Alajuelense

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Full name	Liga Deportiva Alajuelense
Nickname(s)	La Liga Manudos Rojinegros Erizos
Founded	June 18, 1919.
Ground	Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto, El Llano de Alajuela, 17,895 capacity
Manager	Oscar Ramírez
League	Primera División, Costa Rica
Invierno 2011	1st (Champions)
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (L.D.A.), is a Costa Rican football club, currently playing in the Primera División de Costa Rica. It was founded on June 18, 1919. The team is located in Alajuela's downtown and they play their local games at the Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto.

Alajuelense was the first Costa Rican team to win a CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 1986, which led them to become the first Costa Rican team to play the Interamerican Cup against CA River Plate. The club is known by their fans as "La Liga" and had the privilege to be the only Central American club to participate in South American competitions such as Copa Merconorte in 2000 ^[1] and the Copa Sudamericana in 2006.

They are the only club in Costa Rica football history with at least one Championship gained in each decade. It also shares along with CS Herediano being the only team that has never descended nor played in the Second nor Third division.

Liga Deportiva Alajuelense is the Costa Rican team that has reached the highest position in the Club's World Ranking based on IFFHS back in 2000. The team reached the 27th spot, being the best place ever reached by a Central American club.

History[link]

The team was created in 1919 when a group of friends that used to play in a team called the "Electra" at first and then "Once de Abril" (April the 11th) met at "Salon París". They wanted to give the city a team that could represent them at a national level. They played their first official game on August 2 of that same year against CS Cartaginés getting their first victory, 3 – 1.

Alajuelense was part of the 7 teams that built and formed the National League in Costa Rica, back in 1921, along with La Libertad, Sociedad Gimnástica Española, CS Herediano, CS Cartaginés, CS La Unión de Tres Ríos, y la Sociedad Gimnástica Limonense. They won their first championship in 1928. They are the only team to win the championship with a perfect record; in 1941 they won all 6 games^[2]. In 1960, the team made a tour around the world, leaving Costa Rica on September 17. In 78 days the team played 24 games, winning 12, losing 7 and the other 5 ended up tied. They scored 71 goals and received 47, with a remarkable performance from Juan Ulloa Ramírez, being the best player and top scorer of this tour.

Throughout their history, Liga Deportiva Alajuelense has generated a lot of great players and stunning performances. They are known as one of the best teams in the Central America area. Their best decade was the 1990s, during which they won 4 Championships and 4 sub-championships (runner up) as well. In addition to that, by the end of the 90's and the middle of the 2000s, they won a total of 5 local championships (4 of them in a row), 2 Copa Interclubes UNCAF Throphies and a CONCACAF Club Champions, being the base for the Costa Rican football team in the Korea and Japan 2002 FIFA World Cup, with 9 players.

By November 11, 2000 ^[3] and after participating in the Copa Merconorte, Alajuelense was ranked in the 27th spot, based on IFFHS's Club World Ranking. It has been the best rank by the team and the best any other Central American club have reached.

The club struggled with some financial and administrative problems in the second part on the 2000s decade, so they decided to end contract with a lot of their regular and known players and started to build a team based on their younger divisions and make some structural changes. Nowadays the club is free of debts and with a team averaging 25 year-old players is still one of the best teams in the area and one of the teams with most fans in Costa Rica. They have won the last 3 championships in its country and participated in the last CONCACAF Champions League being eliminated in the group stage for just one away goal.

Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto - Scotiabank[link]

The stadium is owned and operated by La Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, and is located in El Llano de Alajuela.

The project to find a proper site for a permanent home started in 1938, when the director of the club, Carlos Bolaños, proposed that the club should purchase its own land. The land was purchased on October the 7th in 1940, but the terrain would not be football-ready until 1942, when Alajuelense played its first match at the site. The first game was played on January 18, 1942, when Liga Deportiva Alajuelense played Club Sport Cartagines, the stadium only had a simple wooden stand that was previously used in the Estadio Nacional.

On September 27, 1949 a professor from a local high school named Armando Morux Sancho, started what was called "La marcha del ladrillo" (The Brick's March) in which every student would donate a brick to help building the concrete walls of the stadium and start building the concrete stands. The first stands that were built were the ones located in north, west an east around the pitch.

On July 20, 1966, due to a motion by the Municipality of Alajuela, the stadium was renamed to honor the great Alajuelense and FC Barcelona player Alejandro Morera Soto. On March 19, 1970, the stadium saw its first night game when Alajuelense faced Honduran club Motagua, beating them 4–1. The stadium is not only home to Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, but it is also shares itself along with Estadio Ricardo Saprissa as the home of the Costa Rican National team.

In 1979 the enlargement of the stadium iniates with the project of building a second stand on top of the first already built and add an additional stand over the dressing and conference room (south) and also, add roof to the stand located on east and the one located on south after was finished. The project was fully completed in 1984. The stadium was re-innaugurated that year along with the new ilummination, which was at the moment, in the top ilumminations systems.

In the mid 90's and with the Costa Rican football getting more attention by the international press after the team winning he CONCACAF Cup, the national team assisting to the World Cup in 1990 and with footballers playing abroad, the club decided to built a royal box in the top of the west stand, which would have a two-floor royal box with TVs, carpet, bathrooms, elevator and air conditioner. The royal box was finished in 1999 and is the only team in Costa Rica with such an especial treatment to their fans.

In 2002, the illumination system was upgraded, being the stadium with the best illumination in the country.

Until 2005, the Morera Soto's grass was known as the best natural one in Central America, but a conbination of fungus and hurricanes destroyed the grass and it never fully recovered. By the end of 2008, the management of the team decided to install a 5th generation synthetic grass, in order to have the field always ready for games no matter the weather, also have the availability to rent the place for music concerts and/or special events and have the possibility for the younger divisions to train in the same field. The last game the team played at the natural turf was the first game of the 2008 winter's final, beating their archrival Deportivo Saprissa 2 – 0 on December 17, 2008.

In 2009, the club installed a synthetic turf called Xtreme Turf from ACT Global Sports. This football turf has achieved FIFA two star certification for approval for top international matches. This is the only FIFA two-star installation currently in Central America. After a long delay, the field was ready to be used by July 18, 2009. The field's re-opening game was held against Caracas FC from Venezuela, the game ended up with a tie 1 – 1.

Now the Stadium has a gym, museum with pictures, wallpapers, banners and approximately 500 trophies, physiotherapy center, clinic (Clinica Deportiva Longino Soto Pacheco), meeting rooms, press conference room and two additional smaller pitches so all the first division and their minor divisions can have the same treatment (Gimnasio multiuso Salvador Soto Villegas). The size of the field was shrunk a little bit, it used to be the biggest in Costa Rica. In 2010 became the first stadium in the country to have the no-smoke rule within the facilities.

From 2011 on, the international bank: Scotiabank signed a sponsor agreement in which both LDA and them are going to have control of the stadium for extra-football activities, this led the stadium to have the "last name" Scotiabank.

Mascot[link]

The team is now represented by a Lion dressed with the team uniform and wearing cleats as if he was going to play.

In every home game, the mascot comes out at the pitch before the game starts and plays on the field with fans, jockes with rival's fans, walk through the pitch with models giving away gifts from their sponsors and cheers the team with a huge team's flag. Before the game starts and during the half-time break, the Lion walks among the crowd and stands for pictures with the children.

The original mascot used to be a Mango, this because the team is located in Alajuela that is known as "La Ciudad de los Mangos" ("The Mangoes' City") because of the high amount of Mango Trees that could be located in the province due its weather, but later on in the early 80's, the mascot was changed into a Lion.

The Lion was chosen years ago because it represents four main attributes of the major king of the jungle, that are reflected on the team's vision and mission: Courage, Strength, Dynamism and Fidelity.

Sponsors[link]

Shirt supplier

PUMA (for all divisions)

Shirt sponsors

Movistar – Tuasa - Citroen - Repretel - Mobil

Stadium sponsor

Scotiabank

Youth Division sponsors

Banco Nacional de Costa Rica - Colchones Luxor - Coca Cola

Notable players[link]

Nationals

Foreigners

Retired numbers[link]

20 – Mauricio Montero, defender (1987–1998)

Notable Coaches[link]

Honors[link]

National[link]

• Costa Rican Championship: 27

1928, 1939, 1941, 1945, 1949, 1950, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05, Invierno 2010, Verano 2011, Invierno 2011

• Runner-up (20):

1930, 1938, 1944, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1972, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2007–08, 2008 (Apertura), 2009 (Clausura)

Costa Rican Short-Tournament Championships:

• Apertura (6): 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2010, 2011

• Clausura (7): 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2011

• Copa Argentor (1): 1928 (One of the oldest and important titles of Costa Rica, since in this tournament the clubs participated of first, second and third divisions of the country eliminating itself to each other)

• Copa de Campeones del Futbol Nacional (1): 1967

Tournament Cups

• 3 Costa Rican Great Britain Cup
• 1 Costa Rican Tournament Cup
• 2 Relampago Tournament
• 1 Estadio Nacional Cup
• 1 Borsalino Trophy
• 1 Guatemala Cup
• 1 Camel Cup
• 1 Costa Rican Tournament (The first official tournament played in Costa Rica in 1919. The team won the championship under the name of "Electra")

International[link]

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 2

1986, 2004

Runner-up (3): 1971, 1992, 1999

• Copa Interclubes UNCAF: 3

1996, 2002, 2005

Runner-up (2): 1999, 2000

Interamerican Cup: 0

Runner-up (1): 1986

Other Internacional Championships

1961: (Central American & Caribbean Champions)

1992: (Central American Champions)

2000: (Copa LG Uncaf (Panama) Champions)

2004: (Fifa Japan World Club Cup Classified. 1rst Costa Rica Club Classified.(Fifa decline to do the championship)

Friendly Tournaments:

2004: Copa Taca de Campeon de Campeones de America, against Once Caldas (former Copa Libertadores Champion)

Current squad[link]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Patrick Pemberton (3rd Captain) 2 DF Elías Palma 4 MF Kenner Gutiérrez (+) 5 MF Cristian Oviedo (2nd Captain) 6 MF José Salvatierra 7 MF Diego Calvo 7 MF Kenneth García 7 MF Francisco Flores Zapata 9 FW Steven Calderón 10 FW Froylán Ledezma 11 FW Alejandro Alpízar 12 MF Pablo Gabas (Captain) 13 MF Luis Miguel Valle 14 DF Cristopher Meneses 15 MF Armando Alonso 16 DF Allen Guevara

No. Position Player 17 FW Kevin Sancho 19 FW Alejandro Aguilar 19 FW Anderson Andrade 19 FW Jean Carlo Solorzano 22 DF Verny Ramírez 24 DF Ariel Soto 25 DF Jhonny Acosta (+) 26 MF Vianney Blanco 27 MF Wálter Chévez 28 MF Juan Gabriel Guzmán 29 MF Jorge Davies 30 DF Jorge Gatgens 32 GK Alfonso Quesada (+) 33 GK Esteban Carrillo

(+) Long term injury

Out on loan[link]

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 30 FW Jean Carlos Solórzano (on loan at Melbourne Victory) 11 FW Yendrick Ruiz (on loan at Puntarenas FC) 10 MF Diego Brenes (on loan at Puntarenas FC) 15 DF Joseph Mora (on loan at Belen FC) 22 MF Olger Guzman (on loan at Belen FC)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website of Liga Deportiva Alajuelense
• Alajuelense.com
• La Gloriosa 12
• Alajuela
• la 12
• Blog Manudo
• Virtual stadium [2]