Game-ending melee spills into the stands as fans and players clash following 2-0 extra time loss in national soccer tournament
Jhohann Yabur is shown the red card following a melee that broke out at the end of El Farolito's match with Sacramento Republic on March 18. Photo by Liliana MichelenaAfter 122 minutes of soccer, two goals and a full-team melee near the opposing bench, El Farolito’s Wednesday night in Sacramento ended in the stands.
It was ugly: Players were climbing up into the bleachers to defend their families as a brawl broke out among supporters following the final whistle. Security eventually intervened. No arrests were made, though several people felt there should have been. In the end, El Farolito lost, 2-0 in extra time and crashed out of the U.S. Open Cup tournament. “They came to mock us after the goal,” explained El Farolito coach Santiago López, describing what sparked the initial confrontation on the field: a Sacramento player approached the Farolito bench to taunt after the late second goal, Farolito mid Jhohann Yabur followed him, and everything unraveled from there. By the time the dust settled on the field, the trouble had migrated to the seats. None of it was supposed to end this way. For 95 minutes, El Farolito, an amateur side, had held Sacramento Republic, a full-time professional club, to nothing. El Farolito’s soccer teamOn this night, Kevin González, the 33-year-old goalkeeper, was the reason. Time and again — a diving save here, a punch clear there, a chest stop in the 66th minute that kept the score level — he stood between his team and elimination. In the 35th minute, Dembor Bengtson rose to meet a ball with his head and sent it crashing off the right post. It was the closest El Farolito would come to scoring. From the Sacramento stands came the response: “Go back to Sunday league!” U.S. Open Cup opener in Sacramento turns ugly tonight following the Republic FC's second goal of the game, ends up a 2-0 victory over El Farolito. The match, with the postgame melee, had 13 misconducts, 3 ejections. El Farolito players going after fans in the stands after.El Farolito’s attacking options were limited from early on. Edgard Kreye, one of the team’s midfield engines, was dealing with a back injury that restricted his movement and forced an early substitution. That left Herlbert Soto as the team’s most dangerous outlet. Twice he found himself in promising positions. It wasn’t enough. Before extra time, in the huddle near the halfway line, it was Jerson Malagón who spoke. The new Colombian defender, playing his first U.S. Open Cup match, had already saved El Farolito once, clearing a ball off the line in the 74th minute. Now he looked at his teammates and screamed:There was laughter. And then they ran. El Farolito coach Santiago López addresses his team during its March 18 game at Sacramento Republic. Photo by Liliana Michelena It wasn’t enough. Sacramento’s Forster Ajago headed in a Dominik Wanner cross early in the 95th minute, just after the start of extra time, to break the deadlock. Ajago completed his brace in the 122nd minute, blocking a clearance by González that deflected into the net — a cruel way to seal it. In between, Kipre Sacre was shown a straight red card in the 101st minute for a challenge on Rohan Chivukula that appeared to many watching as sloppy at worst. Coach López earned a yellow of his own shortly after for continuing to protest what he and his staff felt was a night of consistently poor officiating. Yabur and Malagón picked up late bookings for dissent. Jonathan Mosquera, the 38-year-old captain who had missed last year’s defeat through injury and had spent months waiting for this chance, was substituted off in the 106th minute — physically spent, visibly frustrated. “Tengo que resolver,” he had muttered at halftime, blaming himself for a miscommunication that had put González in danger. He never got his resolution. Sacramento Republic called Wednesday night’s game “a newly established rivalry.” They weren’t wrong, although perhaps a bit polite after what followed Ajago’s second goal. After the Sacramento player taunted the El Farolito bench in the closing moments and Yabur took exception, what came next lasted several minutes — a full brawl involving nearly every player on both sides, including those who had already left the field injured. Almost no one stood apart. One Sacramento staff member was among the first involved. Security came sprinting. López walked away with his clothing torn. Yabur received a red card. The game never restarted. When it finally seemed to be over, it wasn’t. The fight shifted to the stands, where Farolito families were sitting. Several players climbed up from the field to reach them. El Farolito left Sacramento with a loss and two red cards. But, also, a goalkeeper who proved he belongs on any field. The regular season opens next month.Because of you, Mission Local reached and surpassed our $300,000 year-end fundraising goal.Thank you for choosing to invest in a local newsroom rooted in San Francisco’s communities — one that listens first and reports deeply. Your contribution today helps sustain the reporting our city relies on all year long.Reporter, multimedia producer and former professional soccer player from Lima, Peru. She was a correspondent at the 2016 Rio Olympics for El Comercio, and later covered the aftermath for The Associated Press. Her work has also been published by The New York Times, The Guardian and Spain's El Pais. Otherwise, her interests are as varied and random as Industrial Design, Brazilian ethnomusicology, and the history of Russian gymnastics. Please keep your comments short and civil. Do not leave multiple comments under multiple names on one article. 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