Everton will face Mexican outfit Pumas in their second game of the Florida pre-season.We've done a little translating to provide you with an insight on the history of our next opponents.
History of Pumas U.N.A.M1950'sDuring the administration of Rector Nabor Carrillo Flores, the opportunity arose to join a representative team of the UNAM in professional soccer, but not in the First Division, but in the promotion circuit. On September 4, 1954, the Mexican Soccer Federation officially announced the entrance of the University team.
The student team began its path in professional soccer on September 12 of that year in Monterrey. And thanks to the financial support of the engineer Guillermo Aguilar Álvarez, Sr., the team was able to fulfill the commitments of that first season.
It had a difficult first season. The pupils of the Tico Rodolfo Muñoz Butch, players drawn mainly from the Engineering, Architecture and Law faculties, ended the 1954-55 campaign in last place among 14 teams.
The following year the reins were entrusted to Donato Alonso and the eighth overall position was reached. But the 1956-57 tournament was bad - site 12 - and the decision was made to withdraw the group from the competition for a year in order to restructure it.
With the support of the University Board, headed by Public Accountant Javier Ortiz Tirado, the team was reinstated in the Second Division in the 1958-59 season. Héctor Ortiz, a former national team, was at the head of the squad and laid the foundations for the consolidation of the team in the national soccer scene.
1960'sFrom 1960-61, Octavio “la Pulga” Vial was the strategist and continued the work destined to give the group a winning profile. With the arrival of several experienced players, the squad was completed in 1961-62.
Thus, with a 5-1 win over Catalonia de Torreón, on January 9, 1962, in Ciudad Universitaria, an excellent campaign and the long-awaited promotion to the top circuit was consummated.
Upon promotion, the base of the team that obtained the promotion was maintained, with some incorporations, mainly Brazilian and Argentine reinforcements.
During the first tournament in the First Division, Don Renato Cesarini arrived. In addition to avoiding the descent, he began the consolidation stage in the maximum circuit with his work techniques, innovative for the time, such as daily training.
Then the formation of national football stars began to take place: Aarón Padilla, Enrique Borja, Luis Regueiro, José Luis la Calaca-González, Miguel Mejía Barón and Héctor Sanabria, among many others.
Cesarini led the university students for three years and his legacy was continued by Ángel Papadópulos. University contributed four elements to the National Team that competed in the 1966 World Cup in England. However, in the early years, the closest thing to a title was the 1967-68 runner-up, achieved under the command of Peruvian coach Wálter Ormeño, who formed an extremely effective duo with physical trainer Víctor Manuel Acevedo.
Also in those years the administration of the Club varied. In 1967 the Soccer Commission was created in the Sports Council of UNAM and Germán Núñez Cortina, Pedro Andrade Pradillo and Arturo Chávez Sánchez served successively in the Presidency.
1970'sIn the early years of the decade, Arturo Chávez supported the arrival of important reinforcements such as: the Serbian Velibor Bora Milutinovic and the Brazilians Evanivaldo Castro Cabinho and Spencer Coelho.
And in the middle of the decade, the profile that has given so much success to the institution ended up being created. In 1975, during the rector of Dr. Guillermo Soberón Acevedo, the Civil Association was created that from that moment would administer the Club, as a palliative to a difficult financial situation of the Maximum House of Studies.
“The University Soccer Club has become a Civil Association. I want to clarify that the equipment was not sold; simply, as of this date, a group of distinguished alumni will be in charge of managing it, but it will continue to be from the University. If there are losses, which I neither believe nor wish, they will fall on the group. If there are profits, they will be used to promote sports activities at UNAM, ”said Soberón Acevedo.
After the constitution of the Civil Association in 1975 and with the arrival to the leadership of the Club of engineers Bernardo Quintana Arrioja and Guillermo Aguilar Álvarez, Jr., the Pumas obtained their first titles in the First Division. To the conquest of the 1975 Mexico Cup, the Champion of Champions scepter was immediately added.
And two years later the first league championship arrived, with a team that raised as its main weapons Evanivaldo Castro Cabinho, Spencer Coelho, Geraldo Cándido, Juan José Muñante and the emergence of Hugo Sánchez.
Following the departure of champion coach Jorge Marik, Bora Milutinovic assumed technical responsibility for the Auriazul team for the 1977-78 season. Five elements of the squad, due to their participation in the Argentina '78 World Cup, left the Pumas during the Liguilla for the title and still reached the Final, which was won by the Tigres of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León.
The individual scoring championship shared by two members of the same team - the only time in the history of the maximum Mexican soccer circuit -: Hugo Sánchez and Cabinho, with 26 goals each, was the most outstanding event of the 1978-79 campaign. in which the Pumas reached a new Final, lost by an aggregate score of 2-0 against Cruz Azul.
1980's1980-81 was the tournament of all achievements for the team: the league championship and the first two international titles were achieved: the Copa de Campeones and Runners-up of the North, Central American and Caribbean Soccer Confederation –Concacaf– and the Copa Interamericana, against Nacional de Montevideo, brand new winner of the Copa Libertadores de América. At the end of the campaign, Hugo Sánchez set off on his successful adventure in Spanish soccer.
Although the following two years were eliminated in the regular phase, the good work of Bora Milutinovic caused him to be entrusted with the Mexican National Team with a view to the 1986 World Championship, to be held in our country.
Mario Velarde was in charge of the team and although there were outstanding campaigns in the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons, the title was not achieved: they suffered an elimination against Guadalajara, on penalties, in the semifinal phase and fell from controversial form in a three-game final against América, respectively.
With Bora at the helm, Mexico reached the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup. Six players from the Pumas joined the National Team, in addition to two more elements that emerged from the Auriazul bosom.
Héctor Sanabria took over the team in the 1987-88 season. With the reincorporation of Luis Flores and Manuel Negrete, after having played a year in Europe, the Pumas reached a new final, in which they fell to América, as had happened three years before.
Then, the arrival of doctor Miguel Mejía Barón took place at the helm of the felines.
1990'sThe third year of Mejía Barón, the 1990-91 season, was very successful: the general leadership, the team with the highest score, the least scored, with the most wins and also had the individual scoring champion, Luis García. In the final, for the third time in seven years, they faced America.
After a minimal 3-2 defeat in the first leg, a powerful shot from Ricardo Tuca Ferretti in the decisive duel was enough to crown the UNAM team. Although the aggregate score was tied at three, away goals were the tiebreaker.
Luis García remained with the Pumas for one more season and obtained a new scoring title, now under the command of the new coach, Ricardo Ferretti, who remained at the head of the squad until 1996.
At this stage, many young people made their debut, some with long and notable careers such as Israel López, Braulio Luna, Rafael García and Jesús Olalde.
In 1996 the short Mexican soccer tournaments began and the new dynamics of the competition affected the Auriazul team. In a span of four years there were eight different coaches.
Some highlights of this stage were the general leadership held during most of the Summer Tournament '97, a semifinal in the Winter '98 and the scoring title achieved by Jesús Olalde in the Winter Tournament '99, with 15 goals.
The engineer Guillermo Aguilar Álvarez, Jr., died on November 9, 1997 and thus concluded the stage of the administration of the Board created in 1975 and whose reins were managed by Bernardo Quintana Arrioja (1975-1984) and Gilberto Borja Navarrete (1984-1997 ).
In 1998, Dr. Guillermo Soberón Acevedo and engineer Javier Jiménez Espriú were at the head of the Board, as President and Executive Vice President, respectively.
2000sIn Summer 2000, the return to the University City, after nine months of absence due to a student strike, was extremely emotional and timely. Hugo Sánchez was appointed Technical Director and the team reached the semifinals.
After leaving the institution during the 2000 Winter Tournament, a year later, Hugo Sánchez was hired again at the request of Luis Regueiro, who in August 2001 had replaced Soberón and Jiménez Espriú on the Board of Directors.
In December of that year, there was a new modification to the Club's structure when a new Board of Trustees was created, headed by Arturo Elías Ayub.
In 2002, the semifinals were reached in the two tournaments (Summer 2002 and Apertura 2002) and the qualification for the first time to the Copa Libertadores de América for its 2003 edition.
In the 2003 Apertura Tournament, the university team reached the general leadership, tied with the Tigres, but the best goal difference of the Monterrey team gave them the first position in the table.
In the 2004 Closing Tournament, several Club records were established in short tournaments: more points, more goals scored together and more goals scored by a single player –Bruno Marioni, scoring champion with 16 goals-.
And in the league, the Pumas ended a 13-year title drought by beating Guadalajara in the Final. After a 1-1 draw at the Jalisco Stadium, there were no touchdowns at C.U. and they resorted to penalty kicks, which culminated in the blue and gold victory by 5-4.
Within two months, two more trophies were added to the Club's showcases: the Champion of Champions, by defeating Pachuca, and the XXVI Santiago Bernabéu Trophy, by beating Real Madrid at home, 1-0, with a goal by Israel Castro.
And the year 2004 ended with the Pumas as the first and only two-time champion in short tournaments by defeating Monterrey with an aggregate score of 3-1.
After falling to Saprissa in the Final of the 2005 Concacaf Champions and Runners-up Clubs Cup, the felines had an outstanding participation in the South American Cup that year, by reaching the Final and falling to Boca Juniors, in penalty kicks. . By that time, Hugo Sánchez had been relieved as helmsman of the university students by Miguel Spain.
Arturo Elías Ayub left his position at the University Club in December 2005 and the engineer Gilberto Borja Navarrete and the doctors Octavio Rivero Serrano and José Narro Robles occupied, on an interim basis, the Presidency of the Club. Engineer Víctor Mahbub was appointed President of the Club's Board of Trustees on February 24, 2006.
Faced with the serious risk of the decline that implied the low production of points in recent tournaments, the board brought back Ricardo Tuca Ferretti, as Technical Director, for the 2006 Opening Tournament.
The second place overall in that tournament led the team to salvation, which was consummated during the Clausura 2007.
At the Apertura 2007, the Pumas returned to the Final for the first time in three years. After a 0-0 draw at Ciudad Universitaria, Atlante, which had its first tournament in Cancun, won the second leg 2-1 at the Andrés Quintana Roo Stadium.
The 2009 Closing Tournament became a swift return to national football supremacy. After emotional duels against the Tecos of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara and Puebla in the Liguilla, the championship was won against Pachuca.
In the first leg, the feline victory was 1-0. And in the decisive match, at the Hidalgo Stadium, extra time was necessary to define the winner. Pablo Barrera was the hero when he scored the decisive goal, which gave the crown with an aggregate score of 3-2.
In 2010, in addition to establishing the second best record for goals received in short tournaments (only 10 in 17 matches of the Closing Tournament, renamed the Bicentennial), the leading role in the National Team was retaken by contributing three players to the Copa del World 2010, in South Africa.
Before the start of the 2010 Apertura Tournament, Ricardo Ferretti left the team and Guillermo Vázquez Herrera was in charge of the squad for the second time, after having served as the Puma strategist in the last five games of the 2006 Clausura.
And in just two seasons, Memo managed to lead the college kids to their seventh title. In the 2010 Apertura they reached the semifinals, while in the 2011 Clausura they appropriated the crown of the maximum circuit.
This title was the just reward for an outstanding performance in the regular phase, in which they finished as sub-leaders after occupying the general leadership for most of the time, and an outstanding participation in the league, in which they beat Monterrey, Guadalajara and Morelia.
Guillermo Vázquez Herrera left the technical direction of the first team at the end of the Clausura 2012, but returned to the position two years later and with his return so did the leadership of the Pumas.
The Apertura 2015 was a memorable tournament in many ways:
* The university students achieved the general leadership for the first time in short tournaments
* They reached the longest streak of minutes without conceding at home (624), as well as the second longest number of minutes without conceding at home at the start of a tournament (567)
* Scored in 17 games in a row for the first time in short tournaments
* With the first place in the table they secured the classification to the Copa Libertadores for the third time, after having participated in 2003 and 2006.
The Auriazul league of that campaign was distinguished by how close each tie was. In the quarterfinals, the university students tied the aggregate score at one with Veracruz and managed to advance for their best position in the regular phase. The semifinals seemed defined from the first leg, when the Pumas clearly defeated América 3-0 at the Azteca Stadium. But in the return match there was an exciting outcome when the azulcremas won 3-1, which did not prevent them from reaching the Final of the finals.
Again it seemed that everything was resolved from the first game, when the Tigers prevailed 3-0 in the first leg of the Final. But a remarkable reaction from the Pumas, by winning the second leg with the same result, sent the game into overtime. Each team scored once in the additional 30 minutes and everything was defined on penalties, where the scoreboard favored the Monterrey 4-2.
2016 marked the return of the Pumas to the Copa Libertadores de América. After being clear winners of Group 7, with five victories and a single defeat, they beat Venezuelan team Deportivo Táchira in the round of 16, which led them to face Independiente del Valle, from Ecuador, in the quarterfinals. Each team won at home 2-1, so the university students had a new definition on penalties, which favored the South Americans 5-3.
Source: Translated from
Pumas Official