Huachipato FC

Chilean football club

Huachipato FC is a Chilean football club based in Talcahuano that currently plays in the Chilean Primera División. Huachipato was founded on 7 June 1947 by workers of the homonymous steel mill in Talcahuano, and it currently plays its home games at the Estadio Huachipato CAP Acero, which it owns, making it one of the five Chilean professional football clubs to own their own ground. Originally a multisports club, Huachipato became a football club in 2015. Huachipato has thrice become Chilean champions, and it is the first and to date, only team from Southern Chile to win the Chilean top flight title. Huachipato is known in Chile from its academy and youth talent production that makes up the bulk of their squad, qualifying for the U 20 Copa Libertadores twice, both times as reigning youth Chilean champions.

In 1947, CD Huachipato was officially notarized, and the first official recorded game was played. The original fans were the local company employees of the steel industry in Huachipato. It took a few years for the club to achieve its first successes, obtaining regional championships in 1956 and 1964. In its early seasons, "the Steelers" (Acereros), as they are known, were quite satisfactory in the second division. The 1965 debut was against Municipal de Santiago with a 3–0 victory. After 36 games the standings would show Huachipato second with 46 points, 3 points less than that of Ferrobádminton another second division team that took the championship and thus passage (which is how it was granted in those years) to the First Division. However, a year later (1966), the Steelers managed promotion to the first division, after winning the second division champions Chile with 49 points, they remained well above teams like Coquimbo (42 points) and San Antonio (39) who stayed with the second and third place respectively after thirty games. With only two years in the professionalism of Talcahuano, Huachipato was installed in the top flight professional football in Chile, La Primera División. With a tie on a goal, as local and against Audax Italiano, the "Steelers" debuted in the first division. In the first season of the first division, Huachipato had an acceptable term in sixth place among 18 teams, although the tournament was on two wheels. The following years were quiet for steel, culminating their shares in the mid high zone of the standings. However, a few years after this change, Huachipato won the 1974 First Division Football Championship, with this triumph they are the only Chilean Football team from the south of Chile to obtain the title. 1974 was a year that many Huachipato fans will never forget, after 34 matches played, Huachipato had to beat Aviación to become champions in their last match, and they did it, Moisés Silva scored the only goal that crowned Huchipato champions that year. Since then the club has never won any other title, but it has always caused difficulties for the big teams when playing against Huachipato, especially in the Estadio Las Higueras, their former home ground. From the end of the 1990s, Huachipato was characterized by a club trainer of players from lower divisions. Examples of these are important values steelmakers who emerged from the quarry as Roberto Cartes, Cristian Uribe, Rodrigo Rain, Cristián Reynero, Rodrigo Millar, Mario Salgado, Héctor Mancilla, Gonzalo Jara, Pedro Morales, Mauricio Arias, among others. As for sporting achievements, reached the Semi Finals in the Torneos Apertura in the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In addition, since the end of the 1990s, the Huachipato classification achieved an international tournament and the Copa Sudamericana 2006 and their second championship in 38 years, after defeating Unión Española in the 2012 Chilean Clausura Tournament final. Huachipato were crowned champions of the 2023 Chilean Primera División by 1 point, and in dramatic fashion. They triumphed 2 0 against Audax Italiano at home on the final matchday, to increase their point tally to 57, while Cobresal, who had 56 points, failed to gain any points on their final matchday, suffering a 1 0 away loss to Unión Española. This gave Huachipato its third overall league title, and first since 2014. As a result of their triumph of Chile's top flight in 2023, they are set to participate in the 2024 Copa Libertadores.

From its foundation in 1947 and until 1966, Huachipato wore a red shirt, blue pants and white socks uniform in the same vein as the Chile national football team. Upon Huachipato's first promotion to the top flight in 1967, the team switched to its current black and blue uniform, inspired by Inter Milan's colours. Huachipato's name is derived from the Mapudungun eponomyous term that coined the area where the team is located, with the term meaning "Bird catching trap". Huachipato's badge was inspired by the Steelmark logo owned by the American Iron and Steel Institute, bearing a similarity to the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers logo, given both teams steelmaking roots.

Up until 2015, Huachipato was a multisports club, maintaining basketball, karate, taekwondo, artistic roller skating, roller hockey, tennis, table tennis, volleyball, and futsal branches.

Huachipato's supporters, nicknamed the Acereros, largely come from its home city of Talcahuano, with groups of fans coming from cities belonging to the Greater Concepción conurbation. A smaller group of fans reside in Santiago, often attending away games. Huachipato's main rivals are Naval, who are also based in Talcahuano and with whom Huachipato contest the Clásico Chorero , and Deportes Concepción, from the neighbouring city and regional capital, with whom Huachipato contest the Clasico del Gran Concepción. Huachipato and O'Higgins F. C. have a longstanding mutual friendship, originating from the Tomé tragedy of 2013, where 16 travelling O'Higgins fans tragically lost their lives in a road accident in Tomé, while returning from Estadio CAP after a 2 0 O'Higgins victory. In every fixture played between both teams since, both clubs organize a memorial ceremony previous to each match. Huachipato installed a permanent commemorative plaque at Estadio CAP in 2018, in remembrance of the tragedy, and since 2022, both clubs symbolically contest the Copa 16 (Trophy of the 16), in honour of the departed fans.