Benfica (Santa Cruz)
| Full name | Grupo Desportivo Benfica de Santa Cruz Grupo Desportivo Benfica |
|---|---|
| Founded | November 25, 2005 |
| Ground | Estadio Municipal 25 de Julho, Pedra Badejo, Santiago Island, Cape Verde |
| Capacity | 8,000 |
| League | Santiago Island League (South) |
| 2015–16 | 10th |
Grupo Desportivo Benfica de Santa Cruz, sometimes as Grupo Desportivo Benfica is a football (soccer) club that plays in the Santiago Island North League in Cape Verde. It is based in the town of Calheta de São Miguel in the island of Santiago and plays at Estádio Municipal 25 de Julho located northwest of the city center.
The club is an affiliate to Portugal's S.L. Benfica of Lisbon. It is the only one affiliated to in the North Zone and one of the three on the island, the others are Praia's CD Travadores and Benfica (Benfiquinha), forming the only on the island having three Benfica based clubs.
The club was founded on November 25, 2005 and first competed in the regional competitions in the late 2000s.
In 2011, they got their greatest position of first place of the final phase and won the North Zone's regional championships and qualified into the Nationals. Their first national level challenge was from the south of the island, Sporting Clube da Praia and lost 1-0 on May 15. Benfica Santa Cruz defeated Sal Rei and later São Nicolau's FC Ultramarina. On 4 June, a goal draw was made with Fogo's Vulcânicos and the final match was also a draw with CS Mindelense from São Vicente, neither goals were scored, their final position was that the club did not head to the playoffs, third place with 8 points, 2 wins and 4 goals scored. From 2012 to 2014, the seasons would not be successful for the club.
In recent history, in 2015, the club finished 7th in the first phase and had 15 points, 3 wins and scored 11 goals. Another aim for the success came for Benfica in the 2015-16 season, the first ever as the Premier Division, their extended season doubled the matches than the previous season and failed to reached the tops as they finished 10th with 29 points and had 8 wins and scored 33 goals, just above the division decisional match qualification zone, a fifty-fifty chance of staying or being relegated.
...
Wikipedia