Defensa y Justicia

Defensa y Justicia

Full name	Club Social y Deportivo Defensa y Justicia
Nickname(s)	Halcón (Hawk)
Founded	20 March 1935 (1935-03-20)
Ground	Estadio Norberto "Tito" Tomaghello Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires
Capacity	10,500
Chairman	José Lemme
Manager	Hernán Crespo
League	Primera División
2019–20	6th (aggregate table)
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Club Social y Deportivo Defensa y Justicia, commonly known as Defensa y Justicia or simply Defensa, is an Argentine football club from Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires. The team currently plays in the Primera División, the top division of the Argentine football league system. Home games are played at the Estadio Norberto "Tito" Tomaghello which has a capacity of approximately 18,000.

History

The institution was founded on 20 March 1935 by a group of friends who wanted to form a local team. There are no sources explaining how the name was given to the club. Presided by Norberto Tomaghello, Defensa y Justicia affiliated to Argentine Football Association, built its stadium, which was opened in occasion of a friendly match against Boca Juniors reserve team in December 1977.

The club's original colors were blue with white collars and cuffs, which were changed to yellow with green details. These were the colors of the bus line "El Halcón", a company that belonged to the club president at the time. This company used its buses to bring the fans to away games, and thus received the nickname "Los Halcones de Varela".

Even though the club was founded as early as 1935, Defensa y Justicia did not play in official tournaments until 1978, when the team debuted in Primera D, defeating Cañuelas.

The team quickly promoted to upper divisions, first to Primera C Metropolitana in 1982 after winning the championship, and 3 years later reaching the next division, Primera B, while being coached by Hugo García. Defensa only played in Primera B one year and in 1986 were promoted to Primera B Nacional. As of May 17, 2014 Defensa y Justicia has been promoted to the Primera Division of the Argentina Football (the highest level in the country)

Players

Current squad

As of 5 October 2020.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	ARG	Marcos Ledesma
2	DF	ARG	Adonis Frías
3	DF	ARG	Marcelo Benítez
4	DF	ARG	Agustín Sienra
5	MF	ARG	Nelson Acevedo (on loan from Unión Santa Fe)
6	DF	ARG	Nahuel Gallardo (on loan from River Plate)
7	MF	ARG	Nicolás González
8	MF	ARG	Jonathan Farías
9	FW	URU	Miguel Merentiel (on loan from Godoy Cruz)
10	MF	ARG	Tomás Ortiz
11	MF	URU	Washington Camacho
13	MF	ARG	Rodrigo Herrera
14	DF	ARG	Pedro Ramírez
15	FW	ARG	Nicolás Leguizamón (on loan from Colón)
17	GK	ARG	Nicolás Avellaneda
18	DF	ARG	Rafael Delgado (on loan from Colón)
19	DF	ARG	Nicolás Tripichio
20	FW	ARG	Walter Bou
21	DF	ARG	David Martínez

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
22	GK	ARG	Ezequiel Unsain (Captain)
23	FW	ARG	Eugenio Isnaldo
24	DF	COL	Mauricio Duarte
25	DF	ARG	Néstor Breitenbruch
26	FW	ARG	Juan Cruz Villagra
27	FW	ARG	Enzo Coacci
28	DF	ARG	Juan Gabriel Rodríguez
29	FW	ARG	Francisco Pizzini (on loan from Independiente)
30	MF	COL	Raúl Loaiza
31	FW	ARG	Braian Romero (on loan from Independiente)
32	FW	ARG	Ciro Rius
33	DF	ARG	Franco Paredes (on loan from River Plate)
34	MF	ARG	Enzo Fernández (on loan from River Plate)
35	FW	ARG	Gabriel Hachen
37	DF	ARG	Emanuel Brítez
38	MF	ARG	Maximiliano Luayza Koot
39	MF	ARG	Lautaro Escalante
40	FW	ARG	Facundo Echevarría
—	MF	ARG	Valentín Larralde

For recent transfers, see List of Argentine football transfers winter 2018–19.

Players under contract

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	FW	ARG	Juan Miritello
—	MF	ARG	Matías Laba

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	FW	ARG	Fabián Bordagaray (at Banfield until 31 December 2020)
—	GK	ARG	Diego Rodríguez (at Elche until 30 June 2021)

Managers

• Ricardo Zielinski (2002–03)
• Jorge Bermúdez (2010)
• Jorge Almirón (2012–13)
• Diego Cocca (2013–14)
• José Oscar Flores (2014–15)
• Ariel Holan (2015–16)
• Sebastián Beccacece (2016–17)
• Nelson Vivas (2017–18)
• Sebastián Beccacece (2018–19)
• Mariano Soso (2019–20)
• Hernán Crespo (2020–)

Honours

National

• Primera B: 1996–97, 2013–14
• Primera C: 1985
• Primera D: 1982

International

• Copa Sudamericana: 2020

External links

• Official website