Universitario de Deportes is a Peruvian football club located in Lima. Also referred to as Universitario or La U, it is one of most successful football clubs in Peru. It was founded in 1924 as Federación Universitaria by professors and students from the National University of San Marcos but was forced to re-name in 1931. Since 1928, the club has always played in the top tier of Peruvian football, the First Peruvian Division (Primera División Peruana). Since 2000, its home games have been played at the Estadio Monumental, the largest in Peru. Universitario and Alianza Lima are involved in a derby called the Peruvian Super Classic (Superclásico Peruano), which started in 1928. Universitario has won twenty-four first division titles, more than any other club in Peru, and was the first Peruvian club to reach the final of the Copa Libertadores. The club won its first national title in 1929, one year after its debut in the first division. Its first Bi-Championship (bicampeonato) title was won in the seasons of 1945 and 1946. Its last title, won in 2000, was also its Tri-Championship title. Universitario's youth team is América Cochahuayco which currently participates in the Peruvian Second Division.
The club was founded on August 7, 1924 as Federación Universitaria by students and professors of the National University of San Marcos such as José Rubio—the first president—and Dr. Luis Málaga—the creator of the badge. Other people present during the foundation were Plácido Galindo, Eduardo Astengo, Mario de las Casas, Alberto Denegri, Luis de Souza Ferreyra and Andrés Rotta. At first, Federacion Universitaria was a small league that held tournaments between the faculty departments of the university.[1] The National Sports Committee (El Comité Nacional de Deportes)—the highest-ranking sports committee of Peru at the time—recognized Federación Universitaria as an official league; along with other small leagues in Lima and Callao. They all joined the Peruvian Football Federation (Federación Peruana de Fútbol, FPF). Although there was no requirement to play a tournament in order to be promoted to the Peruvian First Division, the club did not play in it between 1924 and 1927 as it only played friendly matches with other teams during this period.[2] In 1928, the FPF finally allowed the club to enter the First Division. The club surprised its own fans and others that year because they ended as runner-ups of that season. During that season, on September 231928, Universitario played the first superclásico with Alianza Lima (the champion of the 1927 season) and won 1-0. However, it lost to Alianza in the finals 2-0. The following year Universitario won its first tournament and was crowned as Peruvian champion, preventing Alianza Lima from winning a third consecutive title.[1] In 1931, the rector of the university, José Antonio Encinas, forbade the club to use the name Federación Universitaria in their team name. As a result, the club changed its name to Universitario de Deportes retaining the symbolic U in their name.[1] In 1971, Universitario won its fourteenth first division title and qualified for the 1972 edition of the Copa Libertadores under the Uruguayan head coach Roberto Scarone along with Alianza Lima who placed second that season. They were grouped with the Chilean teams Unión San Felipe and Universidad de Chile in Group 4. Universitario's first game was the Peruvian superclásico which it won 2-1. The following game was held in Santiago de Chile against Universidad de Chile where it lost 1-0. Universitario later tied with the other Chilean team in Santiago. Universitario returned to Lima to face Alianza Lima again where they tied 2-2. At that point Universitario and Universidad de Chile had accumulated 4 points while Alianza and Unión San Felipe had 3. Universitario won the remaining games against the Chilean teams in Lima, obtaining 8 points and qualifying for the next round.[3][4] Universitario was grouped with the Uruguayan clubs Peñarol—a three-time winner of the Copa Libertadores—and Nacional—the previous edition's winner—in the semi-final group stage. La U started off losing their first match against Peñarol in Lima. In that match, La U did not play with five of their starting players because they were called to play for the Peru national football team. However, they won the following game against Nacional 3-0. They then visited both teams in Montevideo tieing both games, 3-3 against Nacional and 1-1 against Peñarol. Universitario had accumulated 4 points and there was only one game left between Peñarol and Nacional, which had 4 and 2 points respectively. All three teams had a chance of qualifying for the next round. Peñarol only needed a win but Nacional needed a win by 5 goals. The game ended 3-0 in favor of Nacional allowing Universitario to qualify for the final round where they would face Independiente.[3]
The starting line-up of the team that won the tri-championship in 2000 at the Estadio Monumental.
The first leg of the final was played in Lima where they tied 0-0. The game in Argentina ended 2-1 in favor of the Argentines; Percy Rojas scored the late goal for Universitario. This was Percy Rojas' sixth goal in the tournament. He, along with Teófilo Cubillas, Oswaldo Ramírez, and Toninho, were the top-scorers.[5] Although Universitario lost, they had achieved something a Peruvian club had never before, reach the final of the Copa Libertadores, the most prestigious international competition in South America.[3][4] By winning in 1998, 1999, and 2000, Universitario won their first Tri-Championship (Tricampeonato, or three consecutive titles). The 1998 title was won under Oswaldo Piazza and Roberto Challe led the club to the other two titles. It was the third Peruvian team to do this; the first being Alianza Lima and the second Sporting Cristal. Universitario has not won another league title since 2000. It was also during the 2000 season that they were the second Peruvian club to win an Apertura and Clausura in a single season; the first being Alianza Lima in 1997. In the Copa Libertadores, Universitario made it to the Round of 16 in 1998 only to lose to Velez Sarsfield. In 1999 and 2000 they failed to get past the group stage. Universitario also qualified for all four editions of the Copa Merconorte between 1999 and 2001 but did not have a lot of success due to being eliminated in the group stage. In 2002, Universitario beat Alianza Lima in the Apertura playoff but failed to finish in the top four of the 2002 Clausura and were not able to dispute the national title. With the Apertura title they qualified for the Copa Libertadores 2003 and again failed to get past the group stage. In 2005, Universitario placed first on the aggregate table and qualified for the Copa Libertadores 2006, where they won on away goals against Nacional in the preliminary round—2-2 in Paraguay and 0-0 in Peru. Despite entering the group stage with high hopes, their group-stage campaign did not go well, finishing last with 2 points.
Jersey used by the club during the 2002 season in which they won the Apertura tournament.
Universitario qualified for was the Copa Sudamericana 2007 under Jorge Amado Nunes by finishing fifth on the aggregate table in the 2006 season. They came close to qualify for the Copa Libertadores 2007 by tying with Cienciano in the Clausura and losing to them in the playoff. Before the start of the 2007 season, Nunes was dismissed from the team as manager and temporarily replaced by the Colombian Edgar Ospina. However, after the newly-elected president Gino Pinasco took charge, Nunes was re-hired and dismissed again. His assistant manager Julio Gomez took over and led them in the Copa Sudamericana 2007 but were eliminated in the preliminary round by Atletico Nacional—0-1 in Peru and 1-0 in Colombia. During the 2007 season, Julio Gomez produced poor results for the club which led the club to replace him with the Argentine Ricardo Gareca. Under Gareca, Universitario once again almost came close to qualify for the Copa Libertadores but fell short one point to Coronel Bolognesi. They finished 4th on the aggregate table and qualified for the Copa Sudamericana 2008.
Colors and badge
Universitario's colors are cream (called crema in Spanish), red, burgundy (called guinda in Spanish), and black. When playing a home game they use the crema-colored kit with black socks and when playing away they use the burgundy-colored kit with black socks. The club's colors at first were not crema. They started out with a white kit which had the badge on the chest. During one of their early seasons, Universitario could not participate in an upcoming match because their uniforms had been sent to the laundry to be washed. The managers pleaded that they hurry with the laundry and they quickly washed them. However, when the club received the jerseys, they found that they were no longer white, but yellow. The laundry workers had forgotten to remove the badges from the jerseys and consequently the red color from the badges mixed with the white jerseys giving it a yellow tint. The club had no choice but to use the jersey to play. They managed to win that game and a few others as well and thus the club kept the new-colored kit as a good-luck charm.[6] The badge is a red U inside a red circle drawn by Luis Malaga, one of the founders of the club.
Internal view from a palco on the day it was inaugurated. Universitario defeated Sporting Cristal 2-0 for the 2000 Apertura.
The western stand known as Occidente. The center of the stand is a private area for about 600 spectators, with the palcos above the entire stand.
Universitario's first stadium was the Estadio Teodoro Lolo Fernandez. It had a capacity of 12,500. Its capacity was reduced to 4,000 and now serves as a soccer academy for its club members and hosts soccer games for the reserve team América Cochahuayco and youth teams in the youth divisions. It was built in honor of Teodoro "Lolo" Fernandez, Universitario's most famous player. For more important high-risk games, the club used the Estadio Nacional. The Estadio Monumental is a stadium that was built by the Peruvian construction company GREMCO throughout the 1990s and opened in 2000, replacing the Lolo Fernandez and the Nacional. The inauguration game was between Universitario and Sporting Cristal; Universitario won 2 to 0. It was given to Universitario the same year it was opened and they now own the largest stadium in Peru. This stadium is one of the most modern stadiums of South America and the third largest.[7] Its eastern and western stands are all-seaters and its northern and southern stands have standing terraces. Exactly 1,251 luxury boxes, known as palcos, are above the stands. Unfortunately, the stadium is not fit to host the classic derby between Universitario and Alianza Lima. The only time this stadium hosted the derby was on June 26, 2002—the first round of the Apertura play-off—where Universitario won 1 to 0. Alianza's fans, in the southern stand, reacted violently to the loss by vandalizing the bathrooms and breaking handrails. Once outside the stadium, the fans broke the windows of nearby houses and destroyed cars. It was reported that two people in the stadium were stabbed.[8] Consequently, La U is forced to play the clásico at the Estadio Nacional where the Instituto Peruano del Deporte installed artificial turf which is constantly criticized by the First Division players.[9] It is interesting to note that this stadium was rejected as a venue for the Copa América 2004 because of problems with Alfredo Gonzalez, President of Universitario de Deportes, and the stadium's owners. Many saw this as a typical bullying behavior on the part of the president since this stadium would have been the perfect venue to host the 2004 Copa América intro as well as final games.[10]
Supporters
The northern stand at the testimonial match of José Luis Carranza. The Trinchera Norte wave a jersey-shaped banner, thanking him for everything he did.
The National Police escorts the Trinchera Norte through Colonial Avenue in Lima.
The main ultra supporters groups are La Trinchera Norte (The Northern Trench), also known as a barra brava, and La Barra U Oriente. The former has a reputation for the more violent and aggressive. Members of both groups regularly travel across Peru to support the club and can always be seen arriving early for each game. A founding member of La Trinchera Norte, known as "Misterio", is well known in Peru for killing himself playing Russian roulette. A local mini-series, called Misterio, was made based on his life. In a friendly game between Universitario and Sport Boys, on January 19, 2007, before the start of the season, the barra brava—the Trinchera Norte—attacked many supporters of Sport Boys during the second half of the game. Universitario was winning 1-0 and the referee then decided to suspend the game. Police were not present during the game as the Prefecture of Lima (Prefectura de Lima) did not authorize the game to be played and therefore did not send police forces. Many Sport Boys fans were hurt and security cameras captured many aggressive attacks. The use of the stadium for soccer games was temporarily suspended. The Peruvian press heavily criticized the former president Fausto Miranda and directors of the club.[11]
Gino Pinasco
Ricardo Gareca
Serbia
England
