Juan Machuca

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Juan Machuca
Personnel
Surname Juan de Dios Machuca Valdés
birthday March 7, 1951
place of birth Santiago ,  Chile
size 168 cm
position defense
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1970-1983 Unión Española 365 (5)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1972-1977 Chile 6 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Juan de Dios Machuca Valdés (born March 7, 1951 in Santiago ) is a former Chilean football player. While he played his club career entirely in the shirt of Unión Española , he also took part in the 1974 World Cup in Germany with the national team of his home country .

Career

Club career

Juan Machuca, born in 1951 in the Chilean capital Santiago, began playing football in the youth departments of Unión Española. In 1970 he was finally accepted into the club's first team at the age of 19 and spent all subsequent years of his playing career there. In 13 years from 1970 to 1983 Juan Machuca, who played in the position of a defender, played 365 league games as a player in Unión Española. He got five goals.

Juan Machuca was part of the Unión Española team, which was one of the most successful in the club's history in the 1970s. With players such as defender Mario Soto , midfielder Antonio Arias and striker Sergio Ahumada , Unión Española won the Chilean championship three times in that decade. Juan Machuca won the first of the three championships with Unión Española in 1973, when they took first place in the Primera División with eight points ahead of today's record champions CSD Colo-Colo , winning their first title in more than twenty years. While they were only fourth in 1974, Unión Española made another big jump in the 1975 season. At the end of all game days they ranked first in the Primera División with a lead of two points on Deportes Concepción . In the same year Juan Machuca showed himself with Unión Española also very successfully in the Copa Libertadores , the most important competition for club teams in South America. After winning the second group stage in front of Universitario de Deportes from Peru and LDU Quito from Ecuador , coach Luis Santibáñez's team was in the final of the Copa Libertadores 1975 , where the opponent was the Argentinian series winner Independiente Avellaneda . After the first and second leg it was a draw, so a playoff had to determine the winner. In this play-off, Independiente finally prevailed 2-0 in Asunción and prevented a tangible surprise in favor of Unión Española. Juan Machuca played in defense of Unión Española in all three finals.

Starting the season as defending champion, Unión Española was also at the top of the 1976 Primera División. However, they were level on points with the CD Everton de Viña del Mar , which made playoffs for the championship necessary. Here Machuca had to take a defeat with Unión Española and leave Everton the title. They were successful for the last time in 1977, when they won their third title in the 1970s. This time Everton was left behind by two points. Juan Machuca was on the pitch for Unión Española for six more years, but another league title was not to be achieved. After the end of the 1983 season, the defender ended his career after 365 league games at the age of 32.

National team

Between 1972 and 1977 Juan Machuca made six appearances in the Chilean national football team . A goal he did not succeed. National coach Luis Álamos called him into the South American squad for the 1974 World Cup in Germany . In the tournament, however, Juan Machuca was not used. The Chilean team, however, was eliminated after the preliminary round, where they only took third place in a group with the GDR , the Federal Republic of Germany and Australia .

successes

1973, 1975 and 1977 with Unión Española
1975 with Unión Española

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Machuca, Juan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Machuca Valdés, Juan de Dios (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Santiago de Chile , Chile