Club Deportivo El Nacional
is a sports club from Quito
, Ecuador
that is best
known for its professional football team. El Nacional
belongs to the Ecuadorian military and maintained a traditional of
having only Ecuadorian players on their team. This has given them
such nicknames as
Puros Criollos ("Pure
Creoles") and
El Equipo Militar
("The Military Team"). The three colors of the team (red, light
blue and dark blue) represent the three branches of the Ecuadorian
military. The team logo has as a third color (yellow) instead of
light blue. The principal uniform is red with bleu accents, and the
alternate uniform is gray with blue shorts.
El Nacional is tied with
Barcelona Sporting Club for the
greatest number of Ecuadorian championships, with 13. They are the
only club in Ecuador to win three titles in a row, having done so
on two occasions (1976, 1977, 1978 & 1982, 1983, 1984). The
club has participated in more
Copa
Libertadores than any other club in Ecuador, having competed in
the competition 22 times. El Nacional has three first-division
rivals in Quito, which are
Sociedad Deportiva Aucas from the
south, and
Liga
Deportiva Universitaria de Quito and
Sociedad Deportivo Quito from the
north.
Other sports the organization participates in is
gymnastics,
table
tennis,
Ecuavolley,
chess, and
shooting.
History
Beginnings
It all started with the dream of Capitan Hugo Enderica Torres of
the Ecuadorian Military. His dream was to form a professional
football team of only Ecuadorian players. After having a successful
run in the lower divisions El Nacional moved up to the Serie A of
Ecuador in 1964 and was officially founded. With an official
agreement with AFNA, the team was baptized as Club Deportivo El
Nacional. With just three years of life as a professional team, El
Nacional was the first team to bring a championship to the province
of
Pichincha in 1967. After financial
troubles and fights between team mates, the second championship was
reached in 1973 against
Universidad
Catolica.
The Bi-Tri Campeon
In the 70's El Nacional was able to achieve what no Ecuadorian team
had done in the history of the league. In 1976, 1977, 1978 they
were unbeatable champions.
Fabian Paz
y Mino stepped up as the leading goal scorer in the league in
1977 to help El Nacional during those three years of glory. In
1982, 1983, 1984 El Nacional repeated this feat to become double
three time championship winners. Their title count became eight.
This was gained by help from two legendary players
Jose Villafuerte and
Ermen Benitez. In 1985 they accomplished their
most important feat in international competition reaching
semifinals in the
Copa
Libertadores de America. One year later they added to their
titles by being crowned for the ninth time in their history.
The 90's
El Nacional produced some of the greatest players in Ecuador and
won two more championships in 1992 and 1996 with the help of
Cleber Chala,
Agustin Delgado, and
Oswaldo Ibarra. They also disputed the
semifinals of the Copa Conmebol 1992 and the 1994 edition.
Present
The current success of the team has added two more championships in
2005 and 2006 bringing their total to 13 titles. They have equaled
rivals
Barcelona to become
one of the best teams in Ecuador. El Nacional has brought up
talented players such as
Antonio
Valencia,
Segundo
Alejandro Castillo,
Cristian
Benitez and
Felix Borja. There have
been plans to build a new stadium but no official decision has been
taken as of yet. Former coach
Juan
Carlos Burbano resigned after an unsuccessful first stage in
the league.
Julio Asad was appointed head
coach on July 16, 2009.
Stadium
El
Nacional play their home matches in the Estadio Olimpico
Atahualpa
. Plans have been enabled to build a new
stadium. However no official decision has been taken. The
management even showed the model of what the 42,000 seat stadium
would look like.
Supporters
On May 13, 1998, a group of friends met and decided to form a
highly dedicated fanbase called
La Marea Roja
(English:
The Red Tide). Over the years, they aimed to
integrate more people, and becoming a better organized to be the
largest fan group of El Nacional, and hopefully of Ecuador. It is
made up of over 250 members, with members owning proper
identification cards. La Marea Roja stands at the south part of the
stadium for 90 minutes every game, which attracts adults, women and
large numbers of children.
Current squad
Noted players
Achievements
- Campeonato Ecuatoriano de
Fútbol Serie A
- Champion (13): 1967, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978,
1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1996, 2005 C, 2006
- Runner-Up (7): 1964, 1972, 1974, 1994, 1999,
2000, 2001
Performance in CONMEBOL
competitions
- Copa
Libertadores: 22 participations (1968, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009)
- Best performance: Semi-finals (1985)
- Copa
Sudamericana: 3 participations (2005, 2006, 2007)
- Best performance: Second round (2006,
2007)
- Copa CONMEBOL: 2
participations (1992, 1994)
- Best performance: Semi-finals (1992)
- Copa
Merconorte: 3 participations (1998, 1999, 2000)
- Best performance: Semi-finals (1998)
See also
Ecuadorian Army
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
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