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Cosmos and Eibar Meet for Las Vegas Friendly

Learn more about the La Liga side before this Wednesday night's friendly with the Cosmos in Las Vegas.
Published May 24, 2016

Tickets for this match are available here. Watch it on the beIN Sports Global channel or by using the YouTube live stream above.

CLUB: Sociedad Deportiva Eibar

LOCATION: Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain

FOUNDED: 1940

STADIUM: Ipurua Municipal Stadium

DESCRIPTION (via sdeibar.com): "Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (Eibar Sports Society), founded in 1940, is a football Club which throughout its long history has played in all categories, from regional divisions to First Division. The most important sporting milestones of its history have been the eighteen consecutive years it spent in Second Division (from 1988 to 2006, record in its category) and its rise during the 2013-2014 season to First Division, where it currently remains. In 2014, it was forced to carry out a capital increase to continue in professional football and reached the figure of 10,000 shareholders in 69 countries thanks to a pioneering marketing campaign that made the Club’s image known worldwide. The first team of Eibar plays its matches at the Municipal Ipurua Stadium, with capacity for 6,300 spectators, and trains at the Atxabalpe installations, in Mondragón. It has a women’s team that plays in National Second Division and its youth team structure includes seven men's teams and two women's teams, in addition to a Football School." 

MANAGER: José Luis Mendilibar

NOTABLE PLAYERS:

  • Dani García: The 26-year-old midfielder is Eibar's captain and a Basque Country international. García spent the entirety of his youth career with Real Sociedad. He was sent out on loan from the Txuriurdin  to Eibar in 2012, and inked a permanent deal to play at the Ipurua in 2014. 
  • Ander Capa: Comfortable at right back or winger, Capa is the team's vice captain and another Basque Country international. The 24-year-old split time between the youth academies of Athletic Bilbao and Eibar. He transitioned from Eibar's reserve squad to the first team in 2012 and has since made 129 appearances, scoring 14 goals.

RECENT SEASONS:

  • 2013-14: As champions of the Segunda División, Eibar earned promotion to the top flight of Spanish soccer for the first time in club history.
  • 2014-15: Eibar finished 18th in its first-ever season in La Liga, and would have been relegated if not for 13th-place Elche being punished for financial mismanagement.
  • 2015-16: In its second top-flight season Eibar compiled 43 points (11W-10D-17L), good for 14th place in the league.

OVERVIEW: Eibar is famous for being one of the smallest clubs to achieve promotion to Spain’s top flight. In fact, it nearly didn’t fit the financial requirement to join the league after a title-winning 2013-14 season in the Segunda División.

Eibar successfully sought investors from outside the city with a digital marketing campaign, “Defend Eibar,” which netted sufficient funds for the club to battle the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Now the modest Ipurua Municipal Stadium, with the smallest capacity in the league (6,300), plays host to world soccer stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.

Eibar is a fiercely homegrown club, with many first teamers coming through its youth academy, but has expanded its name recognition since ascending to the top division of Spanish soccer. The club is touring North America for the first time.

VIDEO:

(via Copa90)