Oriente Petrolero

Club Deportivo Oriente Petrolero () is a Bolivian football club based in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. They play at the 38,000-capacity Estadio Tahuichi Aguilera. Oriente have been Bolivian champions five times, Copa Aerosur winners two times. They have also been successful in South America, by being the second Bolivian team to make the quarter-finals in Copa Libertadores.

The club had their first major success in 1971, when they won the league championship. Oriente Petrolero won several cup competitions during the 1980s, but after that did not win another major title until 1989. The past decade has been the most successful period in Oriente's history, capped by winning La Liga titles in 2001, and 2010.

They have a longstanding rivalry with fellow Santa Cruz team Blooming.

History

While still in the Association of Santa Cruz, an amateur club was formed on the basis of a neighborhood team called 'Oriente', composed solely of employees of the YPFB oil company. On 5 November 1955, became its first president Elmer Saucedo Parada became the club's first ever president.

This preparation phase lasted until the club became one of the main players in the championships of the ACF, ranking consistently among the top three.

In 1957 they won the title of first ascent two years and won their first title in First of Honor. In 1960 they were second and in 1961 they won their second title in six years after defeating Blooming 1–0 in the final.

In 1965 they placed their first ACF professional tournament, and finished in second place behind Club Destroyers. The next year the same thing happened. However, in 1967, they won their first professional title after finishing in front of their classic rival Club Blooming.

In 1971 they won their first Bolivian Primera División title. This meant they qualified for the 1972 Copa Libertadores, their first Copa Libertadores.

Oriente Petrolero has won national titles in the Bolivian league in 1979, 1990, 2001.

In 2001 Oriente renovated players, and that was one of the most important years for the club because in the Torneo Apertura 2 Oriente end up in the second place and Bolivar first. They drew with the same number of points but Bolivar won on goal differential. In the 2001 Clausura Oriente gained a berth to the Copa Libertadores by winning their third national championship and the Copa Sudamericana after finishing second in the Apertura.

In the 2002 Copa Libertadores, Oriente could not qualify for the next round after finishing last in their group, Group 2. What surprised Oriente was that they were winning by 2–0 vs Grêmio at the first half, then at the second half their goalkeeper got injured and made the team go down. The final result was 4–2.

In the 2002 Copa Sudamericana, Bolívar eliminated Oriente in the First Phase. Bolivar won the first leg 4–2. Although Oriente won the second leg 1–0, they were eliminated in aggregate score of 4–3.

In the 2002 Torneo Apertura Oriente finished in third place, so they missed a chance to qualify for Copa Sudamericana. In the Torneo Clausura Oriente finished second. However, in the aggregate table, Oriente and The Strongest drew with the same number of points so they played two games. In the first leg Oriente won 1–0 and in the second leg The Strongest won 2–1. They played an extra game because the global score was 2-2 and Oriente won on penalties to secure a place in the Copa Libertadores.

In the Copa Libertadores 2003, Oriente made the worst participation ever after finishing bottom of their group with only one point. They managed to secure a draw against Universitario of Peru.

In 2008 Oriente finished fourth in the Apertura 2008 and not gaining a place in the Copa Sudamericana or Copa Libertadores, but they had two more championships to be played. In the Clausura Oriente they could not advance to the next stage after finishing third and letting Aurora qualify.

In the Torneo Play-off Oriente at least qualified to the Loser's round. In that round Oriente beat Aurora by 6–0, but in the final they lost against San Jose 4–2 on Aggregate.

In 2009 the Bolivian Professional Football League ( LFPB) confirmed the club The Strongest as Clausura 2004 tournament champion, after five years of the challenge with which they took the title with Oriente. The League president, Mauricio Mendez said that legally the title belongs to the ''Aurinegra'', which at that time had in its ranks the Argentine goalkeeper Marcelo Robledo, whose performance was observed by teams of Union Central and Jorge Wilstermann and arguing that no documents had realized that he was Bolivian.

This was an issue not resolved, because the board of the club showed that the goalkeeper had already won the Bolivian nationality before the High Court for Sports Discipline (TSDD), however, the title was given to another runner with Oriente Petrolero causing the controversy.

The leadership of the club called the decision as fair, because this year the La Paz team fought until the end for the title and the title was the reward for the effort of the players. In conclusion The Strongest was awarded the championship.

In 2009 Oriente was close to the title, but they could not win their last two away games against The Strongest and Bolivar. In the Clausura Oriente could advance to next stage, but in the quarter-final Oriente surprisingly knocked out Bolivar (anyway, they qualified as the best loser). In the semi-final they lost against their classic rival Blooming. Oriente gained the third place in Clausura that gave Oriente a second participation in the Copa Sudamericana.

In the Torneo Playoff Oriente eliminated their rival Blooming (Qualified to best Loser's round), in the quarter-final Oriente eliminated San Jose. In the Semi-final Oriente was eliminated by Bolívar after drawing in two games. That year Oriente had spent a lot of money in strikers, but after two years Oriente qualified to an international cup.

Oriente began with Aerosur Cup, but were eliminated in the first stage. After being eliminated, they received an invitation from Peruvian Football Federation to participate in the Peru International Cup. On 3 February they eliminated Deportivo Garcilaso 3–2 in the semi-final and in the final they beat Cienciano 3–0 on penalties after drawing 0–0 after 90 minutes and they won their first Peru International Cup.

Historical participation in the Copa Libertadores 1988

In the Copa Libertadores 1988, Oriente was drawn in group 4 with: Bolívar (Bolivian rivals), Cerro Porteño, and Olimpia. Oriente finished first in the group with seven points. They began their campaign by beating fellow Bolivian rivals Bolivar 2–1 in La Paz. They then played Olimpia at home in Santa Cruz and won 1–0, and also won the away leg 2–1. They later tied at home with Cerro Porteño 2-2, although they lost the away leg in Asunción 1–0, and lost 3–1 to Bolivar at home.

In the second phase, their rival was Colo-Colo of Chile. In the first leg played on September 8 in Santa Cruz, they took advantage and won 2–1. While in the return match played on September 14 in Santiago de Chile, the match ended 0–0. They qualified to the next round.

In the quarterfinals, their opponent was América de Cali in Colombia. In the first leg played on September 21 in Santa Cruz, the game ended in a 1–1 draw. However, in the second leg played on October 28 in Cali, America won 2–0 thereby eliminating Oriente.

With this historic participation, Oriente alongside Bolívar became the second team in Bolivia that have made it to the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores.

Uniform

*Home: green shirt with white horizontal stripes, green shorts, white socks.
*Away: White shirts, white shorts, white socks

Honours

National

* Bolivian Primera División
** Winners (5): 1971, 1979, 1990, 2001, 2010

* Torneo de Play-Off
** Winners (1): 2010

Regional

* Campeonato Cruceño
** Winners (11): 1959, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976

* Torneo Integrado ACF-AFC 
** Winners (1): 1976

* 2.° de Ascenso
** Winners (1): 1956

* 1.° de Ascenso
** Winners (1): 1957

Performance in CONMEBOL competitions

*Copa Libertadores: 19 appearances
::Best: Quarter-Finals in 1988
::1988 – Quarter-Finals
::2011 – First Stage

*Copa Sudamericana: 2 appearances
::Best: Second Stage in 2010
::2010 – Second Stage

*Copa CONMEBOL: 2 appearances
::1992 – First Round
::1994 – First Round

*Copa Merconorte: 1 appearance
::2000 – Group stage

International

* Cuadrangular Internacional del Peru:
**Winners (1): 2010

Current squad

Player of the year

Managers

* Víctor Hugo Antelo (2001-2002), (2005-2006)
* Néstor Clausen (2007-2008)
* Víctor Hugo Antelo (2008-2009)
* Pablo Sánchez (2009)
* Marco Etcheverry (2009-2010)
* Gustavo Quinteros (2010-2011)
* Erwin Sánchez (2013)
* Eduardo Villegas (2014)
* Tabaré Silva (2014)
* Roberto Pompei (2015)
* Xabier Azkargorta (2015-2016)
* Eduardo Villegas (2017)
* Néstor Clausen (2018)
* Juan Manuel Llop (2018)
* Ronald Arana (2018)
* Mauricio Soria (2019)
* Luis Marín Camacho (2019)
* Pablo Sánchez (2019-2020)
* Erwin Sánchez (2023)
* Antonio Puche (2023)
* Rodrigo Venegas (2023)
* Víctor Hugo Antelo (2024)
* Joaquín Monasterio (2024)
* Rodrigo Venegas (2025)
* Gualberto Mojica (2025-)

Club hierarchy

Oriente Ltd.
:''Owner'': Unknown

Oriente Petrolero plc
:''Chairman'': Jose Ernesto Alvarez

Executive Board
:''Chief Executive'': Álvaro Velasco
:''Finance and Operations Director'' :
:''Club Secretary'' : Richard Méndez Cossío
:''company secretary'' :

References

External links

*
*
*
*
unofficial fan website

{{Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano

Association football clubs established in 1955
Football clubs in Bolivia
1955 establishments in Bolivia