São Paulo match 89-year-old record with this year’s Paulistão run | OneFootball

São Paulo's journey in the Campeonato Paulista ended last Sunday (1st), with a defeat and consequent elimination in the semifinals of the competition to their rival Palmeiras, at Arena Barueri.

In a State Championship with a new format—more dynamic due to the reduction of dates and the abolition of the group stage for the implementation of a ‘preliminary league classification phase’, with matchups pre-defined by draw—the Morumbi club was the only participant to face ALL five teams that also compete in the first division of the Brazilian Championship.

Moreover, only one of these matches was played at home.

That alone would have been complicated enough, but the year began with Tricolor engulfed in an unprecedented political crisis that culminated in the resignation of its former president, Julio Casares.

Such adversities caused the team to experience a true rollercoaster of emotions, flirting with the risk of relegation before taking off and stringing together an unbeaten run.

But inconsistency took its toll on the statistics.

This was only the third time in history that São Paulo finished the Paulistão with a negative goal difference. They scored 14 goals and conceded 15, resulting in a negative balance for São Paulo, which, despite everything, still holds third place overall in the standings.

The only other times this happened were in 1936 and 1937, right after the club's refounding.

This was also only the fourth time that Tricolor played just ten games or fewer in the State Championship. In 1937, there were nine games after the club failed to qualify for the second round, and in 1938 and 2004 there were ten games.

Had they won the title in twelve games, it would have been the shortest victorious campaign in São Paulo's history in the Paulistão.

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