Deportivo Táchira
Full nameDeportivo Táchira Fútbol Club
Nickname(s)Aurinegro (Gold-and-black)
El carrusel aurinegro
FoundedJanuary 11, 1974 (1974-01-11)
GroundEstadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo,
San Cristóbal, Venezuela
Capacity42,500
ChairmanJorge Silva
ManagerEduardo Saragó
LeaguePrimera División Venezolana
2023Primera División, 1st of 15
WebsiteClub website

The Deportivo Táchira Futbol Club is a professional football club of the city of San Cristóbal, Venezuela. Founded on January 11, 1974, by Gaetano Greco, the club was originally known as "San Cristobal Football Club".

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 one of two Venezuelan clubs that have advanced past the first phase of the Copa Libertadores, or reached the quarter-finals.

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 Italy 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, 1999-2000, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2014–15, 2021, 2023
1982
2002: Preliminary Round
2012: Preliminary Round
2021: Round of 16
2022: Quarter-finals
2023: First 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 nine 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 16 October 2023

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

No. Pos. Nation Player
3 DF Venezuela VEN Jean Fran Gutiérrez
4 DF Venezuela VEN Jesús Quintero
5 DF Colombia COL Edisson Restrepo
9 FW Venezuela VEN Anthony Uribe
10 MF Argentina ARG Gonzalo Ritacco
13 DF Venezuela VEN Pablo Camacho
14 MF Venezuela VEN Richard Figueroa
15 MF Venezuela VEN Maurice Cova
18 MF Venezuela VEN Yerson Chacón
21 DF Panama PAN Azmahar Ariano
No. Pos. Nation Player
22 GK Venezuela VEN Diego Valdés
23 MF Venezuela VEN Marlon Fernández
24 MF Venezuela VEN Cristian Meleán
30 MF Venezuela VEN Robert Garcés
31 FW Ecuador ECU Renny Simisterra
32 MF Venezuela VEN Carlos Paraco
33 DF Venezuela VEN Nelson Hernández
35 DF Venezuela VEN Iverson Contreras
41 DF Venezuela VEN José Luis Marrufo
— DF Venezuela VEN Carlos Vivas

Notable players

  • Venezuela 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.
  • Venezuela 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.
  • Uruguay Daniel Francovig – In the 1987 Copa Libertadores the Uruguayan goalkeeper beat Luis Islas from his own box, with a bounce that misled Independiente's goalkeeper. He scored the best remembered goal by a goalkeeper in the history of football.
  • Uruguay Carlos Maldonado – Uruguayan central midfielder, obtained a total number of 20 caps for the Venezuela national team, scoring four goals. All his goals came at the 1989 Copa América.

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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