Esporte Clube Bahia

Football club infobox
clubname = Bahia


fullname = Esporte Clube Bahia
nickname = "Tricolor" (three-coloured) and "Esquadrão de Aço" (Steel Squad)
founded = 1931
ground = Estádio de Pituaçu, Salvador, Brazil
capacity = 16,000 (will be extend to 34,000)| chairman = flagicon|BRA Petrônio Barradas
manager = flagicon|BRA Roberto Cavalo
league = Campeonato Brasileiro Série B
season = 2007
position = Campeonato Brasileiro Série C, 2nd (promoted)
pattern_la1=|pattern_b1=_collaronwhite|pattern_ra1=
leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=0000FF|rightarm1=FFFFFF|shorts1=0000FF|socks1=FF0000
pattern_la2=_whiteline|pattern_b2=_friburguense_home|pattern_ra2=_whiteline
leftarm2=FF0000|body2=FFFFFF|rightarm2=FF0000|shorts2=FFFFFF|socks2=FFFFFF

Esporte Clube Bahia is a Brazilian football team from Salvador in Bahia (Brazil), founded on January 1, 1931. They won the first national championship ever in Brazil by beating Pelé's Santos in 1959. They have also won the Brazilian Championship in 1988. It's the most popular team from the North-Northeast of Brazil. And Will play this year in the Brasileirão Série B.

History

Early Years

In 1930, players of two clubs, Associação Atlética da Bahia and Clube Bahiano de Tênis decided to found a new club, because their former clubs stopped their football divisions. The club was founded under the slogan “"Nascido para vencer"” ("Born to Win", in English) on January 1, 1931, and Otávio Carvalho was provisionally nominated the club's first president.

On February 20, 1931, Bahia joins Liga Bahiana de Desportos Terrestres, today known as Federação Bahiana de Futebol.

On February 20, 1931, Bahia had their first training day ever, at Campo da AAB, in Quinta da Barra, Salvador.

The club played its first match on March 1, 1931, a Torneio Início match (the matches had a duration of 20 minutes each), when they beat Ypiranga 2-0. The goals were scored by Bayma and Guarany. Bahia players in this match were Teixeira Gomes; Leônidas and Gueguê; Milton, Canoa and Gia; Bayma, Guarany, Gambarrota and Pega-Pinto. The club was managed by João Barbosa. In the same day, Bahia won the Torneio Início competition.

On March 22, 1931, Bahia played its first Bahia State League match. In April of the same year, Bahia was defeated in its first international match, against Sud América of Uruguay. On October 11, Bahia played its first intermunicipal match, when they beat Vitória of Ilhéus 5-4.

On October 25, 1931, Bahia won its first state championship.

On December 12, 1939, Bahia beat its greatest rival, Esporte Clube Vitória 10-1. This is the biggest score ever in the derby.

The First National Title

In 1959, Bahia surprised the world after winning their first national title: The Taça Brasil (the national championship of that time). Bahia beat Santos FC (Pelé's team) and became the first Brazilian team to participate in the Taça Libertadores da América. Santos's revenge was consolidated in 1961. They won the Taça Brasil final, but Bahia could participate again in the Taça Libertadores da América.

Bahia's campaign at the Libertadores those years (1959 and 1962) was not good. They were eliminated at the First Stage in every year.

The Second National Title

In 1988, Bahia won its first Brazilian Championship against SC Internacional from Porto Alegre. Bahia won the first leg in Salvador by 2-1. Second leg ended in a 0-0 tie in Porto Alegre, at Beira Rio Stadium. After these results, Bahia won the "Brasileirão" and, thus, their second national title. Being the champion, Bahia won the right to play Taça Libertadores da América for the third time. It was a real shock for the southern press because Salvador is in the northeast, the poorest region of Brazil, and the victory was over SC Internacional, a team from southern Brazil, the region that has the best HDI of the country. In 1987, another northeastern club, Sport Recife won the Campeonato Brasileiro too.

Dark Years

In 1996 Bahia needed to win the last game of the season but the club was relegated to Série B for the first time in its history after a 0-0 draw against Juventude at the Fonte Nova stadium. In 1999 Bahia was close to being promoted to Série A again. Bahia had a very good season but finished 3rd which was not enough to see them be promoted. In order to be promoted Bahia would have to win the final match against Brasiliense, but the referee Paulo César de Oliveira was assigned to that match, and many people say he was all but fair at that day. In 2000 the team returned to the Brazilian First Division being invited by the Clube dos Treze (See Copa João Havelange for more details.) In 2002 the bank that sponsored the team by a treat (all club money was given by the bank) went bankrupt and Bahia began a decent down the brazillian football pyramid. After the title of the Northeast Cup in 2001 and 2002, Bahia had a horrible year in 2003, and was relegated to the Série B for the second time in the clubs history. In 2004 the team was close to getting promoted to the Série A again, finishing 4th.In 2005, the club competed in the Série B, again, ending up finishing in 18th place and being relegated to the Série C for the first time in the clubs history.

Fênix Tricolor

Bahia finished 2007 amongst the first four teams of the Third Division's octagon, thus being promoted to the Second Division for the 2008 season, but it wasn't easy. Bahia started off playing really well, but the last game of the 3rd stage of the Série C against the already eliminated Fast Club was one of the hardest games in the club's history. Bahia needed to win no matter what, to be able to advance to the final octagon. The victory came in the very last minute of the game, with a goal scored by Charles. During the final octagon, the team didn't have much of a problem, and finished the third division in 2nd place, only losing the title at the final round.

This moment is called the "Fênix Tricolor" Amongst Bahia fans (Being that Bahia is ressurging from the ashes)

Despiting playing in the Third Division of Brazilian football in 2007, Bahia had the largest average attendance in Brazil, 40,400 people per match. No club in the Third, the Second, or even the First Division was able to match it. But it is not unusual for Bahia. Bahia had also the biggest average attendance in Brazil in 2004 (Second Division), 1988 (First Division), 1986 (First Division), and 1985 (First Division).

ymbols

Bahia's colours are blue, red, and white. The blue colour is a homage to Associação Atlética da Bahia; white, to Clube Baiano de Tênis; and red is a color present in the Bahia state flag. Another symbol is the mascot. The club's mascot is called Super-Homem Tricolour, meaning Tricolour Superman, inspired by the DC Comics character. The mascot was created by the famous cartoonist Ziraldo based on the expression “"Esquadrão de Aço"” ("Steel Squad" in English) and wears a costume very similar to the original Superman's costume. Also, Superman has the teams three colours (Blue, red and White).

Logo

Bahia's logo was inspired by the logo of SC Corinthians Paulista. The anchor was withdrawn and the flag of São Paulo state was changed to the Bahia state flag. The black changed to blue and in the place of de Corinthians's name and founding year were replaced by E.C. Bahia's.

Titles

Below only the senior titles are listed.

*National:

**"Campeonato Brasileiro:" 1988.
**"Taça Brasil:" 1959.

*Regional:

**"Northeast Cup:" 2 times (2001 and 2002).
**"North-Northeast Cup:" 4 times (1948, 1959, 1961 and 1963).

*State:

**"Bahia State League:" 43 times (1931, 1933, 1934, 1936, 1938 [1] , 1940, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999 [2] and 2001).
***"Runner-up:" 9 times (1941, 1964, 1972, 1989, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2007).

**"Bahia's State Trophy:" 3 times (2000, 2002 and 2007).
***"Runner-up:" 2 times (2004 and 2006).

**"Begin's Tournament:" 9 times(1931, 1932, 1934, 1937, 1938, 1951, 1964, 1967 and 1979).

*Other Titles

**"Relâmpago Tournament:" 2 times (1939 and 1940).
**"Quadrangular Tournament:" 2 times (1950 and 1962).
**"Octávio Mangabeira Tournament (Fonte Nova inauguration):" 1951.
**Bernardo Martins Catharino Trophy: 3 times (1953, 1954 and 1955).
**Vivaldo Tavares Trophy: 1955.
*"Friendship Tournament (Uruguay):" 1959.
*"Walter Passos Trophy:" 1962.
*"Bahia-Pernambuco Tournament:" 2 times (1993 and 1994).
*"International Renner Cup:" 1997.
*"Maria Quitéria Tournament:" 1998.

ome famous players

*flagicon|BRA Wiliam Anden
*flagicon|BRA Luiz enrrique
*flagicon|BRA Charles Fabian
*flagicon|BRA Sandro
*flagicon|BRA Maison
*flagicon|BRA Alencar
*flagicon|BRA Baiaco
*flagicon|BRA Beijoca
*flagicon|BRA Bobô
*flagicon|BRA Carlito
*flagicon|BRA Charles
*flagicon|BRA Cláudio Adão
*flagicon|BRA Daniel Alves. Still active, plays for FC Barcelona in Spain.
*flagicon|BRA Douglas
*flagicon|BRA Eliseu
*flagicon|BRA Mário
*flagicon|BRA Marito
*flagicon|BRA Nadinho
*flagicon|BRA Roberto Rebouças
*flagicon|Uruguay Rodolfo Rodríguez
*flagicon|Argentina José Sanfilippo
*flagicon|BRA Sergio Claudio dos Santos . Known as Serginho. , former player of AC Milan in Italy.

Current squad

First Team

tadium

Games were played in Fonte Nova stadium until the disaster occurred in November 2007. At the game Bahia against Vila Nova (game of Bahia's promotion) part of the stadium collapsed and 7 people died. More than 30 were hurt. After that episode the government of the state said that the stadium will be demolished. Bahia played all life at the Fonte Nova stadium, since the inauguration, in 1951. Some recordable games at the Fonte Nova:

*Bahia-Internacional 2-1 (Série A - Final- 1988)
*Bahia-Fluminense 2-1 (Série A - Semi-Final - 1988)
*Bahia-Flamengo 4-1 (Série A - 2001)
*Bahia-Sport Recife 3-1 (Northeast Cup - Final - 2002)
*Bahia-Fast Club 1-0 (Série C - 3rd Stage - 2007 )

Now, the Bahia's state championship games will be played at the Armando Oliveira Stadium in Camaçari, 40km of Salvador, with only 5,000. Bahia will play there until the Pituaçu Stadium maintenance and reforms ends. The capacity of Pituaçu Stadium are 16,000 spectators, but it will be expanded to 34.000.

External links

* [http://www.esporteclubebahia.com.br/home/index.php Official Site] (www.eusoubahia.com or www.esporteclubebahia.com)
* [http://www.lojadobahia.com.br Web Store] (www.lojadobahia.com.br)
* [http://www.ondatricolor.com.br Supporter Advantages] (www.ondatricolor.com.br)
* [http://www.ecbahia.com.br Unofficial Site] (www.ecbahia.com.br)