It was the match that Everton could not lose — and they did not let anyone down by beating Everton 2-0 in a pre-season friendly at Goodison Park on Wednesday.
Everton of England, that is, who beat Everton of Chile in the first meeting between the two clubs, the South American one being formed 101 years ago after the other one went on a tour of South America in 1909.
The first unusual feature of the evening was the scoreboard, which read: “Everton 0, Everton 0” at kickoff and “Everton 2, Everton 0” at the end thanks to second-half goals from Jermaine Beckford, and Diniyar Bilyaletdinov.
The home Everton wore their traditional blue shirts and white shorts while the visitors changed their strip. Naturally their strip is blue and white as well, but they played in all-yellow.
The match itself was hugely entertaining and gave Everton their fifth successive pre-season victory and the background to the match is intriguing.
A group of Anglo-Chilean teenagers founded Everton of Vina del Mar in honor of the original Everton, formed in 1878. There are also Evertons in Uruguay and Argentina.
The bond between the two clubs who met for the Brotherhood Cup on Wednesday began to be forged in 1977 when John Shearon, then a teenaged fan of the English club, read a report of a game played by the Chilean club in an Everton match program.
He soon made the first of a number of visits to Chile and in 2002 formed the Ruleteros Society in Liverpool with the idea of forging links with the Chilean club.
Ruleteros is the Chilean club’s nickname — meaning roulette players after the gambling resort of Vina del Mar.
“We have been working on this match since 2002 when we set up the Ruleteros Society,” Shearon said.
“Then it was just a dream but we have been lobbying the club for some time to get this match played,” he said. “We would have loved it to have happened last year when Everton had their centenary but that was not possible.”
“But it’s being shown live on television in Chile and really is the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people,” Shearon said.
Everton chairman Bill Kenwright added in the club program: “I would imagine that from the day Mr David Foxley founded tonight’s opponents in 1909 there has been a hope that one day the Chilean and English Everton Football Clubs would play against each other.”
“There may be more than 6,000 miles [9,650km] between us ... but a real kindred spirit and friendship has been firmly established between our two football clubs,” he said.
The visitors have won the Chilean title four times, and although they are midway through their current league campaign were given special dispensation by their FA to play the match.
Their coach, Nelson Acosta, said the club were honored to be playing at Goodison Park.
“It’s an historic occasion for the two Evertons,” he said. “It is the first time a Chilean club side has been invited at club level to play in Europe and we are proud to be the first to do that.”
“Over the years there have been links and similarities between the two clubs and, and this goes beyond the world of football,” he said. “We are in the realms of cultural and historic links and between the two countries and our two cities.”
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was