Match against the sixth national team

Paraguay will be the sixth national team to play against Athletic Club at San Mamés. Previously, La Catedral/The Cathedral had played host to the Uruguayan, Mexican, English, Polish and Brazilian teams.

The Uruguayan team played two friendly matches at San Mamés in 1924, beating the Red-Whites on both occasions (1-2 and 0-2).

November 30, 1949 it was now the Mexican team that paid a visit to our pitch. The Central American team were beaten by a resounding score of 6-3, in a match that the spectators who were present at La Catedral enjoyed a lot.

The third national team to visit was England. Taking into account the proximity of the 1982 World cup, and that this team had to play their three matches of the first stage in ‘el Botxo’ (Bilbao), the team coached back then by Ron Greenwood agreed to play in the match in honour of Txetxu Rojo. The legendary Kevin Keegan put the visitors ahead with a goal in the first half, but Txema Noriega scored the definitive equaliser 67 minutes into the game. For the first time in English history, England was playing against a team that were not national.

A bit more than one month later it was the Polish team’s turn to visit La Catedral, in a traditional match to pay homage to Members. Poland, who ended up in third position in the World Cup of that year, beat us by 1-4. Txetxu Gallego scored the only red-white goal.

Brazil was the last team to visit La Catedral. They did so on May 31, 1998, on the occasion of the Red-White’s Centenary and, just as the Englishmen had done, it was the first time that they had faced up to a club team. Athletic Club got ahead on the scoreboard by means of Carlos Garcia and Rivaldo scored the definitive equalizing goal (1-1).

Besides these six international matches, Athletic Club measured up to a ‘team’ made up of the best Spanish footballers in the 1920s, to celebrate the Red-White Club’s 25th anniversary It was June 10, 1923, and the Red-Whites defeated this team by 2-1.