São Paulo in Morocco | OneFootball

On this June 19, Scotland and Morocco face off in the World Cup, and the Historical Archive is taking the opportunity to remember the only time São Paulo visited the African continent in its entire history.

In the middle of the 1969 season, right after the end of the Paulista Championship, Tricolor went on a long European tour for a series of friendly matches and tournaments. The São Paulo delegation visited countries such as Germany, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria, until landing in Spain, wearing Recreativo de Huelva’s kit, defeating Real Madrid, and winning the Colombino Trophy.

The title gave the Brazilian team great prestige, so much so that within just a few days they were invited to another traditional midseason tournament, the Mohammed V Tournament (named after the sultan who had won the country’s independence a few years earlier), in Casablanca, Morocco.

The other participants in the competition would be the host Wydad Casablanca, better known as WAC; Bayern Munich of Germany; and Barcelona of Spain. The Catalan team, in fact, had great respect for and feared the Brazilians, but they were also coming off a recent title: the Joan Gamper Trophy, won against Zaragoza.

Mundo Deportivo, 08/30/1969

The Tricolor delegation arrived in Rabat, Morocco, on August 28. It was made up of only 16 players: Arlindo, Babá, Benê, Cláudio, Cláudio Deodato, Eduardo, Jurandir, Nenê, Miruca, Nelsinho, Paraná, Picasso, Roberto Dias, Téia, Tenente, and Terto. The group managed to take a day to train before facing Barcelona on the 30th at Mohammed V Stadium.

Despite a closely contested match, the marathon of games and travel took its toll, and São Paulo could not stop Barcelona, who were backed by a large opposing crowd from Ceuta and Melilla, nearby Spanish territories embedded in Morocco. 2-0 to Barça.

There was no time to rest, however, and Tricolor returned to the field the following day for the third-place match of the tournament. São Paulo would face WAC Casablanca, who had also been beaten 2-0 by Bayern Munich (Barcelona would later go on to become champions by defeating the Germans on penalties).

“The match perfectly reflected the clash between two very different styles of football. The São Paulo side, with a slower rhythm but mastering the ball to perfection, wove in Casablanca a dense spider’s web in which the liveliness of WAC Morocco’s attacking line eventually died, an eleven without great technical quality or outstanding class, but with great agility, the result of the youth and good physical preparation of its players.” This is how the newspaper Mundo Deportivo described the match.

Controlling the tempo and the game, reducing the home side’s momentum, São Paulo proved superior to Wydad from the very beginning. After just 10 minutes, the Brazilians opened the scoring through Miruca, with a shot that deflected off El-Mansouri. Still in the first half, in the 18th minute, Babá made it 2-0 with an individual play. Finally, in the second half, in the 35th minute, Babá himself sealed the score with a beautiful long-range strike: 3-0.

And Tricolor returned home with yet another trophy in their luggage (okay, this one little known and only for third place, but still another trophy).

WYDAD CASABLANCA 0 x 3 SÃO PAULO08/31/1969. Mohammed V Tournament: 3rd & 4th Place Match. Casablanca (Morocco), Mohammed V Stadium.

SPFC: Picasso; Cláudio Deodato, Jurandir, Roberto Dias, and Arlindo; Nenê (Terto) and Benê; Miruca (Eduardo), Nelsinho, Babá, and Paraná (Téia). COACH: Diede Lameiro. GOALS: Miruca, 10/1; Babá, 18/1; Babá, 35/2.

OPPONENT: Yachine; Rubio, Abdel Ghani El-Mansouri, Abdelaziz, and Bakkili; Mustapha Zeghrari and Mohamed Sahraoui; Mustafa, Abas, Ali, and Azhar. COACH: Mohamed Kadmiri.

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