Arsenal de Sarandí

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Arsenal de Sarandí

Estadio Julio H. Grondona, Sarandí, Avellaneda Partido
Capacity	18,500
Chairman	Julio Ricardo Grondona
Manager	Darío Espínola (interim)
League	Primera Nacional
2023	28th (relegated)
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Arsenal Fútbol Club (Spanish pronunciation: [aɾseˈnal ˈfuðβol ˈkluβ]), usually referred as Arsenal de Sarandí [aɾseˈnal de saɾanˈdi], or simply Arsenal, is an Argentine sports club from the Sarandí district of Avellaneda Partido, Greater Buenos Aires.

The

Apart from football, the club hosts other sports such as field hockey, futsal, and handball.

History

The beginning

The club was founded in January 1957 by brothers Héctor and Julio Humberto Grondona, inspired by the English club Arsenal. Not only does it share its name with the eponymous Gunners of North London, the stories of the naming of the two clubs are very similar – both had military arsenals nearby. The team's shirt colour is light blue with a diagonal red band (similar to the shirt used by River Plate). The colours were chosen as a combination of the two older clubs in Avellaneda – Racing (light blue) and Independiente (red).

Julio Grondona went on to become president of Independiente, and then, in 1979, president of the Argentine Football Association, until 2014. He was also a vice-president of FIFA. Héctor Grondona, and then son Julio Ricardo, became presidents of Arsenal.

The club's best known former player is Jorge Burruchaga, who started his career at Arsenal in 1979, and had several stints as coach. Burru, as he is nicknamed, scored the winning goal for Argentina in the 1986 FIFA World Cup final against Germany.

Arsenal's football team was promoted to successively higher divisions in 1962, 1986 and 1992, finally reaching the Primera División in 2002.

On 6 September 2006, Arsenal and Spanish club FC Barcelona (Barça) struck a deal whereby in exchange for the option to acquire young players that have not played more than one year in the Arsenal first team, Barça would help to improve Arsenal's infrastructure.^[1]

A member from Barça was to oversee the project, and visit the club on a monthly basis.^[1] This deal, however, fell through in 2007, reportedly because Arsenal could not afford the infrastructure to keep up with the plan.

International tournaments

The club's first appearance in an international tournament was in 2004, when, coached by Burruchaga, Arsenal reached the Quarter-finals of the Copa Sudamericana, eliminating Banfield and River Plate before losing to Bolivian club, Bolívar in its first ever official tie with a non-Argentine team.

Arsenal's results in the

, Arsenal's goalkeeper.

In the first leg of the 2007 Copa Sudamericana final, Arsenal beat

Carlos Castiglione, who was suspended due to a red card in the first leg. With these mitigating factors, Arsenal needed to avoid letting Club América win by a two-goal margin. The match started badly for the Argentine team when Christian Díaz scored an own goal inside the first 20 minutes. José Luis Calderón then hit the woodwork twice for Arsenal. In the 2nd half Arsenal conceded a second goal, but with only 7 minutes remaining Martín Andrizzi scored, giving Arsenal their first major title on the away goals rule

.

Arsenal was not as successful in the

Suruga Bank Championship, which they qualified for as Copa Sudamericana champion. The rival was J.League Cup champions Gamba Osaka from Japan. After a hard match, captain Carlos Casteglione

scored the only goal with a precise header on the 86th minute of play.

First domestic titles

Arsenal won its first championship on 24 June 2012 after defeating

Lisandro López.^[3] The squad totalized 38 points over 19 games played, with 11 matches won and only 3 defeats.^[4] Arsenal also became the first team to win a Primera División title after playing in the five divisions that Argentine football league system is made of.^[5] As champions, Arsenal classified for the Supercopa Argentina, a one-match tournament between the Primera División and the Copa Argentina winners. On 7 November 2012 Arsenal defeated Copa Argentina champions Boca Juniors 4–3 by penalties after a 0–0 draw.^[6]

Arsenal won the Copa Argentina on 16 October 2013 by defeating San Lorenzo de Almagro 3–0 in a final match played at the Catamarca Province^[7]

Stadium

Main article:

Estadio Julio H. Grondona

The

Estadio Julio H. Grondona

in Sarandí has a capacity of 36,300, and is known as el Viaducto (The Viaduct). It is located at 3660 Juan Díaz De Solís in Sarandí.

Arsenal's first stadium was started to be built on 11 October 1962, officially opening on 22 August 1964. When Arsenal won promotion to the Primera, its basic concrete stadium was deemed unfit for the league and the team played at the grounds of Lanús and Racing for two seasons until work on the stadium was complete. The remodeled stadium (named "Julio Humberto Grondona") was opened on 7 August 2004 with a party for the fans. The first game was against Banfield in the Copa Sudamericana. The new stadium has witnessed defeats of the biggest teams in Argentine football such as Boca Juniors and River Plate.

Players

Current squad

As of August 2023.^[8]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ARG Tomás Sultani 2 DF  ARG Ignacio Gariglio (on loan from Estudiantes) 3 DF  ARG Leonardo Marchi 4 DF  ARG Lucas Souto (on loan from Defensa y Justicia) 5 DF  ARG Adrián Spörle 6 MF  ARG Tiago Banega (on loan from Racing) 7 FW  ARG Facundo Pons 8 MF  ARG Braian Rivero (on loan from Defensa y Justicia) 9 FW  COL Flabián Londoño (on loan from River Plate) 10 MF  ARG Santiago Toloza (on loan from Talleres) 11 FW  ARG Lucas Brochero (on loan from Boca Juniors) 13 DF  ARG Joaquín Pombo 14 MF  ARG Mauro Burruchaga 15 MF  ARG Franco Vega (on loan from Vélez Sarsfield)

No. Pos. Nation Player 16 MF  ARG Tomás Sives (on loan from Defensa y Justicia) 17 GK  ARG Francisco Rivadeneira 18 MF  ARG Gonzalo Muschia 19 DF  ARG Maximiliano Centurión 21 FW  ARG Juan Ignacio Peinipil 22 FW  ARG Lautaro Guzmán (on loan from Talleres) 23 GK  ARG Alejandro Medina 24 FW  ARG Daniel Lucero 25 DF  ARG Néstor Breitenbruch (on loan from Godoy Cruz) 26 DF  ARG Franco Martínez 27 MF  ARG Bautista Cejas 28 FW  ARG Leandro Moreira 29 FW  ARG Brandon Sosa 30 DF  ARG Facundo Cardozo 31 DF  ARG Iván Cabrera 33 FW  ARG Juan Cavallaro 34 MF  ARG Facundo Brestt 36 MF  PAR Alfredo Amarilla (on loan from Tacuary) 37 DF  ARG Agustín Álvarez

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  ARG Alejandro Rivero (at Dock Sud until 31 December 2022) — DF  ARG Fernando Torrent (at Huracán until 31 December 2023)

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  ARG Ramiro Balbuena (at Estudiantes RC until 31 December 2022)

Former coaches

• Oscar López
• Juan Emilio Elena (1961–72)
• Roberto Iturrieta (1973–74)
• Juan Emilio Elena (1974–82)
• Roberto Iturrieta (1983–84)
• Juan Emilio Elena (1985–89)
• Roberto Iturrieta (1989–94)
• Roberto Ferreiro (1994–95)
• Humberto Grondona (1995)
• Roberto Iturrieta (1995–97)
• Roberto Ferreiro (1997–98)
• José María Bianco (1998–01)
• Roberto Mariani (2001)
• Jorge Burruchaga (1 Jan 2002 – 30 June 2005)
• José María Bianco (1 July 2005 – 22 March 2006)
• Luis de Luise (interim) (2006)
• Miguel Ángel López (2006)
• Gustavo Alfaro (1 Dec 2006 – 30 June 2008)
• Daniel Garnero (1 July 2008 – 26 April 2009)
• Jorge Burruchaga (1 May 2009 – 30 April 2010)
• Carlos Ruiz (interim) (1 May 2010 – 30 June 2010)
• Gustavo Alfaro (1 July 2010 – 14 April 2014)
• Martín Palermo (18 April 2014 – May 2015)
• Ricardo Caruso Lombardi (May 2015 – Nov 2015)
• Sergio Rondina (Nov 2015 – Nov 2016)
• Lucas Bernardi (Nov 2016 – Dec 2016)
• Humberto Grondona (Dec 2016 – Dec 2017)
• Sergio Rondina (Jan 2018 – Aug 2021)

Titles

Domestic

League

• Primera División (1): 2012 Clausura
• Primera B Nacional (1): 2018–19
• Primera C
  (1): 1964
• Primera D
  (1): 1962

Cup

• Copa Argentina (1): 2012–13
• Supercopa Argentina (1): 2012

International

• Copa Sudamericana (1): 2007
• Suruga Bank Championship (1): 2008

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "El Arselona F.C." Olé. 5 September 2006. Archived from the original on 8 January 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2007. (in Spanish)
2. ^ "Tiny Arsenal was underdog that couldn't be stopped". Sports Illustrated. 6 December 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
3. ^ "Arsenal es campeón por primera vez en su historia", Clarín, 24 June 2012
4. ^ "Primera División de Argentina, tabla final Clausura 2012", ESPN, 24 June 2012
5. ^ "Histórica coronación de Arsenal", Perfil, 24 June 2012
6. ^ "Arsenal amargó a Boca en los penales y se quedó con la Copa" Clarín, 7 November 2012 (in Spanish)
7. ^ "...Arse de risa" Olé, 17 October 2013 (in Spanish)
8. ^ "Arsenal de Sarandí squad". Soccerway. 6 August 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2017.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arsenal de Sarandí.

• Official website