Club Deportivo El Nacional

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El Nacional

Full name

Nickname(s)

"Puros Criollos"
"Equipo Militar"
" La Maquina Gris

Founded

June 1, 1964

Ground

Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa,
Quito, Ecuador
(Capacity 39,816[1])

Chairman

Gral. Rodrigo Bohórquez

Manager

Jorge Célico

League

Serie A

2007-08

2nd Stage, 4th Position





Home colours





Away colours

The Club Deportivo El Nacional is a professional football (soccer) team from Quito, the capital of Ecuador in northwestern South America. Nacional is called so because it belongs to the Ecuadorian military and because only players with Ecuadorian nationality are allowed to play on the team. This is why the team is nicknamed Puros Criollos ("All-Homegrowns") or El Equipo Militar ("The Military Team"). The three colors of the team, which are red, light blue and dark blue, represent the three branches of the Ecuadorian military. The team logo has as a third color yellow instead of light blue. The home-team uniform is bright-red with light- and dark-blue designs, and the away uniform is usually gray.

On South American competitions, the team is usually called El Nacional, with the Spanish definite article el, to distinguish it from Nacional, the Club Nacional de Football from Montevideo, Uruguay. The two teams are also referred to as Nacional de Quito and Nacional de Montevideo.

El Nacional is the team with the largest number of Ecuadorian championships (13), sharing this distinction with Barcelona Sporting Club from Guayaquil. Famous players to play or have played for the team include forwards Ángel Fernández, Agustín Delgado, and Eduardo Hurtado, who is also well-known for playing in the U.S. Major League Soccer for teams like the Los Angeles Galaxy and the MetroStars.

Nacional has three first-division rivals in Quito, which are the Sociedad Deportiva Aucas from the south of the city, and Liga Deportiva Universitaria and the Sociedad Deportivo Quito from the north. A fifth team, which belongs to the Ecuadorian police academy (EScuela Superior de POLIcía or ESPOLI), and which is called Club Deportivo ESPOLI, moved to the city of Latacunga, about two hours south of Quito.

The farthest round the team has reached in the South American championship, the Copa Libertadores, is the semifinal.

The team plays in Quito in the Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, at an altitude of about 2,800 meters, but practices outside the city.

1 Achievements
2 International Honors
3 Performance in CONMEBOL competitions
4 Notable Players
5 Current Squad
6 See Also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Achievements

Campeonato Ecuatoriano de Fútbol
- Champion (13): 1967, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1996, 2005, 2006.

[edit] International Honors

Copa conmebol Semifinalist:(1)1992
Copa Libertadores Semifinalist:(1)1985
Copa Merconorte Semifinalist:(1)1998

[edit] Performance in CONMEBOL competitions

Copa Libertadores: 21 appearance

Best: Semi-Final in 1985

Copa Sudamericana: 3 appearances

2005: First Round

2006: Second Round

2007: Second Round

Copa CONMEBOL: 2 appearances

1992: Semi-Final

1994: First Round

Copa Merconorte: 3 appearances

1998: Semi-Final

1999: Group Stage

2000: Group Stage

[edit] Notable Players

[edit] Current Squad

As of August 10, 2007

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Cristian Mora^[1]
2	DF	Carlos Castro
3	DF	Bolivar Gómez
4	DF	Omar De Jesús
5	MF	Carlos Hidalgo
6	DF	Pavel Caicedo
7	MF	David Quiróz
8	FW	Ebelio Ordóñez
9	FW	Walter Calderón
10	FW	Cléber Chalá
12	GK	Oswaldo Ibarra
13	FW	Richar Mercado

No.	Position	Player
14	FW	Iván Kaviedes
15	MF	Wellington Sánchez
16	DF	Jhon Guagua
17	MF	Walter Ayoví
18	MF	Pedro Quiñónez
19	DF	Erik De Jesús
20	DF	Luis Checa
22	GK	Robinson Sánchez
23	MF	Santiago Morales
24	DF	Willian Cuero
25	MF	Jhon Minda