São Paulo v Saudi Arabia | OneFootball

Saudi Arabia is the national team that Tricolor has faced the most times to this day: there have been four matches and, curiously, the first three were quite difficult, all ending in draws. At the end of 1979, two games took place, both on foreign soil: 1-1 at Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, in Riyadh, and the same score at Prince Abdullah Al Faisal, in Jeddah, on December 13 and 15 (with goals by Getúlio in the first and Neca in the second).

The third meeting, in mid-1980, was at MorumBIS, but that did not make it any easier. It ended 2-2, with goals scored by Serginho and Assis. It is worth noting that these matches were arranged by the Saudi national team coach, who had a strong connection with Tricolor — after all, shortly before that he had won the Brazilian Championship with the club: Rubens Minelli. The former São Paulo coach was preparing the Middle Eastern team for the Asian qualifiers for the 1982 World Cup.

What will be highlighted here, however, is the fourth meeting, still in the middle of those Arab preparations. On September 22, 1981, São Paulo and the Saudi national team faced each other again at Morumbi. Tricolor, under coach Formiga, was recovering in the Campeonato Paulista. Before that, they had lost to Ferroviária, Ponte Preta, and Guarani, but in the matches leading up to the international clash they had put together good wins against Francana, Taubaté, and XV de Jaú, despite draws in the tougher games against Portuguesa and Corinthians.

But the big draw for this game was the “presentation” of a possible new signing. That’s right, possible — it was not certain that the player in question would play for Tricolor after this friendly. That player was Rivellino, former Brazil national team player and former Al Hilal player, precisely from Saudi Arabia. The star, despite having “feathered his nest” in the Middle East, was looking for offers to return to football in Brazil, and everything was still under negotiation.

Despite this “bombshell” news, the São Paulo fans were not excited about the event, which would also be worth the Nabi Abi Chedid Trophy; only a little over two thousand fans went to the “Cícero Pompeu de Toledo” to watch the match. Despite the cold atmosphere off the pitch, the game was heated on it, at least for the eleven wearing Tricolor’s striped shirt.

After ten minutes, Éverton opened the scoring for the home team after a penalty on Paulo César that was not called by the referee: the ball fell kindly for the midfielder, who only had to tap it into the net. Without slowing down, the same Everton doubled the lead two minutes later, when he drove down the left, beat his marker, and fired a cross-shot. At this frantic pace, Paulo César scored the third with only 15 minutes gone — this one after a pass from Rivellino to Serginho. The game was already decided and had barely begun, although the Saudis pulled one back in the 20th minute after a mistake by the Tricolor defense.

In the second half, São Paulo only had the task of controlling the slight Arab pressure, which did not threaten Waldir Peres’s goal. Near the end of the match, the tireless Paulo César scored two more goals in the trademark style of a winger: speed combined with technique, calmly finishing from the edge of the box and then dribbling past the center-back and striking hard. Final score: 5-1 to São Paulo!

In the end, Rivellino never wore the São Paulo shirt again. Negotiations with the Arabs went nowhere.

09/22/1981. International FriendlySão Paulo (SP). MorumBIS StadiumSÃO PAULO 5 x 1 SAUDI ARABIA NATIONAL TEAM

SPFC: Toinho; Getúlio (Flavinho), Nei, Gassem and Heriberto; Élvio, Éverton and Rivellino; Paulo César, Serginho Chulapa (Luís Fernando Gaúcho) and Tatu (Márcio Araújo). Coach: Formiga. Goals: Éverton, 10/1; Éverton, 12/1; Paulo César, 15/1; Paulo César, 39/2; Paulo César, 41/2

Saudi Arabia: Salem Maruan; Abdalla Orap (Husseid), Saleh Al-Naime, Ahmed Bifale and Mohamed Jaaudi (Wabay); Onda Abdalla, Sarur (Majed Ahmed Abdullah Al Mohammed), Fahad Moravi (Abed Drabhu) and Shaiab Al-Nasissa (Khalifa); Saud and Youssef. Coach: Rubens Minelli. Goals: Shaiab, 20/1

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