Club Deportivo Audaz commonly known as CD Audaz, or simply Audaz, was a Salvadoran association football club based in the town of Apastepeque, and briefly (the final two seasons) in the city of San Vicente, 6 km (3.7 mi) south of Apastepeque.[1][2]

C.D. Audaz
Full nameClub Deportivo Audaz
Nickname(s)Los Coyotes
Founded1948
Dissolved2019
Ground

The club was founded in 1948, played for decades in non-professional league or semi-professional leagues or the third tier Tercera Division de Fútbol Salvadoreño professional league, then in 2014 started a sudden and successful run out of the Tercera through to the top tier Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador, but the added costs for a small club playing in the higher tiers drove it to bankruptcy, folding in July 2019.

Audaz was known as Los Coyotes, and had a stylized Coyote symbol as its mascot. Reflecting this theme, the club's long-time home stadium was called Estadio La Coyotera.

History edit

1948 local club to 2014 Tercera Champion edit

Audaz was founded in 1948, playing their home games at Estadio La Coyotera, a modest seating-capacity venue in the small town of Apastepeque.[3] For most of their history, the club competed in fourth-tier and lower non-professional league and semi-professional leagues.

On 11 February 2001, Audaz' truck carrying the entire team and staff was shot at by gang members, killing coach José Napoleón Gómez.[citation needed]

Audaz had eventually progressed to the third-tier of league play in El Salvador, the tier-three Tercera Division de Fútbol Salvadoreño (Tercera División).

In the 2013–14 Trecera División season, Audaz won the second half title (Apertura 2014), earning its first ever promotion to the Segunda División de El Salvador (Segunda División).

Segunda: 2014 start to 2017 Champion edit

Audaz entered the Segunda División in the 2014–15 season.

In its third year in the Segunda División, Audaz won the second half Clausura 2017 title, defeating Independiente FC 4–1 in a two-legged final series, which included a 3–0 victory away from home.[4] Audaz immediately faced Independiente FC again, the champions of the first half of the 2016–17 season (Apertura 2016), in a one-game promotion playoff, winning 1–0 on a goal by Santos Guzmán. The victory earned Audaz promotion to the top-tier Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador (La Primera), just three years after they last played in the Tercera División.

La Primera: 2017 to 2019 financial struggles edit

Audaz entered La Primera for the 2017–18 season. The team immediately ran into financial issues, suffering from ticket sales that did not support their more costly operations in La Primera, and in July 2017 they started moving some of their home games away from Estadio La Coyotera, to the larger-capacity Estadio La Union in the nearby city of San Vicente, which had a population five times that of Apastepeque.[5]

Audaz held their position in La Primera, but entered the 2018–19 Primera División de El Salvador with increasing financial difficulty. The team announced that they would abandon Estadio La Coyotera, and would play all their 2018–19 home games at Estadio La Union and Estadio Jiboa. In July 2018, before the season started, Juan Pablo Herrera and the Herrera family sold the team to a new ownership group, led by Roberto Campos. The team continued to lose money, and Campos tried to arrange a sale to the ownership of Independiente FC, which was still competing in the Segunda División, going so far as to change Audaz' colors to those of Independiente mid-season, starting in January 2019.[6]

July 2019 dissolution edit

Audaz again maintained their position in La Primera, but would not live to see the 2019–20 Primera División de El Salvador season. In July 2019, after the 2018–19 season was over, it was revealed that Campos had not meet his contractual requirements of the purchase from the previous owner's group, having failed to pay the salaries of the players and staff for most of the season; the team was bankrupt, no owner existed, and the sole remaining board member officially sold Audaz' license in La Primera to Independiente FC.[7]

Just five years after winning the Tercera División title in May 2014, the quick but costly rise through Segunda División and into La Primera had ended the 61-year history of Club Deportivo Audaz.

Stadium edit

The Estadio San Vicentia placed in neighbourhood of San Vicente. With a capacity of 15,000, t[clarification needed] was inaugurated in.

Since its establishment in TBD, Audaz stadiums has been:

  • Estadio La Coyotera, Apastepeque (TBD- 2017)
    • Estadio San Vicentia (2017-) games played in this location during the first primera division season
    • Estadio Mauricio Vides de Ilobasco (2018) due to disagreement with the Council of San vicente, They moved home games to the Estadio Ilobasco
    • Complejo Deportivo de Tecoluca (2018) games played in this location during the primera division season

Club records in La Primera edit

Honours edit

Domestic honours edit

Managers edit

  •   Armando Amaya (1982)
  •   José Napoleón Gómez (2001)

The last thirteen managers of Audaz:

Name Nat From To
Rubén Alonso   October 2014 March 2015
Flavio Rivas   March 2015 June 2015
Miguel Ángel Soriano   July 2015 August 2015
Flavio Rivas (Caretaker)   August 2015 September 2015
Juan Andrés Sarulyte   September 2015 December 2015
Jorge Calles   December 2015 February 2016
Mario Mayén Meza   February 2016 April 2016
Wilson Angulo   April 2016 September 2016
Jorge Abrego   September 2016 December 2016
Germán Pérez   January 2017 November 2017
Misael Alfaro[8]   December 2017 February 2018
Emerson Umaña (caretaker)   February 2018 March 2018
Carlos Romero   March 2018 June 2018
Germán Pérez   June 2018 September 2018
William Renderos Iraheta   September 2018 December 2018
Pablo Quiñónez   January 2019 July 2019

References edit

  1. ^ "Audaz descarta a Facundo Simioli y espera dos colombianos". elgrafico.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  2. ^ "Audaz cambia de estadio para lo que resta del Clausura 2018". elgrafico.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  3. ^ "El Audaz realiza mejoras en el estadio Vicentino". laprensagrafica.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  4. ^ [1] - El Grafico (in Spanish)
  5. ^ "El Audaz realiza mejoras en el estadio Vicentino". laprensagrafica.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  6. ^ Navarrete, Josué; Recinos, Raúl (2019-01-07). "Presidente de Audaz justifica el uso de los colores del Independiente". El Diario de Hoy (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  7. ^ Martell, Samuel (2019-06-28). "Categoría del Audaz va al Independiente". El Gráfico (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  8. ^ "Misael Alfaro dirigirá al Audaz en el Clausura 2018". elgrafico.com. Retrieved 6 April 2018.