Uruguayan players stood dumbfounded as Chile’s national anthem was played ahead of Sunday’s clash with Mexico, prompting an apology for Copa America Centenario organizers.
As the two sides prepared to begin Sunday’s match, both Mexico and Uruguay stood side by side for their respective national anthems. Mexico’s portion went without a hitch, but Uruguay was stunned as Chile’s national anthem played over the loud speakers.
The wrong anthem plays for Uruguay. #Awkward #CopaAmerica #MEXvURU pic.twitter.com/UjDXe6R4Ha
— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) June 6, 2016
“This evening during the pre-match ceremony, due to human error, we inadvertently played the incorrect National Anthem,” organizers said in a statement. “We sincerely apologize to the Uruguayan Federation, the Uruguay National Team, the people of Uruguay and to the fans for this mistake. We will work with all parties involved to ensure such an error does not occur again.”
Mexico won the Group C game, 3-1.
Typical insult the smaller humble Nations.
So much for the US being invited to future Copa America competitions.
Embarrassing!!! Well if we fail to get the 2026 WC we all have a moment to look back at..
The United States ignorance showed, thinking all Latin countries are the same makes me sick to my stomach, sigh.
Well, that was the dumbest thing I’ve read all morning…but the day is young.
LOL!
One would think a more effective apology would come in the native language of all the people that reside in Uruguay, or at least, wouldve seemed more sincere.
Hopefully Messi’s good to go for match 2.
This tournament has been a disaster so far. The crowds have been weak and there’s no doubting the interest in soccer is here so what happened?? the tv coverage by fox is painful down to the announcers. Fox has serious work to do before 2018 to come anywhere close to ESPNs coverage. The opening ceremony was horrid, sloppy promo and now mistakes like this. Disappointing from what could have been an epic tournament
The crowd has really depended on the match up. To me it’s not so shocking Jamaica, Venezuela isn’t selling out. Only problem I have so far is the lack of security at the Mexico match. Those kinds of scenes of violence is unexceptionable.
Depends on the matchup but you must not follow Copas on any regular basis because even in SA, there are weakly attended matchups when fans can’t afford to travel well or there are two minnows playing and they have their minnows. The tv crew is not wonderful but not too bad, the women’s WC is much worse from a production standpoint and who cares about the opening ceremony. The reality is this is a CONMEBOL event and they are calling the shots. Every team but ours speaks either some dialect of spanish or portuguese. It really doesn’t even make sense for us to have this even but I am glad we do and I support it even if it doesn’t make sense.
Ticket prices are way too high. That’s what organizers should be apologizing for.
Regarding empty stadiums. Part of it is the Euro-centric nature of soccer fans in US. (At least soccer fans with disposable income). For instance, many soccer fans I know only are interested in seeing Argentina, Brazil and US (maybe Mexico). Yet, Chile are reigning champions and have (arguably) among best midfielders in world in Vidal and a world class striker in Sanchez. The other thing has been poor advertising. I live in a city as a Copa venue and didn’t see any advertising until a week before. Also, they should have had some group games in small MLS stadiums. Finally, ticket prices are absurd. Though StubHub is practically giving tix away now.
It’s not Eurocentric. It’s the market. Who wants to pay $200 for a nosebleed seat to watch Jamaica and Venezuela? Furthermore, who wants to buy a pack of those games at those prices? Especially when we didn’t know the groups or match-ups until late. Obviously, not many. How many people from Haiti, Jamaica, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, et al… can afford to travel here and pay those prices?
This is not the fault of U.S. fans, Eurosnobs or not.
Maybe I should have put this sentence at the front of my comment, not the end: “Finally, ticket prices are absurd.” My apologies, I forget that some people are just eager to criticize others and not read an entire message.