BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHILE
Jul. 21st, 2007 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenni_blogHere is a teaser:
A Chile fan ran onto the pitch to try to intervene.
On Thursday night I watched the U20 WC semi-final between Argentina and Chile. It was refereed by this guy Wolfgang Stark from Germany, whom I remembered not liking from the WC last summer. Argentina (who actually was the better team) chose to dive and fake injuries and Stark fell for it. The guy was way too unfair to Chile, handing out many cards, including a straight red to Medel after 15 minutes and a second yellow with 15 minutes left in the game, to Currimilla.
The first red card occurred after Argentina had scored a goal, and since Chile never scored, I doubt that Stark influenced the game’s eventual outcome (2-0). However, he upset Chile’s players and some of the yellows he handed out meant that those guys won’t be able to play in the next game.
The big scandal occurred after the game was over, when some Chilean players and their fans confronted the refs and the police became involved. Later, before they got on the bus, some Chilean players were confronted by Argentina fans and a melee ensued. Police got involved again and a taser was used on either a player or a team official. This created a scandal in the press. FIFA and the Chilean government have become involved, calling for an investigation into the police handling of the matter.
What a mess here in staid old Toronto!!! And it comes on the heels of the Chile national team’s own scandal surrounding their captain, Jorge Valdivia and 5 other players being suspended for 20 games because of drunken and destructive behaviour in their Venezuelan hotel during the Copa America.
Another strange thing occurred in Toronto involving Chile’s U20 players a couple of weeks ago. Some of the players had called in FIFA officials because some women, who had been apparently following the players, tried to enter their hotel room. Fearful of trouble and of possibly being suspended for sneaking women into their rooms, the players involved called security to have these girls removed. Then they reported the event to FIFA.
I found that incident extremely strange!!! I’m not sure that those cheeky little baby Chileans didn’t pull a fast one on FIFA. However, they escaped trouble that time, so good for them!!!
Too bad about all the shite, though, because the U20 team has some brilliant, talented players, including goalkeeper Christopher Toselli, who went all the way to the semis with a clean sheet, and in fact, broke the FIFA U20 WC record by going 492 minutes without conceding a goal until Argentina striker Angel Di Maria scored in the 15th minute. Toselli was heartbroken, as was Arturo Vidal who was visibly distraught at game’s end.
Anyway, here are some pretty fascinating, dramatic pics of what happened. It could have been a brilliant game between two really good teams, but instead was destroyed by the stupid, block-headed ref with a bad case of “yellow and red card diarrhea”.
First, they were so happy to beat Nigeria on July 15th to make it into the semis. They had done such a good job:
But in the game against Argentina, Referee Stark just could not keep his cards in his pocket:
The team had played well to get where they were, particularly Christopher Toselli:
And Arturo Vidal:
Here is a typical dive by one of the Argentinean players, Angel Di Maria:
Some reactions to the heartbreaking loss, not only of the game, but to all the players sent off or suspended with yellow card accumulation.
A Chile fan ran onto the pitch to try to intervene.
On Thursday night I watched the U20 WC semi-final between Argentina and Chile. It was refereed by this guy Wolfgang Stark from Germany, whom I remembered not liking from the WC last summer. Argentina (who actually was the better team) chose to dive and fake injuries and Stark fell for it. The guy was way too unfair to Chile, handing out many cards, including a straight red to Medel after 15 minutes and a second yellow with 15 minutes left in the game, to Currimilla.
The first red card occurred after Argentina had scored a goal, and since Chile never scored, I doubt that Stark influenced the game’s eventual outcome (2-0). However, he upset Chile’s players and some of the yellows he handed out meant that those guys won’t be able to play in the next game.
The big scandal occurred after the game was over, when some Chilean players and their fans confronted the refs and the police became involved. Later, before they got on the bus, some Chilean players were confronted by Argentina fans and a melee ensued. Police got involved again and a taser was used on either a player or a team official. This created a scandal in the press. FIFA and the Chilean government have become involved, calling for an investigation into the police handling of the matter.
What a mess here in staid old Toronto!!! And it comes on the heels of the Chile national team’s own scandal surrounding their captain, Jorge Valdivia and 5 other players being suspended for 20 games because of drunken and destructive behaviour in their Venezuelan hotel during the Copa America.
Another strange thing occurred in Toronto involving Chile’s U20 players a couple of weeks ago. Some of the players had called in FIFA officials because some women, who had been apparently following the players, tried to enter their hotel room. Fearful of trouble and of possibly being suspended for sneaking women into their rooms, the players involved called security to have these girls removed. Then they reported the event to FIFA.
I found that incident extremely strange!!! I’m not sure that those cheeky little baby Chileans didn’t pull a fast one on FIFA. However, they escaped trouble that time, so good for them!!!
Too bad about all the shite, though, because the U20 team has some brilliant, talented players, including goalkeeper Christopher Toselli, who went all the way to the semis with a clean sheet, and in fact, broke the FIFA U20 WC record by going 492 minutes without conceding a goal until Argentina striker Angel Di Maria scored in the 15th minute. Toselli was heartbroken, as was Arturo Vidal who was visibly distraught at game’s end.
Anyway, here are some pretty fascinating, dramatic pics of what happened. It could have been a brilliant game between two really good teams, but instead was destroyed by the stupid, block-headed ref with a bad case of “yellow and red card diarrhea”.
First, they were so happy to beat Nigeria on July 15th to make it into the semis. They had done such a good job:
But in the game against Argentina, Referee Stark just could not keep his cards in his pocket:
The team had played well to get where they were, particularly Christopher Toselli:
And Arturo Vidal:
Here is a typical dive by one of the Argentinean players, Angel Di Maria:
Some reactions to the heartbreaking loss, not only of the game, but to all the players sent off or suspended with yellow card accumulation.
