Sarmiento (Resistencia)

Club Atlético Sarmiento is a sports institution from the city of Resistencia, Argentina; its main activity is football, and it is one of the best-known clubs in the province of Chaco. It currently takes part in the Torneo Federal A. Other disciplines are also practised, such as basketball, volleyball, hockey, tennis, Taekwon-Do, karate and swimming.

It was founded on 24 September 1910 under the name Centro Juvenil "Alborada", which it later changed to Centro Cultural y Deportivo Sarmiento, before finally settling on its current name. Having been founded on that date, with no earlier institution founded in the territory of Chaco, it earned the title of "Decano del fútbol y el deporte chaqueño" ("Doyen of Chaco football and sport"), as it was the first sports centre founded in the province. For that reason, its founding date was at the same time adopted for the commemoration of the "Día del Deporte Chaqueño" ("Chaco Sports Day"), created by provincial law 1,238/01.

In 1944 it qualified for the Copa de la República, where in the knockout phase it was defeated by San Martín de Tucumán. Sarmiento thus earned the best position of a Chaco club in a national cup. Throughout its history it has had notable performances in national football, most notably its participation in the 1977 Torneo Nacional of the Primera División of Argentine football, in which it finished 6th among the 8 teams of group C.

Between 2011 and 2012 it took part in the second edition (the relaunch edition) of the Copa Argentina de Fútbol, for which it had qualified while playing in the former Torneo Argentino B (later the Federal B, today the Torneo Regional Federal Amateur). Along the way, the team from Resistencia caused a surprise by being the only Argentino B representative to reach the round of 16 of the competition, eliminating, among other teams, Arsenal Fútbol Club, which at that time was leading the 2012 Torneo Clausura (eventually champion) of the Argentine Primera División. Its run ended in that same season, when it was beaten 2-0 by Racing Club de Avellaneda. From that season on, it took part in almost all subsequent editions of the Copa Argentina, except for the 2015-16 edition.

In 2014 it was among the teams that inaugurated the Torneo Federal A, being invited by the AFA's Consejo Federal while playing in the Torneo Argentino B (also changed that year to Federal B), with the aim of amplifying the regional character of the new tournament. From then on, it played in every edition of this tournament, with the 2016-17 edition being one of its best performances, reaching the fifth phase of the play-off for the second promotion to the Primera B Nacional.

Its basketball team takes part in the TNA (the second tier of national basketball). In volleyball, it took part in 4 seasons (2010 - 2014) of the Liga A1 de Voleibol Argentino, in which it twice reached the semi-finals of the competition.

Its traditional rival is Club Atlético Chaco For Ever, a team that arose from a dispute within Club Sarmiento itself in 1913 and with which it contests the Clásico chaqueño, a football derby which, although it pits two teams from the city of Resistencia against each other, bears the label "chaqueño" because they are the two most representative clubs in the province. At the same time, this match is also known as "El Superclásico de Resistencia", conveying that it is the greatest confrontation between clubs of that city. Another traditional rival is Club Atlético Villa Alvear, also from Resistencia, with which it has a classic rivalry owing to the physical proximity of the two institutions. At the same time, like its counterpart Chaco For Ever, it has fixtures against teams from the city of Corrientes, with Deportivo Mandiyú and Boca Unidos counted among its main opponents.