History of Club Atlético River Plate
The name was chosen because of an incident during the construction of Buenos Aires Port: one of the members had seen how the workers of Dique 3 left their duties for a while to play a football match.
José Bernasconi, director of Naval storages "Dresco", gave the club a land located near small bridge of Sarandí in Greater Buenos Aires, therefore River Plate moved there to play its home games.
The team had a much better campaign in the 1907 season, where it finished 1st of section A but lost the title (and therefore the promotion to the first division) to Nacional (a club from Floresta)[note 2] by 1–0 at Ferro Carril Oeste stadium.
The line-up for that game was Luraschi; Chiappe, Politano; Messina, Morroni, Chagneaud; Anempodisto García, Griffero, Abaca Gómez, Elías Fernández, Priano.
In 1914 River won its first domestic championship, the Copa de Competencia Jockey Club after beating Newell's Old Boys by 4–0 at the final, also finishing unbeaten.
The line-up for that final was: Isola; Chiappe, Lanata; Peruzzi, Cándido García, Alfredo Elli; Fraga Patrao, Martín, Penney, Gianetto, Sevesi.
With the establishment of the professionalism in 1931, River Plate acquired right wing Carlos Peucelle in 1931 for $10,000 and Bernabé Ferreyra for $35,000 (huge amounts of money in those years) in 1932.
That team was nicknamed "La Máquina" ("The Machine") and had Labruna, Uruguayan Walter Gómez, Santiago Vernazza, Eliseo Prado, Lousteau and goalkeeper Carrizo as some of its most relevant players.
With the addition of "Pipo" Rossi (returned from Millonarios of Colombia), Federico Vairo (traded from Rosario Central) and the rise of Enrique Omar Sívori from the youth categories River won the 1955, 1956 and 1957 titles consecutively for the first time in the history of the club.
After the demise of the Argentina national team in the 1958 World Cup (where Labruna also played with #10 replacing Sívori) River would spend a long time without obtaining any title.
River could not win any championship during the 1960s, although the team had many talented players such as Ermindo Onega, José Ramos Delgado, scorer Luis Artime, Vladislao Cap and Oscar Más.
The team's performance in that match originated the pejorative nickname Gallinas ("Chicken") which has been used by rivals to refer to River's players and supporters and has remained since.
Some of the most important players of that squad were goalkeeper Ubaldo Fillol, backs Roberto Perfumo and Daniel Passarella, midfielders Juan José López, Reinaldo "Mostaza" Merlo and Norberto Alonso and strikers Carlos Morete and Oscar Más.
River Plate also won the 1977 Metropolitano championship, with the same player structure than earlier years with the addition of striker Leopoldo Luque and left wing Oscar Ortiz.
For the 1978 World Cup hosted in Argentina, River gave 5 players to the national team that would win the championship: Fillol, Luque, Passarella, Ortiz and Alonso.
By 1981 Alfredo Di Stéfano replaced Labruna as the coach, Boca Juniors acquired Diego Maradona, which caused a huge impact in Argentine football.
To mitigate the effects of Boca's signing of Maradona, River hired national team top scorer and superstar Mario Kempes, apart from other players such as defender Julio Olarticoechea and Américo Gallego.
With the addition of those players and based on a strong defensive line and an effective offensive with Kempes and a youth Ramón Díaz, River became 1981 Torneo Nacional champion, defeating Ferro Carril Oeste in the finals with the same score in both matches: 1–0.
In 1982 some of River players that had contributed to the recent championship, left the club: Alonso was traded to Vélez Sarsfield due to his conflicts with Di Stefano and Kempes returned to Valencia CF.
In 1984 Héctor Veira was hired as coach, with River finishing as the runner-up of the 1984 Torneo Nacional losing the final against Ferro Carril Oeste.
Although River acquired many renowned players such as Ángel Comizzo, Omar Palma, Claudio Borghi, Abel Balbo, Jorge da Silva and Daniel Passarella (who had returned from Italy), the team did not make a good performance.
In 1990 Daniel Passarella is named coach, winning the 1989–90 tournament and reaching the Copa Libertadores semi-finals, being eliminated against Barcelona de Guayaquil.
But Ramón Díaz emigrated again (this time to Yokohama Marinos) in 1993, nevertheless River won the 1993 Apertura with a team formed by youth promises such as Ariel Ortega, Marcelo Gallardo and Hernán Crespo.
In 1994 Enzo Francescoli returned to the club, winning another title that year with River Plate (the 1994 Apertura), along with Roberto Ayala and goalkeeper Germán Burgos (both acquired to Ferro) and being coached by former player Américo Gallego.
That same year, Argentine sports magazine El Gráfico #4172 named River Plate as "Champions of the Century" ("Campeón Del Siglo"), noting the club's achievements, especially its then 30 Primera División titles against Boca Juniors' 24 and Independiente's 15.
River also brought back Ariel Ortega and promoted to Primera youthful players such as Andrés D'Alessandro and Fernando Cavenaghi, winning the Clausura tournament and getting his seventh title with Ramón Díaz as coach, which included a 3:0 victory against Boca at the Bombonera.
[17] As a result, River played the Promoción, a two-legged play-off against Belgrano de Córdoba, the fourth placed team of the 2010–11 Primera B Nacional.
[22] Almeyda retired as player when River was relegated to become the team's coach, while Fernando Cavenaghi and Alejandro Domínguez returned to the club to play at the second division.
[23][24] Just a week later, the reserve team of River coached by Cesar Laraignee won the U-20 Copa Libertadores in Lima, Peru, after defeating Defensor Sporting of Uruguay 1–0 in the final.
River met Brazilian side Cruzeiro in the quarterfinals, losing 0–1 in at home, but ultimately advancing to the semifinals for the first time in 9 years after a 3–0 away victory.
