10 Things You Need to Know About Club World Cup Challengers San Lorenzo

Real Madrid look just about unbeatable at present, and all eyes will be on Cristiano Ronaldo and his team-mates as they look to add the Club World Cup to their 2014 trophy haul. But waiting on the other side of the draw is another team desperate to sign the year off in style.

While the Morocco-based tournament and its predecessor, the Intercontinental Cup, is sometimes taken lightly in Europe, the opposite is true across the Atlantic.

Success against the Champions League winner means everything to a South American team, be they from Brazil, Argentina or anywhere on the continent. San Lorenzo will be no exception, and the Cuervo will give everything for the chance to be crowned world champions.

But who are the Argentinian challengers? From interesting beginnings to celebrity fans, the club is one of the more fascinating institutions in world football.

The name Edgardo Bauza may not be instantly familiar outside of South America. On the continent, however, the experienced coach has a great reputation for winning things, particularly cup competitions.

In 2008, the Rosario native shocked South America by taking unheralded Liga de Quito of Ecuador all the way to the Copa Libertadores. It was the first time an Ecuadorian team had lifted the trophy and only the seventh time the Libertadores was won by a club outside of the traditional Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay power base.

A second spell in Quito in 2010 saw Bauza lift the Recopa against reigning Libertadores champions Estudiantes.

When Juan Antonio Pizzi left San Lorenzo last December, the Cuervo board had no doubt who their man was. El Paton was hired to deliver continental success, and after just eight months in the job, he achieved that goal.

In many countries, the identity of the teams considered the biggest at any one point can change drastically.

In Argentina, however, there are five institutions who sit at the top table as the confirmed "Grandes," and San Lorenzo is one of them.

Boca Juniors, Independiente, Racing Club and River Plate complete this prestigious list, although there are more than a few clubs around with a case for being considered the "sixth giant". Between them, the quintet have won 82 national titles and account for the sympathies of the majority of Argentinian football fans.

Despite their exalted position in Argentinian football, until 2014, there was one thing missing for San Lorenzo. Unlike all of their companions in the "big five," the Cuervo had still not claimed South America's most prestigious footballing prize, the Copa Libertadores.

But this year, in a tournament extended until August due to a break for the World Cup, the club finally manage to join Independiente, Racing, Estudiantes, Boca, River, Argentinos Juniors and Velez Sarsfield on the nation's Libertadores roll of honour. Nacional of Paraguay stood between the Ciclon and continental success.

The Asuncion club did not make life easy over the two-legged final, but eventually, San Lorenzo won out. Having grabbed a 1-1 draw in the opening match, the Nuevo Gasometro was fit to burst for the return, and Nestor Ortigoza's penalty sealed the trophy with the game's only goal.

As one of the country's top clubs, San Lorenzo have seen more than a few Argentina internationals pass through over the years.

Of the current Albiceleste team, both Pablo Zabaleta, who came up through the Cuervo academy, and Ezequiel Lavezzi, a champion with the club in 2007, used to represent the Buenos Aires team.

Newcastle's Fabricio Coloccini is a fellow old boy, while foreign stars Jose Luis Chilavert and Sebastian Abreu both represented the club at some point in their careers. Further back, Argentinian football greats such as Oscar Ruggeri, Jose Sanfilippo, Luis Monti and Hector "El Bambino" Veira all enjoyed fruitful times in Boedo.

The likes of Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos and Cristiano Ronaldo should tread carefully in Morocco should San Lorenzo and Real Madrid meet in the final.

The Cuervo's midfield destroyer, Nestor Ortigoza, would be looking for blood and is not afraid to throw his considerable bulk around while maintaining a surprisingly skilful touch.

Ortigoza was born in Argentina to Paraguayan immigrants and grew up in a deprived part of the Merlo neighbourhood. Money was tight, and he supplemented the pittance he earned as a trainee with Argentinos Juniors as a ringer in vicious neighbourhood games played for cash.

Speaking to FIFA.com, the Paraguay international recalled how he began to take part in the penalty competitions: "For a year and a half, I stood behind my uncle and watched him take them. Later I'd go out in the streets and take aim at the trees until I started participating myself. That's where I grasped that trick. If you wanted to eat, pay for transport or buy yourself some clothes, you simply had to win."

While San Lorenzo are usually among the Primera Division high-flyers on the field, the club also enjoys a glowing reputation off the field.

Fans of the club, known collectively as La Gloriosa, are renowned for their ability to invent new songs on the terraces.

Stadium hits such as Mi Buen Amigo and Ole Ole Ola, Cada Dia Te Quiero Mas are now sung in all sports the length and breadth of Argentina. But those two chants—and many more besides—first saw light among the San Lorenzo faithful, cementing their name as some of the country's most inventive supporters.

While the Cuervo cannot compete with the likes of River and Boca for sheer numbers of fans, the club is infamous for having friends in high places. Television mogul Marcelo Tinelli, for example, is fanatical in his support and went as far as to take a place on the board in the last presidential elections.

And of course, none other than Aragorn himself, American actor Viggo Mortensen, swears allegiance to the Ciclon. Mortensen spent a part of his childhood in Buenos Aires and speaks impeccable Argentinian Spanish, and while he was there, he became a die-hard follower of the team from Boedo.

The Cuervo fan, speaking to Marca at the Mar del Plata film festival, has no doubt what the result will be should Madrid and San Lorenzo go head-to-head. "They reckon they're going to put eight past us, but we'll beat them. It wasn't long ago I thought it was impossible, but now I'm convinced," he told the Spanish newspaper.

Religious ties, judging by the identity of the club's most famous fan—more on that later—seem to run deep in San Lorenzo. While most football teams credit a group of founders as the key to their existence, the Cuervo pay tribute to a priest, Father Lorenzo Massa.

The clergyman watched on in 1908 as a gang of toughs in Buenos Aires, Los Forzosos de Almagro, organised football games in the middle of the streets. Massa saw they had talent but that dodging horses and tramcars was not an ideal situation.

Therefore, the priest offered up a part of the local church's grounds as an area to practice, helping the Forzosos develop their initiative from street gang to something more organised. In tribute to their benefactor, they called the new side San Lorenzo de Almagro.

The military dictatorship that ruled over Argentina between 1976 and 1983 was a dark time in the nation's history. Thousands of disappearances rocked society in those seven years, as those in charge ruled with an iron fist and allowed little debate of their murderous regime.

San Lorenzo also endured one of the worst periods since coming into existence in 1908. After amassing far too much debt and struggling financially toward the end of the 1970s, the military authorities stepped in and forced the club to sell their beloved Gasometro stadium in 1979. The club's first relegation to the second division followed just two years later.

Feeling pressure from fans who wanted to see San Lorenzo leave the unloved "New" Gasometro in Flores and return to their home neighbourhood of Boedo, where the original stadium site had become a Carrefour hypermarket, the club won a key legal battle against the chain, allowing it to buy back the land. Named after Pope Francis, the new stadium should be ready by 2016, according to the BBC.

As far as celebrity supporters go, San Lorenzo's most famous fan takes some beating. None other than Catholic church leader Pope Francis, born Jorge Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, claims allegiance to the famous Argentine club.

The former Archbishop of Buenos Aires received coach Edgardo Bauza and his men in the Vatican City after August's landmark victory in the Copa Libertadores, according to the BBC.

It has not yet been confirmed if the pontiff's schedule will allow him to tune in to the Club World Cup, but it is certain that Francis will be taking a keen interest in the tournament from the Holy See.