Wednesday, 4 August 2021
www.TheObserver.com
Vol. CXXXIV, No. 13
ON THE INSIDE New Nutley HS football coach hosts camp for younger players. See Page 9
BELLEVILLE • BLOOMFIELD • EAST NEWARK • HARRISON • KEARNY • LYNDHURST • NORTH ARLINGTON • NUTLEY
REDBULLBROUHAHA
Brawls, stabbings outside stadium in Harrison after ‘friendly’ match w/ Honduran teams
By Kevin Canessa kc@theobserver.com HARRISON — What started out as a friendly soccer match at Red Bull Arena between two clubs from Honduras Sunday, Aug. 1, ended more like an MMA match, as wild brawls broke out, police from all over the area were called in and used riot gear and at least three people were stabbed, one critically.
The soccer matches were part of a doubleheader featuring two teams from Honduras playing each other in the first match and two teams from Colombia squaring off in the nightcap at the 25,000-seat arena in Harrison’s south end. The matches were billed as “friendlies,” a usual soccer term. But what ensued during and after the first match was nothing close to “friendly.”
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Videos on social media revealed a chaotic scene, with some police clad in helmets and riot shields as they worked to push the out-of-control crowd away from the stadium and out of the area. Game attendees, some draped in the flags of Honduras and Colombia, could be seen giving police the middle finger while some threw rocks and bottles at them. Reports indicate the four clubs
paid the Red Bulls to rent the stadium for the soccer exhibition. The single-admission matches were sold out. Police officers from Kearny, East Newark, Jersey City and every other Hudson County municipality, plus Newark, the New Jersey State Police, NJ Transit, the Port Authority of See BRAWL, Page 19
