Lost In Time Futbol

Around 600,000 people of Palestinian descent currently live in Chile. This diaspora started a long time ago, in the 19th century, when people started fleeing Palestine during the Crimean War, and continued throughout the 1900's as more migrants left their homeland for South America during World War I and the 1948 Palestine war, the famous  nakba . These migrants, who were mostly Christians, did not have an easy integration in Chilean society: in the early 1900's some nationalists and xenophobes did not hide their dissent for the wave of incoming immigration, often denigrating them on local newspapers. As with most diasporas around the world, Palestinian immigrants in Chile were not wealthy nor properly educated, and their community remained marginalized in small areas of the cities. Football became an opportunity to glue the community together, and so Palestino Football Club was founded in 1920 when the Palestinians started representing themselves in the Chilean amateur leagues...

Club Cienciano are one of the oldest and most present clubs of the Peruvian Primera Division. They have never been crowned Peruvian champions, but, somehow, they are the only club from the country to have ever won a continental competition. And their journey to victory is a work of art. Cienciano lift the only ever Peruvian continental trophy [cienciano.com] They are based in Cusco, a historic city that was built by the Killke people around 3,000 years ago before the arrival of the Inca in the 13th century. The ruins of ancient Cusco [blog.incarail.com] In this ancient place, they share the Estadio Inca Garcilaso de la Vega with fellow Liga 1 sides Cusco FC and Deportivo Garcilaso. The stadium, one of the biggest in Peru with a capacity of 45,000, has never seen a Primera Division title between the three sides: none of them have ever been crowned Peruvian champions. Out of the three, Cienciano is the most successful one. Despite never actually detaining the National title, la Furia Ro...

Brazil's influence over football is unmatched: from their world-record five World Cup triumphs, to the countless all-time great players like Pelé, Ronaldo Nazario and Neymar Jr. that they have produced and to their current domination over the Copa Libertadores, there's no place on the planet that hasn't been conquered by a Brazilian player or team. Despite all this success over the last century, not much is known abroad on how their football league actually works, which is unfair given how important the country is for the sport, so let's take a dive into the Brazilian football league system to figure out how it all works. First of all, we have to define the state leagues and the national leagues. Every year each club begins the season competing in their own state league, for example all the clubs from Rio de Janeiro compete in the Campeonato Carioca , the clubs from São Paulo compete in the Campeonato Paulista and so on. Endrick celebrates Palmeiras' Campeonato Pau...

From its beginning in 1960 until the 2018 edition, the Copa Libertadores' final has been decided by two-legged ties, making it significantly different compared to the typical one-legged Champions League final held in a neutral venue. South American football is well known for the strong influence of the home crowd over the match. For example, Bolivian clubs and the Bolivian national team have a massive advantage when playing their home matches against opposition from other parts of the continent because of the extreme altitude at which the country is located, and in particular its capital La Paz, which stands at 3,640 metres above sea level (almost 12,000 feet). Apart from geographical differences of the various South American locations, the two-legged final also gave both finalists' the chance to host one of the two matches at their own stadium in front of their own fans, who would fill up the ground to its limit and sometimes even beyond it to witness the biggest possible cont...