An unbeaten first trip to Colombia | OneFootball

As Colombia faces Ghana for a place among the teams qualified for the 2026 World Cup round of 16, the São Paulo Historical Archive looks back on Tricolor’s first trip to the neighboring South American country, with two wins and three draws.

In 1955, São Paulo went on a tour across the Americas. The trip had begun in Mexico, where the team won the first trophy in the club’s history earned on foreign soil, on its own. The tour then moved on to Colombia on June 22, on an Azteca flight to Las Playas Airport (now Olaya Herrera) in Medellín, once again with a stopover in Panama.

Tricolor’s first match on Colombian soil was against the country’s champion, Atlético Nacional, on the 25th, and the team only avoided defeat at Atanásio Girardot Stadium thanks to a goal by Canhoteiro in the 46th minute of the second half. Fair enough, the home side’s second goal had also only come two minutes earlier! The final score was 2-2 (the visitors’ first goal was scored by Maurinho).

“Drama in the final minutes: the Brazilians escaped defeat in miraculous fashion” (El Colombiano, June 26, 1955).

ATLÉTICO NACIONAL 2 x 2 SÃO PAULO25/06/1955. International Friendly: Single Match.Medellín (Colombia), Atanásio Girardot Stadium.

SPFC: Jose Poy; De Sordi and Mauro; Pé de Valsa (Víctor), Bauer and Turcão; Maurinho, Lanzoninho (Canhoteiro), Paraíba, Dino Sani and Teixeirinha. COACH: Vicente Feola. GOALS: Maurinho, 30/2; Canhoteiro, 46/2.

OPPONENT: Gabriel Mejía; Hernán Escobar and Roberto Martínez; Ignacio Calle, Nicolás Gianastasio (Apolo García) and Ulises Terra; Domingo Pepe, Alfredo Mosquera (Miguel Zazzini), Juan Carlos Toja, Humberto Álvarez and José Luis Lanza (Paglioni). COACH: Fernando Paternóster. GOALS: Juan CArlos Toja, 26/2; Humberto Alvarez, 44/2.

REFEREE: Mario Ruben Heyn (Colombia).GATE: 20,894.50 Colombian pesos.ATTENDANCE: 10,600 paid

On June 29, at the same venue as the previous match, Tricolor faced Independiente Medellín and came away with another draw, this time 1-1, again with a goal scored right at the end of the match (by Paraíba, in the 42nd minute).

“The tricolors ‘bombarded’ the opposition goal, subjecting goalkeeper Sanchez to constant pressure and allowing the men in defense to truly show their worth in preventing their goal from being breached. They did not win, therefore, because they were pursued by bad luck in some plays and, finally, by the tremendous performance of the goalkeeper…” (A Gazeta Esportiva, July 8, 1955).

INDEPENDIENTE MEDELLÍN 1 x 1 SÃO PAULO29/06/1955. International Friendly: Single Match.Medellín (Colombia), Atanásio Girardot Stadium.

SPFC: Jose Poy; De Sordi and Mauro; Pé de Valsa, Bauer and Alfredo Ramos; Maurinho (Roque), Lanzoninho (Teixeirinha), Paraíba, Dino Sani and Canhoteiro. COACH: Vicente Feola. GOAL: Paraíba, 42/2.

OPPONENT: Efraín Sánchez; Lauro Rodríguez and Lidoro Soria; Francisco Pacheco, Pedro Retamozo (Lorenzo Calonga) and Hernando Caicedo; Orlando Larraz, Manuel Moreno, René Seghini, Felipe Marino and Valerio Delatour (Carlos Arango). COACH: Delfín Benítez Cáceres. GOAL: Felipe Marino, 15/2.

REFEREE: Jose A. Sundheim.GATE: 39,111.50 Colombian pesos.ATTENDANCE: 20,000 paid

The first win in Colombia came in the second clash with Atlético Nacional, on July 3, after a downpour, and it made clear that there was no doubt about which team was better: Tricolor 3-0! With two goals by Paraíba and one by Canhoteiro.

“Sao Paulo crushed Nacional: the Colombian champion fell before 13 thousand spectators” (El Tiempo, July 4, 1955).

ATLÉTICO NACIONAL 0 x 3 SÃO PAULO03/07/1955. International Friendly: Single Match.Medellín (Colombia), Atanásio Girardot Stadium.

SPFC: Jose Poy (Costa); De Sordi and Mauro (Pirani); Pé de Valsa, Bauer (Víctor) and Alfredo Ramos (Turcão); Maurinho (Teixeirinha), Lanzoninho, Paraíba, Dino Sani (Roque) and Canhoteiro (Válter). COACH: Vicente Feola. GOALS: Paraíba, 29/1; Canhoteiro, 10/2; Paraíba, 16/2. SENT OFF: Lanzoninho, 5/2.

OPPONENT: Gabriel Mejía; Hernán Escobar and Roberto Martínez; Ignacio Calle (Rodríguez), Nicolás Gianastasio (Apolo García) and Ulises Terra; Domingo Pepe, Alfredo Mosquera, Juan Carlos Toja, Miguel Zazzini and José Luis Lanza (Tomasito). COACH: Fernando Paternóster. SENT OFF: Ignacio Calle.

REFEREE: Jose A. Sundheim.GATE: 26,046.50 Colombian pesos.ATTENDANCE: 13,300 paid

Unbeaten in Medellín, São Paulo moved on to the city of Cali, where on July 6 it would take on Boca Juniors… from Cali itself, not Buenos Aires (some publications made that mistake years later).

Lanzoninho hit the post twice, once in each half, but Paraíba, ruthless once again, scored the first and Maurinho sealed the score: 2-0 at Pascual Guerrero Stadium. The Brazilian press representative (Sebastião Barbosa, from A Gazeta Esportiva) covering the match, however, chose winger Canhoteiro and center-half Bauer as the best players of the night.

The local media, in turn, praised Tricolor’s team play: “…which ended with the thoroughly deserved 2-0 victory for the visitors. The Sao Paulo players showed clear superiority, once again confirming their strength, their excellent play and their great physical condition” (El País, July 7, 1955).

BOCA JUNIORS 0 x 2 SÃO PAULO06/07/1955. International Friendly: Single Match.Cali (Colombia), Pascual Guerrero Stadium.

SPFC: Jose Poy; De Sordi (Turcão) and Mauro; Pé de Valsa, Bauer and Alfredo Ramos (Víctor); Maurinho, Lanzoninho (Teixeirinha), Paraíba, Roque and Canhoteiro. COACH: Vicente Feola. GOALS: Paraíba (header), 9/1; Maurinho, 8/2.

OPPONENT: Gonzalo Escobar; Elmo Palomino and Ángel Chávez; Candal, Cuevas and Santiago Rivas; Miguel Panesso, H. Crespo, Fernando Rengifo, Morello (Delacuy) and Jesús Obando. COACH: Julio Tocker.

REFEREE: Marco Tulio Amaya (Colombia).GATE: 19,016.40 Colombian pesos.ATTENDANCE: 9,700 paid

São Paulo’s last battle in Colombia was in Bogotá, on July 10, at the famous El Campín, and the gritty team from São Paulo, even amid a tiring run of matches and facing yet another pitch battered by the heavy rains of the hours before kickoff, once again did not surrender and avoided defeat.

Against Millonarios, on a poor pitch due to the rain, the team again used up its last reserves and equalized in the final minutes: Paraíba, in the 43rd minute, once more found the back of the net, making it 2-2 — Tricolor’s first goal had come from Maurinho in the first half.

With so many goals scored on this tour (five), Paraíba was Tricolor’s biggest name among the local press and fans. To the Colombians, he was “Thomaz de Aquino”, or “El Santo” — the player’s full name, better known in Brazil by the nickname taken from his birthplace, was Sebastião Thomaz de Aquino.

MILLONARIOS 2 x 2 SÃO PAULO10/07/1955. International Friendly: Single Match.Bogotá (Colombia), Nemésio Camacho Stadium – El Campín.

SPFC: Jose Poy; De Sordi and Mauro; Pé de Valsa, Bauer and Alfredo Ramos; Maurinho, Lanzoninho, Paraíba, Roque (Teixeirinha) and Canhoteiro. COACH: Vicente Feola. GOALS: Maurinho (header), 41/1; Paraíba, 43/2.

OPPONENT: Hernández; Francisco Zuluaga and Vega; Hernando Moyano, Luis Alberto Rubio and Hernando González; Liborio Guzmán, Maiyelenic (Jorge Roa), Alfredo Castillo, Morello and Rafael Valek. COACH: Donald Ross. GOALS: Alfredo Castillo, 24/2; Rafael Valek, 40/2.

REFEREE: Jesus Lires Lopes (Colombia).GATE: 26,142.00 Colombian pesos.ATTENDANCE: 13,400 paid

On an Avianca four-engine plane, Tricolor left Colombia on July 12, unbeaten, and headed to Caracas, Venezuela, where it would next compete in the Little World Cup, as the friendly tournament Copa General de Brigada Marcos Pérez Jiménez was informally known.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.