Americano Bacabal

Pinheiro Atlético Clube knows the taste of that final better than anyone at Americano Bacabal would like: 4–1 in São Luís, then 2–0 in the return leg, and the 2016 Campeonato Maranhense Second Division title went home with Americano. It remains the club's only major honour.

Americano last held its own among Maranhão's first division sides in 2005, the latest of a run of appearances stretching back to 1993. Since then it has settled into the second tier, chasing the sort of result it found against Pinheiro rather than a return to the top table.

The club carries the name of its city, Bacabal, but not its ground. Home matches are played some 130 kilometres away, at the Estádio Municipal Nhozinho Santos in the state capital, São Luís — an arrangement common enough among Maranhão's smaller clubs, for whom the capital's grounds and the audience they draw outweigh the cost of the distance.

The Estádio Nhozinho Santos holds close to 12,900 people.