In 1920 Brazil were on their way home from the South American Championship in Chile. They stopped off in Buenos Aires to play a friendly. Argentina had won the championship match between the two sides on 25.09.20 by 2-0.
The match was originally scheduled to be played on Sunday October 3rd, but was postponed due to torrential rain.
In the meantime this scandalous article had appeared in the Buenos Aires press:
Monkeys in Buenos Aires- welcome to the illustrious guests- Crítica 3.10.20
The Brazilians were depicted and referred to as monkeys. In the accompanying article (written by a Uruguayan) the morals and conduct of Brazilians was mocked. When the game came to be played on October 6th the Brazilians responded to these slights (though they did not present a united front). The Brazil captain, Sisson, tried to persuade his teammates to boycott the match.
The men who wouldn't play- top row: Augusto Maria Sisson Filho; Rodrigo Antônio Brandão; Durval Junqueira Machado .
Bottom row:Adhemar Martins 'Japonês'; José Carlos Guimarães 'Zezé'; Agostinho Fortes Filho.
Eventually six of the party, Sisson, Japonés, Junqueira and Rodrigo (Flamengo), Fortes and Zezé (Fluminense) refused to participate in the match. Telefone (Flamengo) was sidelined.
Only 6 of the Brazilian party travelled to the ground. Former player, now trainer and administrator Osvaldo Gomes agreed to play. Gomes' last international appearance had been in 1914.
In order to avoid the repercussions of an abandonment Argentina loaned the Brazilians 4 players.
When the crowd got wind of this disturbances broke out and play was suspended.
Scenes of chaos at Campo do Barracas
The innovative solution to placate the crowd of 5,000 and to avoid a riot occurring was for Argentina to match Brazil, and play a game of 7 per side. Brazil's plight was heightened by the fact that of their 6 available regular players, 2 were goalkeepers. Kuntz played as a fullback whilst Ayrton played in goal. And so the line ups were:
Brazil:
Ayrton (Fluminense)
Kuntz (Flamengo)
João (Andaraí)
Oswaldo Gomes (Fluminense)
Constantino (Santos)
Castelhano (Santos)
Alvarizza (Brasil-RS)
Argentina:
Tesoriere (Boca Juniors)
Bearzotti (Belgrano Rosario)
Cortella (Boca Juniors)
Calomino (Boca Juniors)
Bruzzone (Sportivo Palermo)
Lucarelli (Banfield)
Echeverria (Estudiantes de La Plata)
Argentina ran out 3-1 winners in what is unsurprisingly not considered a 'full international'. Castelhano got the Brazil goal, whilst Echeverria (2), and Lucarelli scored for the hosts.
If you read about this match on iffhs you will find a distorted explanation of events which has the Brazilians unable to field a full team due to sickness.
