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Club Deportivo Cruz Azul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cruz Azul | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Club Deportivo Social y Cultural Cruz Azul A.C. |
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| Nickname(s) | Cementeros (Cement Workers) La Máquina (The Locomotive) La Maquina Celeste (The Celestial Locomotive) La Maquina Azul (The Blue Locomotive) |
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| Founded | 1927 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Estadio Azul, Mexico City, DF, Mexico |
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| Capacity | 42,900 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman | Guillermo Álvarez Cuevas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manager |  Isaac Mizrahi |
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| League | Primera División de México | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Apertura 2006 | 5th (playoffs) 1st (league) 1st (group) |
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Club Deportivo Social y Cultural Cruz Azul, also known as Cruz Azul, is a popular Mexican professional football club. Cruz Azul plays in the Primera División de México and its home venue is the Estadio Azul, located in the Southwestern part of Mexico City in the Napoles neighborhood. The team moved in there in 1996, after playing many seasons at the Estadio Azteca.
Los Cementeros are traditionally one of the biggest and most successful teams in Mexico; they have been champions 8 times, tied with Toluca, and trail only Club America with 10, and Guadalajara with 11. The club is also even with Club America for most CONCACAF Champions' Cup with 5. Cruz Azul was also the first (and still only) Mexican club to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores when they lost in penalties to Argentine giants Boca Juniors.
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It was founded as an amateur team on May 22nd, 1927 by the workers of the cement makers Cemento Cruz Azul, located on the town of Jasso, Hidalgo. Cemento Cruz Azul still sponsors the team, although sponsorship is currently shared with Coca-Cola and Telcel.
Guillermo Álvarez Macías and Carlos Garcés were the main figures behind the creation effort and the quick success of the team, which frequently represented the state of Hidalgo in national amateur tournaments.
From 1927 to 1960, the amateur team played many times in Mexico City, against the reserve squads of established professional teams such as Club América, Necaxa, Atlante, Asturias and Marte. Considering the increasing success of the team, the new administration of the cement company (which changed its name to "Cooperativa Cruz Azul") decided in 1960 to build a stadium in Jasso, the Estadio 10 de Diciembre, and officially registered the team on the professional ascent division (Segunda División) for the 1960-61 season.
By 1964, under the Hungarian coach Jorge Marik, the team won the Segunda División championship, earning the right to play the following season in the highest circuit of professional football in Mexico, the Primera División.
That first season ended with an eighth place finish and increased hopes for the future. Just 4 years later, Cruz Azul won its first league tournament, under coach Raúl Cárdenas.
Cruz Azul became the most successful Mexican team of the '70s, winning the league tournament 6 times between 1970 and 1980, four of them under Raul Cárdenas, and the last two with Ignacio Trelles at the helm. Such dominance earned them the nickname La Máquina (The Locomotive), which is still used as the unofficial nickname of the team.
1997 brought the team its eighth and most recent championship during the Invierno 1997 tournament, under coach Luis Fernando Tena.
In 2001, Cruz Azul was invited to a tournament between some Mexican and Venezuelan teams. The two best teams of this tournament earned the right to play in the Copa Libertadores, a tournament of the all the best teams of South America. Cruz Azul qualified for the Copa Libertadores in its first try,and reached the final match.Cruz Azul was placed in Group 7 along with teams such as Sao Caetano,Defensor Sporting,and Olmedo.Cruz Azul finished leader of the group with 13 points.In the round of 16 Cruz Azul faced Cerro Porteño.The first leg was played in Asunción and Cruz Azul lost 2-1.The second leg was played in Mexico and Cruz Azul won the game 3-1.The aggregate score was 4-3 in favor of Cruz Azul and they moved on to the quarterfinals.In the quarterfinals Cruz Azul faced CA River Plate of Argentina.The first leg of the match was played in Buenos Aires and ended in a 0-0 draw.The second leg was played in Mexico and Cruz Azul won 3-0.Cruz Azul was having a great run and played Rosario Central in the semifinals.The first leg was played in Mexico and Cruz Azul won the game 2-0.The second leg was played in Rosario in a very exciting match which ended in a 3-3 draw in favor of Cruz Azul due to the 2-0 victory in the first leg.In the final match,Cruz Azul played against the Argentinian club Boca Juniors, Cruz Azul lost at home the first leg 1-0, but came back to win the second leg with the same score, at Boca's stadium La Bombonera. Until then, no team had ever won a Copa Libertadores final match there. After the overtime due to the tie, the championship was decided by penalty kicks, where the more experienced Boca Juniors prevailed. Still, Cruz Azul surprised everybody with the unprecedented feat of reaching the final on their first try by defeating established Brazilian and Argentinian teams such as Sao Caetano, Rosario Central and CA River Plate.
On July 19, 2005, Cruz Azul's coach Ruben Omar Romano, who had taken over as coach of the club in December 2004, was kidnapped after a training session outside the club's headquarters. He was released on the 21st of September and came back to coach the team very shortly afterwards. His assistant Isaac Mizrahi, who had stood in for Romano during his kidnapping, replaced him as coach on the 15th of December 2005.
In the 2006 Clausura Cruz Azul started off great,but in the middle of the season they had a hard time to add points up in the table.Cruz Azul recovered and finished the regular season as the leader in points of the general table.They have not won a title since the championship they won against Leon in 1997. For the Apertura 2006, Cruz Azul made it to the quarterfinals and faced Chivas in the Estadio Jalisco. In the first leg Cruz Azul played a very poor game and lost 2-0. On November 25, 2006 Cruz Azul played the second leg at Estadio Azul and played a brilliant game. Cruz Azul started off strong and put Chivas keeper Oswaldo Sanchez to the test on many occasions. In the middle of the first half, defender Salvador Carmona pushed a Chivas player in the penalty area and cost Cruz Azul a penalty.Ramon Morales had no problem and put the score 1-0 in favor of Chivas in the 39th minute. Cruz Azul kept creating chances and at the end of the first half Cesar Delgado made a great play that Richard Nunez finished with a goal to tie the game right before halftime in the 45th minute.In the second half Chivas scored thanks to Ramon Morales again to put the score 2-1 in favor of Chivas. Cruz Azul didn't give up and Miguel Sabah tied the game 2-2 in the 62 minute. Cruz Azul played a great game and ended up tying the game 2-2, but losing 4-2 on aggregate.
Cruz Azul is currently being provided jerseys by English company Umbro who also provides jerseys for teams such as Chile's Colo-Colo,Brazil's Atletico Paranaense,and France's Olympique Lyonnais.
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In:
- Jared Borgetti - Transferred from Al-Ittihad
Walter Vilchez - Transferred from Sporting Cristal
Out:
Javier Campora - Transferred to Jaguares de Chiapas
Primera División A: Cruz Azul Oaxaca
segunda division: Cruz Azul Hidalgo
tercera division: Cruz Azul México
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CRUZ AZULes el mejor
| Primera División de México, Apertura 2006 & Clausura 2007 | ||
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Group 1 |
Group 2 |
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| League Levels | ||
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Primera División de México | Primera División A | Segunda División | Tercera División |
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| Miscellaneous | ||
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List of champions | El Clásico (Regiomontano) | InterLiga | SuperLiga |
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