Copa do Brasil 2010: the Santos side that made Brazil dream | OneFootball

Gabriel Pierin, from the Memory Center

It was a Santos team that played on the front foot. It had technique, talent, speed, and an impressive number of players capable of deciding a match. Neymar, Ganso, Robinho, André, and company formed a side that revived a deeply Santista tradition: turning football into a spectacle.

In the 2010 Copa do Brasil, the team coached by Dorival Júnior did that in its own way. It scored in all 11 matches and finished the competition with 39 goals, an average of 3.54 per game. It also conceded 15, true, but that statistic says less about its weaknesses than it does about the kind of football it played. It was a team that believed in its attacking ability, that was not intimidated when it had to chase a result, and that had the individual and collective resources to change a game.

The campaign began on February 24, in Campo Grande, against Naviraiense. Santos did not play a great match, but won 1–0, with a goal by Marquinhos in the 36th minute of the second half. The result gave the team from Mato Grosso do Sul hope that it might pull off a surprise at Vila Belmiro.

Before the return leg, the Naviraiense players went to the beach. Many had never seen the sea. They also visited the Memorial of Achievements and were impressed by Santos’ trophy collection. Once they stepped onto the pitch, however, the reality was different. By halftime, Santos were already leading 6–0. In the second half, they scored four more and built a 10–0 rout, the kind that recalled the great scorelines from the days of Dorval, Mengálvio, Coutinho, Pelé, and Pepe. André scored three times. Neymar got the seventh after dribbling past the entire opposing defense, while Robinho completed the show with a chipped goal.

Remo, in Belém, was the next opponent. And there Santos earned its only truly convincing away win: 4–0, with two goals from Neymar and two from André. From then on, the competition would demand even more from that group, which was already showing signs of possessing something essential for a title-winning campaign: the ability to respond to challenges.

In the round of 16, the first leg coincided with Santos’ 98th anniversary. On April 14, Vila Belmiro welcomed Guarani and witnessed one of Neymar’s greatest individual performances. The 18-year-old, already being hailed as Brazil’s best player, scored five goals in the 8–1 thrashing.

With qualification practically secured, Dorival Júnior took a mixed team to Campinas. Guarani won 3–2, but Breitner and Alex Sandro scored for Santos, and the place in the next round was guaranteed.

From the quarterfinals on, the Copa took on another dimension. At Mineirão, on April 28, Santos faced Vanderlei Luxemburgo’s Atlético Mineiro in front of 46,000 fans. Diego Tardelli gave the home side a 2–0 lead, but Santos did not lose its shape. Robinho scored in the 44th minute of the first half and kept the team alive. Tardelli scored again seven minutes into the second half, but Edu Dracena pulled one back in the 37th minute to make it 3–2. It was exactly the kind of situation in which that Santos side looked strongest: when it had to react.

A week later, on May 5, 14,245 fans packed Urbano Caldeira. At Vila, Santos took the initiative from the start. André and Neymar made it 2–0. Correa pulled one back at the end of the first half, but Wesley scored four minutes into the second period to make the final score 3–1.

Santos was in the semifinal. And the opponent would be Grêmio. The first clash, on May 12 at the Estádio Olímpico, drew around 40,000 people and seemed to be heading toward a comfortable night for Santos. In just 20 minutes, André scored twice, and there was still time for the traditional little dances in the celebrations.

But Grêmio reacted spectacularly. By the 30th minute of the second half, Santos was trailing 4–2. The excitement took over the stadium, and even the broadcasters from Rio Grande do Sul got carried away. One of them said that “Grêmio’s harpoon is etched into the whale’s back”; another mocked Santos by saying they could dance “the elimination.”

But that Santos side had Ganso. In the 37th minute, the playmaker found Robinho with a superb pass. The forward controlled it on his chest and fired into the net, cutting the deficit to 4–3. The result was still unfavorable, but the goal was hugely important for the second leg.

At Vila Belmiro, a week later, Santos once again showed why it had become the main attraction in Brazilian football. In front of 13,896 fans, wearing an all-white kit that seemed to bring back the atmosphere of the great moments in its history, the team won 3–1, with brilliant goals from Ganso, Robinho, and Wesley. Grêmio was eliminated.

The Santos fans took the opportunity to answer the taunts from the first match. If the opponent was the “Immortal,” at Vila, the Santistas said, the immortals were buried alive.

The final against Vitória then seemed like the last step in a campaign that had already produced great moments. In the first match, at Vila, Santos dominated and won 2–0, with goals from Neymar and Marquinhos. It could have built a bigger advantage, but the result left the tie still open heading to Salvador.

On Wednesday, August 4, around 35,000 fans filled Barradão. For Vitória, the most important title in its history was at stake. For Santos, there was the chance to win the Copa do Brasil for the first time and complete the set of national titles it had contested. Dorival Júnior lined up Rafael, Pará, Edu Dracena, Durval, and Alex Sandro; Arouca, Wesley, and Ganso; Neymar, Robinho, and André.

The first half was fiercely contested and offered few chances. In the 44th minute, Edu Dracena rose to head the ball and scored. The goal sparked celebrations worthy of a title. And it was no exaggeration: with that result, Vitória would have needed to win 4–1 to stop Santos from lifting the trophy.

The team from Bahia came back determined to change the story of the final. It pressed, found spaces, and came from behind, making it 2–1 in the 32nd minute of the second half. Santos began to struggle to get out of its own half, while Vitória kept searching for the goals it needed.

But the advantage built at Vila had been enough. When Carlos Eugênio Simon blew the final whistle, Santos was Copa do Brasil champion for the first time. And the title perfectly reflected the strength of that side. In 11 matches, there were 39 goals, an average of 3.54 per game. Neymar, at 18, finished as the competition’s top scorer with 11 goals. Paulo Henrique Ganso, at 20, was chosen by the Brazilian Football Confederation as the tournament’s best player.

It was not just a team of great talents gathered in the same squad. There was an identity. Neymar was the difference-maker, Ganso thought the game, Robinho added experience and quality, André popped up to score goals, and other players emerged at decisive moments. Wesley, Marquinhos, Edu Dracena, Alex Sandro, and many others also left their mark on that campaign.

It was precisely that combination that made that Santos side one of the great Brazilian teams of 2010. A team capable of winning 10–0, seeing an 18-year-old score five times, surviving a comeback at the Olímpico, reacting against Atlético Mineiro, and deciding a semifinal with goals from its main stars.

In that Copa do Brasil, Santos did not need to choose between playing beautifully and being competitive. It did both. It dazzled, suffered, reacted, and above all, won. On the night of August 4, 2010, in Salvador, the football that had made Brazil dream won a trophy.

The cup is in the Memorial of Achievements at Vila Belmiro, alongside so many other chapters in Santos’ history, waiting to tell once again the story of that generation which, for a few months, made it seem as though football could be a celebration once more.

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