Wednesday, December 3, 2008

South America does it again


The Copa Peru in happier times

Well, I opened my big mouth yesterday and said we'd have more insanity from the South American soccer world before week's end, and it took less than 24 hours to find more!

From the report:
At least 100 people were injured over the weekend when a fight broke out during a Copa Peru match in the southern city of Ayacucho, the official Andina news agency reported.
I really, really love being right.

The whole sorry incident makes sense, I suppose. Towards the end of the Copa Peru match between Sport Huamanga and Sport Huancayo (and by the way, looking at that Wikipedia page will blind you, as it's seemingly the most complicated tournament ever), the Huancayo fans get restless and begin fighting Huamanga's fans until cars get upturned and the police are called in. And of course, it's all the ref's fault:
Referee Alejandro Villanueva called a penalty against the home team with four minutes left, and shoving broke out, the El Comercio newspaper reported on its Web site. The referee halted play for nine minutes, then he allowed the match to resume with four minutes on the clock, prompting fans to start throwing stones and other objects on the field. Fans tore down the security fence and ran on the field, battling police, who fired tear gas at the crowd. A National Police patrol car was set on fire by angry fans outside the stadium.
As insane as the footage looks below, it's just another day in the life of soccer in South America (and don't forget the Polish effort from a couple of months ago).



Perhaps the saddest thing of all about this story, besides the violence of course, is a comment on the YouTube page itself:



Mega sigh. Obviously this guy's never been to any sporting event involving a team from Philadelphia.

3 comments:

EbullientFatalist said...

At this point, is it not safer to visit Baghdad than to attended a soccer match in Latin America? It's like the new extreme tourist trap: dive with great whites, climb K2, attend the Superclasico.

Precious Roy said...

Aren't these matches completely meaningless outside of Peru since they got kicked out of FIFA? I mean sports are pretty meaningless to being with, but rioting over matches that aren't really even recognized outside of your country is the summit of absurdity.

Goat said...

"rioting over matches that aren't really even recognized outside of your country is the summit of absurdity."

I'm not just going to sit here and let you impugn the integrity and beauty of college sports national championship riots, World Series riots, Super Bowl riots, and NBA Championship riots. No, wait. Yes I am.