Portuguesa FC

Portuguesa FC
	Portuguesa FC
Basic data
Surname	Portuguesa Fútbol Club
Seat	Acarigua , Venezuela
founding	1972
president	Nelson Escobar
Website	portuguesafc.com.ve
First soccer team
Head coach	Jhonny Lucena
Venue	Estadio General José Antonio Paez
Places	18,000
league	Primera División
2014/15	18th place
home	Away

Portuguesa Fútbol Club is a Venezuelan football club from Acarigua . The club was founded in 1972 and plays its home games at the Estadio José Antonio Páez , which can seat 18,000 spectators. Portuguesa FC has won five Venezuelan football championships and is currently playing in the Primera División , the top division in Venezuela .

history

The Portuguesa FC club was founded on March 2, 1972 in Acarigua , the capital of the Venezuelan state of Portuguesa in the north-west of the country. Based on the state, the club also got its name and was henceforth Portuguesa FC . After taking part in the championship in the Primera División in the first year, the newly founded club succeeded in winning the Venezuelan football championship for the first time in the first year after it was founded, in 1973. In the first division a first place was occupied before Deportivo Italia, today's Deportivo Petare . The following year they tried to defend their title, but missed this by finishing second behind Deportivo Galicia . In 1975, Portuguesa FC began a series of four championships in a row, which established the club among the most important in Venezuela . In 1978, Portuguesa FC won their fifth and, to date, last championship title. In 1980 they were second in the table two more times and thus runner-up, but a sixth title did not follow.

Nowadays, Portuguesa FC plays in the second-rate Segunda División. For the last time in the Primera División they were in the 2008/09 season. At that time they finished in the overall table after Apertura and Clausura in eighteenth and last place and had to relegate to the second division together with Estrella Roja FC and AC Minervén FC and UA Maracaibo , who were penalized for financial reasons . Since then, Portuguesa FC has played second class.

In better times, Portuguesa FC took part in the Copa Libertadores , the most important football tournament for club teams in South America, eight times . In seven out of eight participations, however, you did not get past the first round. In the Copa Libertadores 1977, however, they survived the first group stage by taking first place in front of Unión Huaral , Estudiantes de Mérida and the Sport Boys and were in the semi-finals, which at the time was also played as a group stage. In the first semi-final game, Portuguesa defeated Brazilian representatives Internacional Porto Alegre 3-0, which was also the last victory in this tournament for the Venezuelan club. The remaining games against Internacional and Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte were lost and Portuguesa was eliminated, while Cruzeiro made it to the final and only lost to the Boca Juniors from Argentina's capital Buenos Aires there on penalties in the playoff.