The first trip to Paraguayan soil | OneFootball

On this July 4, surprising Paraguay faces France for a place in the quarterfinals of the 2026 World Cup and, taking the cue – as part of the special series – the Historical Archive brings photos and accounts of São Paulo’s first visit to the neighboring country.

Until October 1945, São Paulo had toured outside Brazil only once, a little less than a year earlier: in December 1944, Tricolor played a friendly tournament in Uruguay against Nacional and Peñarol (the Montevideo Quadrangular Tournament). It cannot be said that its debut on foreign pitches was exceptional – the team lost 3-1 to the former and 5-0 to the latter.

Wanting to improve the club’s image abroad, the recently crowned 1945 Paulista champion set off for a series of three matches in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, where it would face the biggest local clubs: Libertad, Olimpia, and Cerro Porteño.

On October 7, 1945, at the old Puerto Sajonia stadium – where the famous Defensores del Chaco stands today – and in a match worth the President Morínigo Cup (the local head of government who had obtained Brazil’s forgiveness of the debt imposed by the Paraguayan War), São Paulo and Libertad tested themselves on the field.

São Paulo fell behind in the first half, but in the second, with Bauer, Tricolor managed to equalize. There is no record, however, that it won the trophy that was at stake.

LIBERTAD 1 x 1 SÃO PAULO10/07/1945. President Morínigo Cup: Final (single match).Asunción (Paraguay), Puerto Sajonia Stadium – Defensores del Chaco.

SPFC: Gijo; Piolim and Renganeschi; Ruy, Zarzur and Bauer; Rubén Barrios (Luizinho), Antonio Sastre, Leônidas, Remo and Teixeirinha. COACH: Vicente Feola. GOAL: Bauer, 16/2.

OPPONENT: Marcelino Vargas; Amado Casco and Víctor Vega; Manuel Gavilán, Victorino Leguizamón (Meaurio) and Mario Fernández; Eligio Esquivel, Benítez Cáceres, Teófilo Espínola, Porfírio Rolón and Bruno Boschetti (Amado Salinas). COACH: Manuel Fleitas Solich. GOAL: Benítez Cáceres, 26/1.

REFEREE: Arthur Cidrin.GATE RECEIPTS: Cr$ 106,000.00.ATTENDANCE: 15,000 paying spectators.

If the first result was not exactly ideal, the second is definitely hard even to remember, but since history should not be told halfway, here it goes: São Paulo was thrashed by Olimpia 6-2 on October 12, in a match played at the same stadium as the previous clash (with the Francisco Negrão de Lima Trophy as the prize) – Teixeirinha and Luizinho scored the Brazilian goals.

OLIMPIA 6 x 2 SÃO PAULO10/12/1945. Francisco Negrão de Lima Trophy: Final (single match).Asunción (Paraguay), Puerto Sajonia Stadium – Defensores del Chaco.

SPFC: Gijo; Piolim and Renganeschi; Bauer, Ruy and Zarzur (Virgílio); Luizinho (Antoninho), Antonio Sastre (Rubén Barrios), Leônidas, Remo and Teixeirinha. COACH: Vicente Feola. GOALS: Teixeirinha, 12/1; Luizinho, 6/2.

OPPONENT: Armando Ramos (Hermoso Franco); Alberto González and Martín Carvallo; Eulalio Granje (Rojas), Heriberto Samudio and Martín Goretta; Francisco Calonga (Landolfi), Tiberio Godoy (Valderrama), Leocadio Marín (Luis Montebruno), Sixto Cantero (Juan Villalba) and Pedro Álvarez. COACH: Unknown. GOALS: Francisco Calonga, 31/1; Francisco Calonga, 36/1; Luis Montebruno, 43/1; Tiberio Godoy, 24/2; Leocadio Marín, 40/2; Landolfi, 44/2.

REFEREE: Marcus Rojas (Paraguay).ATTENDANCE: 12,000 paying spectators

Image from the match against Olimpia

The last match would be the one in which Tricolor was obliged to save the team’s honor. Even motivated by a spirit of revenge – although the opponent was a different one – the São Paulo side once again found a tightly contested game. Thus, on October 14, at the same Puerto Sajonia, São Paulo secured the narrowest of wins to come out victorious – thanks to Rubén Barrios’s goal early in the second half.

With a bittersweet feeling, the tricolor delegation returned to Brazil somewhat relieved and somewhat resigned, but most importantly it brought back in its luggage a box containing the Colectividad Brasileira Cup, which had been at stake in São Paulo’s only victory on that tour of Paraguay, as well as some truly beautiful photos.

CERRO PORTEÑO 0 x 1 SÃO PAULO10/14/1945. Brazilian Community Trophy: Final (single match).Asunción (Paraguay), Puerto Sajonia Stadium – Defensores del Chaco.

SPFC: Gijo; Piolim and Renganeschi; Bauer, Ruy and Virgílio (Zarzur); Rubén Barrios, Leônidas, Antoninho, Remo and Teixeirinha. COACH: Vicente Feola. GOAL: Rubén Barrios, 6/2.

OPPONENT: Sinforiano García; Sanabria and Severo Rivas; Isidoro García (Santiago Mendoza), Julio César Ramírez and Julián Benegas; Pedro Fernández, Villanueva (Paredes), Francisco Sosa, Arturo Bobadilla and Enrique Ávalos. COACH: Joseí Vinsac.

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