La Paz FC (Boliva)

La Paz FC (Boliva)

La Paz football club was founded on May 30^th, 1989, under the original name, Atletico Gonzalez. Founder, owner, and president of the club was Maurico Gonzalez, who named the club after his father, Walter Gonzalez. More about Maurico Gonzalez will be revealed later, but his idea to have a successful and competitive football club was one that he was keen to promote in La Paz. The club wore the colours, red and blue, which emulated that of Spanish club, Barcelona.  Their colours had a more in-depth meaning to them, with each colour representing something. Red symbolized the clubs passion and love for sport, while Blue represented the perennial blue skies over the City of La Paz as well as showing the loyalty of their fans. The white the club wore in their shorts and socks as well as in their away kits, symbolized the snowy mountain tops of Mount Illimani. They would play their home matches at the Hermando Siles Stadium in La Paz, a location that has been the centre of dispute due to its high altitude, with other club sides and international sides claiming it gives Boliva and indeed, it gave La Paz an unfair advantage. In fact, it is recorded as the highest point in which football is played in a stadium. Because of this and the ambition’s the club had, their motto was, ‘Plus Alus’ which translates to English as ‘Higher’.

It wasn’t until 2003 when the club finally gain promotion to the Liga del Futbol Profesional Boliviano, the top division in the Bolivian football pyramid. The did by winning the Simion Bolivar Cup, a competition that is competed by clubs from around the country to gain entry to the top-flight. The club won the cup by defeating Real Santa Cruz in the final. The first leg of the tie ended in a 2-2 draw, La Paz took the lead with a goal from Rodney Porcel in the 19^th minute only for Santa Cruz to equalise in 32^nd minute thanks to a goal from Justiniano. It didn’t take long for La Paz to re-take the lead and they did so in the 36^th minute with a goal from Alex Vallejos. They took their lead into the half-time break, but Santa Cruz equalised early in the second half when Cespedes struck in the 47^th minute. It remained 2-2 and it would go down to the second leg to decide who would win the cup and gain promotion. The second game wasn’t as exciting as the first and after 90 minutes the game ended 0-0. And so it went to a penalty shoot-out in which La Paz came out 5-4 winners. It was La Paz’s goalkeeper, Gustavo Gois de Lira who scored the winning spot kick and so they were to compete in the 2004 Bolivian Premier League for the first time in the club’s history.

The cubs first appearance in the Bolivian Premier Division was one that surprised a lot of people with the club finishing 7^th in the first half of the competition, known as the ‘Opening Tournament. This was won by Bolivar, who topped the 12-club league. La Paz FC won nine, drew four and lost nine in their 22 games. La Paz had opened up the campaign with a 2-0 win away to Central Union at the IV Centenary on February 15^th. There second game, another away game on February22nd against Wilsterman at the Felix Capriles ended with a 5-1 defeat and brough the ‘Alzulgranas’ back down to earth. This, along with ‘The Engineers’ was one of La Paz FC’s nicknames. Their first official home game in the top-flight ended in defeat to Bolivar, 2-0. It was technically a home match for both sides as they shred the huge 42,000-seater stadium, the Hernando Siles. Because of La Paz’s 7^th place finish, they entered Group A in the second half of the season. They struggled to find form and finished bottom of the group. But La Paz were not the big story of that season. The Strongest and Oriente Petrolero had to play out a two-legged play-off match to determine the winner of the second half the season. Originally, The Strongest came out on top, but an appeal by Oriente Petrolero about the playing of an illegal player by The Strongest, Marcelo Robeldo, overturned the result and that meant Oriente were given the title and a place in the 2005 Copa Libertadores. However, that wasn’t the end of it, as The Strongest then filed their own appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice. A long legal ensued with the outcome being that The Strongest were awarded the title and are the recognised winners of the division that year according to the Bolivian Football Association.

The 2005 season saw the league format change, with three tournaments to be competed in that year. They were the Adaptation Tournament, The Opening Tournament and The Closing Tournament, which would take place in 2006. The Adaptation Tournament was a simple league format, where each team played each other home and away. Twelve teams competed and the winner of the tournament would qualify for the 2006 Copa Libertadores as the number one ranked Bolivian club. La Paz finished 7^th in the final placings, winning ten, drawing three and losing nine. The title that season went to Bolivar.

The second tournament of that season was The Opening Tournament was in a two-group format, Group A and Group B. Both groups consisted of six teams, with the top three teams of each group qualifying for the next stage, the Hexagonal Final. In the Hexagonal Final, each team would play each other home and away with the team who came out top winning the title and qualification for the 2007 Copa Libertadores. La Paz competed in Group B and finished second with 19 points, winning five, drawing four and losing three. They only finished behind Bolivar who had gone the whole group without losing a game. It meant La Paz would compete in the Hexagonal Final. The finished fourth in the group of six, winning three, drawing three and losing four. The group was won by Blooming that year.

With one more tournament to go, La Paz was feeling confident they could do well in The Closing Tournament in 2006. Known as the Torneo Clausura, this was the final tournament of the 2005-06 season. It had the same format as The Opening Tournament, with all twelve clubs competing against each other twice, home, and away, with the team to after twenty-two games declared the champions. However, it was disappointing end to the season for La Paz, who finished 12^th out of the twelve clubs, winning just three games, drawing six and losing thirteen.  La Paz finished 8^th, in the overall standing, which are calculated from all three tournaments meaning they would compete in the top-flight next season. Before this, there was the matter of the Second Tournament to played out. Again, the format was simple, two groups of six, the top three would qualify for the final group stage of the tournament and the winner of that would be declared the champion. La Paz failed to qualify out of Group A, finishing bottom and ending their season early. The winners of The Second Tournament were George Wilsterman.

But it was clear that La Paz wanted to progress and start to challenge at the top of the table, or at least try win one of the tournaments that were on offer. The Opening Tournament in 2007 saw them finish third in their group, behind Real Potosi and Bolivar, winning ten, drawing five and losing seven. This gave them confidence going into the Closing Tournament and it showed in the group stages when the finished top of Group B and qualified for the final stage. They finished second, just behind San Joes, setting up a two legged final to decide who would be crowned champions. The first leg was played in La Paz and the two sides could not be separated, drawing 2-2. The second leg, played on the 12^{th of} December 2007 at the Jesus Bermudez Stadium was a tight affair, with both teams going for victory. In the end San Jose won out, winning the game 1-0 and 3-2 on aggregate. It meant that, to qualify for the 2008 Copa Liberatores, they had to beat Bolivar in a two-legged affair. The first leg was played at the Felix Capriles stadium and La Paz, the away team, won 2-1. It meant that a draw would be enough to qualify them for their first South American cup. But they did even better, winning the second leg by the same score line as the first, 2-1 and winning 4-2 on aggregate. Their run in the 2008 Copa Liberatores ended in the First round when they were beaten by Mexican club Atlas, 2-1 on aggregate. It was their first taste of continental football, and they were determined to have another opportunity to play at that level again. And they reached their goal after finishing runners-up in the Opening Tournament 2008, only behind University, winning ten, drawing seven and losing five. They continued their good form that season, finishing second in Group B in the Closing Tournament, behind Real Potosi. But in the next phase they were comprehensively beaten by Blooming, 6-2 on aggregate. This was after La Paz had beaten Blooming in La Paz, 2-1, but the then lost the away leg, 5-0. It wasn’t to stop La Paz finishing off the season strongly and when they competed in the Play-off’s, they went into it full of confidence. After beating San Jose in the first phase, they went into the quarterfinals and faced Blooming. This time the result went in La’ Paz’s favour, and they beat Blooming in a penalty shootout after they drew the tie 3-3 on aggregate. The semi-finals saw them once again face San Jose, who had gotten through thanks to what we would call ‘The back-door’ system. Once again, La Paz beat San Jose, but this time it was decided on the away goal rule. The first leg, La Paz played at home and drew 1-1. The second leg was also drawn, but this time it was 3-3, meaning La Paz went through on the away goal rule. It set up a final meeting with Real Potosi. It was played over two legs and Potosi won both games, 1-0, winning the overall tie, 2-0 on aggregate. It meant La Paz had missed out on their first major title in Boliva. However, they did end up top of the overall table through results from all the tournaments they played in during that season. Unfortunately, no title is given for such an accomplishment, only relegation the club that finished bottom of the table, in this case it was Guabira that season. La Paz would compete in the 2009 edition of the Liberators Cup.

They were drawn against Paraguayan club, Cerro Porteno, and it proved to be a mismatch as the Paraguayans beat their Bolivian opponents twice, 2-1 and 2-0 to progress to the next round, 4-1 on aggregate. The 2009 domestic season saw La Paz finish 6^th in the Opening Tournament, winning ten, drawing four and losing eight. The Closing Tournament that year didn’t see La Paz do anything of note, finishing bottom of Group B with a record of two wins, four draws and six losses. Their top goal scorer was Bolivian footballer, Helmuth Gutierrez with four goals in the group. Just behind him was Brazilian striker, Regis de Souza, who had scored three goals in the Closing Tournament, and a player who played most of his football in Bolivia, with exception to one year where he played in Sudan with Al Hilal. It was a disappointing season for the club, and they failed to qualify for any continental tournaments for the following year. The 2010 season saw a restructuring of the Bolivian football league system. The Opening Tournament was now played with two groups of six clubs being created, known as ‘The Hex Groups’, Hex A and Hex B. The top three of each group would then qualify for the Hex Winners group while the remaining six clubs, the bottom three of each group would enter the Hex Losers Group. La Paz competed in the Hex B group and finished 5^th place, winning four, drawing two and losing six games. This meant they would be competing in the Hex Losers Group. They finished 4^th in that group, winning just three games, drawing two and losing five. It was another disappointing Opening Tournament and they were hoping to have a better Winter Tournament. This was a simple knockout tournament, with each club drawn against another and then playing a two-legged match to decided who progressed. There was still a chance if you were defeated as the two best losers would also go through on virtue that they needed eight teams to make up the quarter finals. La Paz was drawn against San Jose, but unfortunately that is as far s they would get in the Winter Tournament. They drew the first leg away from home on June 16^th, 2020, 3-3. It set them up nicely for the second leg, that would be played on June 19^th, 2010. But they were easily dispatched by San Jose who beat them 4-1 at the Hermando Siles Stadium, meaning La Paz were knocked out. Not only that, the heavy second leg defeat meant they didn’t qualify as one of the two best losers and so their Winter Tournament participation ended early. (It should be noted that Bolivia’s Winter is through the months of May to July). Their Closing Tournament performance didn’t set the world alight either, as they finished 10^th, winning just seven games, drawing five and losing ten. Another disappointing season for the Alzulgranas, something that they would try to change in the next seasons.

The 2011-12 season saw the league format change once again, with the season split into three tournaments, The Adaptation Tournament, The Opening Tournament and The Closing Tournament. La Paz simply was in decline at this point, both on and off the field and it showed with the last place finish in the Adaptation Tournament, winning five, drawing two and losing fifteen. They faired a little better in the Opening Tournament, competing in Group B, with five other clubs, only to finish 5^th and failing to qualify for the quarter finals, missing out by one point, behind The Strongest. The Closing Tournament was now the only thing they could try and be successful in that season, however that wasn’t to be the case as they finished 10^th in the table, winning seven games, drawing three and losing twelve. Their top goal scorer in the tournament was Bolivian international midfielder, Daniel Chavez, who score eight goals in total. But it couldn’t hide the disappointment of another season that saw no qualification for a continental tournament. Their poor performances throughout the season saw them finish 11^th in the overall table, which meant they had to lay a promotion/relegation play-off against Destroyers. The tie would be played in a best out of three format. La Paz won the first game 6-1 at home, and many thought they would easily win the second game to secure their place in the Bolivian First Division for the next season. However, Destroyers came back fighting and won the second game at their home ground, the Ramon ‘Tahuichi’ Aquilera, 3-1. It came down to a tie-breaker leg, which was won by La Paz, 1-0, in the neutral venue, Felix Capriles. Argentinian, Alejandro Molina scored the deciding goal in the 41^st minute to secure La Paz FC’s place in the Bolivian First Division for the following season.

But it was only a matter of time before La Paz would struggle to hold onto their topflight status, and it didn’t take long for them to be relegated. The season after their promotion/relegation play-off, the club found themselves finishing bottom of the table in both eh Opening and Closing Tournaments of that season, 2012-13. They were automatically relegated. It was the beginning of the end for La Paz, and financial difficulties finally caught up with them. With their relegation, their support dwindled, and their debts began to rise. It was all too much for the club and on September 21^st, 2013, the club dissolved and disappeared from Bolivian football, unable to compete even at the lower levels in the Bolivian football pyramid.

Despite having a relatively short history, La Paz was a club that took me ages to write about. The Bolivian football structure and the way their seasons were played looked exhausting. Three tournaments a year, with three separate chances to gain entry into a continental tournament seemed excessive to me, however, it is how the South American nations structure their leagues, or most of them do. It is interesting that La Paz FC were always criticized for playing at such a high altitude, with many clubs claiming it gave them an unfair advantage, and yet they never won a major honour while playing their football on such high ground. It makes me question whether it was an advantage after all for the club, or maybe it was a hinderance? They certainly took pride in the fact that they played their football at the highest point in the world. Unfortunately, for them, they couldn’t remain there, and their fall from grace as seen them disappear totally. Will they ever be back? Who knows? But they will always have that little bit of history, in not only Bolivian football, but World football, as the team who played their football at the highest altitude in the world. That can never be taken away from them.