An unusually warm hearted match-up in the 2008 Chinese Football Super League (CSL) between the Chengdu Blades and the Changsha Jinde ended in a one-one tie on Saturday.
The Chengdu Blades football team, from the capital of the earthquake ravaged Sichuan Province, unfold a red scroll proclaiming "Let's Face the Disaster Together," in Changsha on Saturday, May 17, 2008. [Photo:hnol.net]
More than 10,000 spectators simultaneously cheered in Sichuan dialect "Sichuan, Xiongqi (Keep Going)" at the Helong Stadium in Changsha, the capital of central China's Hunan Province, web site hnol.net reports.
Disaster relief became the goal of the game, not victory, on the heels of Monday's earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Before the match began, the players and spectators sang the national anthem followed by a minute of silence for the earthquake victims.
After the game, Zhao Lei, the team leader for the Chengdu Blades, said that he was deeply moved when all the spectators shouted "Sichuan, Xiongqi (Keep Going)" as if they had forgotten that the Chengdu Blades were the opposing team.