Soccer in Bolivia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Estadio Hernando Siles is one of the highest stadiums in the world.

The football in Bolivia developed already in the late 19th century, when on May 26, 1896 in the city of Oruro with Oruro Royal , the first Bolivian football club was founded. The two most important clubs in the country, the record champions Club Bolívar and its arch-rival Club The Strongest , are based in the capital La Paz and share the Estadio Hernando Siles , one of the highest stadiums in the world , as their home ground . The greatest successes of Bolivian football on an international level are the win of the Campeonato Sudamericano, which was held in its own country, in 1963 by the Bolivian national team and the final participation of Club Bolívar for the Copa Sudamericana 2004 .

Domestic championship tournaments

To compare the club teams under tournament conditions, a regional league was launched in 1914 with the Asociación de Fútbol de La Paz (AFLP) in the capital district of La Paz, which was initially dominated by the club The Strongest, founded in 1908. Their greatest rival in the 1920s was the Universitario de La Paz team, founded in 1922 . As early as the 1930s, Club Bolívar, founded in 1925, became the main rival of Club The Strongest. In the early 1950s, the La Paz regional league was replaced by the Torneo Integrado , in which teams from other parts of the country ( Cochabamba and Oruro ) also participated, while the regions around Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Sucre initially continued to participate in their regional championships Amateur base.

The Torneo Integrado was held until 1976 and then replaced by the Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano , introduced in 1977 , in which teams from all parts of the country were represented for the first time.

Greatest successes in international football

Club Bolívar achieved the greatest success at club level. In 2004 he reached the finals of the Copa Sudamericana . After a 1-0 first leg win at Estadio Hernando Siles at home, he lost 2-0 in the second leg in the Bombonera against Argentine representatives Boca Juniors . Ten years later, Club Bolívar advanced to the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores , where it was defeated by the Argentine club CA San Lorenzo de Almagro (0-5 and 1-0).

The national team took part in a soccer world championship three times . After she had lost all the games in her first two appearances ( 1930 and 1950 ) and did not score a goal, she showed a strong improvement in 1994 : a narrow 0-1 defeat against the reigning world champions Germany followed with a 0-0 win South Korea won their first point and in the last group game in a 3-1 draw against Spain they had their only World Cup goal to date.

The national team's greatest success to date came in 1963 when they won the Copa América . A 4: 4 in the opening game against Ecuador was followed by wins against Colombia (2: 1), Peru (3: 2), Paraguay (2: 0), Argentina (3: 2) and Brazil (5: 4). Also in the second discharged in Bolivia Copa America 1997 knew La Verde to convince and reached after winning the preliminary group (1: 0 against Venezuela, 2: 0 against Peru, 1: 0 against Uruguay) on Colombia (2: 1 in the quarter-finals) and Mexico (3-1 in the semi-finals) the final against Brazil, which was lost 3-1.

Web links