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, doubted by many and hit by a string of absences, faced São Paulo, the Brazilian champion of the previous year, 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 criterion in its favor — 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 only by the final ninety minutes. It was built over 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 wins at Morumbi

The first game 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, appeared to head the ball into the net. Santos goalkeeper Flávio Edmundo Martins Lima, from Rio Grande do Sul, 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 leading scorer, with 242 goals.

But São Paulo’s 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 D. The youngster controlled the ball, burst forward with pace, and finished past Waldir Peres, restoring parity and reigniting Santos’s confidence.

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

The comeback came nine minutes into the second half, in a move that would be remembered forever. Edivaldo Oliveira Chaves, Pita, also 20 years old, received the ball on the right, beat Tecão with a short, sharp dribble that sent him to the ground, and struck left-footed into the back of the net. The brilliant goal brought Santos supporters to their feet and secured a 2–1 win for the 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 title that almost came — and the goal that delayed the party

Four days later, on Sunday, June 24, Santos returned to Morumbi with a real chance to wrap up the title. Santos supporters 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. Center-back Antônio Carlos, replacing the injured Joãozinho, took responsibility for the kick. Waldir Peres, however, saved it. 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, broke into the box, and scored the goal that, for many long minutes, seemed to be the title-winner.

But football sometimes prefers to stretch out 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 equalize 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 Serginho Chulapa goals: the first because the striker handled the ball; the second for offside.

Short-handed due to several injured starters and without Zé Carlos and João Paulo, suspended after receiving 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 grand finale 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, the starter for practically 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 already carried the physical and emotional burden of three extremely hard-fought matches. Exhausted, they began to watch each other more than attack, waiting for a mistake, an opening, an error from the opposition. Santos, meanwhile, was also playing with the rules on its side: it knew that a draw in extra time would be enough to make it champion.

Santos supporters lived through those 30 minutes between agony and hope, as if every second cost more than the one before it. Until referee João Leopoldo Ayeta — the same man who had officiated the first match of the final — blew for full time. Then Morumbi exploded. Fireworks took over the stands, the celebration ran through the night and spread not only across Santos, but throughout the entire country. The title had been won.

A long championship

The triumph crowned a long and grueling 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 ended only almost a year later.

Over the course of the tournament, Santos played 56 matches, with 26 wins, 16 draws, and 14 defeats. It scored 77 goals and conceded 47. These numbers help show the scale of the journey of a young team, inconsistent at times, but capable of maturing at the decisive moment.

Goalkeeper Flávio only took over the starting role in the closing 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 practically the entire championship, but he was injured in the match before the clash against Guarani and never returned to the team.

The great attacking name of the campaign 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 phrase was coined by coach Chico Formiga himself. A native of Araxá, in Minas Gerais, he would later explain the nickname’s origin: “I’m from Araxá, and back in my hometown 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 come to identify the 1979 Paulista-winning side as the first generation of the Meninos da Vila. The second, in sports coverage, would emerge in 2002, with the conquest of the Brazilian Championship. 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 behind that Santos team’s success. He had taken over the squad 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 an exhausting final.

But the story of that title cannot be explained only on the field. Two club directors played a decisive role in Santos’s rebuilding. The first was president Rubens Quintas Ovalle, who, upon taking charge of the club in 1978, carried out a broad restructuring 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 lead the first 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 disappointment, loss of prestige, and even mockery from rival supporters. 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 far beyond the trophy itself. It represented a historical reaffirmation, proof of survival, and, above all, the promise of a new future.

Time would show that the hope of that night was not exaggerated. Santos would win the Paulista again only 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 — that of 1979 — 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.