AD Ribeira Grande

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AD Ribeira Grande
Full name Associação Desportivo de Ribeira Grande
Ground Cidade Velha and
Estádio da Várzea and
Estádio da Calabaceira
Praia, Cape Verde
Ground Capacity 8,000
League Santiago South Premier Division
2017–18 6th

Associação Desportivo de Ribeira Grande or as Ribeira Grande de Santiago (Capeverdean Crioulo, ALUPEC or ALUPEK as well as Badiu: Ribêra Grandi di Santiagu) is a football club that again will play in the Premier League of the Santiago Island South Zone League in Cape Verde. It is based in the city of Cidade Velha, capital of Ribeira Grande de Santiago and the nation's oldest city located in the south of the island of Santiago and serves the whole municipality.

The Alfabeto Unificado para a Escrita do Caboverdiano, commonly known as ALUPEC, is the alphabet that was officially recognized by the Cape Verdean government to write Cape Verdean Creole.

Association football team field sport

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of eleven players. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field called a pitch with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by moving the ball beyond the goal line into the opposing goal.

Cape Verde Country comprising ten islands off the Northwest coast of Africa

Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country spanning an archipelago of 10 volcanic islands in the central Atlantic Ocean. It forms part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Savage Isles. In ancient times these islands were referred to as "the Islands of the Blessed" or the "Fortunate Isles". Located 570 kilometres (350 mi) west of the Cape Verde Peninsula off the coast of Northwest Africa, the islands cover a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi).

Its logo has a point shield on the bottom and are colored white and blue. On top is a blue label and reads the first name of the club AD (Associação Desportivo), in the bottom is another blue part and is titled Ribeira Grande where the club is based, the municipality. On the bottom of the club name is one of Cidade Velha's famous landmark and the famous monument known as the Pelourinho, the Pillory.

History

The club became registered in 2005 and started to compete in the revived regional Second Division after seasons of cancellations due to financial problems. The club was first place in the 2007 Second Division and qualified into the Premier Division where they remained up to the 2013 season, in 2013, they never won a match and had five points, all of them in draws, they lost 13 matches, they scored 15 goals and conceded 43 goals, the most in the region at the time.

The club was 6th in 2012 and was last place in 2013 and participated in the Second Division. The club was second place in that division behind Os Garridos and headed to play two division decisional matches against Varanda, 9th in the Premier Division, [1] Ribeira Grande lost all the two matches and had to spend the next three seasons in the Second Division. In the shortened 2016 season, the club was 3rd place and failed to quality into the Premier Division as they were behind the promotion zone as two new clubs competed in the following season. In the re-extended 2016-17 Second Division, the club was climbing in positions and reached the number two spot in the middle of the season and kicked out Unidos do Norte from that position. Ribeira Grande later superseded Varanda in the number one spot and finished as the 2016-17 Second Division champions. After four years, Ribeira Grande will once again return to the Premier Division in the following season. In the 2016-17 regional cup, the club started at the First Round, they reached up to the semis and lost to the almighty Sporting 1-0 and prevented Ribeira Grande from competing in the cup final.

AD Ribeira Grande was surprised they attempt to be a non-Praia club at the top six position in the 2017-18 season, that had been withstood as they lost the first two matches including the almighty Sporting, a draw with Benfica was made, then made two more losses to two other almighty clubs of Académica and Boavista Praia and currently the club is last placed and kept their chances of being in the Premier Division. Ribeira Grande finally got a win in the division, they defeated Eugénio Lima FC 1-3 on December 15, and put that club to last place, the club was 8th with 4 points and four goals. Their season's second win was made as they defeated the slightly more powerful club Tchadense 2-3, their final match of 2017 which was played on December 30. On January 6, they lost to Celtic and remained 8th place, a position behind Praia's one of four competing historic club Travadores. Ribeira Grande has 7 goals scored, Ribeira Grande has conceded 16 goals with Benfica Praia. Ribeira Grande defeated Tira Chapéu on January 12 and put that club inside the relegation zone and became ninth place, their point totals are shared with Tchadense and Benfica Praia. Ribeira Grande did the unattemptable, they defeated Praia's historically top five clubs, of which four are participants, the club was Travadores with the score 0-2 as away as both clubs played at Várzea west of the center and gained a position to eighth with 13 points, equal to Tchadense's, Ribeira Grande did it again and never before the club ever defeated the island's and the nation's most powerful club, Ribeira Grande defeated Sporting 2-1 on January 25 and their positions risen to sixth, still behind Tchadense but overcame Desportivo's and was the last of the four match winning streak. Ribeira Grande suffered another loss, a larger one to Académica with 5-0 at the 15th round and their positions dropped to eighth with 19 points, still shared with the other two clubs, Tchadense and Desportivo whose position is above. Ribeira Grande suffered another loss but less to their last, a 0-2 loss to almighty Boavista at the 17th round and solely has 19 points, seven more than Travadores.

Stadium

Estadio da Varzea, second home field of Tchadense Varzea-2014.JPG
Estádio da Várzea, second home field of Tchadense

Ribeira Grande has a small field in the area of Cidade Velha, they also play in the area of Calabaceira. Ribeira Grande's matches are played at Estádio da Várzea, a multi-use stadium in Praia, Cape Verde. It is currently used mostly for football matches. The stadium holds 8,000. The stadium has seat rows in the left and right sides and a small hill and a plateau lies to the west. The stadium is home to the three best football clubs in Cape Verde and the island's six best, Sporting, CD Travadores, Boavista FC, Académica, Desportivo and Vitória, all in the Santiago South Championships. Also while they were in the Second Division, they played some matches at Calabaceira.

The club practices at Várzea and Calabaceira.

Achievements

Secondary achievements

2006/07, 2016/17

League and cup history

Island/Regional Championship

SeasonDiv.Pos.Pl.WDLGSGAGDP Cup Notes
2007–08 291844101528-1316Remained in the Premier Division
2008–09 2101825111334-2111Relegated into the Second Division
2009–103118------13Promoted into the regional Premier Division
2010–11 27185581433-1920
2011–12 26186482528-322
2012–13 2101805131543-285Relegated into the Regional Second Division
2013–14 [2] 32188552021-119Remains in the Regional Second Division
2015–16 [3] 3316-------
2016–17 [4] 311812423211+2140 Semifinalist Promoted into the Regional Second Division
2017–18 262291122830-228 Semifinalist

Statistics

Players

Current squad

As of 9 April 2017 [5]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.PositionPlayer
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Cleidir
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Joel Elson
Flag placeholder.svgEdmilson Xavier
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Airton Santos
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Celso Mendes
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Neydil Ribeira
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Edson (Patrick) Correia
Flag placeholder.svgMoreira, Benvindo
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Élvio Barbosa
Flag of Cape Verde.svg da Costa, Daniel Rodrigues
Flag of Cape Verde.svg Pereira, Janilson

References

  1. "Varanda e Ribeira Grande defrontam se sabado para a liguilha" [Varanda and Ribeira Grande Challenged for the Promotion Match of the League]. Criolosports (in Portuguese). July 2014.
  2. Batalha, José (4 June 2014). "2013/14 Santiago Island League (South)". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  3. Batalha, José (12 May 2016). "2015/16 Santiago Island League (South)". RSSSF. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  4. "2016-17 Santiago South Second Division" (in Portuguese). Konkuri.
  5. "Club statistics of Ribeira Grande of the 2016-17 Santiago South Second Division season". Konkuri.