argentinos suffered another injustice at the hands of AFA, they had qualified to the end of season playoff for promotion to the Primera and were top of the league after 7 of the 11 rounds when a players strike interrupted the competition. AFA eventually abandoned the playoff and gave automatic promotion to the teams that had been relegated in 1946 and 1947 instead.

In 1954 Argentinos finished in 2nd place in the league having scored 88 goals in the league, making it the highest scoring team by far. In 1955 the team finally secured promotion back to the Primera after 18 long years. Argentinos returned to top flight competition in 1956 and after finishing near the bottom of the table that year, the team secured comfortable mid-table finishes over the next few seasons.

In 1960 there was a complete overhaul of the Argentinos Juniors team, the new team performed well and it was only on the last game of the season that they missed out on the championship. Argentinos finished in 3rd place, only 2 points below the eventual champions Independiente. Although the team didn't win the championship, it is fondly remembered by those old enough to have seen them play.^[3] In the following years the team did not live up to expectations, rarely finishing in the top half of the table.

[edit] 1980s: First titles and Copa Libertadores

Saporiti had kept faith with Labruna's attacking style of play, and largely retained the same group of players. Argentinos managed to win the title by a single point over Ferro Carril Oeste on the last day of the season. This was the first major title in the clubs history and gave them automatic qualification to the Copa Libertadores in 1985.

Saporiti was replaced as manager by José Yudica who had worked wonders in previous seasons including leading unfashionable Quilmes Atlético Club to the Metropolitano championship in 1978 and rescuing San Lorenzo from the 2nd division at the first time of asking. The Nacional championship of 1985 was the last, and featured by far the most complicated structure in the history of the Argentine Primera. Once the competition reached the knockout stage, the eliminated teams got another chance to play on in the losers knockout. Argentinos won the winners group with a 4–2 penalties win against Vélez Sársfield after a 2–2 aggregate score, but Velez got another chance to play for the title after beating River Plate in the losers final. Argentinos and Velez played for the title and after a 1–1 draw, Velez won the penalty shootout, but because they has come from the losers group a new game was needed, which Argentinos won 2–1.

The 1985 edition of the Copa Libertadores saw the inclusion of three Argentine teams, Independiente as the previous years champions, Ferro Carril Oeste as the champions of the 1984 Nacional and Argentinos Juniors as the champions of the 1984 Metropolitano.

In the first round Argentinos and Ferro were put into the same group with Brazilian teams Fluminense and Vasco da Gama. The group was dominated by the two Argentine teams, who finished level on points at the top of the group. This necessitated a playoff game to determine which team would pass to the semi-final, which Argentinos won 3–1.

In the semi-final round Argentinos found themselves in a group of three with Independiete who had received a bye to the semi-finals and club Blooming of Bolivia. Argentinos progressed thanks to a 2–1 win in Independiente's stadium in the last fixture of the group.

The final was against América de Cali of Colombia, after a 1–0 home win each, the final went to a deciding game in Asunción, Paraguay. The game finished 1–1 and Argentinos won 5–4 on penalties. It was only the second time the competition had been decided on penalties, and marked the finest achievement in the history of Argentinos Juniors.

The players involved in the final playoff game were:

First eleven

Used as substitutes

Miguel Lemme (DF)
Carlos Mayor (DF)

Unused substitutes

Played in earlier rounds

Manager:

José Yudica

[edit] 1985–present

The Argentinos Juniors team that obtained the Copa Libertadores in 1985.

In 1985 Argentinos Juniors represented South America in the Intercontinental Cup against Juventus F.C. of Italy, the game ended in a 2–2 draw, but Argentinos lost in the penalty shootout. Argentinos went on to win another trophy in 1986. They won 1–0 in the Copa Interamericana against Defence Force of Trinidad and Tobago.

Argentinos qualified for the 1986 Copa Libertadores, receiving a bye to the second round as holders, but was elimnated in the group of three, behind River Plate of Argentina who went on to win the tournament.

1985–1986 saw the start of Eupropean-style seasons. Argentinos performed well, finishing in the top half of the table for most of the rest of the 1980s and never fearing relegation, although they also never really challenged as title contenders.

By 1988 the majority of the Libertadores champions had gone and Argentinos were a vastly different team.

On 20 November 1988 the club set a world record for the longest penalty shootout, which occurred in a league match against Racing Club, the shootout finished 20:19 to Argentinos after 44 penalties. The rules of the time granted an extra point for the winner on penalties after a drawn match.

1990 saw the introduction of the Apertura and Clausura system in Argentina, Argentinos enjoyed a number of decent finishes, although they finished 19th in Apertura 1992 and were saved from relegation by the points averaging system.

Argentinos finished 20th and last in Clausura 1995 and were again saved by the points averaging system, the next year they finished bottom of the Clausura and were relegated from the Primera División only eleven years after being champions of South America.

In the 1996–1997 season Argentinos won the second division under manager Osvaldo Sosa to bounce back into the Primera at the first attempt. They remained in the top flight until they were relegated again after another sequence of poor finishes, the best finish they managed in that period was 4th in Clausura 2001.

Argentinos spent two seasons in the 2nd division before returning in 2004 through a playoff with Talleres de Córdoba who had finished the season in 3rd place in the Primera, but had to play in the relegation playoff due to effect of their poor form in the previous 2 seasons on their standings in the points averaging table.

Argentinos spent a couple of nervous seasons narrowly avoiding relegation in 2005 by beating Atlético de Rafaela in a playoff. The following season they survived a playoff against Huracán. The 2006–2007 season saw Argentinos finally claw their way clear from the relegation places after over two years of flirting with relegation.

In 2008 Argentinos earned the right to play in an international tournament for the first time in 12 years by qualifying for Copa Sudamericana 2008. They eventually progressed to the semi-final where they were eliminated by Estudiantes de La Plata over two legs despite beating them 5–0 in the league game which was sandwiched between the cup ties.

In June 2009, former star player Claudio Borghi took over as manager of the club following an awful Clausura 2009 tournament where the club had finisned 20th and last in the table with only 2 wins from their 19 games.

At the beginning of the Clausura 2010 championship, Argentinos set themselves the target of matching or improving on the 61 points from the 2007–08 season to avoid dropping further down the relegation table.

The team recorded an impressive 6–3 win against Lanús in their second fixture of the campaign, but after 5 games this was their only win, with two draws and two defeats. Argentinos won their 6th fixture against Estudiantes de La Plata which was the start of a 14 game unbeaten streak that saw Argentinos finish 1 point ahead of Estudiantes at the end of the season. The most significant result in this 14 game run was in their penultimate fixture against title challengers Independiente, which saw Argentinos come back from 1–3 down to win 4–3, which featured two goals in the final minutes of the game to seal the win and leave Argentinos top of the table with one game to play. They sealed their first domestic championship in 25 years with a 1–2 away win against Huracán in the Estadio Tomás Adolfo Ducó.

[edit] Kit uniform evolution

The team plays in a red top with a diagonal white sash running from the right shoulder to the left waist. Over recent years Argentinos has also used a plain red top, a red top with a single vertical white stripe and a red top that gradually fades to white at the bottom. The club has used both red or white shorts and socks over the years. Argentinos used a number of different colors in their early years, but in 1917 the team settled on red, inspired by the club's socialist beginnings.^[4]

Some traditional and strange models worn:

1917-2008

1960, 1983, 1998, 2001-02

1976, 2002-04, 2007, 2008-09, 2011-present

[edit] Stadium

The club currently plays in Estadio Diego Armando Maradona which is also often referred to as La Paternal after La Paternal district of Buenos Aires where the club is based. The stadium was named after Diego Maradona because he started his career in the Argentinos youth team. Between 1983 and 2003 Argentinos had a groundshare with Ferro Carril Oeste at Estadio Ricardo Etcheverry. The club has had a number of other homes in their history, all based in the city of Buenos Aires.

[edit] Nicknames

The club, which is nicknamed Bichos Colorados (Red Bugs), is one of the most prolific sources of football players in Argentina. Diego Maradona, Fernando Redondo and Juan Román Riquelme being some of the most famous players who began their career at the club. This ability to keep producing world class players has given them the nickname El Semillero, meaning the Nursery or the "Seed Garden".

[edit] Titles

[edit] National

The team that won the Primera B championship in 1940.

Argentine Primera División: 3

1984 Metropolitano, 1985 Nacional, 2010 Clausura

Primera B Nacional: 1

1996–97

Primera B: 3

1940 (1), 1948 (1), 1955

(1) Although having won the 1940 and 1948 championships, Argentinos Jrs. did not promote to the first division.

[edit] International

Copa Libertadores: 1

1985

Copa Interamericana: 1

1985

[edit] Current squad

Current squad of Argentinos Juniors as of October 10, 2011 (edit)
Sources: Official website and Argentine Soccer

No.		Position	Player
1	ARG	GK	Luis Ojeda
2	ARG	DF	Miguel Torrén
3	ARG	DF	Gonzalo Prósperi
4	ARG	DF	Pablo Barzola
5	ARG	MF	Germán Basualdo
6	ARG	DF	Sergio Escudero
7	ARG	FW	Ciro Rius
8	ARG	MF	Pablo Hernández
9	ARG	FW	Juan José Morales
10	ARG	FW	Gustavo Oberman
11	ARG	MF	Juan Edgardo Ramírez
12	ARG	GK	Sebastián Giovini
13	ARG	DF	Nicolás Berardo
16	ARG	MF	Matías Laba

No.		Position	Player
17	ARG	DF	Juan Sabia
18	URU	MF	Roberto Brum
19	ARG	MF	Rodrigo Díaz Ponce
20	ARG	GK	Nereo Fernández
21	PAR	FW	Santiago Salcedo
22	ARG	MF	Arturo Mendoza
23	ARG	FW	Leandro Barrera
24	ECU	DF	Jefferson Hurtado
25	ARG	DF	Federico Pistone
26	ARG	FW	Gabriel Pérez Tarifa
27	ARG	MF	Carlos Nagüel
28	ARG	DF	Nicolás Batista
29	ARG	MF	Maximiliano Rodríguez
33	ARG	FW	Hernán Salazar
-	ARG	FW	Fabián Bordagaray