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World Cup Fans Showing What Sportsmanship Means

By Alex Ward, Vox, 06/22/18, 12:00PM PDT

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Senegal’s fans got on the cleaning bandwagon too. After the West African nation upset Poland 2-1, its fans also picked up trash around their seating area. It’s unclear if Japan’s example inspired them, or if Senegal’s fans are just similarly considerate and tidy.

After Japan surprisingly swept Colombia aside at the 2018 FIFA World Cup on Tuesday, the country’s fans did something even more shocking: They swept up after themselves.

You read that right. Japan’s supporters — who traveled all the way to Russia to watch an Asian team beat a South American team for the first time ever at a World Cup — didn’t start partying once Japan clinched its 2-1 victory. Instead, they picked up the mess of wrappers, bags of food and more they made with garbage bags they’d brought to the stadium specifically for that purpose.

American sports fans, or moviegoers, know that’s not the norm in the U.S.