1984 Portuguese Cup final revisited: the bearded men against the Dragon | OneFootball

Round Six of the Liga Portugal kicks off on Friday in Vila do Conde as Rio Ave welcome early leaders FC Porto to the Estádio dos Arcos. Football historian Miguel Lourenço Pereira takes us on another journey delving into Portugal’s rich football heritage, travelling back to 1984 when the two teams met in the Portuguese Cup final.

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It was 1984 and, against all the odds, Rio Ave were playing the Cup final at the Jamor. It was a massive event for a poor fishing town that had just recently become accustomed to playing first division football, let alone to go as far as to enjoy a ride to Lisbon for a cup showdown. Against them were a Porto side preparing to play against Juventus in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup final and also preparing itself for the loss of José Maria Pedroto, who would die from cancer half a year later.

That afternoon, the Dragons gifted president Pinto da Costa his first major trophy, said their farewells to the coach who made them great once again and on the pitch beat a group of bearded men who represented more than just a football club. They were ambassadors of a Portugal that was about to disappear.

After the final whistle Porto winger Vermelhinho offers his shirt to Pinto da Costa, who was celebrating his first trophy as club president

Poor neighbourhood, passionate crowd

Football at the old Avenida ground was something else. Sadly, over the last few years, we have grown used to seeing Rio Ave playing at home in an empty ground. There’s just the one stand at dos Arcos, following a demolition that was supposed to be temporary but has since become the norm. Since the only TV camera is set on the ground’s only stand, you get to see nothing but a huge void in front of you. On the pitch, the feeling is exactly the same, as if you were attending a non-league match rather than a first division or even European tie. Dos Arcos was supposed to help Rio Ave become an established side in Portuguese football, but even if the last thirty years have, undoubtedly, been the most successful in their history, the magic, the noise, and the atmosphere of the old Avenida were never properly replaced.

The Avenida, with its dirt pitch, resembled more their neighbouring club of Varzim, a place where supporters were right on top of the players, and you had to be strong-minded to endure all the provocations and screams directed at you. It was also a roaring crowd of support for the local team, particularly because of Rio Ave’s historic fanbase of Caxinas, where the poor fishing community of the town resides, about thirty kilometres north of Porto. Vila do Conde is more than Caxinas, of course, with its beautiful if small downtown, but it’s the neighbourhood spirit that lingered when anyone travelled to see the Verde e Brancos play at home.

On the up under Félix Mourinho

Rio Ave was founded in 1939 and played regional football until the 1970s, when they started to climb up the football pyramid. In 1979, they clinched promotion to the first division for the first time, with Pedro Gomes, a former Sporting international and Cup Winners’ Cup winner, at the helm. They lasted just one season, but in 1981 they were back again, this time coached by Félix Mourinho. The former goalkeeper of Vitória FC and Belenenses had become a respected manager over the previous decade, and his quiet yet firm leadership style found in Vila do Conde a group of players willing to listen and learn. Over the following season, playing a distinct brand of attacking football, Rio Ave finished fifth, their best position ever, only equalled twice since.

Among the squad was a young midfielder who showed some promise and who was also the manager’s son, José Mourinho. He played briefly for the first team and also helped his father compile scouting reports on the opposition, and he was one of the reasons why his father left the club at the end of the season. Félix wanted to give his son a place in the starting eleven in the final match against Sporting, but the club’s chairman went down to the dressing room and told him that if he didn’t remove his son from the team, he would be fired. Félix played José for a handful of minutes in the second half and then presented his resignation, signing for Belenenses, where he had been a player and assistant years before.

Rio Ave manager Félix Mourinho coached his son José at the Vila do Conde club

Replays galore in glorious Cup run

Pedro Gomes was called once again, but since results didn’t improve, the club chairman José Maria Pinho and Félix Mourinho patched up their differences, reached an agreement, and the manager returned to the northern port to resume his work. Over the 1983/84 season, they were able to finish ninth, a place below the previous campaign, but by then all eyes were on the fantastic cup run the club was enjoying. Rio Ave beat Juventude de Évora, Valadares and Riopele before facing their bitter rivals Varzim in the last sixteen. It was a tense affair as expected, at a time when Varzim were also on a high, and the match ended in 2-2 with the Vilacondenses coming out winners only after a replay at Varzim’s home ground. In the following round, Félix Mourinho’s side drew 1-1 at Estoril, necessitating another replay, and a week later they beat the Canaries 3-1 at the old Avenida to set up a semi-final with Vitória SC.

Vila do Conde is known to be a favourite beach destination for Guimarães residents, so there was also a rivalry there to be enjoyed. As Porto and Sporting fought for a place at Jamor, so Rio Ave travelled to the Dom Afonso Henriques as underdogs. It ended goalless, and on 4 April yet another replay took place at a packed Avenida, which would witness one of the club’s most iconic matches ever. N’Habola opened the scoring for the visitors, but Paquito Saura equalised with just five minutes left on the clock, taking the match to extra time once more. With both sides exhausted, it became inevitable that everything would be decided in a penalty shootout. A brilliant save by Alfredo, a goalkeeper who would later become an international and a legend at Boavista, made all the difference and sent the home crowd into a state of hysteria. It was a night no-one at Vila do Conde would ever forget.

Porto’s strife

Their opponents in the final were living through difficult times.

After the hot summer of 1980 that saw president Américo de Sá sack José Maria Pedroto, sports director Pinto da Costa resign, followed by a players’ strike, the Dragons had not been themselves. Four seasons had passed without a single league title, and the previous season the club had ingloriously lost the cup final at home against Benfica thanks to a fantastic Carlos Manuel goal.

Pinto da Costa had won the 1982 presidential election, but his first two years were far from memorable. He had to deal with the difficult financial situation the club was in, signing the first shirt sponsorship deal for a major side in Portugal with the Agueda ceramics brand Revigres, while devising expansion projects for the das Antas stadium to raise attendances and ticket sales. He had also brought back Fernando Gomes from Spain and Pedroto, who was coaching Vitória SC, but mid-season the manager started to have health issues and further exams in London confirmed the worst-case scenario. It was lung cancer, and the manager had little chance of survival. He wouldn’t last another year.

Pedroto’s final days

By the end of the 1983/84 campaign, Pedroto wasn’t even able to sit in the dugout anymore so his deputy António Morais took control of the team during matches, even if the game plan was still devised by the great man. Porto weren’t able to catch Sven-Goren Eriksson’s Benfica for the league title, despite beating them in the Portuguese Super Cup, but their European run was impressive, overcoming Glasgow Rangers and Shakhtar Donetsk before culminating in a memorable win at Pittodrie to beat reigning champions Aberdeen for a place in the Cup Winners’ Cup final, to be played mid-May in Basel, against Juventus.

Back in Portugal, in the Portuguese Cup, after coming from behind to beat Sporting in a replay – Jordão’s goal in the first minute responded to with strikes by Mikey Walsh and Jaime Pacheco – the Dragons were clearly favourites but nobody knew how Pedroto’s absence and the prospect of playing a continental final, the first in their history, would be a factor to take in consideration. Moreover, Porto had just played Rio Ave away in the league, a goalless draw at the end of April in a dress rehearsal for the final. Just four days later they would see each other again at the national stadium in Oeiras.

Pilgrimage heads south

Rio Ave were partying even before the final. The club has special suits tailored for the occasion, and players promised to let their beards grow as if it would suffice to increase their strength to fight the clear favourites. A huge crowd of supporters travelled south, mixing with their Porto rivals as the relationship between both sides was predictably amicable.

The heavily bearded Rio Ave starting XI in the 1984 Portuguese Cup final against Porto

Félix Mourinho knew he wouldn’t have to face his mentor – he served under Pedroto at Setúbal – on the pitch, but Porto’s game plan was all his. Pedroto instructed Morais to go with the strongest possible side, after having played with several subs in the league match, such as Inácio, Teixeirinha, Jacques, Costa and Quinito (no, not that one). Zé Beto, ever so popular with supporters, started in goal, followed by the rising star João Pinto on the right, Eurico Gomes playing from the left and Eduardo Luis and Lima Pereira in the middle. The iconic midfield comprised of Jaime Magalhães, António Sousa, Jaime Pacheco and Frasco would be supporting Vermelhinho, the hero of Aberdeen, and the club captain and main man, Fernando Gomes up front.

Mourinho, in turn, would call upon the always reliable Alfredo, with Luis Sérgio, Antero and Duarte de Sá accompanied by Baltemar Brito, the sole foreigner on the pitch that afternoon. Brito, of course, would later be famous for being Mourinho’s assistant both in Leiria and with Porto, alongside the young pair of coaching assistants André Villas-Boas and Rui Faria. He had struck up a friendship with the young José during those years in Vila do Conde, where he became a much beloved figure, similar to his compatriot Washington Alves, who was playing his trade for local rivals Varzim, and who in the future would be best known as Bruno Alves’ father. Adérito, Carlos Manuel, Carvalho, Cabumba, Casaca and Pires completed the starting eleven of the Vila do Conde side, who had to play in all white due to the kit clash.

Jamor sold out

The 1984 Portuguese Cup final match report in A Bola

Despite being broadcast by RTP, the fact that the match was played on 1 May, a public holiday for just a decade since the Carnation Revolution, helped the ground to be packed full of supporters on both ends, providing a fantastic setting for a memorable clash.

Porto dominated proceedings right from kick-off, and in the 7th minute, António Sousa netted the first of the day, with a powerful free-kick that left Alfredo helpless. Sousa, who would have fond memories of Jamor throughout the rest of his career, both as a player and manager, would score again in the second half to put the game to bed.

By then, the Dragons had already put two others past Alfredo. On the half-hour, Fernando Gomes left his imprint on the final, after having a perfect bicycle kick disallowed for a previous foul on Brito. But the number 9 was not to be denied, receiving a perfectly timed pass in the box, controlling it smoothly and then putting it as clinically as you like into the net. Then, just seconds before the break, Vermelhinho took advantage of a rebound from Alfredo after a Sousa attempt on goal to put the ball into an empty goal and settle the match.

Sousa’s second of the afternoon was not as beautiful as the first, as he floundered a shot after a Vermelinho cross that somehow still found its way in, but it still counted and Porto knew, by then, they would be able to take the trophy home to present it to Pedroto, who was watching the match at home. Rio Ave came back to grab a much-deserved goal in the dying minutes. It was substitute N’Habola, who beat Zé Beto for a consolation prize.

Porto captain Fernando Gomes, one of the star performers, celebrates the triumph and is mobbed by ecstatic fans

Fraternal celebration as captains swap shirts

Seconds later, Vitor Correia whistled for the final time, and as Porto’s supporters erupted in celebration, both club captains, with Gomes sporting a Rio Ave shirt and Duarte the blue and white of their rivals of the day, climbed the stairs of the Jamor for the protocolary procedures. Gomes would lift the trophy one last time, in 1988, before leaving the club for Sporting, while Rio Ave returned to Jamor in 2014, where they were beaten by Benfica, who had previously won against them the League Cup final that same season.

On Christmas Day of 1984 Félix Mourinho was sacked after poor results followed that memorable season, a memory his son would never forget. José Mourinho, too, would climb the Jamor steps in victory in 2003 to receive the trophy that had eluded his father while he was coaching, ironically for Porto, who had broken the hearts of the Mourinho family that afternoon.

Pedroto’s final legacy

The Dragons would lose the Cup Winners’ Cup final a fortnight later, and Pedroto would pass away in the early days of the following January, but not before recommending Pinto da Costa to sign a young, promising manager named Artur Jorge to succeed him. A decision that proved, once again, to be inspiring as King Arthur, as he would be known, guided Porto to their first league win in five years and, in 1987, to European glory.