Plaza Colonia hailed as Uruguay's Leicester City
ByReuters
Published 30/04/2016 at 21:39 GMT
Small town club Plaza Colonia are dreaming of emulating Leicester City's march on the Premier League title with an unlikely success in Uruguay's Clausura championship and a place in the national finals.
Eurosport
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Colonia, a sports club that will celebrate its centenary next year but were first affiliated to the Uruguay FA (AUF) in 2000, have stunned Uruguayans by vying with the two big clubs Penarol and Nacional for the Clausura championship.
Eduardo Espinel, who is qualified both as a carpenter and football coach, said his team had become the talk of Uruguay for their unlikely exploits in emulating Leicester's rise to the top of their respective leagues.
"I follow English football closely and for two weeks now we've been talking with the kids in the squad about Leicester," said Espinel, who as a player shared a centre-back partnership with former Uruguay captain Diego Lugano 15 years ago at Colonia.
"We feel identified, hard work comes before anything else," he told Argentine newspaper La Nacion (www.canchallena.com.ar) echoing the sentiments of Leicester's Italian manager Claudio Ranieri.
"In my town people already talk to me about the Uruguayan Leicester," said Espinel, who lives in Cardona, a 200 km round trip from Colonia, which is a small town on the banks of Rio de la Plata (River Plate).
Espinel was handed the job in October 2014 when Colonia were bottom of the second division and took them on an 18-match unbeaten run that ended with promotion to the top flight in second place behind champions Liverpool of Montevideo.
"It was very sudden, crazy, the club had last been in the top flight 10 years previously. We were promoted with a small budget, with players from this town," the 43-year-old said.
A 1-1 draw at Defensor Sporting on Saturday ended the team's run of six weeks at the top of the standings.
They have 21 points from 10 matches, one behind Apertura winners Penarol, after six wins and one defeat and they possess the best defensive record with only six goals conceded.
Colonia's top scorer is 24-year-old striker German Rivero who hails from Buenos Aires, 50km across the Rio de la Plata.
Rivero, who has played for third-tier Argentine sides Fenix and Flandria, said he hoped to emulate compatriot Leonardo Ulloa, of Leicester, in helping his team win the championship.
"What Leicester are doing is crazy. They've been ploughing through from the bottom and here (at Colonia) the sacrifice is also enormous. Let's hope that somehow it can come off for me like Ulloa," he said.
"We'll see it within a few matches. We're full of hope."
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