Mass Soccer brawl between Bahrain and US

Valencia : It was bad enough when the US Mens Under 19 Soccer team got beaten 3-1 by Bahrain in the group stage of the 2016 COTIF Tournament on Monday night in Valencia, Spain. It was even worse when they ended up brawling with the team that beat them.

Towards the end of the game a scramble for the ball resulted in Pierre Da Silva of the US lying face first on the ground. 

The incident occurred when Da Silva got on the ball and started to head up the pitch before he ran into a defender. He tried to use a Marseille turn to get by the said defender, who didn’t appreciate getting clowned like this, so he stuck his foot out and tripped Da Silva. 

It’s nothing wild, and if everything ended there, there probably would have been a yellow card and the match would have continued.

Instead, as Da Silva hit the ground, another player from Bahrain thought it would be a good idea to kick the ball really hard at the American player’s head.

De Silva’s teammates quickly snapped in their reaction and ran after the Bahrain player who had hit the shot, eventually shoving him to the ground as well, leading to chaos from both benches.

Squad members on both sides soon descended into a fracas with disciplinary action expected to be dealt out by tournament organisers in due course.

USA are out of the COTIF Tournament after failing to progress from the group-stage.

The Americans had taken the lead against Bahrain through Kevin Lankford, but a hat-trick from Abdulaziz Khalid in the second-half saw that overturned. (With inputs from The Daily Mail)