Gloria, Prode and resurrections of Racing de Córdoba, River's rival for the Argentine Cup

He was born in Córdoba in the shadow of others, almost 100 years ago.

In December 99 will be the afternoon when a group of young people was willing to found a club and debated between two motions to name it:

and

, according to the fanaticism of the promoters.

Then the seven consecutive titles between 1913 and 1919 that turned the Avellaneda club into

were still warm and the result of the vote was not unanimous, but neither was it close.

Since his baptism, geolocation has been attached to the name.

Except in the Mediterranean province it is immediately clear: it is Racing 

.

In the shadow since then, he worked for his own flash and along the way he has everything to tell the story of him and the present, which has him as

's rival for the

.

Putting the 11 of one and the other hand in hand can confuse the goals.

It is true, the surnames of the Racing players are not on everyone's lips.

The technical director is 

, the figurehead of the Cordovan Academy, the familiar face of the team.

But that is not why River's rival is one of those teams that have their 15 minutes of fame when they get a big one in the Argentine Cup.

No, Racing has its mark on the road.

To the tumbles or with aplomb, but the course is own.

There was a time when it was not new to see Racing in the big competition.

.

The starting point was 1978: that year it was one of the teams that played in

AFA

.

His participation was "worthy", as described by the club on its website, but he was eliminated in the first round.

There was little left for the Academy to illuminate its best stage.

The Nacional of '80 was the brand of fire, the irruption on the big stage of Argentine soccer.

There was no longer just one Racing: the one from Córdoba passed the first round, eliminated Diego Maradona's Argentinos Juniors in the quarterfinals -first 1-1 and then 3-1- and danced to Independiente -Ricardo Bochini's- at the Chateau Carreras by 4 to 0 and although he lost in the rematch by 5 to 3, the aggregate 7-5 put him in the final.

The feat was not possible, they lost the first leg against Rosario Central by 5 to 1 and although they came back from the second leg, they did not reach 2 to 0 to be champion.

The consecration came a year later, in Korea, where they won the

that that country organized between 1971 and 1999. The Cordoba institution was the only one in Argentina that lifted that trophy that mixed teams and clubs and also won, among others,

and

.

Upon his return, he again surpassed the Nacional group zone and was awarded the right to also participate in the Metropolitan.

In this way, the club dedicated itself to the tournament organized by AFA and left the Cordovan League aside.

Settled in the First Division,

.

In 1983 he wrote an unexpected chapter in his founding stage: he beat his namesake 4-3 in the Cilindro de Avellaneda and that result condemned the original Academy to relegation.

It was the only "achievement" of that year.

At that time, soccer could also be an economic vehicle for those who were on the other side of the fence: the Sports Forecasting game better known as Prode had a good incentive to play each date.

If it was vacant, the prize was more succulent.

The first week of May 1984, there was 1.7 million dollars for the one who hit all 13 games.

The Cordovan team decided to play a ballot: the captain called out the match and, by show of hands, the group resolved where to put the cross: local, visitor or tie.

The date began to develop and the successes of the squad were promising.

So much so that before their match, they had 12 hits.

If they beat

, they added the two points for the win, but mainly the 13 from Prode.

They say that there was no technical talk, but a harangue tailored to

so that those dollars that were at stake would not escape.

And they won.

The 2-1 came on time and the euphoria with which the footballers celebrated was excessive: not even in the stands was there such a fuss.

But the campus ballot was not the only one with the necessary hits to keep the money.

The almost two million dollars were distributed among just under 100 bettors and the portion that Racing had left was divided among 40 people.

.

A year later, big football was restructured: the National and Metropolitan championships disappeared, the first Division began to be played in round-trip tournaments and Racing's gait was erratic.

They avoided scraping relegation after the 87/88 season, in the following they saved their skin on the last date, but in 1990 they finally descended after losing a playoff for equality in the coefficient of averages with Chaco For

.

The Chaco team thrashed them 5-0 on the Boca field.

And it began to sink.

In Nacional B he failed to classify even those reduced by the second promotion in his first two seasons and in the third he was relegated again.

He returned to the Cordovan Football League from which he had left, without stringing together successes.

But 1998 was the

: three promotions in the same year to return to the Primera anteroom.

.

The triple promotion boost was enough to survive in the Second Division, but another AFA restructuring increased the number of relegations and Racing was one of the seven that left the category in the new millennium.

Management arrived, which meant the recovery of its status,

.

Years of up and down followed.

But the worst was yet to come.

Intervened by the Justice in 2004, Racing faced the

without managing to make footing in any category.

And again the background.

In 2019, Racing only played the Cordovan league tournament, but was an undefeated champion.

The next step was the regional tournament, interrupted by the pandemic, and again to

, but there was no place for another of his epic participations.

He lost both chances for promotion.

The return to the

It came in 2022, when the tournament had the only vacancy at stake, which they beat

in the final on penalties.

After almost a decade, Racing returned to the second category of AFA.

And there he is, with his own lights, retaking that old habit of measuring himself against the greats of Buenos Aires while trying to build his return to the First Division.

Although there is a long way to go, it is located in the last rung of the positions that classify the reduced for the second promotion.

Meanwhile, he will try in the Argentine Cup, to get out of the galley one of those hits that he knew how to give.

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