Club Puebla is a professional football club based in Puebla. The club competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football, and plays its home matches at Estadio Cuauhtémoc. Founded in 1944 as Puebla Fútbol Club,Puebla FC cambiará de escudo y de nombre; se llamará Club Puebla, Diario Cambio, 11 May 2016 the club changed to its current name in 2016. Nicknamed La Franja, the team shirt features a diagonal stripe (traditionally blue on white on the home kit) that crosses the chest diagonally from right to left, which is considered a distinctive part of its identity.
Domestically, Club Puebla has won two Liga MX titles, five Copa MX titles, one Campeón de Campeones and one Supercopa MX. Internationally, it has won one CONCACAF Champions Cup and also finished as runners-up in the 1991 Copa Interamericana.
The club's first major title was the 1944–45 Copa México, defeating América 6–4 on aggregate, and won their first league title in the 1982–83 season, defeating Guadalajara 7–6 on penalties. Puebla won the 1991 CONCACAF Champions' Cup, defeating Police FC 4–2 on aggregate, which has been their only international title obtained.
History Early years Puebla has competed since 1904, when an English Athletic club Puebla AC joined the Liga Mexicana de Football Amateur Association. The club was founded two years after the first known league was established in Mexico, Puebla along with Reforma, Pachuca, Albinegros de Orizaba, Mexico Cricket Club and British Club were the first teams to play any sort of organized football competition in Mexico. In their first tournament in 1904, the club lost all games and did not score a goal in the 8 games played. In 1905, the club struggled and managed to score its first and only goal in that tournament, finishing last with no wins, 1 draw and 7 losses, and 20 goals against. For the 1906–1907 season, the club finished third, with 3 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws, for a total of 9 points with 8 goals scored and 6 against. After this season, the club folded, and the league dropped to 4 clubs. The club would not see action for 8 years, until 1915 when the First Puebla F.C who later became España de Puebla,Clubs participation in 1915 that club was founded by the Spaniards living in the city of Puebla. Due to the lack of opponents, having only one with neighboring town San Martín Texmelucan, the club would be forced to go Orizaba, Veracruz to find competition. They participated for a few years in the old Liga Veracruzana de Futbol.In 1918 Club Fútbol Asturias de Puebla was founded by the Spanish from the Asturias in Spain. These two clubs would later merge in the early 1940s and would become the foundation of what would become Club Puebla.
Professional Debut It all came to be on March 28, 1944, when Puebla was admitted to the Primera División de México, their home ground was Parque El Mirador—the first owners, Joaquín Díaz Loredo and Alfonso Sobero were important textile owners in the 1940s. The first official match took place on May 7, 1944, at 4 p.m. in the city of Veracruz in the Copa México tournament. The Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz franchise gave Puebla their first lost in the professional era beating them 5–1. Puebla's first goal was scored by Lupe Velázquez in the 68th minute. Two weeks later at El Mirador the team played a friendly match against Atlante, losing 4–1. On July 4, 1944, Puebla obtained its first victory in El Mirador against Veracruz with a score of 3–4.
On August 20, 1944, Puebla played its first professional league match against Atlas, beating them 5–2. The Argentine forward scored Eladio Vaschetto Puebla's first goal in the professional league era. The first lost in the league was to Real Club España, losing 2–1 in Mexico City. In 24 games played in the 1944–45 league Puebla obtained 14 wins, 2 draws and 8 losses with 53 goals in favor and 30 against. That year Puebla was the league runner-up to Real Club España, but saved the season by winning the Copa México against América in a memorable match winning it 5–3. Ricardo Álvarez was the lead scorer, scoring 4 goals.
1945 Copa México In 1944, Puebla finished runner-up in the league championship and many thought they had been much better than the actual champions España. With a very good league tournament played, they also played the 1944 Copa México in which they showed why they finished second in the league by crowning themselves champions that year. The tournament started when Puebla faced Orizaba beating them 6–0 in both games. Arturo Chávez scored 5 goals in both games and ended as the tournaments lead scorer with 15 goals. In the quarter-finals stage, Puebla faced Atlas, a club that did not put up much of a fight and ended up losing 4–0. Arturo Chávez scored the 4 goals in that series. At semi-finals Puebla faced one of the best clubs in that tournament, Deportivo Oro. However, Puebla was playing better and defeated Oro 3–1 to advance to their first final ever.
At the final game on June 25, 1945, Puebla faced one of the most important clubs in Mexico América. Puebla came out in the first minute with the intention of winning the cup. They found themselves up 3–0 in the 26th minute, with 2 goals by Eladio Vaschetto and one from Arturo Chávez. América scored its first goal at the 43rd minute courtesy of Vial. The first half ended 3–1. In the second half, América came out to prove their status as an important club and went on the offense. With América looking for goals, Puebla found open spaces but they could not take advantage. In the 61st minute Manolo Alarcón scored a goal for América, and 3 minutes later Nicoluau scored another goal, and at the 69th minute Scarone scored yet another, reducing the deficit to a single goal. It seemed that América could achieve a historic comeback, but Puebla was a team with a lot of character and knew how to respond to América's 3 goals. In the 71 minute the legendary forward Miguel López scored for Puebla, giving them a comfortable 5–3 lead. Two minutes later Vial scored América's 4th goal bringing back the deficit to one goal. The last goal in the memorable final came in the 78 minute when Lupe Velázquez scored Puebla's 6th goal, which closed that spectacular game.
1953 Copa México During the 1952–53 season, Don Joaquín Díaz once again was the owner of the club and with "El Gordo", González Gatica, managed to obtain the club's second Copa México, beating León in the final. That off season, they reinforced the club by signing big name players such as "Chepe" Naranjo, Mota y Caserio. The club also played friendly games with European club Austria Wien and also big South American clubs. In the first game Puebla beat Leon 2–0. In the second game Puebla finished them off with a score of 2–1 for an aggregated score of 4–1. This way on 31 May 1953, Puebla was once again the Copa México champion. In the Campeón de Campeones, Puebla lost to the Tamaulipan club Tampico Madero just like they had in 1944. The team's manager (coach) was Spanish Isidro Lángara. The 4 goals scored by Puebla were by Fernández, Cubero, Velázquez, and Cubero. The starting line up were González (goalkeeper), Rivas, Torres Ruiz (defender), Cárdenas, Iturbe (midfielder), Lupe Velázquez, Uceda, Del Toro, Fernández, Cubero (forwards).
In 1953, the club managed to obtain its second Copa México title and the last title they would win for almost 30 years. After the 1955–56 league tournament the club's then-owner Manuel Hidalgo was abandoned by the other owners, and was not able to sustain the club. In 1956, his request to the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (FMF) for the club to take a year hiatus to better their economic situation was discouraged; Hidalgo was told that if the club took time off, they would have to return in the Segunda División de México. The club folded in 1956 due to the loss of its stadium, the Parque El Mirador, which burned down due to a torch that was thrown into the wooden ramps. The total losses were 300 thousand pesos, which took the club out of action for 8 years.
1960s After numerous attempts, Manuel Sánchez Gómez, Leonardo Ortiz and Rafael Durá succeeded in reforming the stripe club, and Puebla returned to professional football. On February 19, 1964, the federation allowed the club to take part of the 1964–65 second division league tournament. Donato Alonso was coach of that squad and formed it with Segunda División players, amateur Puebla players and veteran 1950s players. The first game was played in the Estadio Ignacio Zaragoza against Correcaminos UAT which ended in a 2–2 draw. Roberto Torres and Francisco Escamilla scored for Puebla. The first victory was against Texcoco with a score of 4–1 and the club remained undefeated for the next 15 rounds, until they fell 1–0 to Correcaminos in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas. Puebla finished in 6th place in this tournament.
Puebla played 6 years in the Segunda División from 1964 to 1970 until a promotional series was held between Unión de Curtidores, Club Deportivo Nacional and Naucalpan. Puebla won their 3 matches played in Olímpico Universitario. The third and final match of the series was played against Naucalpan with a score of 1–0 that granted Puebla the promotion to the Primera División. Gervasio Quiroz score the only goal in that game. The scores of the three games were 2–2 against Unión de Curtidores, 1–0 against Naucalpan, and 1–0 against Club Deportivo Nacional.
1970s The first game played in the Primera División after almost 20 years was against América, coach by Francisco González Gatica puebla felt 2–0 in the Estadio Azteca. The first draw was a 1–1 against Pumas in c.u. Their first victory was against Cruz Azul in Estadio Cuauhtémoc with a score of 2–0. In this tournament, Puebla obtained 11 victories, 10 draws and 13 losses, finishing with 43 points occupying the 11th position of 18 in the leagues competition. With 2 games left, Puebla was in serious trouble of being regulated, so the club replaced coach Francisco González Gatica for the Spanish Ángel Zubieta. He managed to win the last 2 games and maintain the category.
In the 1971–72 tournament, the club finished in 7th place in the standings, but failed to classify for the play-offs because Monterrey and Guadalajara finished with the same points, although they had a greater goal differential.
In the 1972–73 tournament, the club started with a very strong style of playing that had them in second place in the standings with 6 matches left in the tournament, but Puebla lost 5 of the last 6 games, finishing in 10th place overall and failed to qualify once again.
In the 1973–74 tournament, Puebla finally managed to qualify for the quarter-finals, after finishing in 4th place overall with 13 victories, 14 draws and only 7 losses. In the quarters they faced Cruz Azul. The away game ended in a 1–1 draw, but in the second match Cruz Azul beat Puebla with a score of 6–1, which eliminated them. Cruz Azul went on to win the final against Atlético Español.
In the 1975–76 tournament, had a string of 11 games without a victory and the Puebla players received 25 red cards, Puebla was in danger of being relegated or forced to play a relegation match. Puebla avoided that scenario by finishing 18th overall and leaving that scenario to Atlante and San Luis, which was relegated to the Segunda División.
In the 1977–78 tournament, Puebla once against had a terrible time and lost 20 games which once again put them in danger of relegation. But in the last round, they managed to draw with Tigres in Monterrey, Nuevo León and forced Atlas and Unión de Curtidores to contest relegation, with Unión de Curtidores who at the end was regulated to the Segunda División. Silvio Fogel was the club's star player who scored 21 goals and help the club forget its relegation problems. Puebla finished in 7th place overall, but failed to qualify for the play-offs, in the last round the club tied with América and combined with a win by Toluca, they missed the play-offs.