Video: Yet another pre-season friendly descends into a brawl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc9yHaPz7No

We think it might be time to stop calling these games friendlies if the level of violence we encountered this week is anything to go by.

On top of the stitches that Glenn Whelan needed in his lip while playing for Ireland against Czech Republic this week, we also saw Nicolas Anelka’s new Chinese side get into a bit of a schemozzle as they prepared for their new season.

Now, with the MLS season just around the corner, Philadelphia Union have turned a friendly into a full-on fist fight too.

The lads from the City of Brotherly Love were in Costa Rica to play AD Belen and the Americans were trailing 2-0 when the trouble kicked off. The only footage we have is from the local TV station but looking at the defending by Philadelphia for the one goal we have video for, the Americans didn’t exactly look like they were trying that hard.

Anyway, the row kicks off after Union midfielder Michael Farfan gets fed up with some physical stuff from Belen and decides to fly into one of their players with a tackle that their city-sharing Eagles might balk at.

This sparks a fight involving keepers, subs and the rest of the bench. As the saying goes we have seen far worse but the referee decides this is a mess and calls the game off midway through the first half

Watch the clip for yourself above.