Paulista '78: the triumph of the Meninos da Vila | OneFootball

Gabriel Pierin, from the Memory Center

On the cold Thursday night of June 28, 1979, in the first days of winter, Morumbi welcomed 80,488 spectators for a match that would become historic. On the field, a young Santos side, written off by many and hit by a string of absences, faced São Paulo, the previous year’s Brazilian champion, in the final match of the Campeonato Paulista. At the end of a dramatic night, the Santos team, beaten 2–0 in regular time, would endure 30 minutes of extra time without conceding and, thanks to the tiebreaker that favored them — the higher number of goals scored in the third round, 21 in all — would lift the Paulista champion’s trophy for the 14th time.

That triumph, however, cannot be explained by the final ninety minutes alone. It was built over the course of three matches played at the opponent’s stadium, in a sequence of tension, resilience, and talent that introduced Brazilian football to the first generation of the Meninos da Vila. The derby between Santos and São Paulo, which journalist Tomás Mazzoni, of A Gazeta Esportiva, had dubbed San-São in 1956, would gain one of its most emblematic chapters in that June of 1979.

First match: Santos win at Morumbi

The first meeting of the final was played on Wednesday, June 20. From the opening whistle, the match was played under intense tension. Santos, missing five starters, faced a more experienced opponent and, to make matters worse, fell behind on the scoreboard.

In the 18th minute of the first half, São Paulo opened the scoring. Dario Pereyra crossed from the left and the irreverent Sérgio Bernardino, Serginho Chulapa, rose to head the ball into the net. Santos goalkeeper Flávio Edmundo Martins Lima, from Rio Grande do Sul and still not fully established in the team, could do nothing. Years later, in 2003, Serginho himself would play for Santos; to this day, he remains São Paulo’s all-time top scorer, with 242 goals.

But the Tricolor goal did not shake Santos. In the 26th minute of the first half, the equalizer came. José Carlos do Nascimento, Zé Carlos, found Juary Jorge dos Santos Filho, then 20 years old, at the edge of the arc. The youngster controlled the ball, burst forward at speed, and finished past Waldir Peres, restoring parity and reviving Santos’s confidence.

The goal set the black-and-white supporters alight inside São Paulo’s stadium. Right in the heart of Tricolor territory, Santos’s 12th man made itself heard, driving the team on as if Morumbi were an extension of Vila Belmiro. Team and stands began to play together, moved by the same desire.

The comeback came nine minutes into the second half, in a move that would live long in the memory. Edivaldo Oliveira Chaves, Pita, also 20 years old, received the ball on the right, slipped a short, sharp dribble past Tecão, who fell to the turf, and struck left-footed into the back of the net. The stunning goal brought Santos fans to their feet and secured a 2–1 win for Peixe.

In that first clash, Santos won with Flávio, Nelsinho Baptista, Joãozinho, Antônio Carlos and Gilberto Sorriso; Toninho Vieira, Zé Carlos and Pita; Claudinho, Juary and João Paulo. The crowd was 88,316 spectators.

The almost-title and the goal that delayed the party

Four days later, on Sunday, June 24, Santos returned to Morumbi with a real chance to end the contest. The Santos fans turned out in force and filled the stadium convinced that, on that day, the huge trophy would head down the mountain road toward Santos.

In the 20th minute of the first half, Santos’s number 10, Pita, was brought down by Tecão inside the box. Referee Márcio Campos Sales awarded the penalty. The responsibility for taking it fell to center-back Antônio Carlos, replacing the injured Joãozinho. Waldir Peres, however, made the save. Antônio Carlos would die on August 6, 2012, in the city of São Paulo.

Even after the missed penalty, Santos remained the better side and found the goal in the 42nd minute of the first half. Marcelo Carlos Monteiro da Silva, Célio, a forward who would turn 20 on the last day of that year, received a pass from Pita, drove into the box, and scored the goal that for many long minutes seemed to be the title winner.

But football sometimes prefers to prolong the drama. When the seaside club’s fans were already preparing to celebrate, São Paulo left winger Zé Sérgio appeared in the 43rd minute of the second half to level the match and silence the black-and-white crowd. The goal postponed the celebration and forced a third match.

In that game, the referee correctly disallowed two goals by Serginho Chulapa: the first because the striker handled the ball; the second for offside.

Missing several injured starters and without Zé Carlos and João Paulo, suspended for a third yellow card, Santos lined up with Flávio, Nelsinho Baptista, Joãozinho, Antônio Carlos and Gilberto Sorriso; Toninho Vieira, Rubens Feijão and Pita; Claudinho, Juary and Célio. The crowd was 115,155 spectators, the exact figure for an afternoon when Santos’s celebration was put on hold by a single goal.

The decisive night

The final decider was played four days later, on June 28. Coach Francisco Ferreira de Aguiar, Formiga, still could not count on several important starters. Out were goalkeeper Vitor, first choice for virtually the entire championship, as well as Joãozinho, Clodoaldo, Aílton Lira and João Paulo.

For the decider, Santos took the field with Flávio, Nelsinho Baptista, Antônio Carlos, Neto (Fernando) and Gilberto Sorriso; Zé Carlos, Toninho Vieira and Pita; Nilton Batata, Juary and Claudinho.

São Paulo opened the scoring in the 26th minute of the first half through Zé Sérgio and doubled the lead five minutes into the second half through Neca. Santos’s 2–0 defeat took the decision to extra time, split into two 15-minute periods.

That was when the night turned into an ordeal. Both teams were already carrying the physical and emotional weight of three brutally hard matches. Exhausted, they became more concerned with watching each other than attacking, waiting for a mistake, a gap, an error from the opponent. Santos, meanwhile, was also playing with the rulebook on its side: it knew that a draw in extra time would be enough to make it champion.

Santos fans lived through those 30 minutes between agony and hope, as if each second cost more than the one before. Until referee João Leopoldo Ayeta — the same man who had officiated the first match of the final — blew for the end. And then Morumbi exploded. Fireworks swept through the stands, the celebration carried on into the early hours and spread not only through Santos, but across the entire country. The title had been won.

A long championship

The triumph crowned a long and exhausting campaign. Played over three rounds, the 1978/1979 Campeonato Paulista was one of the longest in the competition’s history. It began in August 1978, because of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, and only ended almost a year later.

Over the course of the tournament, Santos played 56 matches, with 26 wins, 16 draws, and 14 losses. They scored 77 goals and conceded 47. Numbers that help measure the scale of the journey of a young side, inconsistent at times, but capable of maturing at the decisive moment.

Goalkeeper Flávio only became the starter in the final stretch, from the 3–1 win over Guarani in the semifinal onward. Until then, the starter had been Vitor, from Minas Gerais, who had played virtually the entire championship, but he was injured in the match before the clash with Guarani and never returned to the team.

The campaign’s great attacking name was Juary Jorge, the championship’s top scorer with 29 goals. Left winger João Paulo was Santos’s second-highest scorer, with 16 goals.

The origin of the Meninos da Vila

It was during that campaign that the expression Meninos da Vila was born. The author of the phrase was coach Chico Formiga himself. From Araxá, Minas Gerais, he would later explain the origin of the nickname: “I’m from Araxá, in Minas, and back home we have the habit of calling boys meninos. So when people asked me about the team, I would say the boys were doing well.”

The definition was simple, but it would become eternal. The press would go on to identify the 1979 Paulista-winning group as the first generation of the Meninos da Vila. The second, in the sports media’s view, would emerge in 2002, with the Brazilian Championship title. In practice, however, Santos has always produced generations of talented youngsters since its foundation, 108 years ago.

Chico Formiga, the team’s teacher

Coach Formiga was one of the main figures responsible for the success of that Santos team. He had taken over the group the year before the title and, familiar with the youth ranks, promoted several players he trusted. Under his command, the team gained identity, confidence, and the courage to endure a long championship and a grueling final.

But the story of that title cannot be explained only on the field. Two directors played a decisive role in Santos’s rebuilding. The first was president Rubens Quintas Ovalle, who, upon taking over the club in 1978, carried out a broad overhaul, both in football and in finances, which were then badly shaken. The second was José Ely Miranda, the eternal manager Zito, who believed in Formiga’s ability and promoted him to coach the senior team.

The importance of that title becomes even clearer when one remembers that the last Campeonato Paulista won by Santos had been in 1973, when Pelé was still part of the squad. Since then, the club had gone through difficult years, marked by disappointments, loss of prestige, and even mockery from rival fans. The sports press, which for so long had been used to praising Santos, no longer gave it the same respect.

That is why the 1979 triumph carried a weight that went beyond the trophy itself. It represented a historic reaffirmation, proof of survival, and above all, the promise of a new future.

Time would show that the hope of that night was no exaggeration. Santos would only win the Paulista again in 1984, already with a reshaped team. After that, it would take another 18 years for another major title: the 2002 Brazilian Championship, won by a new generation of Meninos da Vila. But the first of them — the 1979 generation — had already secured its definitive place in Santos memory: the generation that, in the cold of Morumbi, gave the club back the joy of being champion.

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