The Copa America final was a disaster in more ways than one

The Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia was supposed to be a crowning of the best team in the Americas. With Colombia riding a 22-match unbeaten streak and Argentina being the defending Copa champions and World Cup champions, it was the perfect showcase of the talent in this region of the world. With the World Cup is coming to North America in 2026, a major tournament being hosted here would provide a glimpse into what the world could be looking forward to.

Well, the final was simply a disaster from start to finish, with crazy things happening both on and off the pitch.

Let’s start hours before the game. Thousands of fans were swarming the entrance to Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in the sweltering heat. Many were suffering from heat exhaustion, and the result was a bunch of fans of teams that were playing in a final against each other, pressed up on one another in the sweltering Florida heat. Not a great mixture for anything positive.

Then, security opened the gates, and from there it was chaos. Thousands of fans, some even without tickets, trampling and rushing the gate to get into the final. The stampede of yellow and light blue overwhelming the gates at Hard Rock were shared around social media before the game even started.

A large majority of fans who bought tickets said they were unable to get inside the stadium, and that combined with security having to deal with fans who didn’t buy a ticket rushing the gates forced which CONMEBOL to delay the game and close the stadium gates so security can get control of the situation. In theory, that should work, yet the execution was very poor. Security was tackling everyone who was trying to get in without a pass, but they messed up on occasion, such as this one where a media member was taken to the ground.

While there was chaos on the inside of the stadium, outside was even more wild. According to reporter Favian Renkel, Argentinian players had to go and get their families from outside to bring them in.

People were resorting to … innovative tactics to get into the stadium for the final, such as climbing through vents to get inside the stadium.

Furthermore, fans were climbing will call to get into the stadium. Security simply was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people before, during and after the delay.

Hard Rock Stadium delayed the game multiple times after that, finally going from an 8:00 pm EST kickoff to a 9:20 pm EST kick. By the time the game started, security just started letting everyone in, which caused even more chaos than pregame. Fans who bought tickets were getting to their seats with their spots already taken. Because security was so lax, they weren’t doing any checks so prohibited items were making their way in. Fans who said they paid $2,000 per ticket weren’t being let in, a calamity for CONMEBOL and Hard Rock.

Univision did a phenomenal job on broadcast (we’ll get to that later), and they were on top of the entire situation, reporting that thousands of fans made their way into the maximum capacity stadium on top of the ticketed individuals.

Fans were getting in via waves, and with the amount of people coming in, things got broken, such as this escalator in the stadium.

Hard Rock Stadium released a statement last night about the entire situation, via CBS Miami’s Trish Christakis:

So, through all this chaos there’s supposed to be a production for the game that’s kicking off. Fox Sports was the main broadcaster for the Copa America, and their production of the finals was shoddy to say the least. Audio and video weren’t synced up, there would be times where everything was muted, and just overall quality of the broadcast was the worst. Fans were vocal about their displeasure on social media, many going to Univision to watch the game instead.

This even fails to mention how the last USMNT game against Uruguay showed the camera angle from Mars. The camera was so high it took everyone out of the game.

Now, back to the Copa final. As the game was being played, many fans noticed that the field was also causing a lot of players to slip and slide around, not great for the pitch or for the health of any players.

The game itself was a beautiful disaster. With all the slipping and physicality of the match, the game went scoreless for 112 minutes, before Lautaro Martinez gave Argentina the game winning goal. He came on to replace Lionel Messi, who went off ealry after a brutal looking ankle injury.

The photo of it is even more gruesome, be warned.

Messi was seen crying after being pulled off the field, in what could be his final match wearing the Argentina colors.

Overall, this entire game was a mess. People are going to drag Hard Rock Stadium and the US for the fans rushing the gates, but this is more on CONMEBOL than anything else. The lack of uniformed personnel on the outside of the stadium set this into motion, and while Hard Rock worked with CONMEBOL, it’s clear that the organization did whatever they wanted, and the result was this chaos. Hard Rock Stadium has hosted a lot of major events, but this was a massive failure on everyone involved, and leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth leading up to the 2026 World Cup.

The lone bright spot: Shakira performed at halftime! Still looks and sounds great for 47!