Game abandoned due to lack of players: Argentine Supercup ends in scandal

Football in Argentina is more emotional than elsewhere, and tougher too.

Game abandoned due to lack of players: Argentine Supercup ends in scandal

Football in Argentina is more emotional than elsewhere, and tougher too. But the finale of the Trofeo de Campeones is extremely colorful even by Argentine standards. At the end there is a scandal.

Argentine football is used to violence and riots, both in the stands and on the pitch. If the big rivals meet, there is always a huge escalation program. But what happened during the Trofeo de Campeones between double winners Boca Juniors and the Racing Club is also memorable by Argentinian standards: The game, which corresponds in importance to the German Supercup, lasted forever and could not be played to the end. Because Boca Juniors ran out of players in the end.

For a long, long time on Sunday evening it looked as if the spectators would witness an exciting but comparatively normal football game. Norberto Briasco put Boca Juniors ahead (19'), Matias Rojas equalized three minutes later for Racing Club. After that, little happened for a long time, but just before the end of regulation time, things started to get out of hand.

Deep in injury time, Boca's Sebastian Villa and his opponent Johan Carbonero engaged in a skirmish far beyond the bounds of the rules, both of whom were sent off! But then the dance really started for the Argentinian World Cup referee Facundo Tello: Tello Bocas dismissed Alan Varela in the middle of the first half of extra time, the yellow-red card was to remain the last comparatively conventional sending-off of the evening.

Because when Carlos Alcaraz scored the winning goal for the Racing Club shortly before the end of extra time, the situation escalated: The attacker tore his shirt off in front of the Boca fans and provocatively pointed to his club's crest. A provocation that completely freaked out the Boca entourage: several players chased Alcaraz, threw a ball at him and pulled the rival's ear.

The result: A large pack formation, which referee Tello tried to sort out with plenty of red card material! Goalscorer Alcaraz was sent off and with him his teammate Jonathan Galvan. But the frenzied Boca Juniors were sanctioned much more severely: once yellow-red, three straight reds, plus red for ex-Frankfurt Carlos Zambrano, who was on the bench at the time. The game was then stopped - because Boca Juniors only had five players left on the field. Too few to finish the game. But that was not the end of it: Boca's Darío Benedetto also saw red. The striker had indicated to Tello with a gesture that he thought he had been bribed.