2017-2018 BRAZILIAN MEN’S SUPERLIGA
- 10/14 – 03/17 – Regular Season
- Official League Site
- Teams
- Schedule
- Power Rankings
- Round 1; Round 2; Round 3; Round 4; Round 5; Round 6; Round 7; Round 8; Round 9; Round 10; Round 11
- Round 12; Round 13; Round 14; Round 15; Round 16; Round 17; Round 18; Round 19; Round 20; Round 21; Round 22
- QF-1; QF-2; SF-1; SF-2; SF-3
Sada/Cruzeiro was able to tie its series 2-2 against EMS Funvic/Taubaté by handing it a 3-0 (23/25 25/27 20/25) loss behind Yoandy Leal‘s 16 points on 12/20 (60%) hitting. Wallace Souza had 10 points in the losing effort. Cruzeiro hit 58% from the field as a team, while holding Taubaté to a 44% effort.
The game though, was highlighted by an unfortunate fight between Taubaté’s fans and Cruzeiro‘s players. Leal was the main target of the fans’ ire. Taubaté’s libero Thales Hoss accused him of being the culprit of the fight, although he did contradict himself a few times in his statement:
“What I saw was the crowd heckling Leal a little bit, saying some things that I could not hear. He gestured towards the crowd, but I didn’t see what it was. I do not know if it was insulting. I said to him, “man, you do not need to do that.” Then he told me I was talking too much, as a clear provocation. I wasn’t going to fight. This is not part of volleyball. But I told him that he lacked respect with our team, with our fans. He made an obscene gesture to the crowd, and then to someone on our team. They won the game inside the court, they deserved to win. But he did not have to escalate things. He lacked respect. In my opinion, he started everything. The crowd, of course, will always heckle players. We’re used to it. We have to know how to deal with this. I do not think he should have done what he did. Everyone saw it, you know what happened. There are cameras, everybody is filming. He did not show respect to our team, to our fans.”
Cruzeiro was quick to try to clear things up after the game:
“It was an explosive game, where the home team was defeated. At the end, Leal celebrated the important victory by making a 3 to 0 gesture (showing that it was over, end of game). As Leal headed toward the locker room, a fan near the railing hit the athlete’s head with an object and the confusion began. Other people on Cruzeiro‘s staff were also hit. Our professionals suffered an assault on the court and this is unacceptable. Fortunately, Taubaté’s security guards held the fans and nothing more serious happened.”
Game 5 will be this Friday. It is not yet known if any of the parties will be penalized for what happened.
*Quotes extracted from Globo.com
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