Video library: The Centenary Match (Athletic Club – Brazil, 1998)

We begin today with a series of suggestion from the hundreds of videos you can enjoy on our official YouTube channel.

In this first realise we are looking back at a historic year, 1998, in which Athletic Club celebrated the Centenary of its foundation. Among the events programmed during those months, the star event was the friendly match played on May 31, at San Mames.

The match was the first that the Brazilian team played against a club and the expectation generated a full house at La Catedral. The Brazilian national team was then the current World Cup champion, a title they won four years ago in the United States, and they showed up in Bilbao with a luxury call-up list in preparation for the summer World Cup in France, where they would reach the final against the host team. World famous players such as Taffarel, Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo, Bebeto or Ronaldo could not beat our lions and the final result was a draw to one, after the goal scored by Carlos Garcia was later equalized by Rivaldo.

The line-ups announced for the occassion were the following:

Athletic Club: 1. Valencia, 2. Lacruz, 3. Lasa, 4. Carlos García, 5. Ferrerira, 6. Urrutia, 7. Javi González, 8. Nagore, 9. Ziganda, 10. Alkiza, 11. Jorge Pérez.
Bench players: 12. Huegun, 14. Jose Mari, 15. Larrazabal, 16. Mario, 17. Sendoa, 20. Urzaiz.

Brasil: 1. Taffarel, 2. Cafú, 3. Aldair, 4. Junior Baiano, 6. Roberto Carlos, 17. Doriva, 5. Sampaio, 7. Giovanni, 10. Rivaldo, 20. Bebeto, 9. Ronaldo.
Bench players: 13. Zé Carlos, 18. Leonardo, 19. Denilson, 21. Edmundo.