Deportivo Táchira F.C.

The Deportivo Táchira Futbol Club 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.

Deportivo Táchira
Full nameDeportivo Táchira Fútbol Club
Nickname(s)Aurinegro (Gold-and-black)
FoundedJanuary 11, 1974 (1974-01-11)
GroundEstadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo,
San Cristóbal, Venezuela
Capacity42,500
ChairmanJorge Silva
ManagerJuan Domingo Tolisano
LeaguePrimera División Venezolana
20191st, aggregate table
WebsiteClub website

The club plays its home 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.

In the 2016 season, Deportivo Táchira drew an average home league attendance of 5,595 in the Apertura and 4,033 in the Clausura, the highest in the domestic league.[1]

Naming history

Year Name
1974San Cristóbal Fútbol Club
1975Deportivo San Cristóbal Fútbol Club
1978Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club
1986Unión Atlético Táchira
1999Deportivo 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.[2]

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 and International Appearances

1979, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2000, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2014–15
2002: Preliminary Round
2012: Preliminary Round
1993: First Round
1996: First Round
1997: First Round
  • 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 2018

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  VEN José Contreras
2 DF  VEN Diego Araguainamo
3 DF  VEN Jonathan España
4 DF  VEN Daniel Benítez
5 MF  VEN Luis Melo
6 MF  PAN Luis Ovalle
7 FW  VEN Darwin Gómez
8 MF  VEN David Zalzman
9 FW  ARG Sergio Oscar Almirón
10 MF  VEN Joel Infante
11 MF  VEN Johan Moreno
12 GK  VEN Beycker Velásquez
13 DF  VEN Manuel Granados
15 MF  VEN Franklin González
No. Pos. Nation Player
16 GK  VEN Cristopher Valera
17 FW  VEN César Martínez
18 MF  VEN Jeizon Ramírez
19 FW  VEN Duglar Angarita
20 MF  VEN Angel Lezama
21 FW  VEN Edgar Pérez Greco
22 DF  VEN Héctor Noguera
23 DF  VEN Joyner Rivera
24 MF  VEN Luis Chacón
25 DF  PAN Jan Carlos Vargas
26 MF  VEN José Rafael Reyes
30 GK  VEN Rafael Sánchez
36 DF  VEN Daniel Sánchez

Important players

  • Tomás Rincón (2008) First Venezuelan player to play in an important international soccer team such as Juventus FC in 2017. He currently for Torino FC in Italy.
  • Cesar "El Maestrico" Gonzalez Important player with a big important career in different teams around South America such as River Plate, Coritiba, San Luis and other teams of the First Venezuelan league. Currently, he plays in Deportivo La Guaira in Venezuela.

Head coaches

Notes

References

  1. "Primera División 2016 Clausura - Attendance". worldfootball.net. Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  2. Los Gochigans – El Universal (November 1, 2003) Archived June 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
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