Uruguayan defender Diego Godin’s farewell match ended with his team Velez Sarsfield losing to Huracan, sparking a violent incident on Sunday, as some of the Argentine club’s own fans viciously attacked the players, assaulting them at gunpoint.
When the team returned to their training camp at the Villa Olimpica Stadium hours after the match, they suffered a brutal visit from the club’s supporters, as vehicles ambushed some of the players.
“We arrived [at the stadium] to get our cars and go home. We came out and it was all dark when the cars of the barra brava came across us. There were probably five or six of them,” striker Gianluca Prestianni told ESPN on Monday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“They hit me twice in the face while grabbing me by the jacket. I was too scared and my teammates didn’t want to go home in case they were followed,” he said.
“They even told one of them: ‘Get out of the car or I’ll shoot you twice in the legs,’” the 17-year-old forward said, adding that the incident is making him rethink staying at the club.
Former Boca Juniors defender Leonardo Jara was the one who received the threat.
“They crossed a car in front of me, they wanted me to get out of mine and said they were going to shoot me in the legs,” he told a radio local program.
Forward Santiago Castro and defender Francisco Ortega were also involved in the incident.
“Atletico Velez regrets and strongly repudiates the intimidating situation experienced last night by some of our first-team players in the vicinity of the Villa Olimpica,” the club said in a statement.
Local media reported that the players decided not to file a police complaint, but were summoned for criminal investigation, and coach Sebastian Mendez informed the directors that the team would not return to training until security is guaranteed.
With only five wins in 27 games, Velez finished 25th out of 28 after the loss in the last round of the Argentine Primera Division.
Luka Doncic on Monday produced a 46-point masterpiece as the Los Angeles Lakers snapped the Chicago Bulls’ four-game winning streak with a 129-118 victory on the road. Doncic rattled in eight three-pointers on 15-of-25 shooting from the field, finishing with seven rebounds and 11 assists to lead an impressive Lakers effort at the United Center. LeBron James chipped in with 24 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Rui Hachimura delivered an eye-catching cameo off the bench with 23 points from nine-of-11 shooting. The win was another encouraging result for the Lakers after a 116-110 defeat of the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. “We did
The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday said that he will probably be out for an extended period after hurting his right calf again after a similar injury caused him to miss eight games earlier this season. Antetokounmpo had his right calf wrapped in the first half of their 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets. He did not appear comfortable the rest of the night and left for good with 34 seconds remaining. “At the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player said he expected to undergo an MRI
Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews is confident in the US men’s ice hockey team and its chances of capturing a gold medal at next month’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. The 28-year-old center is among the NHL stars who return to the Olympics for the first time since Sochi, Russia, in 2014 as part of a men’s lineup seeking the first US gold since 1980’s Lake Placid “Miracle on Ice” triumph. “We feel like we’re up there and we should be competing for gold,” Matthews said after practice on Monday in comments on the NHL Web site. “It’s obviously the first Olympics
LICENSE TO THRILL: Fans of Learner Tien, the youngest man to reach the quarter-finals in 11 years, wore ‘L Plates,’ signs for learning drivers, in support of the 20-year-old Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Japanese partner Eri Hozumi yesterday dominated eighth seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and the Netherlands’ Demi Schuurs to advance to the Australian Open quarter-finals, the furthest the Taiwanese has made it since her first appearance in Melbourne in 2020. Wu and Hozumi overpowered world No. 21 Perez and world No. 20 Schuurs 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour, 11 minutes at 1573 Arena in much cooled temperatures since Saturday’s blazing 40°C disrupted play. World No. 34 Wu has now made it further in the Australian Open since she was knocked out in the third round in 2024. The Taiwanese-Japanese duo
RSS