| Clubname: | Atlético Sorocaba |
| Fullname: | Clube Atlético Sorocaba |
| Nickname: | Galo |
| Ground: | Walter Ribeiro |
| Capacity: | 13,722 |
| Chrtitle: | President |
| Chairman: | Koichi Sasaki |
| Season: | 2016 |
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| Pattern So1: | _color_3_stripes_yellow |
| Leftarm1: | FF0000 |
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| Pattern La2: | _sorocaba15a |
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| Pattern So2: | _color_3_stripes_red |
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| American: | true |
| Position: | , 18th of 20 (relegated) |
Clube Atlético Sorocaba, usually known as Atlético Sorocaba, is a currently inactive Brazilian football club from Sorocaba.
The club competed in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série C several times.
The club is owned by Rev. Moon's Unification Church, as is CENE.[1]
The club was founded on 21 February 1991 by the entrepreneur João Caracante Filho as a basketball club.[2] Atlético Sorocaba became a football club on 15 March 1993 after they fused with Clube Atlético Barcelona and Estrada de Ferro Sorocabana Futebol Clube.[2]
Atlético Sorocaba competed in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série C in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, and 2004.[3] The club's best performances was in 1996, when they reached the third stage of the competition.[4]
Atlético Sorocaba won the Copa Paulista de Futebol on 29 November 2008, after beating XV de Piracicaba in the final, at Estádio Barão da Serra Negra, Piracicaba, home of the opposing side.[5] The club also competed in the same season's Recopa Sul-Brasileira.[6] After beating Pelotas 2 - 0 in the semifinal,[7] Atlético Sorocaba was defeated 1 - 0 by Brusque in the Recopa Sul-Brasileira final.[8]
The club gained popularity due to their trips to North Korea between 2009 and 2015. In total, they made four trips,[9] in which they played the North Korean National team multiple times. These matches were a result of an invitation by Sun Myung Moon, a Korean national and an investor in the club.[10]
On their first trip, in 2009, they played a friendly against the North Korean national team at Kim II Sung Stadium, as a preparation game for the 2010 World Cup, in which the North Koreans had qualified for. This friendly is the most well-known friendly due to the fact that the 80,000 people in attendance were led to believe that Atlético Sorocaba were in fact the Brazilian National Team. The result of this friendly, played on November 5th, 2009, was a draw. The Atlético Sorocaba players later said in interviews that they were scared that they would not have been let out of their country if they won the match, which prompted them to play for a draw.
Their second trip, in 2010, was less eventful, mainly due to a reduced excitement around football following the nation's failure at the 2010 World Cup. This time, the club was no longer recognized as the Brazilian national team. The match was played at Yanggakdo Stadium, with around 40,000 people in attendance. The match ended in a 1-0 victory for the North Koreans, with the winning goal being a controversial penalty. Multiple Atlético Sorocaba players complained about the refereeing in this friendly.
Their third trip, in 2011, would mark the final time they would send their professional squad to North Korea. Led by Fernando Diniz, they would play two more friendlies, one resulting in another 1-0 win for North Korea, and another 0-0 draw in the second friendly.
In their fourth and final trip, in 2015, they would only send their U-15 squad, in order to play a tournament against other youth teams from North Korea, South Korea, China and Croatia. Atlético Sorocaba would finish third in this youth competition, with the final being between two North Korean teams. Another talking point about this trip was one of their squad members, Pedro Lutti, being born in the United States. Born in Miami to Brazilian parents, he only lived in the United States for 1 month when he was born. He made the trip to North Korea with Brazilian paperwork and his birthplace was never discovered by North Korean authorities. During the trip, his fellow squad member made jokes to him that they would inform the authorities that he was American.