TOtlético Bucaramanga is the only team from the former 'Clan de los 14' that has never been champion of Colombian soccer. Those 14 squads were the ones that held the championship for more than 20 years, from 1966, when Junior de Barranquilla returned, until 1988, when the League was expanded to 15 teams with the admission of the now-defunct Sporting de Barranquilla.
Many years have passed, more than 70, and Bucaramanga has not been able to take an Olympic turn. The closest it came was in the crazy 1996-97 season, which lasted a year and a half: the team reached the final and lost it against América de Cali. It was the only time that the club qualified for the Copa Libertadores, in which it reached the round of 16.
Deportivo Pereira's title at the end of 2022 seems to have hurt Bucaramanga's pride and this semester seems to show that it wants to fight big. As one of their most illustrious fans, the comedian José Ordóñez, says, they are 'heading to the Libertadores'.
The 'Leopardo' is the leader of the championship, thanks to its victory against Águilas Doradas, 1-0, with which it caught up with the League in a pending match on the ninth day, and also thanks to the triumph of Millonarios in the classic , which prevented Santa Fe from reaching the top.
A penalty goal from Argentine Fabián Sambueza, in the 9th minute, after a foul on the edge of the area by Jesús Rivas against Daniel Fernando Mosquera that was reviewed by the VAR, allowed the team led by Venezuelan Rafael Dudamel to get their third consecutive championship victory.
Bucaramanga's record: 12 dates without losing in the League
Bucaramanga's numbers excite its fans, of course: there are already 12 dates without losing, which equaled the longest undefeated record in its history in the first division. (He achieved it between 1998 and 1999, but the one then was more loaded with draws: he only won three games). The current one has seven wins and five draws.
The other figure that explains Bucaramanga's great campaign is the number of goals against: They have barely scored four goals throughout the championship and goalkeeper Aldaír Quintana recovered the level that even led to him being called up to the Colombian National Team, during the time of Carlos Queiroz, first, and then Reinaldo Rueda, who even took him to the 2021 Copa América in Brazil. But of those four goals, two were in the first game, against Junior. So in his impressive streak of 12 games without losing, in 12 he kept a clean sheet.
Aldair Quintana
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Dudamel recovered players who had doubts in other clubs. Like Fredy Hinestroza, another who was called to the National Team at the time, but who in his last stage in Junior garnered more insults than praise. Or Sambueza himself, who came from an opaque time in Santa Fe in his second time with the Bogotá club. He also gave confidence to Daniel Fernando Mosquera, who arrived on loan from América de Cali, where he did not have continuity with Lucas González, and today he became the team's scorer, with five goals.
Bucaramanga has had to suffer a lot. They had three relegations, one of which they managed to save with an emergency triangle at the end of 2001 in Cartagena and with a tiebreaker from the penalty spot against their great rival, Cúcuta Deportivo. He had to endure seven years in the second division before returning to A, at the end of 2015. And since then, the sadness has increased.
Rafael Dudamel,
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Bucaramanga is excited. On Sunday they will play against Pereira, another team that is getting used to fighting at the top of the table, in a match that four months ago seemed unthinkable that could be the most attractive game of the date, due to the campaign of the two teams. The team is up. And the illusion too.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
Sports Deputy Editor
@josasc
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