When São Paulo beat Mexico at the Azteca | OneFootball

The 1980s were highly fruitful for the Tricolor in matches against national teams. In 1981, another clash of this kind gave São Paulo a great result: an emphatic victory over Mexico at the Azteca Stadium. Something well worth remembering, especially on this Wednesday, the 24th, when the Mexican side faces the Czech team in another round of the 2026 World Cup.

The story of this match begins with São Paulo’s tour of Europe, where on May 21 they defeated Milan at San Siro in Milan by 2–1 (goals by Paulo César and Renato). From Italy, the Tricolor went on to Mexico, where it would face the local national team. From there, it would still travel to the United States for three other matches: against Tecos UAG of Mexico in Los Angeles; the Strikers of the United States in Fort Lauderdale; and the famous Cosmos, also American, on the outskirts of New York. A match in Guatemala had also been scheduled, but it was canceled.

After 23 hours of air travel between Milan and Mexico City and several connections, coach Carlos Alberto Silva had problems naming São Paulo’s starting lineup, as Zé Sérgio and Darío Pereyra were injured. In the end, the former still managed to take the field. Despite the physical issues, the São Paulo players handled the Mexican team’s early pressure well and, near the end of the first half, made the most of their chance to open the scoring through Serginho Chulapa (39 minutes).

In the second half, the MorumBIS Tricolor (since the opponent is also known by the nickname Tricolor) took off and truly could have produced a historic rout. Renato made it 2–0 in the 21st minute, and Valtinho sealed the score in the 37th: 3–0, not counting the countless chances missed. And all of that with one man less, since Heriberto had been sent off for protesting the refereeing…

At one point in the match, the Mexican crowd at the Azteca began shouting “olé” with every passing move by the São Paulo players, criticizing the performance of the home side. The next day, newspapers ran headlines such as “São Paulo humiliated the National Team,” “A sad night,” “The national side sank against a real team” (Ovaciones), and “National team? What a disgrace” (El Universal).

The opposing coach himself said that São Paulo did whatever it wanted. “They did whatever they wanted with us. São Paulo played very well and we played very badly. That is the reality. Their long-range shots and their speed threw us into disarray,” he concluded.

The complaint was more than fair. In the following weeks, Mexico would still lose to PSV and to the Spain national team. At the end of that year came the worst of it: a defeat to El Salvador and a string of draws kept the national team out of the World Cup in Spain.

As for São Paulo, all that remained was to pack the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol trophy into their luggage and continue the journey by plane, for many more hours, to Los Angeles and carry on with the mid-season tour (note: São Paulo drew 0–0 with Tecos, 3–3 with the Strikers, and 2–2 with Cosmos over the span of a week, crossing the United States from west to east).

26.05.1981. International FriendlyMexico City (Mexico). Azteca StadiumMEXICO NATIONAL TEAM 0 x 3 SÃO PAULO

SPFC: Toinho; Getúlio, Oscar, Gassem and Marinho Chagas (Nei); Almir, Renato (Valtinho) and Heriberto; Paulo César, Serginho Chulapa (Assis) and Zé Sérgio (Élvio). Coach: Carlos Alberto Silva. Goals: Serginho Chulapa, 39/1, Renato, 21/2; Valtinho, 37/2. Red card: Heriberto, 5/2

Mexico: Francisco Castrejón; José Luis Alderete, Juan Manuel Álvarez, Gustavo Vargas and José Luis López; Pedro Munguía, Manuel Manzo and Guillermo Mendizábal; Héctor Tapia (Sergio Lira), Ricardo Castro (Adrian Camacho) and Hugo Sánchez. Coach: Raúl Cárdenas.

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