Mexico: One team strikes, the other shoots into the empty net

The players of TR Veracruz in the first Mexican football league play partly for months without salary. To draw attention to this situation, the team around captain Carlos Salcido in the home game against champion Tigres UANL chose an unusual path - it was striking at first for five minutes.

On the pitch it looked like this: After kicking off the ball was returned to goalkeeper Sebastián Jurado, all other players from Veracruz did not move and initially made with Tigres. Even the referee stood at the center circle and let the strike happen.

But then, after 90 seconds, French striker André-Pierre Gignac made his way to Jurado and put the keeper under pressure. Jurado played a long pass and so the ball came into the possession of Tigres. The players from Veracruz remained on their positions, even as the former Hoffenheim striker Eduardo Vargas came in midfield to the ball. The Chilean shot from 40 yards and the ball sailed over Jurado into the goal.

After the kick-off, the drama continued. The players of Veracruz did not move, Tigres adapted the ball and then pushed Gignac the ball from 35 yards into the empty net. After five minutes, the hosts then ended as announced their strike, but with the mortgage of 0: 2 could the bottom of the table no longer turn the game. Vargas met a second time (8 minutes), in the closing stages of the substitute Colin Kazim-Richards scored the consolation goal for a 3-1 final score (90th).

After the game, the entire Veracruz team gathered at the press conference to read a statement from Salcido, who had his most successful time at PSV Eindhoven in Europe. "There are players who have been waiting for their salary for five or six months," said the 39-year-old Salcido, as the Spanish newspaper "Marca" reports. It would affect not only the professionals but also other employees of the club or player of the junior teams of Veracruz. Salcido was disappointed with the reaction of the Tigres players: "They knew we wanted to strike for five minutes."