São Paulo’s first home match at Vila Belmiro in 1937 v Santos | OneFootball

São Paulo faces Flamengo on the night of this Wednesday (5th) in a rather unusual stadium for the Tricolores: Vila Belmiro. Although they played as hosts at the rival Santos’ ground three years ago, in a victory over Bragantino in the same Brazilian Championship, tonight’s clash against the Cariocas will be only the third time the club has acted as host at the traditional coastal stadium.

The first time was in the 1936 Paulista Championship. And the opponent was none other than Santos, the home team. It was a different era, with a more modest Tricolor, still without their own stadium, who agreed to switch home advantage due to scheduling issues at the time—a story we will tell in detail below.

Although it was already April 1937, the 1936 Paulista Championship had not yet ended. The last round of the second half of the tournament would be merely procedural for São Paulo, who aspired to nothing more than second place in the round, which had already been won by Palestra Itália—the Alviverde would decide the tournament title against Corinthians, champions of the first round. In any case, for Tricolor, the position was already a great improvement, after having shared the runner-up spot at the bottom with the weak Lusitano in the first half of the competition, ahead only of Paulista. It’s worth noting that this was the first championship played by the São Paulo team after its refounding.

Without a stadium of their own, São Paulo had been hosting several matches at their opponents’ grounds, which had already happened that season against Portuguesa Santista, Paulista, Corinthians, Palestra Itália, and, a week earlier, España. In this case, the Paulista Football League’s schedule listed the club as the host against Santos, and in the official document for the round, confirmed this status, even though the San-São was scheduled for Vila Belmiro.

The match began with dominance from the “visitors playing at home.” They managed to open the scoring in the fifth minute, with a run from Taveirinha, who crossed for Araken Patusca to enforce the Law of the Ex and score with a header. The Tricolores tried to respond soon after, but failed to create any danger and then saw Nicolau Moran lead a counterattack that ended with a shot from Araken, which went so close to the left post that it got stuck in the net, giving many fans the impression it had gone in. Only after a closer look did referee Sylvio Stucchi award a goal kick.

Even so, Santos didn’t take long to score the second goal, which came in the 12th minute, now from a play by Ítalo on the left, with another cross, this time finding Viveiros’ head. São Paulo took a while to recover from the blow, but eventually improved, forcing goalkeeper Wálter to work on shots from Carioca (twice) and Ministrinho. The opponent, however, kept creating chances. After some were missed due to poor aim, almost at the end of the first half Viveiros had what would have been the third goal disallowed for offside.

After the break, the game resumed more slowly, with attacks lacking real danger, until Moran unleashed a rocket that King saved with difficulty. The Tricolor goalkeeper also stopped Araken at another moment, and the striker wasted yet another chance before Carioca pulled one back after a one-two with Tino. The Alvinegro remained better, but kept missing the target when attacking, although they also faced some risk at the back, especially from Ministrinho’s runs. At the eighteenth minute, the game was stopped to attend to Wálter, who was hit by a knee from Tino while trying to take the ball from him. In another accidental collision, Moran and Felipelli bumped into each other, and the ball fell to Gradim, who shot from medium range to score the third goal.

Both teams kept the goalkeepers busy, until Aurélio received the ball in a questionable position and lofted it for Ministrinho to head in and reduce Santos’ lead in the 36th minute. However, with only four minutes left before the final whistle, there was hardly any time for Tricolor to chase what would have been a heroic draw.

The team tried, especially down the right wing, occupied by Ministrinho, but were unsuccessful. The match was finally ended when Felipelli fouled Taveirinha, and Stucchi didn’t even allow the free kick to be taken before blowing the final whistle.

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