og så lidt retro....Santasticos..
The night Pelé shook the Bombonera
In 1963, the great Pelé inspired Santos to a successful defence of their Copa Libertadores title, and they remain the only Brazilian side to have done so on Argentine soil.
In the YouTube era, it is all too easy to dismiss the sight of Pelé sashaying past defenders with the ball seemingly bonded to his feet, as nothing special. Yet the remarkable thing about Pelé is how the context of most of his great moments is completely lost through the passing of time.
While South American football is remembered for its great international sides and dazzling individuals, their illustrious club sides are broadly overlooked. Generally, sides are required to win consecutive continental titles to be considered among the greats; consider Real Madrid of the 1950’s, Helenio Herrera’s Inter Milan of the mid 60’s or the legendary Ajax team of the following decade.
Herrera’s Internazionale are an interesting comparison with their South American contemporaries, the Santos side that won back-to-back Copa Libertadores titles in 1962 and 63. Simultaneously, yet separated by an ocean, Lula and Herrera built their respective sides and took them to continental glory, twice, yet only one of these teams is widely remembered.
Simon Kuper’s book “Why England Lose…” speaks of the importance of knowledge ‘networks’ in developing football, but this extends to the recognition of tactical models, and as a result, their successes. Inter’s catenaccio system was, of course, revolutionary, but the Santasticos of this period – despite boasting many more trophies and their own remarkable style of football – aren’t remembered through the same nostalgic lens as word of their achievements simply didn’t spread in the same way.
A possible reason for this is that the team was dominated by one Edson Arantes do Nascimento, or to you and me, Pelé.
He would win a World Cup in 1970, and go on to be named the greatest player ever by virtually every respected football publication and awards body in existence. After retiring, he would go on to be a publicity puppet for FIFA and whoever else would pay him, but this should not tarnish his reputation as an incredible player, and 1962-63 was his absolute peak.
1962 began with Santos topping their Libertadores group undefeated, including a 9-1 thrashing of Paraguayan champions Cerro Porteño. They then won the Campeonato Paulista - with Pelé netting 37 goals - the Taca Brasil, and then returned to Libertadores action later in the year for the conclusion of the competition.
They beat Universidad Catolica in the semis, and then met Peñarol in the final. The Uruguayans had won the first two editions of South America’s leading club competition and after two legs the sides couldn’t be separated. They played a third leg in neutral Buenos Aires and Santos prevailed, inspired by a second half brace from Pelé.
This sent O Balé Branco (the white ballet, so named for their balletic style of play), to the intercontinental cup where they would go on to beat Benfica over two legs thanks to a memorable performance from Pelé, who scored five times in the tie. By his own reckoning, the second leg (a 5-2 victory in Lisbon) was his finest ever display.
The year was not all positive for the now twenty-two year old Pelé. He went to the World cup in Chile in the form of his life. Unfortunately, he had little chance to shine as opponents reverted to the only tactic against him that they could, and he was kicked, barged and regularly scythed down. Injured during the second game (against Czechoslovakia), he could play no further part in the tournament and was a mere spectator as his team went on to glory without him. As it happens, Pelé became the first player to win three world cups in 2007, when he was retroactively awarded a medal for the ‘62 tournament having not been given one at the time.
Due to its effectiveness, the tactic of brutality against Pelé became regrettably commonplace, and this was a characteristic of the next year’s Copa Libertadores final against Boca Juniors.
It was the first time an Argentine club had reached the final of the competition, and having seen Santos destroy the Botafogo of Garrincha and Jairzinho, Boca set out to stop them playing, and more specifically, Pelé – who had bagged a hat-trick in the semi-final.
The Xeneize were in a special era of their own, winning three national championships in the first half of the 1960s. Their talisman was Antonio Rattín, a player who would famously go on to be the catalyst for the Anglo-Argentine rivalry following his red card and subsequent show of disrespect to the queen in 1966.
Rattín was a classical Argentine ‘number five’ but while his fearsome ‘tackling’ made him infamous, it should not be forgotten how well he could play with the ball at his feet. One of the few Argentine players of the era that Pelé respected, Boca fans revel in the fact that O Rei would always ask “how is Rattin? How is he playing?” whenever he arrived in Buenos Aires.
In the first leg, played out at the Maracana in front of an estimated 120,000 crowd, Santos raced into an early lead thanks to two goals from Coutinho. They were three goals up before half-time when Lima scored; Santos were dancing around the Argentines, the end-to-end nature of the game suiting their sublime, and open football.
José Sanfilippo was Boca’s star striker of the period and described the half-time discussion that took place. “They had too much space on the field, it could have been because we had not played a Brazilian team before [in the tournament] … we knew our mistakes, and that we had to change our [plan]”. The subsequent alterations were lamentable – and verging on violent - but nonetheless successful in stifling the fluidity and elegance of Santos’ movement. The hosts struggled to deal with a game that had had all of the beauty sucked out of it, and Sanfilippo (who would end up as tournament top scorer) bagged a scrappy brace to make the Argentineans marginal favourites going into the second leg.
A week later at La Bombonera, Boca Juniors continued with the robust second half tactics that had been so successful in suppressing Pelé the previous week. Knowing a single-goal victory would take the tie to a decisive third leg on neutral ground, Sanfilippo’s strike just after the break made the home side huge favourites to be the first Argentine team to be crowned South American champions. The kicking of Pelé was unrelenting, so much so that his shorts would come down as he was once more levelled by Rattín on halfway (video below).
Santos continued to play their game, with Mengalvío and Zito pushing higher through the midfield to gain them the ball, and entrusting Pelé to make something happen. That he did, sliding in Coutinho for the equaliser only a few minutes after conceding. Tempers began to flare, but unusually, this improved Santos’ game and they came forward with wave after wave of attack. Eight minutes from time, Pelé picked up the ball twenty yards out and dead centre. He feinted right, before dropping left and inside the rooted shadow of Silvio Marzolini, low and hard, he drilled the ball into the bottom corner and Santos had retained their crown at La Bombonera.
They were the first side to win both legs of a Copa Libertadores final, and to this day are the only Brazilian side to have ever won the trophy on Argentine soil. Santos would win an astonishing twenty-two titles in the Os Santasticos period between 1959 and 1974, but these back-to-back continental crowns would be the only time they were ever kings of South America, although many of their players would go on to win the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. They may not be remembered in the same way that some of the great European sides are, but that should not diminish their astonishing achievements, and if their win in 1963 is to be remembered, it should be done so by the headline of Argentine daily La Nación – “the night that Pelé shook the Bombonera”.
Brasil: Flamengo, Vasco, Fluminense, Botafogo (100% Carioca) Rio > Säo Paulo
MENGÃO TRI DA AMÈRICA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RlVt8zJhXQ