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Hopefully No Tragic Deaths this Time as Club America Returns to the Philadelphia Region
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The Philadelphia Union host Club America in leg 1 of the CONCACAF Champions Cup Round of 16 on Tuesday night. It’s a matchup of two teams that are normally really good but currently having poor starts to their domestic campaigns.
It’s the second time the teams have played in this tournament. Club America has fans all over the continent, and they travel well, and the last time they were in town, 2021, there was an early-morning brawl in South Philadelphia that resulted in the death of a 28-year-old man who was visiting from New York City.
Two men involved in a fatal brawl outside Pat’s King of Steaks in 2021 each pleaded guilty Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter and aggravated assault. The melee in South Philly happened after a soccer match at Subaru Park in Chester.
Omar Arce, 35, and Jose Flores-Huerta, 36, were among a group of people who got into a fight around 2 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2021, outside the shop at Ninth Street and Passyunk Avenue. Investigators said an argument turned violent and 28-year-old Isidro Cortez, of Queens, New York, wound up on the ground while as many as four people attacked him and two other men.
Portions of the fight were caught on video. One of the attackers struck Cortez in the head with a metal trash can lid while others, including Arce and Flores-Huerta, threw punches and kicks. Cortez died at the scene. His 64-year-old father and a friend also were seriously injured in the attack.
Police said those involved in the fight had gone out for food after attending a Concacaf Champions League semifinal match between the Philadelphia Union and Mexico’s Club América. Many of the people seen in the surveillance video of the fight were wearing yellow Club América jerseys. In addition to Arce and Flores-Huerta, arrest warrants were issued for two other men who remain at large.
It was never explicitly stated in any of the reporting where the assailants were actually from. There’s nothing identifying them as Philadelphia natives or residents and I’m not finding anything in the court system. This was something that was used against Philly sports fans at the time, this allegation that we’re a violent group and that bad things happen here, but it appeared that no Union fans were involved, nor were these guys even from the Philadelphia area. A cousin later identified Cortes as a Club America fan, so this seemed like an isolated incident not involving Philadelphia sports or Philadelphia sports fans. This was a one-off that took place hours after the game, and not in Chester, but it was a tragedy nonetheless, and avoidable.
There are going to be a lot of CA fans in Chester tonight. It’s gonna be lopsided. Not only do they travel and take over stadiums in general, but the Union aren’t playing well and there isn’t a lot of juice for a Tuesday night game in March, even with a good weather forecast.
Anyway, fingers crossed nothing bad happens.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com