Club The Strongest
| The Strongest | |||
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| Basic data | |||
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| Surname | Club The Strongest | ||
| Seat | La Paz | ||
| founding | April 8, 1908 | ||
| Colours | gold-black | ||
| president | Henry Salinas | ||
| Website | club-thestrongest.com | ||
| First soccer team | |||
| Head coach | Mauricio Soria | ||
| Venue | Estadio Hernando Siles | ||
| Places | 42,000 | ||
| league | Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano | ||
| 2019 Apertura | 2nd place (runner-up) | ||
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The Club The Strongest is a Bolivian sports club from La Paz , the country’s seat of government.
The club has departments in the sports of basketball , tennis , swimming and chess , but is best known for its football department . With 15 championship titles won so far in the Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano , founded in 1977 , he is the second most successful club in the country. The Strongest is the oldest still existing football club in Bolivia and the only team that has never been relegated from the top Bolivian league. The origins of the club lie in the Achumani district in the south of La Paz, but the team plays its home games in the national stadium of Bolivia, the Estadio Hernando Siles , which is located in Miraflores .
The club colors are gold and black, which is why the team is often called Aurinegro ("golden-black").
history
Beginnings
The club was founded on April 8, 1908 under the name The Strong Football Club in La Paz and was renamed The Strongest Football Club a few days later . The first president was José López Villamil. The first amateur game was played in 1909 against the Nimbles Sport Association . The colors of the club have been gold and black striped since then, originally based on the plumage of the Chayñitas . Just three years after it was founded, the team became Bolivian champions for the first time in 1911.
At first only a pure football club , later departments in basketball and swimming were added. In 1930 the club moved to the current venue, the Estadio Hernando Siles , which also became the stadium for the Bolivian national team . This year they won the championship without conceding a goal. The Strongest took part in the prestigious Copa Libertadores for the first time in 1965, finishing second behind the Boca Juniors .
Viloco tragedy
On September 26, 1969, a Douglas DC-6 of the Bolivian airline Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano had an accident near the city of Viloco . All 69 passengers and five crew members were killed on board. The victims also included 20 members of the team, who played a friendly game in Santa Cruz the day before . The cause of the Tragedia de Viloco or Tragedia Aérea , as the accident was later described, is probably a controlled flight into the terrain .
The following players from The Strongest died in the crash:
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In addition, the coach Eustaquio Ortuño, the sports director José Ayllón Guerra and the assistant Felipe Aguilar died. The only players left by the team were captain Rolando Vargas, who had not been there, and the injured Marco Antonio Velasco and Luis Gini from Paraguay.
Despite this setback, the club quickly became one of the best clubs in Bolivian football and won the championship more often in the following years.
present
Until the establishment of the national Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano in 1977, The Strongest played in the regional championship of the Departamento La Paz . The club won this offshoot 22 times between 1914 and 1974, making it one of the most successful clubs. Already the first season 1977 of the new league could be won. Since that victory, the championship has been won eleven more times to this day.
In 2003 and 2005 , The Strongest had their best ever participation in the South American counterpart to the UEFA Europa League , the Copa Sudamericana , when they qualified for the quarter-finals of the competition. In over 30 appearances in the Copa Libertadores , they have reached the round of 16 four times, most recently in 2017 . There they failed in two games at the Argentinian CA Lanus , which later reached the final.
Rivalries
A historical rivalry exists with the Nimbles Sport Association , whose clashes can be described as the first derbies in Bolivian football. Already at the first championship in 1911, the two clubs fought intensely against each other, with the better end for The Strongest. With the association disappeared in the 1930s, the long-standing rivalry between the two clubs.
The same thing happened to the Colegio Militar , a comrade-in-arms of The Strongest in the 1910s, which disbanded in the early 1920s.
In the following decades, local rivalries developed with the equally successful clubs Club Bolívar and Universitario de La Paz .
Universitario and The Strongest belonged to the dominators in La Paz until the Chaco War and the encounters developed into classics. On January 16, 1930, the two teams opened the Estadio Hernando Siles, which The Strongest won 4-1. While The Strongest remained one of the strongest teams in Bolivia after this, the university team lost more and more of its sporting importance over time and did not make the transition to the national championship in 1977. Since then, they have been playing in lower-class leagues, so that there has not been a duel between the two clubs for over 40 years.
The only sporting rivalry that still exists today is with Club Bolívar, the record champions of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano. The first derby was played on October 21, 1928 and ended in a 2-2 draw. However, the rivalry only intensified 50 years later, after Universitario retired from top football and then became the strongest in La Paz. Today the games of the two teams are known as Clásico paceño or Clasico Boliviano and are always well attended.
successes
National
State Championships
- Copa Prefectural : 1911
- Campeonato de la Liga de La Paz : 1914 (Copa “Max de la Vega”), 1914 (Copa “Bautista Saavedra”), 1916 (Trofeo “Buque Quinteros”), 1916 (Campeonato “20 de Octubre”) 1917, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1930, 1935, 1938, 1943, 1945, 1946, 1952, 1963, 1964, 1970, 1971, 1974
National championships
- Copa Simón Bolívar : 1964, 1974
- Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano : 1977, 1986, 1989, 1993, 2003 Apertura, 2003 Clausura, 2004 Clausura, 2011 Aperura, Clausura 2011, Apertura 2012, Apertura 2013, Apertura 2016
National cup competitions
- Copa Bolivia : 1977, 1984, 2000
- Copa Aerosur : 2007
International
- Copa Libertadores : 24 participations; Round of 16 1990 , 1994 , 2014 , 2017
- Copa Sudamericana : 4 participations; Quarterfinals 2003
- Copa Merconorte : 1998, 1999
- Copa Conmebol : 1995 , 1997
Well-known trainers
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Saul Rivero (1990) -
Mario Kempes (1999)
Web links
- Official Website (Spanish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Historia Club The Strongest In: Club The Strongest (accessed on August 17, 2019)
- ↑ Campeonatos Obtenidos In: Club The Strongest (accessed August 17, 2019)
- ↑ Copa Libertadores de América 1965 In: rsssf.com (accessed on August 17, 2019)
- ↑ La tragedia de Viloco, la más negra en la historia de The Strongest In: La Patria of 23 September 2013 (accessed on 17 August 2019)
- ↑ Tragedia de Viloco In: Club The Strongest (accessed August 17, 2019)
- ↑ Campeonatos Obtenidos In: Club The Strongest (accessed August 17, 2019)
- ↑ Bolivia - List of Champions In: rsssf.com (accessed August 17, 2019)
- ↑ Lanús vence The Strongest e chega às Quartas de Final In: CONMEBOL of August 8, 2017 (accessed on August 17, 2019)
- ↑ El clásico de Bolivia, capítulo de infarto In: Página Siete from August 26, 2018 (accessed on August 18, 2019)