Mysterious Gas and Mysterious Blackout in Paulista Semi Final

By: Daryl | April 21st, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvDHlo4QRw

Sometimes a YouTube video doesn’t even come close to telling the whole story.The above shows the goals from Palmeiras’ 2-0 win over São Paulo in the second leg of the Paulista state championship semi-final. And it looks like everything was pretty much normal.

São Paulo came into the game with a 2-1 lead from the first leg. Leo Lima levelled in the first half (Rogerio Cerni inexplicably diving the wrong way) and Jorge Valdivia made it 3-2 to Palmeiras in the 84th minute. But it’s what happened at half time, and after Valdivia’s goal that was a bit bizarre.

First of all, the São Paulo halftime team talk was interrupted by a mysterious gas being pumped into the dressing room.

“It was impossible to breath, it was extremly irritating for the nostrils and eyes,” team doctor Jose Sanchez told reporters. The gas is still to be identified, but apparently several São Paulo players and staff came close to vomiting. So it probably wasn’t a helpful gas. Coach Muricy Ramalho had to take the whole team back out on to the pitch for the halftime team talk.

Not exactly ideal preparation for the second half.

So when Valdivia celebrated his 84th minute winner by (arguably) taunting São Paulo with some extravagant dancing, the São Paulo players approached him rather angrily. And then… the lights went out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_gRcpkrgaA

Luckily, Valdivia was still in one piece when the lights came back up 15 minutes later. There was a scuffle, (which you can just make out in the above video, taken by a fan during the blackout) but nothing more.

Once the game was restarted, Palmeiras hung on for the last five minutes or so on and will now face Ponte Preta in the two-legged Paulista final.

But the gas in the changing room trick is a new one to me, and certainly makes the whole Tottenham Hotspur dodgy lasagne business seem quaint by comparison.