{"id":11189,"date":"2017-05-08T16:48:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-08T16:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/05\/08\/months-after-plane-crash-killed-most-of-team-chapecoense-wins-championship\/"},"modified":"2017-05-08T16:48:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-08T16:48:00","slug":"months-after-plane-crash-killed-most-of-team-chapecoense-wins-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/months-after-plane-crash-killed-most-of-team-chapecoense-wins-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Months After Plane Crash Killed Most Of Team, Chapecoense Wins Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colin Dwyer<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Luiz Ot\u00e1vio of Brazil’s Chapecoense (left) celebrates with teammate Wellington Paulista after scoring against Colombia’s Atl\u00e9tico Nacional in April. Chapecoense has a chance at another title \u2014 that of the Recopa Sudamericana \u2014 when it plays Atl\u00e9tico again in the second leg of the final this week.<\/p>\n

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Andre Penner\/AP<\/p>\n

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Andre Penner\/AP<\/p>\n

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Six months ago, a deadly airplane crash wiped out most of the Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense. Nearly its entire roster \u2014 19 players,<\/strong> as well as the manager and most of the coaching staff \u2014 were killed when the plane ran out of fuel<\/a> in the mountains of Medell\u00edn, Colombia.<\/p>\n

The team had been on its way to the finals of the Copa Sudamericana, a championship the club was awarded days later in a commemorative gesture. They never had the chance to win it on the field.<\/p>\n

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But on Sunday, Chapecoense earned a new title for far sweeter reasons: The club officially won the Santa Catarina state league championship despite a 1-0 loss, riding a superior record to a first-place overall finish.<\/p>\n

Chapecoense had already achieved a miracle of sorts last month by winning the second-half of the season, setting up a two-game final with the first-half winners, Ava\u00ed. Each team won one of the matches, making for a tie that was broken by comparing their final records \u2014 and that’s where Chapecoense ultimately clinched the advantage.<\/p>\n

The club is no stranger to the trophy, having won the Santa Catarina title just last year and six times total, but many of the players themselves have never won it. After November’s deadly crash killed nearly the entire team \u2014 and 71 of the 77 passengers on board \u2014 the BBC reports that<\/a> Chapocense rebuilt its roster by signing 25 new players and promoting nine players from a youth team.<\/p>\n

The team dedicated Sunday’s triumph<\/a> to the tragedy’s many victims.<\/p>\n