Santa Clara and the Azores

In my previous blog post I discussed how football in Madeira is seemingly in good health with three sides in the top division in Portugal. Following on from that I'm going to have a look at football in Portugal's other Atlantic archipelago of the Azores.

CD Santa Clara:

With Madeira having three sides in the top division, the Azores currently has none and hasn't had a side in the top division since 2002-03. That side was Clube Deportivo Santa Clara, the only club from the Azores to ever play in the top division in Portugal. Founded in 1927 the club have only ever competed in the top division on three occasions (1999-00, 2001-02 & 2002-03).
That promotion in the 1998-99 season was under the guidance of Manuel Fernandes, a former Sporting CP stalwart. Santa Clara finished in 3rd behind Gil Vicente and Belenenses to create a little bit of history. However in their first top flight season they ended up finishing bottom and were relegated. They bounced back into the top division by winning the Segunda Liga by three points ahead of both Varzim and Vitória Setúbal. Back in the top league they did manage to avoid relegation and posted their highest ever league finish to date of 14th, seven points clear of the drop.

That 2001-02 season was also an historic one as the club did manage to qualify for the old InterToto cup and thus Santa Clara became the first Azores side to play in Europe. Their European campaign was short lived as after dispatching Armenian side Shirak they fell to Czech side Teplice in the 2nd round. That bought them into the 2002-03 season which was to ultimately end in relegation. Manuel Fernandes was gone at this point, he left the club in 2001 to take over at Sporting CP but was sacked after six months before resurfacing at Penafiel. As for Santa Clara well they started with just two wins in their opening ten games before a run of one defeat in eleven games in the new year gave them a fighting chance of extending their Primeira Liga stay for a third season in succession. However they were to record only two more victories in their final nine games and went down on the final day of the season with a late Varzim equalizer coupled with Académica's victory over Braga sending the Azores side down.

Santa Clara's Estadio de São Miguel home

They haven't returned to the top flight since. The have spent the majority of the time since stuck in mid-table of the Segunda Liga. There was a very narrow promotion miss in 2008-09 when they finished 3rd and an agonizing one point off União de Leiria. The following season in 2009-10 they again narrowly missed out on a promotion to the top flight when they finished 4th and just three points shy of a promotion place. Since then its been the doldrums of mid-table and now this season they are involved in a fight just to stay in the Segunda. They currently lie in 15th just two points clear of the drop zone which is the bottom five sides in the twenty-four team league.

Rivalry:
Santa Clara do have local rivalries but they haven't played any of them in a league match for quiet some time. Santa Clara's rise to the top division at the turn of the millennium came at a time where none of the other Azores sides were in the 2nd tier. The Azores' traditional 2nd force is Clube Operário and at the time Santa Clara first got promoted to the top flight, they were stuck in mid-table in the 3rd tier. Today Operário are still a 3rd tier side and play in Group E of the Campeonato de Portugal with three other Azores sides in Angrense and Praiense on the Azores island of Terceira and Sporting Ideal who play on the same island as Operário on São Miguel.
However Santa Clara's main rivalry is with clubs from Madeira, particularly Marítimo who were in the top division in every season that Santa Clara were. Nacional were only in the top division for one season when Santa Clara were in 2002-03.
The rivalry with Madeira and the Azores can be traced back to the migration of North African Jews to the archipelago. The Jews who migrated to the Azores were forced to convert to Christianity and today the islands have just one synagogue left whereas there used to five. Santa Clara as a result do have anti-semitic slurs aimed at them at heated games such as clashes with their Madeiran counterparts.
The rivalry is heated more by the fact that both region's presidents are fans of football. In my last blog post I bought you a little introduction to Alberto João Jardim who wanted to merge all three of Madeira's top clubs into one while being a Marítimo fan. His Azores counterpart Carlos César is a fan of Santa Clara and no he didn't bring a proposal to merge the biggest Azores clubs. Both president's had whats best described as a "heated" relationship and this added to the rivalry. Also the sheer determination to get one over on each other and become the best of the islands is a factor as well. An example of this is the comparison of the islands' best players. It is widely known that Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo was born in Madeira and is a source of pride for people from Madeira. The Azores' best player is the former PSG hitman Pauleta. Pauleta was the Portuguese national team's top scorer until a certain Mr. Ronaldo overtook him in 2013. 
Last season saw Santa Clara do battle with União da Madeira when they were in the Segunda and also Marítimo's B team which also competed in the Segunda. Marítimo's ultras do follow the B team when they play games with rivals. However Marítimo's B team were relegated last season while União won promotion which leaves Santa Clara as they only non-mainland side in the Segunda Liga this season. 

Prospects:
For Santa Clara the future isn't looking too bright at the moment. While Madeira is enjoying its period of strength with it's three sides in the top division, the Azores' only leading light is struggling in the Segunda Liga. With promotion unlikely this season it does remain to be seen if Santa Clara will get back to the top division anytime soon. What is more likely is another Azores team joining them in the Segunda next season. 
At the moment in Group E of the Campeonato de Portugal, the two sides leading the way are Praiense and Angrense who I both mentioned earlier in the post. The top two in each of the eight groups of the Campeonato enter regional promotion groups and, if both teams can reach that the chances of having at least one Azores team joining Santa Clara in the Segunda next season look good. That's assuming Santa Clara stay up. Last season Operário missed out on the promotion play-off to the Segunda by losing to Casa Pia who as a result pipped them to the play-off instead.