Deportivo Táchira F.C.
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| Full name | Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club | |||
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| Nickname(s) | Aurinegro (Gold-and-black) | |||
| Founded | January 11, 1974 | |||
| Ground | Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, San Cristóbal, Venezuela | |||
| Capacity | 42,500 | |||
| President | Jorge Silva | |||
| Head coach | Santiago Escobar | |||
| League | Primera División | |||
| 2016 | 2nd | |||
| Website | Club website | |||
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The Deportivo Táchira is a professional football club of the city of San Cristóbal, Venezuela. It was founded on January 11, 1974 by Gaetano Greco, and was originally called the San Cristobal Football Club. It is Venezuela's most popular football club.
The club plays its matches at the Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, which has a capacity of 42,500. Since 1975, it participates in the Venezuelan Primera División, making it the only Venezuelan team that has never fallen or participated in the lower category. Currently it holds the first position of the historical classification of the Venezuelan Primera División with 2229 points.
At the international level, it is the Venezuelan club with the most appearances in the Copa Libertadores. Its best international participation was its advance to the quarter-finals unbeaten in the Copa Libertadores 2004. It is the only Venezuelan club that has advanced past the first phase of the Copa Libertadores.
Deportivo Tachira has a subsidiary named Deportivo Táchira team "B", which participates in the Venezuelan Segunda División. It also has a Futsal team called Deportivo Tachira Fútsal Club, which plays in the Venezuelan Futsal League and the Superior Futsal Tournament.
Its fiercest rival is the Caracas FC, with whom it disputes the "Modern Derby" (Clásico Moderno) of Venezuelan football. It also plays the so-called "Andean Derby" (Clásico Andino) against Estudiantes de Mérida.
History
In 1970, Italian-born Gaetano Greco founded an amateur club called Juventus in San Cristóbal, named after the Juventus FC. In 1974, Greco noticed that there were no professional football clubs in Táchira, so he decided to found a club in Táchira based on the amateur Juventus club. He and twelve other people founded the club on January 11 of that year, which they named San Cristóbal Fútbol Club. Most of the club's players came from the Juventus club. Initially, the club's colors were blue and white, similar to the Italian national football team kits.
In January 1975, the club changed its colors to yellow and black, because those colors better represented the Táchira state and were the preferred colors of the Uruguayan manager José "Pocho" Gil, as they were the colors of the Uruguayan team Peñarol.
Naming history
| Year | Name |
|---|---|
| 1974 | San Cristóbal Fútbol Club |
| 1975 | Deportivo San Cristóbal Fútbol Club |
| 1978 | Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club |
| 1986 | Unión Atlético Táchira |
| 1999 | Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club |
Stadium
The club's home stadium is Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, located in San Cristóbal. It has a maximum capacity of 42,500 people.
Supporters
The team's supporters are known as aurinegros ("gold-and-blacks"). The supporters are mainly divided into three groups; La Torcida Aurinegra , La Avalancha Sur, and Comando Sur.
Several of the team's supporters have committed violent acts in the past towards the supporters of opposing teams. One of the most tragic events took place on December 17, 2000, when the club and Caracas drew 2–2, which gave the Copa República Bolivariana de Venezuela's title to Caracas, causing angry supporters of Deportivo Táchira to burn the Caracas team bus.[1]
Derby
Games between Deportivo Táchira and Estudiantes de Mérida are known as the Clásico de Los Andes (meaning Andes' Derby). However, in recent years games between Deportivo Táchira and Caracas have been known as the modern derby, because of the successful performance of both teams. A former rival of Deportivo Táchira in the 1980s and early 1990s was Marítimo de Venezuela, a former team from Caracas.
Colors
Deportivo Táchira's shirt has black and yellow vertical stripes, with black shorts and socks.
Titles
- Copa Libertadores: 21 appearances
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- Copa Sudamericana: 2 appearances
- Copa CONMEBOL: 3 appearances
- Deportivo Táchira is the Venezuelan club with the most Copa Libertadores appearances and the most runner-up finishes in the Venezuelan league. It has won seven national championships.
- The club's best Copa Libertadores participation was in 2004, when the club became the second team to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition without losing a match, having played against strong teams such as River Plate (Argentina), Libertad (Paraguay), Deportes Tolima (Colombia), and Nacional (Uruguay), before facing São Paulo (Brazil) in the quarter-finals.
Current squad
As of 2016
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Head coaches
Luis Miloc (1977–78)
Marcos Calderón (1983)
Carlos Horacio Moreno (1987–89)
Richard Páez (1991)- Walter Roque (1999–01)
- César Farías (2003–05)
- Manuel Plasencia (2005–07)
- Carlos Maldonado (July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2010)
Jorge Luis Pinto (July 1, 2010 – May 30, 2011)- Jesús Vera (July 1, 2011 – Dec 20, 2011)
- Jaime de la Pava (Jan 16, 2012 – April 24, 2012)
- Manuel Contreras (April 26, 2012 – Dec 20, 2012)
- Daniel Farías (Jan 1, 2013 – Dec 20, 2015)
- Carlos Maldonado (2015–2016)
- Santiago Escobar (2016- )
References
- ^ Los Gochigans – El Universal (November 1, 2003)[dead link]
- Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Spanish-language Wikipedia article (retrieved January 15, 2004).