Achievements
Universidad de Chile's first title was won in 1940, just 3 years after their professional debut. The team won six titles (59, 62, 64, 65, 67, 69) between 1959 and 1969 and the became known as the Blue Ballet in reference the beautiful style of football they played. Nine members of that squad were part of the national team Chilean team that reached 3rd place in the 1962 FIFA World Cup, the best result ever achieved by Chile in a World Cup.
After the golden age of the Blue Ballet, the club went on a 25-year drought, and were relegated to the second division in 1988 but managed to win that division's title and returned to the first division the following year. Universidad de Chile's next cup would be won in 1994 after a spectacular final game for which 20,000 supporters arrived in the city of El Salvador, a mining town populated by 5,000 people.
In 1995, Universidad de Chile won the cup once more, this time at home in front of almost 78,000 people in the Estadio Nacional. The team would win back-to-back titles in 1999 and 2000.
More recently Universidad de Chile has won the Apertura in 2004, 2009 and 2011. The 2011 title was won at the hands of defending champions Universidad Católica, by a global score of 4–3, having lost the first leg of the final 2–0 and needing to win by a 3 goal margin, the team managed to win the second leg with a 4–1 score.
On the international stage Universidad de Chile have had a few of good runs in Copa Libertadores, reaching the semifinals in 1970, 1996, 2010, and 2012.
On December 14, 2011 they defeated Liga De Quito from Ecuador 3-0 (4-0 on aggregate) to win the Copa Sudamericana, becoming the third Chilean team to win a South American tournament, behind Colo Colo's 1991 Copa Libertadores and Universidad Catolica's 1994 Copa Interamericana. In the tournament, the club had an excellent performance (undefeated, and winning all their matches in Chile), and was nicknamed the "South America's FC Barcelona".
Read more about this topic: Club Universidad De Chile
Famous quotes containing the word achievements:
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—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)
“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
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—Stella Chess (20th century)