FROM SERIE B TO COPA LIBERTADORES' FINALIST: THE STORY OF SAO CAETANO

By Charles

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Many people know the story of how Leicester got promoted and won the Premier League with an unknown team, or the story of Nottingham Forrest in the late 70's and 80's where they got promoted, won the league and the UCL twice in 4 seasons, but those things also happen in South America (Sadly this one doesn't has a happy ending)

In the 80's, a group of football fans decided to revive the passion for football in Sao Caetano do Sul, a small town from the state of Sao Paulo, after 3 semi-succesfull periods in the 30's, 50's and 70's. That's how in 1989, Sao Caetano was founded. They started playing in the state's 3rd division.

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2000

After winning the Campeonato Paulista Serie A3, Sao Caetano played the Copa Joao Havelange, which didn't used the relegation and promotions from the previous year and made a huge tournament with 116 teams from 3 different tiers.

The tournament was divided in 3 different zones (one per tier):

• The Blue Zone (1st tier) was formed by 25 teams that played 24 games and the first 12 teams played in the second round.

• The Yellow Zone (2nd tier, Sao Caetano was here) was formed by 2 groups of 18 teams each and the first 8 teams from each group played in the yellow zone knockout stage, where the 2 finalist qualified to the second round.

• The Green and White zone (other tiers) were formed by 8 groups of 6 / 7 teams where the first 3 teams qualified to the next round of the zone, that was formed by 6 groups of 4 teams and the 6 group's winners and the 2 best second places qualified to another round of 2 groups of 4 teams each, where the 2 winners played a final between them and qualified to the tournaments second round.

Sao Caetano won his group of the yellow zone loosing only 2 game sand being the team that scored most goals (40 in 17 games). After winning the first 3 rounds of the knockout stage, they lost against Paraná 4-2 on agg on the final but qualifyed to the tournaments second phase, a knockout stage with 12 teams of the 1st tier, 2 of the 2nd tier and 2 of the other tiers.

Finally it was Sao Caetano's time to shine against big teams like Cruzeiro, Internacional, Sao Paulo, Palmeiras, Fluminense and Gremio. 4-3 on agg vs Fluminense, 6-5 on agg vs Palmeiras and 6-3 on agg vs Gremio. Sao Caetano, the club founded only 11 years before and never played on first tier was beating Copa Libertadores champions and playing the final of the tournament against all odds. Vasco de Gama was their final rival, where they lost 4-0 on agg. Gladly, this was enough for them to get promoted and qualify to next season's Copa Libertadores.

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2001

In the next season's Brasileirao, with a different format, Sao Caetano finished 1st in the league with 28 teams, qualifying to the secong round, an 8 team knockout stage. After beating Bahia and Atletico Mineiro, they played the final for second year in a row, loosing 5-2 on agg against Atletico Paranaense.

In the Copa Libertadores they were drawn in Group G with Cruz Azul, Defensor Sporting and Olmedo. After finishing 2nd, they played against Palmeiras on the last 16, loosing on penalties.

2002

After a huge decline in the Brasileirao (from 1st to 2nd place), they lost 3-2 on agg vs Fluminense in the quarter-finals.

Now the important part. In this season we have players like Marcos Senna (yeah, that Marcos Senna), Ailton (Former Benfica, Sao Paulo and Cruzeiro player), Daniel, Robert, Silvio Luiz, among others. In the Copa Libertadores they faced Cobreloa, Cerro Porteño and Alianza Lima, finishing 1st of their group with 12 points. After beating Universidad Catolica and Peñarol on penalties in the last 16 and the quarter-finals, they beat America from Mexico on the semi-finals 4-1 on agg. The team that 2 years before were playing in the second tier was playing the Copa Libertadores final against Olimpia, the 38 time Paraguayan league winner and 2 time Copa Libertadores winner, managed at that time by Nery Pumpido, 1986 World Cup winning goalkeeper with Argentina.

The first leg was played in Paraguay and against all odds, Sao Caetano won 1-0 with a goal scored from Ailton. The final game was played in Sao Paulo with 40.000 fans. Sao Caetano scored first with another goal from Ailton, reaching the half time with a 2 goal lead. In the 49th minute, Olimpia scored and only needed 1 more goal to go to penalties (no away goals here). At the 59th minute, Olimpia scored and the game ended 2-1 for the paraguayans, having to play the penalties. After scoring their first 2 penalties, Sao Caetano missed the next 2. Olimpia was the South American champion for the 3rd time in their history.

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The Brasileirao changed their format once again and it became a league without second round. In the next 3 seasons, Sao Caetano finished 4th (total 24 teams), 18th (total 24 teams) and 17th (total 22 teams), before finally finishing 19th out of 20 teams, being relegated 4 years after reaching the Copa Libertadores final.

Their last international appereance was the 2004 Copa Libertadores. After finishing 2nd in a group with America, Peñarol and The Strongest, they beat America on the last 16 (don't know why they faced them again, but this game turned out to be one of the most violent ones in the last years of the tournament), having to face in the quarter-finals one of the best Boca Jrs ever. After a surprising 0-0 in Brazil, they draw 1-1 in La Bombonera, loosing 4-3 on penalties.

On regional level they won the Campeonato Paulista in 2004, being their last title in a first tier regional tournament. They have won the Campeonato Paulista Serie A2 twice (2017 and 2020) and the Copa Paulista in 2019.

Last season (2020) they finished last of their group in the Serie D loosing 10 out of 14 games. Even though the last years haven't been the most succesfull ones, we are still waiting for their return to the first tier (it doesn't matter if it is thanks to a weird format of the Brazilian tournament). Sao Caetano couldn't take the Copa Libertadores trophy home when they had the chance, but their story MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN.

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