Santos – From Pele to Neymar on the road to immortality

by Gordon Fleetwood

It has been a long road for Santos this year in the Copa Libertadores. This was Santos’ first campaign since 2008, when they exited at the quarter final stage. The tag of favorites seemed misplaced early on when the Saints were on the verge of falling at the first hurdle. However, after overcoming that blip, the team clicked, and through talent, determination, and some luck, were able to get to the final. Now, only 180 minutes separate them from glory in South America’s premier cup competition.

It serves to look at how close Santos were to going out of this year’s tournament. Three poor results in their first three games in the group stage left the Brazilian team needing three wins to progress. The situation certainly hadn’t been helped by the firing of coach Adilson Batista only days before the second game, after he failed to produce results in the Paulista State Championship.

Eventually, Muricy Ramalho was appointed, but he had to sit out the first of the must-win games. That home encounter against Colo Colo ended in a 3-2 Santos win in a game that was as ill-tempered as it was exciting. After that, Muricy Ramalho took on the mantle of saving Santos’ campaign.

On the surface, the appointment was perfect. Ramalho is the most successful Brazilian coach of recent times. However, the contrast between his defensive tactics and the club’s attacking ethos was worrying. With only a week to prepare the team for a difficult away game, the outlook was a bit bleak.

Then, surprisingly, everything began to fall into place. Santos went to Paraguay and beat Cerro Porteño 2-1 in a dominant performance. That was followed by a 3-1 win at home against Deportivo Táchira in the last group game to seal a place in the knockout stages. Ramalho had pulled off a minor miracle, and the effect of his defensive organizational skills began to show in the team’s performances.

The tie against América of Mexico in the first knock-out round was brutal, but Santos managed to emerge with a 1-0 score on aggregate. Only the heroics of goalkeeper Rafael in Mexico City saved Santos from the fate suffered by all the other Brazilian clubs at that stage. When the dust cleared, Santos were the sole Brazilian team in the quarter finals. In that round, Colombia’s Once Caldas were dispatched with ruthless efficiency courtesy of a 2-1 aggregate score.

The semifinals saw the return of an old friend from the group stages in the form of Cerro Porteño. It was a tie that was reminiscent of the encounter against América. An uncharacteristically poor defensive performance from Santos along with some luck produced a 3-3 draw in the second leg. It was Edu Dracena’s solitary goal from the first leg that gave Santos a 4-3 edge on aggregate.

That booked their place in the final of the Copa Libertadores for the first time since 2003. When the other semifinal ran its course, Uruguay’s Peñarol emerged to take the remaining spot in the tournament’s last battle.

It is a match-up that stirs up the ghosts of history.

Santos’ Libertadores past

One has to go back forty-nine years to find the last time the two teams met in the final. Back then, the three year old competition was known as the Copa de Campéones. The year was 1962, and Peñarol were on the verge of winning the tournament for three third time in a row. Led by the great Ecuadorian striker; Alberto Spencer, only one club stood in the way of more glory for the Uruguayans. That club was Santos. Like Peñarol, the Brazilians had their own talisman in the form of a twenty-one year old Pelé. It was the meeting of two juggernauts.

A titanic struggle ensued. After two legs the aggregate score stood at 4-4, and a play-off game in Argentina at River Plate‘s Estadio Monumental had to decide the title. However, there was one major piece missing from the equation up to that point. An injured Pelé had not played in the first two matches. When he returned to the team for the playoff, the Brazilians ran out as comfortable 3-0 winners. Peñarol were dethroned, and Santos took their place as kings of South America.

Santos went on to repeat as champions in 1963 by comprehensively defeating Boca Juniors. Two more semifinal appearances followed in the next two years, before Santos eschewed the competition to go on a global tour to generate revenue to pay wages – most notable that of Pelé. In addition to the two continental trophies, that Santos team won forty titles in the period of 1962-1969. The names of the players of that legendary side–Gilmar, Mauro, Dalmão, Zito, Pepe and Pelé, just to name a few–still echo through the ages.

It took forty years for Santos to get to the Libertadores final again. This time, it was the likes Diego, Robinho, Alex, Renato, and Elano who formed the core of the team. Just as before, Boca Juniors were the opponents in the final. However, this time, Santos fell short of glory as a young Carlos Tévez and co. dominated both legs to give the Argentineans revenge for the loss in 1963.

Eight years later, the Santos team of 2011, will look to go one further than their immediate predecessors. There are five players of the current squad who have lost a Libertadores final before. In fact, two of the five; Léo and Elano, were a part of the Santos side that lost in 2003. Both are back at the club after spells in Europe. Muricy Ramalho also lost a final as coach of São Paulo in 2006. Their experience will be vital as the squad prepares for this momentous occasion.

It has been a long road to get this far, and the team that began the competition is now unrecognizable. Under Ramalho the team has become an efficient defensive unit, a far cry from the unorganized attempts at defending that characterized the team for a long time. The goal output has dropped drastically, but the stinginess of the defense has more than made up for it.

The infusion of strength and drive brought by Ramalho has been instrumental to the team thus far. This is a side that played eleven games in four weeks with largely the same starting lineup, because of important games in the Libertadores in midweek, and in the State Championship on the weekends. They overcame that challenge.

This is a side that had to adjust to the absence of the genius of an injured Paulo Henrique Ganso from the quarter finals onwards. They rose above that obstacle. Then there is the talent on the field. The brilliance of Rafael in goal, the obstinacy of Jonathan, Edu Dracena, Dorval, Léo at the back, the solidity of a midfield led by the one man army that is Arouca, and the mercurial Neymar up front–who often carried the attack by himself–meant that Santos were a team that few other could match in terms of personnel. Muricy’s men are an inspiring blend of determination and quality.

The run to the final was far from perfect, or beautiful for that matter. A large number of draws, an increasing over-reliance on counter-attacking football, periods of a loss of concentration, and the feel that Ramalho had created a broken team saw to that. However, the players did what was needed to get the job done. They fought hard for the right to be in the final, and now, here they are.

Only two games against Peñarol stand between these Santos players and the pedestal the club has been unable to reach since 1963. This team has the opportunity to win the trophy only a Santos side led by Pelé has managed to win in fifty years. Immortality awaits, they only need to seize it.

Gordon Fleetwood is a new contributor to Just Football. Follow him on Twitter @Gorayfle

Photo credits: #1 – Santos Futebol Clube, #2 – Leo Ceoldo on Flickr

Brazil, Brazilian Football, Copa Libertadores, Football in Latin America, Muricy Ramalho, Neymar, Santos