Top > Sport > 2007 > March > 2007-03-12

Brawl Tarnishes Champions Cup

An exciting evening for European soccer ended with a brawl to hurt its reputation, or simply remind us of what it has been for a while. A scoreless game between Valencia and Inter Milan, the second leg of the two matches held between the clubs, ended with a mass brawl involving nearly all players of both teams, beginning with shoves as the final whistle blew and continuing all the way to the locker rooms. In yet another incident, the image of soccer has been tarnished with players? violence. We all still remember, all too vividly, the infamous head butt by French scorer Zin?dine Zidane who attacked Marco Materazzi of the Italian squad. Materazzi was once again involved in the brawl, this time as an Inter defender, though he was trying to separate the fighting players and end the ugly brawl. And ugly it was, as Valencia striker David Villa said. ?It was ugly and sad.?

It started when Valencia substitute David Navarro attacked Inter?s Nicolas Burdisso who was standing on the center of the field after the game had already ended. He later apologized, not before the two teams went all out. Navarro has been suspended from the team?s next match, and the rest of the sanctions will be decided soon, possibly hurting Valnecia?s chances in later stages of the Cup. Oh, yes. Valencia advanced to the quarter finals on away goals after drawing a 2-2 tie in the first game in Italy.