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Sports

Polite Soccer Fans Clean Up Trash After World Cup Matches

Fans from Japan, Senegal, and Colombia helped clean up the mess after their respective matches.
Screen capture via Twitter/@Troll__Footbal and @tsunsan 

Soccer fans get a bad rap. Yes, there are rampant issues of homophobia, racism, and hooliganism in the sport. But the World Cup is a different stage. The edginess of the club game dissolves, and—cheesy as it sounds—it's actually about people coming together from across the globe, representing their countries. So who wants to be known as the asshole country?

Independently, several groups of fans showed their best side after their group matches, while cleaning up their seating areas in the stadiums before going home. Japan put on a particularly impressive display of people cleaning up garbage in their section:

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One Colombian fan took notice:

And despite coming away from a huge upset, Colombia fans—on the losing end of Japan's 2-1 victory—also got in on the act, alongside Japanese fans:

And elsewhere in Russia, Senegal had every reason to burn it all down and party with their impressive victory over Poland. But instead, Senegalese fans felt compelled to clean up the mess too:

It's a gesture that's so simple but so incredibly decent. Kind of makes you believe in soccer fans again.