THE HISTORY OF RIVER PLATE

The club was created in a neighborhood called La Boca in the year 1901. It’s the fusion of the clubs 'Santa Rosa' and 'La Rosales', and it adopted the name River Plate. The club had its stadium in Sarandí for a short time, and then the club moved to Recoleta where it had its own stadium.

After that, the club grew and because of that it had to move to Belgrano, where it is nowadays.

The stadium's official name is 'Antonio Vespucio Liberti' but it's called 'El Monumental': it's the biggest stadium in Argentina and the sixth in America with a capacity for 61321 people and it's where the National Football Team plays its matches.

The club is one of the 'Five Giants' of Argentine football, since the AFA implemented the proportional vote in 1937 which consists in giving more power of decision to the biggest and oldest clubs.

River Plate has a strong rivalry with the club Boca Juniors; the 'Superclásico' is the name that was given to the matches in which they faced each other being these the most important sports events in the country.

The greatest achievement that River Plate obtained was when it was named the World Champion after winning the match against the club 'Steaua de Bucarest' of Rumania in the national stadium of Tokio, in the final of the Intercontinental Cup. Thanks to that, River Plate is one of the 29 teams in the world that have won the maximum football championship of clubs.

River Plate is the biggest winner in the history of Argentine football with 56 titles. In its country, the club has the record of winning 36 championships of the first division. Furthermore, the club has got the title of champion in 8 national cups and 15 international titles.

River Plate is at the top of the historical table of the first division of Argentine football, because it is the club with the biggest number of matches won and goals scored. In addition, it is the club with less matches lost and less goals received, and it is the team which has won more times a 'Tricampeonato'.

Emiliano Colombo, Franco Henríquez, Ignacio Lauzao and Facundo Paiz - 4th Year

THE HISTORY OF BOCA JUNIORS

Boca Juniors was founded in the year 1905 in Buenos Aires.

Since the beginning of Boca Juniors, football is the most important sport. From 1905 to 1930 the club was amateur, then it became professional.

Is the second institution with the most amount of international titles of the world…but, how did it all start? 

The foundation of Boca Juniors was a work of six teenagers, children of Italians and neighbors of La Boca, neighborhood of immigrant workers and strong Genoese identity –‘xeneize’ in its dialect-: Esteban Baglietto, Alfredo Scarpatti, Santiago Pedro Sana, Tomás Movio and the brothers Juan Antonio Farenga and Teodoro Farenga.

The club recognized Esteban Baglietto as its first president. Esteban was born in 1888 in Buenos Aires -though his parents were Genoese- in the bosom of a very humble family. He was the first president of the institution and also a player of the first team.

The certain thing is that it turns out to be inappropriate to speak about a president since –back then- Boca Juniors was just a boys' team joined by the only desire to play football; very distant from answering to an institutional worry or to an organization with legal status.

The first football team was formed by eleven players who, by that first participation, have a place in history. Some of them were the following: 

De los Santos (goalkeeper), Vergara and Cerezo (defenders), Priano, Antonio Farenga and Bacigaluppi (scorers).

THE SUPER-CLASSIC

The super-classic of Argentine Football is the match in which the two most popular football teams play against each other: Boca Juniors and River Plate. The first official super-classic was disputed on August 24, 1993: River won 2-1 to Boca.

The ‘Super-classic’ of Argentine football is the party that faces the most popular soccer teams of the country: River Plate and Boca Juniors. This sports’ spectacle concentrates the attention of the big masses not only in Argentina, but in many countries of the world. 

Very few international matches have the heat, the color, and the vibration of a River-Boca: the previous reunion of friends, sharing food and beer, the coffee conversations over the match, the discussions between ‘xeneizes’ and ‘hens’, everything is part of the best folklore that football has to offer to fans. 

This rivalry began at the beginning of the 20th century when the above mentioned clubs were sharing the neighborhood of La Boca.

The most important players throughout the history of Boca Juniors are:

Juan Román Riquelme

Diego Armando Maradona

Gabriel Batistuta

Carlos Tévez

Martín Palermo

Bruno Blas, Felipe Tozzini and Agustín Converso - 3rd Year

THE LIBERTADORES CUP

The Libertadores Cup was created on 1960. Before, it was known with the name of ‘Champions Cup of America’. It's called ‘The Libertadores Cup’ in honor to Jose de San Martín, Don Pedro I, Simón Bolivar, José Gervasio Artigas, José Miguel Carrera and Miguel Hidalgo Costilla. 

On 1960, Peñarol won against Olimpo and became the first champion of the cup.

The country with more wins is Argentina, with 23: Independiente is the first winner of cups with 7; Boca has 6 and Estudiantes de La Plata, 4.

San Lorenzo, Estudiantes, Boca Juniors, Racing, Huracán and River Plate have played it.

The Libertadores Cup of America is scheduled to continue in July, on semifinals with the participation of Argentinean, Paraguayan, Mexican and Brazilian teams. The quarter finals were completed last May and the tournament stopped to give place to the American Cup, a competition for national teams.

River won the match against Cruzeiro of Brazil in quarter finals and Guarani won against Racing Club. Tigre left out the Ecuadorian team Elemec and Internacional won the quarter finals against Independiente of Santa Fe.

Playing semifinals are River Plate (Argentina), Guaraní (Paraguay), Tigres (Mexico) and Internacional (Brazil). They will face each other and the winners are playing on a day to be confirmed by the South American Confederation of Football.

On July 14th, the semifinals were played. River Plate (Argentina) played against Club Guaraní (Paraguay). The ‘Millionaires’ won 2-0 with goals by Gabriel Mercado and Rodrigo Mora. 

The other semifinal was played the following day in the city of Porto Alegre, where Tigres (México) won against Internacional (Brazil). 

A week later, Guaraní was left out by River Plate; and the dream ended for Internacional when Tigres finally won the match. 

The moment everyone was expecting arrived, and Tigres had to face River Plate on the finals. 

After two matches, River Plate won 3-0 with goals by Alario, Funes Mori and Sánchez. 

When the match ended, River fans went to the Obelisk where they celebrated their victory, after 19 years of waiting for a Libertadores Cup.

Jazmín Mendoza, Tobías Zavalía, Brian Converso, Matías Bruno, Lautaro Morano, Sol Bidondo – 4th Year

THE FIVE GIANTS

How many times did we hear people talking about the 'Five Giants' of Argentinean football? How come these five are the ones chosen to be 'giants'? 

In 1934, when the Argentinean Association of Football (AFA) was created, the most popular clubs wanted to have more power to make important decisions, such as the election of the president of the AFA, the approval of materials used within the football field and so on. 

In a reunion, which took place on 5 August of 1937, they decided to establish a proportional votes system. Following this new system, the clubs were divided into three categories, according to the number of associates and championships won. 

The clubs that had more than 15000 people associated, 20 years of consecutive participation in the first division and had been champions of that category 2 or more times, had three votes. 

Those clubs with more than 10000 associates but less than 15000; or those that had been champions of the first division once only, had two votes.

The clubs that didn't cover the previous requirements only had one vote.

Boca Juniors, Independiente, Racing Club, River Plate and San Lorenzo were the five clubs that had the opportunity of voting three times. Because of this, they're called ‘The Five Giants’. 

But people often discuss about this, which teams are the five giants for you?

Emiliano Colombo, Ignacio Lauzao, Facundo Paiz, Franco Henriquez – 4^th Year