C.S. Cartaginés

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C.S. Cartaginés

Full name

Club Sport Cartaginés Deportiva S.A.

Founded

July 1, 1906

Ground

Estadio José Rafael Fello Meza Ivankovich,
Barrio Asis, Cartago, Costa Rica
(Capacity 8,000)

Chairman

Thelvin Cabezas Garita

Manager

Juan Luis Hernadez Fuertes

League

Primera División de Costa Rica

Clausura 2007

5th (reached Championship QF)





Home colours





Away colours

1 Club Sport Cartaginés History
2 Current squad 2007/08
3 Estadio Jose Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivancovich
4 Notable players
5 Costa Rican National Championships
6 International Championships
7 External links

[edit] Club Sport Cartaginés History

Club Sport Cartaginés Deportiva S.A. is a Costa Rican football club, who currently plays in the Costa Rican Primera División. The club plays in Estadio Jose Rafael Fello Meza, in Barrio Asis de Cartago, Costa Rica. The club is the oldest in Costa Rica, having been founded in 1906. It has won three Costa Rican championships, in 1923, 1936, and 1940.

Club Sport Cartaginés was founded on July 6, 1906 by Willie Perie and a group of Costa Rica's with English decent and English immigrants that lived in Cartago. Since there were few soccer teams at the time games where repeatedly held against teams in Cartago such as Combate and Monte Libano. The team's original uniform colors were red and black much like today's Liga Deportiva Alajuelense. Club Sport Cartaginés' first official match was seen as a local social event as the municipal Philharmonic played prior to the game.

In 1914 Club Sport Cartaginés returned to the Costa Rican soccer scene but under its new name: the Americano. The name Americano lasted until 1921 when Costa Rica's Primera División started its national championship, at the time Americano reverted back to its original name of Club Sport Cartaginés and changed their uniform and colors to vertical white and blue stripes, a scheme that still prevails today. The 1923 National Championship Finals saw Club Sport Cartaginés face La Libertad, a match that Cartaginés won by a score of two to one giving the club its first of three national titles.

After the seasons many of Cartaginés' players left the team to play in Europe and in teams based in San Jose. Due to the mass exodus of players from the team Club Sport Cartaginés disbanded in 1925. By 1934 the popularity of soccer in Cartago reemerged as a tournament of local Cartago teams participated. After the tournament it was decided to form Club Sport Cartaginés once again with the best players that participated in the tournament and to emerge as a third division team winning the third division title in 1935. In 1936 the team managed to be victorious in the second division winning all of its games and being crowned the second division champions, earning them a spot in first division. For the first year back in the second division the team reinforced themselves with local star players that had played for other teams. In that first year back, Club Sport Cartaginés once again made it to the Finals of Costa Rica's first division and once again facing La Libertad, defeating them by a score of one to nil and achieving the status of national champions in Costa Rica's national stadium in San Jose. By 1940 Cartaginés only had three players left from its amazing 1936 championship season, but they still managed to make it to the finals against heavily favorite Club Sport Herediano. During the first half of the game the score was in favor of Herediano as they led 3 to 1 but amazingly Cartaginés reinforced themselves for the second half scoring three goals and beating the favorite Herediano by a score of 4 to 3. The 1940 Cartaginés team has been the last to win the national championship for Cartago. In the years following the 1940 Championship cartago managed to discover a new and talented player, José Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivankovich. Within a few years Jose Rafael became known as el "Maestro", the teacher. He was named so because it was said that he thought new tricks and ways of playing that had not been seen in Costa Rica. José Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivankovich was voted at the end of the century as Costa Rica's best player of the 20th century and is still recognized as the player with the biggest impact on national soccer. The club has been unable to break Saprissa and Alajuelense's hold on the top position in recent years, but has frequently finished second. They did, however, win the CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 1994. Cartiginés struggled during the '80s after it was relegated to second division and was forced to play its way up in order to obtain a spot in Costa Rica's top league, "el futbol de primera." A breakthrough came for Cartaginés when in 1983 they won the "segunda" championship, during a season in which brilliant play by some newcomers, notably Mario F. Granados S. and "el Chino" gave Cartaginés an edge over its adversaries.

Ever since that championship, Cartaginés has been unable to win any league titles in Costa Rica, something which some believe to be the result of a curse set on the team by the priest at the Basílica de Los Ángles when 1940 players stormed the Basilica ridding on top of their horses, celebrating their championship; many others credit the lack of titles to the curse of "el muñeco", a strange voodoo-like doll that was supposedly buried under Cartaginés' turf at the "Fello Meza" stadium in order to prevent them from winning further titles and bringing bad luck to the club. Many supporters of the club believe that unless someone finds the "magical" doll Cartago will continue to struggle and not win any more championships.

[edit] Current squad 2007/08

No.	Position	Player
21	GK	Donny Grant
16	GK	Jean Carlo Chacón
1	GK	Geovanni Murillo
	DF	Martín Arreola
3	DF	Allan Arias
24	DF	Richard Mahoney
5	DF	Jose Alberto Brenes
14	DF	Andrés Sanabria
79	DF	Jose Daniel Viquez
4	DF	Sergio Martínez
	DF	Tomas Quesada

No.	Position	Player
25	MF	Jose Marrero
	MF	José Francisco Alfaro
6	MF	Esteban Granados
12	MF	Alexander Calvo
27	MF	Javier Gutierrez
7	MF	Leonardo Ocamica
10	MF	Ariel Segalla
17	FW	John Jairo Quiñonez
19	FW	Esteban Bolaños
9	FW	Minor Diaz
	FW	Diego Vitabar

[edit] Estadio Jose Rafael "Fello" Meza Ivancovich

Estadio Jose Rafael "Fello" Mesa Ivancovich is located in Barrio Asis in Cartago, it has a capacity of 13,500 and in 2005 went through a renovation that saw the red, blue, and white grandstands change to green. The change was done in order to give the stadium a newer look which will blend in with the green mountain terrain that is the backdrop of the stadium. Along with the renewed grandstands the stadium also obtain a new playing turf.