Referee Raphael Claus began the pre-match protocol with only one team on the pitch after Santos arrived late to Allianz Parque on Saturday, May 2, and Palmeiras had already taken the field.
Palmeiras players went onto the grass alone and the Brazilian national anthem was played without Santos present, a sequence that turned the kickoff ritual into the clearest image of the night long before the first whistle.
The game itself, the 14th round of the Campeonato Brasileiro, delivered moments of drama on the scoreboard: Rollheiser opened the scoring for Santos at 25 minutes, Flaco López equalized for Palmeiras at 18 minutes of the second half, and in stoppage time Allan netted a goal that was later disallowed after a VAR review.
Those incidents unfolded over 90 minutes, but they came after a pre-match interruption that lingered. Santos fc’s late arrival — and the decision by Palmeiras to take the field — left officials and both sets of players working through a protocol that began with only one side present. At one point Santos began to enter the pitch while Palmeiras players were greeting the officiating crew, a sequence that crystallized the confusion.
Palmeiras went into the match unbeaten in 13 matches across all competitions and leading the Brasileiro with 33 points, an unbeaten run that carried into the Allianz Parque fixture under João Martins in place of the suspended Abel Ferreira. Santos were without Neymar, who was rested for the trip to São Paulo.
The Palmeiras side said it was simply following the established protocol, a defense that underlines the practical choice the home side made when Santos did not appear on schedule. The explanation offers a clear line of intent, but it does not erase the visual oddity: one team on the pitch, the anthem played, the referee conducting pre-match formalities while the other team was still arriving.
That gap between routine and reality created the evening’s tension. Officials began the protocol with Palmeiras alone, Santos arrived late and then started to enter as opposing players were still interacting with the referee and his crew. The sequence raises questions about coordination and timing that the match itself—marked by a first-half goal from Rollheiser, a second-half equalizer from Flaco López and a stoppage-time VAR intervention on Allan’s effort—could not wholly answer.
By the final whistle the fixture had produced the kind of on-field controversies the VAR system is meant to police, and an off-field moment that will outlast the technicalities of a 90-minute game: the national anthem sung to one team and the hurried entry of the other. Whatever the official records show about goals and points, the image that will stick from Allianz Parque on May 2 is of a match that began before it had clearly begun.
