Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club is a professional football club of the city of San Cristóbal, Venezuela. Founded on 11 January 1974, by Gaetano Greco, the club was originally known as "San Cristóbal Fútbol Club".
The club plays its home matches at the Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, which has a capacity of 42,500. Since 1975, it participates in the Venezuelan Primera División, making it the only Venezuelan team that has never fallen or participated in the lower category. Currently it holds the first position of the historical classification of the Venezuelan Primera División with 2229 points.
At the international level, Táchira is the Venezuelan club with the most appearances in the Copa Libertadores. Its best international participation was its advance to the quarter-finals unbeaten in the Copa Libertadores 2004. It is one of two Venezuelan clubs that have advanced past the first phase of the Copa Libertadores, or reached the quarter-finals.
It also has a Futsal team called Deportivo Tachira Fútsal Club, which plays in the Venezuelan Futsal League and the Superior Futsal Tournament.
Táchira's main rival is Caracas FC, with whom it contests the "Clásico Moderno" of Venezuelan football. It also plays the so-called "Andean Derby" (Clásico Andino) against Estudiantes de Mérida.
History In 1970, Italian-born Gaetano Greco founded an amateur club called Juventus in San Cristóbal, named after the Juventus FC. In 1974, Greco noticed that there were no professional football clubs in Táchira, so he decided to found a club in Táchira based on the amateur Juventus club. He and twelve other people founded the club on 11 January of that year, which they named San Cristóbal Fútbol Club. Most of the club's players came from the Juventus club. Initially, the club's colors were blue and white, similar to the Italy national football team kits.
In January 1975, the club changed its colors to yellow and black, because those colors better represented the Táchira state and were the preferred colors of the Uruguayan manager José "Pocho" Gil, as they were the colors of the Uruguayan team Peñarol.
In the 2016 season, Deportivo Táchira drew an average home league attendance of 5,595 in the Apertura and 4,033 in the Clausura, the highest in the domestic league.
Naming history YearName1974San Cristóbal Fútbol Club1975Deportivo San Cristóbal Fútbol Club1978Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club1986Unión Atlético Táchira1999Deportivo Táchira Fútbol Club
Stadium
The club's home stadium is Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, located in San Cristóbal. It has a maximum capacity of 42,500 people.
Supporters The team's supporters are known as aurinegros ("gold-and-blacks"). The supporters are mainly divided into three groups; La Torcida Aurinegra , La Avalancha Sur, and Comando Sur.
Several of the team's supporters have committed violent acts in the past towards the supporters of opposing teams. One of the most tragic events took place on 17 December 2000, when the club and Caracas drew 2–2, which gave the Copa República Bolivariana de Venezuela's title to Caracas, causing angry supporters of Deportivo Táchira to burn the Caracas team bus.Los Gochigans – El Universal (1 November 2003)
Derby Games between Deportivo Táchira and Estudiantes de Mérida are known as the Clásico de Los Andes (meaning Andes' Derby). However, in recent years games between Deportivo Táchira and Caracas have been known as the modern derby, because of the successful performance of both teams. A former rival of Deportivo Táchira in the 1980s and early 1990s was Marítimo de Venezuela, a former team from Caracas.
Colors Deportivo Táchira's shirt has black and yellow vertical stripes, with black shorts and socks.
Honours National Primera División Winners (11): 1979, 1981, 1984, 1986, 1999-2000, 2007–08, 2010–11, 2014–15, 2021, 2023, 2024
Copa Venezuela Winners (2): 1982, 1983
International Appearances Copa Libertadores: 25 appearances
1980: First Round 1982: First Round 1983: First Round 1985: First Round 1987: First Round 1988: First Round 1989: Round of 16 1991: Round of 16
2000: Preliminary Round 2001: First Round 2004: Quarter-finals 2005: Second Round 2006: First Round 2007: First Round 2009: Second Round 2010: First Round 2011: Second Round 2012: Second Round 2015: Second Round 2016: Round of 16 2017: First Round 2018: First Round 2020: First Round 2021: Second Round 2022: Second Round
Copa Sudamericana: 5 appearances 2002: Preliminary Round 2012: Preliminary Round 2021: Round of 16 2022: Quarter-finals 2023: First round
Copa CONMEBOL: 3 appearances 1993: First Round 1996: First Round 1997: First Round
Deportivo Táchira is the Venezuelan club with the most Copa Libertadores appearances and the most runner-up finishes in the Venezuelan league. It has won nine national championships. The club's best Copa Libertadores participation was in 2004, when the club became the second team to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition without losing a match, having played against strong teams such as River Plate (Argentina), Libertad (Paraguay), Deportes Tolima (Colombia), and Nacional (Uruguay), before facing São Paulo (Brazil) in the quarter-finals.
Current squad
Out on loan
Notable players Tomás Rincón (2008) Cesar "El Maestrico" Gonzalez Daniel Francovig Carlos Maldonado
Head coaches Luis Miloc (1977–78) Esteban Beracochea (1978–83) (Campeón 79 y 81) Marcos Calderón (1983) Carlos Horacio Moreno (1984–89) (Campeón 84 y 86) Richard Páez (1991) Walter Roque (1999–01) (Campeón 99-00) César Farías (2003–05) Manuel Plasencia (2005–07) Carlos Maldonado (2007–2010) (Campeón 07-08) Jorge Luis Pinto (2010–2011) (Campeón 10-11) Jesús Vera (2011) Jaime de la Pava (2012) Manuel Contreras (2012) Daniel Farías (2013–2015) (Campeón 14-15) Carlos Maldonado (2015–2016) Santiago Escobar (2016-2017) Francesco Stifano (2017-2018) Álex Pallares (2018) Giovanny Pérez (2019) Juan Domingo Tolisano (2019-2021) (Campeón 2021) Álex Pallares (2022) Eduardo Saragó (2022–2024)
References
External links