Saturday, October 30, 2004
i was like... "haah!!"
Sao Caetano defender Serginho has died after suffering an apparent cardio-respiratory arrest and collapsing on the pitch during Wednesday's Brazilian championship match against Sao Paulo.
The match was abandoned after Serginho, full name Paulo Sergio de Oliveira Silva, was taken to hospital early in the second half of the game at the Morumbi stadium in Sao Paulo.
Television pictures showed Serginho, who celebrated his 30th birthday eight days ago, being carried off as doctors from both teams tried to revive him.
The Sao Luiz hospital said in a statement the player died 40 minutes after being brought in.
The match was called off at the request of the team captains. Players and officials from both sides gathered round the centre circle with their arms around each other.
A message on the scoreboard read: "Serginho, we pray for you" while Sao Paulo supporters chanted his name.
Players at the Criciuma-Corinthians match, which started later, wept on the field after hearing the news and what had been a fiercely-contested game petered out into a tame 1-1 draw.
FOE COLLAPSE
Serginho became the latest high-profile case of a professional player collapsing during a game then dying.
In January, Hungarian international Miklos Feher died after collapsing from a heart attack in a Portuguese league game between his club Benfica and Vitoria Guimaraes.
The most high-profile case happened in June last year when Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed and died during a Confederations Cup semi-final against Colombia in France. He was suffering from a heart-related condition.
Sao Caetano goalkeeper Silvio Luiz told television reporters that Serginho had been found to have a heart condition during routine tests at the start of this year.
"We understood there was a one percent chance of anything happening," he said.
A replay showed that Serginho went down as his team were about to take a goal kick and Sao Paulo striker Grafite, unaware of what was happening, tripped over him.
BITTER TASTE
Crowds went quiet as Serginho's collapse and death was announced at other Brazilian championship games.
Corinthians coach Tite, who had a short spell at Sao Caetano last year, was too upset to talk the media after the game at Criciuma.
Vasco da Gama's Serb midfielder Dejan Petkovic said his team's 1-0 win had a bitter taste after he scored the only goal.
"The news made everyone sad. The victory tasted bitter," he said.
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) called off Sao Caetano's game away to Parana at the weekend and said a minute's silence would precede all other games.
Serginho had been at Sao Caetano since 1999 when the club were in the second division of the Brazilian championship.
He accompanied their remarkable climb as the won their way into the first division, losing in the finals in 2001 and 2002 and establishing themselves as one of the country's top teams.
He was also in the team that lost the 2002 final of the Libertadores Cup -- the South American equivalent of the Champions' League -- to Paraguay's Olimpia.
An imposing, rugged defender known for his uncompromising tackling, he had previously played for a number of smaller, unfashionable clubs including Mogi Mirim, Democrata, Ipatinga and Aracatuba.