Gourt Home::Gourt :: LD Alajuelense
Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA), is a Costa Rican football club, currently playing in the Primera División, the most popular and successful club in Costa Rica football history, is well known along with Deportivo Saprissa to have captured the hearts of Costa Rica. They also have the majority of titles in the short-tournaments with a total of nine, with four Apertura-championships and 5 Clausura-championships. La Liga was the first Costa Rican team to win a CONCACAF Club Champions Cup. Alajuela is known by their fans as La Liga and is the actual champion Central America.
Liga Deportiva Alajuelense History
The club was founded in June 18, 1919 in Alajuela, Costa Rica by a group of friends who belonged to a team that, at the time, was known as El Once de Abril (The Eleventh of April), giving the Province of Alajuela its first soccer team. On August 2, 1919 Liga Deportiva Alajuelense, or La Liga, played its first game in the city of Cartago against Club Sport Cartagines and achieved one of its many victories with a score of 3-1. In 1921 Costa Rica officially formed a National League creating the first National Championship (Campeonato Nacional) for the country, and La Liga officially became one of the first seven clubs to join. The other clubs that joined were Club Sport Herediano, Club Sport Cartagines, and the now defunct teams of Sociedad Gimnástica Española, Club Sport La Unión de Tres Ríos, Club Sport La Libertad, and Sociedad Gimnástica Limonense. The first year of the Costa Rican National Championship saw nothing but failure for La Liga, as it finished the season in last place. But in 1928, La Liga managed to win the first of many national championships thanks to the skills of a young man that would become one of Costa Rica's most historic soccer figures ever, Alejandro Morera Soto.
On September 7, 1930 La Liga had its first ever international victory, defeating Cuba's club team Fortuna 4-2. In February of 1932, Alejandro Morera Soto was signed by Spanish League team Barcelona where he helped Barcelona achieve a Spanish League Championship in 1934, being the lead scorer for the team and earning him the nickname of "El Mago del Balón" (The Wizard of the Ball). On October 12, 1949 La Liga and Saprissa played the first of what would become the Costa Rican Classico, where La Liga beat Saprissa 6-5 in El Estadio Nacional. Since 1919, La Liga has been able to obtain 24 Costa Rican National Championships including the most recent one in 2005. They were also the CONCACAF Club Champions in 1986 and 2004. They also have obtained Central America Champion status in 1992, and in 1996 they became the champions of "Campeones Grandes de Centro America", and in 2005 they won an UNCAF Cup championship.
Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto en el Llano de Alajuela
Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto is known as the Cathedral of Costa Rican Soccer. 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 in 1940, but the site would not be soccer-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.
On July 20, 1966, due to a motion by the Municipality of Alajuela, the stadium was renamed to honor the great Alajuelense and Barcelona player Alejandro Morera Soto. On March 19, 1970 the stadium saw its first night game when Alajuelense faced Honduras Club team 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, with a capacity of 17,895.
El Leon Alajuelense
El Leon Alajuelense (The Alajuelan Lion) is the official Mascot of Liga Deportiva Alajuelense. El Leon represents four values that are important to Liga Deportiva Alajuelense: valor, fortitude, dynamics, and fidelity.
Notable players
"El Mago del Balon" Alejandro Morera Soto Carlos Alvarado Juan Ulloa Ramírez Luis Marín Salvador Soto Villegas "El Indio Buroy" Errol Daniels Hibbert Juan José Gámez Rivera Javier "Zurdo" Jiménez Alejandro González Juan Cayasso Oscar Ramírez Fernando Sosa Mauricio Montero "El Chunche" Gerardo “Lalo” Chavarría Ríchard Smith Joaquín Guillén Froylan Ledezma Alvaro Solano Pavel Karoch Omar Arroyo Jorge Manuel "El Gugui" Ulate Luis Raquel Ledezma José Carlos Chaves Austin Berry Luis Diego Arnáez Juan Carlos Arguedas Nahamán González Álvaro Mesén Wilmer Lopez Javier Delgado Ronald "La Bala" Gómez Harold Wallace Jozef Miso Rolando Fonseca Pablo Alejandro Izaguirre Steven Bryce Carlos Hernández Carlos Castro Wardy Alfaro
Notable Coaches
Jorge Luis Solera Alejandro Morera Soto Salvador Soto José Luis "Chime" Rojas Hugo Tassara Eduardo Viso Abella Juan Colecchio Iván Mraz Odir Jacques Alvaro Grant McDonald Jan Postulka Valdeir Vieira Manuel Keossian Guilherme Farinha Jorge Luis Pinto Afanador Javier Delgado
Costa Rican National Championships
Liga Deportiva Alajuelense has won 24 Costa Rican Championships:
- 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
Costa Rican Short-Tournament Championships
- 1997 Torneo de Apertura
- 1999 Torneo de Apertura
- 2000 Torneo de Apertura
- 2000 Torneo de Clausura
- 2001 Torneo de Clausura
- 2002 Torneo de Apertura
- 2002 Torneo de Clausura
- 2003 Torneo de Clausura
- 2005 Torneo de Clausura
International Tournament Championships
- 1961 Central American & Caribbean Champions
- 1986 CONCACAF Club Champions
- 1992 Central American Champions
- 1996 Grandes de Centro America Champions
- 2002 UNCAF Cup Champions
- 2004 CONCACAF Club Champions
- 2005 UNCAF Cup Champions
External links
"LD Alajuelense"